Putting advocacy back in healthcare...AND in life!

I'm not at clinicals right now. Sitting on the porch of Emery waiting to depart from them (but not before catching BC&T's flavor of the day!) but I have this on my mind. And it's an itch I can't scratch right now, so for now I'll just write all my thoughts down. This morning, Holly and I were having a conversation about a lot of things. But one thing we talked about was doctors, healthcare and patients getting into a medicinal routine. In today's society, just about anything can be cured by taking a pill. NO. If some people put forth a little bit of effort and made a few lifestyle changes, they probably wouldn't need the medications they've been taking for 10, 15, 20+ years. This makes me think about a patient I had sometime last year when I first started clinicals. This patient was on 26 MEDS. 7 or 8 of them were for blood pressure...at least! This really shocked me, so I asked the patient if she even knew what all her meds were and what they were for. Didn't have a clue. She only knew to take a certain few in the morning and a certain few before bed time.

Houston, we've got a BIG problem. That is an overdose/drug-drug interaction waiting to happen. Scary! This is what I mean by getting into a routine; these people's primary care providers tell them to take this med and take that med and they'll be ok. What do they do if they don't think it's working? Just keep taking it? For a lot of people, yes. Now this comes to me. When my ankle problems first started, I was given a prescription for Naproxen (prescription strength Aleve if you will). The doc at Health Services said I should start feeling relief within a few days. I took half the prescription and finally stopped because I was not seeing any improvement. Another doctor was going to give me a prescription for VICODIN. I about went through the roof! But it's so sad because people fall victim to this all the time!! And then there are those patients I have had who are on top of their game; they know exactly what they are taking and what they are used for. Those patients are the ones who are truly participating in their healthcare! Another part is education; patients are simply not getting properly informed of what they're taking/doing. Doctors and other healthcare providers are supposed to protect their patients. They make an oath; Do no harm! And that also, is very very scary!

So what's the take-home message of this? For most of whoever reads this, probably nothing. But for others I hope it presents a challenge to be an advocate for your self! Other than God, we know ourselves better than anybody! It's our right to stand up for ourselves and take care of ourselves. If you've been given something to take for problem xyz and you're not seeing any improvement, first and foremost, think. Did your doctor tell you to do anything else other than take the pill? I used a blood pressure medication the other day as an example. I had a patient a while ago who was on a blood pressure medication and still had an SBP in the 160's (if you don't know what that means, just know that that's not good). Well...this patient was also overweight. I asked if this patient did anything else to manage their hypertension. Nope. Just take the pill. I pulled the nurse I was with in and we did a little bit of education; that blood pressure pill ain't gonna amount to jack crap if you just take it. Anybody who gets put on something like that should know that that alone will not fix their blood pressure problems. Diet changes, exercise and other lifestyle modifications in that instance are NOT recommended; they're required. So I close with this; are we doing things/taking things because our doctor said we should? Are we participating in our own health care or letting someone else do that for us? I know what I'm doing. What about you?