I am a medically savvy woman. My vocational background has required that I have extensive medical knowledge gleaned from a diverse number of number of health-related fields. However, I am not a clinician which makes me unique. Being medically proficient allows me to understand and make better decisions about my health. In spite of this, I have had experiences with some physicians listening to my concerns about their recommendations. This led to me wondering why is it so hard to discuss my health issues with my physicians.
Recently I was referred to see a physiatrist (a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor, not a psychiatrist) for crippling muscle spasms resulting in radiculopathy (shooting pains) down my left arm. She was a competent physician with a bedside manner of a prison matron. Don't get me wrong, I appreciated her no nonsense approach. The reason I maneuvered to see her was because she had successfully treated a hip/muscle injury I had. After taking a series of cervical spine x-rays, she informed me I have some "slippage in my spine". Surprised by this being told to me so glibly, my response was to ask if I had spondylolisthesis. Shocked, she inquired if I was one of those patients who read the internet. "No", I said, "I am one of those patients who works for the School of Medicine and reads medical journals." For those of you who don't understand medical terminology, she just told me I had degeneration in my spine with a slippage which ultimately will result in the development of a Dowager's hump. Soon I'll be starting physical therapy. But more importantly, yoga has been shown to prevent and/or reduce kyphosis (the slippage to which she was referring) if caught soon enough and the person is dedicated to its practice. Given my physician's mood, I decided not to tell her how UCLA funded a study showing the benefits of yoga to people with "slippage". One cannot fill a full cup.
The conversation with my physiatrist struck me as an indication of how much physicians fail at having adult conversations with informed patients. God only knows how the medically uninformed fare. When she went over her recommendations, I objected to one of the medications she wanted to prescribe because of the serious side effects. Visually, I could see she was frustrated with me, even though I raised legitimate concerns. Finally, she agreed to compromise and halfed the meds I objected to, leading me to agree to take it. In the end, she was right; what she gave me worked, giving me needed relief from my pain. In my last conversation with her I conceded she was right to negotiate with me. My hope is that we both learned a lesson here.
I think about people who don't have my level of medical knowledge and how they cope in a world where in 15 minutes one has to share symptoms, listen to the doctor's recommendations, and attempt to understand the implications of the medical lingo. And doctor's wonder why we are on the internet.
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