I wish I could share the photo of my 4mm boomerang shaped kidney stone. I labored for 2 months, back in early 2009 to pass it, the second stone in 5 years.
During my ordeal with these stones, I had the following health care encounters, tests, medicines, lab and imaging tests.
The high cost of kidney stones
“All patients are alike. This one complains about the same things that the last one did.”
“Every patient is unique. We can never find a way to make each one of them happy.”
Remember that 1980s public health paradox: Do you focus on intensive interventions that might produce significant improvements in outcomes for a defined, high-risk group or do you direct energy to system-level changes that may achieve more …
Balancing individual care with systemic health fixes
Before I retired in 2000, I worked in a state agency as a peer counselor, or more formally, an employee assistance program (EAP) coordinator. The “coordinator” part was there because my job description wasn’t actually to do counseling; it was to assess the problem and refer the client for help.
But of course both of those processes involved counseling. We just couldn’t call it that.
In 1986, shortly after I’d begun the …
The clock read 9:30pm and in front of me was dozens of notes, PowerPoint slides, and practice exams to review before 8am. The all-too-familiar finals week all-nighter beckoned, and though I’ve had my fair share of experiences with studying until the sun rose, I decided to forgo the typical mug of coffee and take some over-the-counter caffeine pills instead. My friend proclaimed that they would help more than any energy …
An $8,000 hospital bill added to my already growing debt
Once a year, I give a high-stakes presentation in front of a single audience member: my son’s teacher. I have 20 minutes to teach her how to save his life.
I need to explain the science of food allergy, list all of his many allergens, accurately describe the symptoms of anaphylactic shock, instill an appropriate sense of urgency and responsibility with one …
How to save my son’s life: 20 high-stakes minutes
Some skills are best learned in childhood, like playing a musical instrument or speaking another language. Sure, you can learn these things later in life, but you’ll have to work harder and you may never play music or converse with the ease of someone who learned young.
The same is true about learning how to talk openly with your doctor. Kids develop their habits and attitudes about health care with every …
Raising kids who can talk with their doctors
Remember in second grade when you realized that you could say the word “giraffe” 25 times and it would lose its meaning, shed the image of that gawky creature and turn into a little pile of meaningless sound? You know, when you had your first insight into the wonders of language?
I was reminded of this experience when, at a conference about patient engagement in health care, the word “dignity” was …
What does dignity mean to patients?
“Motherhood is the hardest job you’ll ever love.”
I’m not sure who first coined that phrase, but its truth becomes clearer to me every day. And nowhere is that truth more evident than in mothers of children with a serious illness.
Throughout my years of working at this hospital, I’ve had the privilege of knowing dozens of moms who find themselves within these walls …
Remember the mothers of sick children
My family’s world changed instantly upon receiving Annie’s diagnosis of apraxia and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) a day before her second birthday. Hearing three words, “she has autism,” we suddenly faced a lifetime of uncertainty. I knew that I had to embrace my role as a mother of a child with autism, and as an autism champion — and more critically, find a physician that I could form a trusted …
Autism treatment requires a collaborative patient-doctor relationship
As health care providers are tasked with more administrative duties such as documentation, coding, and billing, the goal to minimize health care costs will continue to be extremely challenging.
In my role, I work with physicians on these challenges daily to ensure not only do the physicians get paid accurately but patients understand their benefits when they see our physicians. Currently, I am the revenue cycle manager for the department of …
Empowering patients to become proactive with their medical bills
My husband suffered with hip and low back pain for about four months. It started right about the same time he was prescribed a new blood pressure medication. He didn’t think much of the pain at first because he was recovering from a groin injury, the result of a close encounter with a hockey puck while playing the game.
But the pain grew in intensity over the following weeks. He’s a …
Uncovering the answer to a case of chronic hip pain
I loved my father. His doctor was fond of him, too. Three times we nearly lost him, and each time he pulled through, weaker, but enjoying life. When the magical recovery didn’t materialize, it was hard to believe that this was really going to be the end — hard for my family, and maybe harder for his doctor.
No one wanted time with my dad more than I did. I wanted …
Speaking up about hospice is not a betrayal of our family members
From years of writing about chronic pain and illness, I’ve learned that young people carry several extra burdens, especially when their disability is invisible (as is more often the case than not). This piece focuses on young people, although some of its points apply to people of any age, depending on their circumstances.
1. Young people are treated as if their health issues can’t possibly be chronic. I confess that before I …
7 ways chronic illness imposes an extra burden on the young
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I heard this on the radio recently: Mom takes her new baby to the emergency department on a weekend because she thinks her daughter might have a urinary tract infection. She’s right, but regulations say the baby has to stay in the hospital for two days to ensure the infection clears. Afterwards, the mom is surprised by and concerned about a $7,000 hospital bill for the baby’s care.
The …
Are the benefits of price transparency overstated?
It was only a matter of time before the name Dr. Stanislaw Burzynski would grab the attention of the family of McKenzie Lowe, a 12-year-old from Hudson, N.H., with that most damning of diagnoses, a diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an inoperable brain tumor with a median survival of less than a year.
Like McKenzie, my own daughter was 12-years-old with a recurring brain tumor that had started to metastasize and …
Should doctors tell parents of terminal children to quit pursuing quackery?
I’m not a doctor. And sure, you know your patients better than I do. But, I have been a patient and as a patient, I know how we think. As someone who works in health IT helping to create software to better connect patients and providers, I like to think I have a hypersensitive pulse on what’s going on.
I know that as patients, sometimes we get frustrated trying to solve …
Feedback your patients wish you knew about portals
On December 31, 2011 right before midnight, I took the test of excitement and new beginnings and found out that I was pregnant. While this news was joyous in nature, it was soon marred by uncertainty and harsh reality.
After my test, I followed up with a doctor’s visit a month later, as was expected, and soon learned that the cost for this bundle of joy would be around $12,000 to …
When childbirth becomes a financial stress
An excerpt from In Sickness as in Health: Helping Couples Cope with the Complexities of Illness.
You are not a statistic
Ironically, the surgeon who repaired her heart also left her heartbroken. While he and the neurologists may have considered it their obligation to present what they envisioned as …
Look for a doctor who understands healing
Bewildered, panicked, and disheartened. I watched my mother’s eyes dart back and forth as she read the pharmacy’s prescription cash price list, knowing she could not possibly dig deep enough in her faded purse to pay for her monthly medicines. In her early fifties, she did not qualify for Medicare, nor could we afford the COBRA payments that would extend coverage for our family since my father’s recent lay off.
We …
The costs of care challenge requires a physician’s creative compassion
There’s a pesky cognitive bias that creates a honking big barrier to patients and families making the most of the health advice and services available to us. It’s the tendency of experts to overestimate the knowledge of others.
One consequence of expertise — or even just easy familiarity with a topic or institution or practice — is the inability to remember not knowing what you now know. Think back to your …
Doctors often overestimate the knowledge of patients
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