I went to see my oncologist for my six-month checkup yesterday. All was routine, other than my blood pressure being 131 over something when it’s usually in the 115 range, even when I see my family doctor. No anxiety there.
When he asked what had changed in the last six months, I told him about the endoscopy I had in December, which turned out to be normal. But what prompted it …
Residual fear after a cancer diagnosis
When I read news articles about caring for elderly parents at a distance, I sometimes shake my head. There’s a tendency to put the best spin on the experience: As long as you contact the right people, get the right information and treat the ups and downs as just part of life’s challenges, you’ll be fine. You can do this!
I find myself wondering when the author last talked to a caregiver …
Family caregiving is hard and imperfect
In a study published in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, “Quality of life: impact of chronic illness on the partner,” the authors stated: “… the most striking research finding is a tendency for the partner’s quality of life to be worse than that of the patient.”
The people who are least likely to be surprised by this finding are not just caregivers but those who are in their …
6 things not to do as a caregiver
Please let us know that we’re not alone. We realize that our doctors are not our friends, but telling us that the medical team will be sticking with us during this journey that we were never on board with, is an empowering message when we are at our most powerless.
Show us that you care about our child, too. We know that you identify our …
From a mother: What my child’s oncologist should know
It looks like an airport lounge without the rolling suitcases. There are about 20 of us cancer survivor-types fiddling with our phones or reading the newspaper. A few of us are sipping delicious contrast fluid in preparation for a scan, but most of us are waiting to meet with our oncologists for follow-up or monitoring visits. All of us are between the ages of 20 and 70 and all of …
Chronic conditions don’t have normal business hours
Attempting to alter the health care marketplace so provider decisions are based on patient value has shaped my career for the last 20 years. Often use of the health care delivery system creates a learning opportunity for me as well as the poor, unsuspecting provider of care. A recent experience was instructive.
A close encounter with a jungle rock while mountain biking sent my husband back to our cruise ship with …
Patients can’t solve health costs, even with skin in the game
Do I value the privacy of my health information? What do you mean?
That if I email my doctor about an embarrassing symptom, only my doctor will read it?
That only my doctor, my nurse and I have access to the information in my electronic medical record, including notes on our confidential conversations, prescriptions and test results?
That my local drug store doesn’t sell information about me to pharmaceutical companies?
That …
Do patients value their health information privacy?
Uncle Walt died this morning. Finally.
I say “finally” because I believed this day would come four months ago, when he had emergency bypass surgery.
At the time, I didn’t believe Walt would live; he was an ailing, seventy-seven-year-old man with severe pulmonary disease. When his heart started to hurt one Friday, his doctors told him, “With bypass surgery, you might live. Without it, you’ll be dead before the weekend is over.”
Walt’s …
When is the right time to die?
In fall of 1994, I was sixteen years old and sick. I had lost a lot of weight, reduced my diet to BRAT and roast chicken, filled a half-dozen stool samples, even tried a few prescriptions — and nothing seemed to help.
By that point I was seeing a gastroenterologist, Dr. C. After a pointless barium enema and follow-through, Dr. C performed a colonoscopy. From that, he gave me a definitive …
The best thing a doctor ever did to me
In 2005, my husband and I bought a small farmhouse in northern New England next door to Tom and Sally.
They were in their early seventies, married nearly fifty years, with a large family. Tom’s grandfather had built a farmhouse in 1900 on the family’s small pig farm. In the 1970s, Tom and Sally had parceled off the land and built a modern house for themselves, a stone’s throw from the …
When medical wishes are respected
Over the years, many people have shared with me their disappointment at the lack of acknowledgment from their physician when their loved one died. Especially, when their loved one had been a long time patient of the physician. In fact, many people have shared that they switched physicians because of what they perceived as a slight.
When people go to a physician for many years, especially the family physician, it is …
What to do when your patient dies
In most states, doctors are mandated to ask their patients if they feel physically “safe at home.” With an aging population, perhaps another question should be added: are you financially safe?
Two examples suggest the problem.
“Trudy” had always managed her financial matters, even complex transactions. Aging, however, had made her short-term memory a bit more problematic and her focus diminished by TIAs. Even though her daughter shared responsibility on some of …
Doctors should ask about financial safety
A frequent response to those contemplating suicide is to remember friends and loved ones, how much one is needed and how much one would be missed. Some people have a sense this statement is true and that the depressive emotions are inaccurate, so seeking therapy, medication, or riding out the episode will result in returning to whatever emotional mode is typical. Others don’t believe this sentiment, and they potentially live …
Existing for others is not enough
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As we reflect on the year that’s passing, it’s not unusual to formulate wishes and resolutions for the new year. I’m not much for resolutions anymore, but I do have hopes and wishes for me and for my readers.
Of course, my first wish is that those of you who suffer from chronic illness — including chronic pain — have your health restored. I know that, for some, this is a …
7 wishes that I hope come true for those with health problems
Overheard in the gym:
“Yeah, but I heard that ____ can be dangerous.”
“Oh, they wouldn’t let us buy it if it was.”
Lately, the public’s faith in the safety of prescription and over-the-counter drugs has been making me uneasy. Advances in drug development mean that many of us truly can live better lives through their wise use. But are we adequately guided and protected by a) regulators, b) our clinicians, c) a …
Patients need to take an active role in their medications
It is no secret that one of the best ways towards better health management is a good physician-patient relationship. There needs to be buy in from both participants to shared decision-making. One might object to the title of this post, stating that it puts the biggest burden on the patient, however when examining how this is achieved, you will, I hope, feel differently.
1. Establish a relationship. This might sound trite, but the first few …
5 ways to change patient behavior
Here are a few words some physicians and medical professionals have used to describe patients who have turned to Dr. Google for information and advice on their medical conditions: irritating, suspicious, distrustful and challenging.
Perhaps frustrated with physicians’ continued resistance to Internet-empowered patients, Dr. Kevin Pho urged them to “deal with” the fact that patients “Google their symptoms.”
But, we all know the Internet-informed patient is old news. I’m here with …
Beyond Dr. Google: How new technologies will affect patient-provider relationship
Many years ago, Alfred Korzybski wrote that “the map is not the territory.” Gregory Bateson went on to argue that the map, which represents reality, is not the reality. This distinction has implications for the role of patient voice in health care planning and policy.
Today, many organizations are making serious attempts to include the patient voice in policy and decision-making. Unfortunately, more than a …
Speaking on behalf of patients is not the same as speaking as a patient
What can we learn from an experiment conducted on a single person? That is, when the subject population (N) is a single person, aka N=1? How and how much do such findings contribute to knowledge about the experimental intervention? How relevant are results to other patients or populations or diseases? In assessing what is known about a phenomenon, how are these findings treated in comparison to studies with 30 or …
Is a single patient representative in a group sufficient?
Silence — it’s deafening. I look around at this empty apartment and take in the sinking feeling that I’m alone.
New Yorkers seem to crave “alone time.” I see individuals sitting on park benches all over the city, stealing moments, staring into space, encased in an invisible aura of solitude. It’s quite a feat actually to do this amidst the noise and tidal wave of humanity that ebbs and flows through …
Death has made me more resilient
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