Saturday, October 20, 2012

Entry Number 27 - See the Person, Not the Disease

So I've been thinking a lot about my reaction to Wednesday's visit to the Prof, my diabetes specialist, and I've realised that what pissed me off the most is that I felt he only sees the disease not me, well not the real me.

He is good at what he does, one of the best in Perth in fact, and he has years and years of experience.  But does he see me or only what he wants for me?

I know he wants me to be a controlled diabetic.

I know that he knows that losing weight will help.

I know that he has my best interests at heart.

But I don't know if he sees me, the square peg that very rarely fits into the round hole of anything.

I have 3 types of arthritis and none responded to the medication like they should, in fact I could say that the medications made no difference at all.

I have type 2 Diabetes, and a Low GI food diet, medication and even exercise (when I was at the pool) made only a slight bit of difference in the long run.  Even losing 12 kgs didn't bring my blood sugars down to even close to normal, in honesty if made a slight difference for a short period of time.

So while it is good to have all the medical knowledge in the world, if you don't see the person, if you don't listen to the person, can you cure the person?

Now I am not saying that I am a perfect person, doing all the right things all the time, hell no.  I am the first to admit that I break the rules all the time, especially when I am stressed - which lately is all the time.  But I am trying the hardest I can to do the right thing, but when it comes down to it I am human and I am me and maybe, just maybe you need to think outside the box of this disease to help me.

Is that asking too much?




6 comments:

  1. I hear you. I know that my GP and my neurologist both treat the illness not the person. Which, to put it politely, peeves me. I suspect that it is the doctors way of protecting themselves. If they care too much/empathise too much will they burn out? I don't know. But I do know that I want to be heard.
    One example. I had been telling my neurologist for years that pain was a real issue, and was altering my life for the worse. He paid lip service attention. Then, by chance, my partner came with me and nodded agreement. The pain got attention. Hiss and spit.
    And now it is more controlled - but I am a space cadet more of the time as well. And fatter. Naughty words if I knew them.

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    1. It's funny when you bring your partner along suddenly they are hearing you - I find that too. When I took hubby to the rheumy it was a very different experience. I will be taking him with me next time to the Prof ... maybe he will hear him. I am going to explore the surgery, but not jump into it, taking hubby to that appointment as well. xx

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  2. I completely get what you're saying. I think one of the hardest things for people like you and I, with so many complex disorders is that we have so many different people taking care of us. So little communication between them. It's difficult to get my psych to care about my diabetes (therefore prescribing me a drug that is just terrible for diabetics) or my Endos to care about my pain issues etc. It's where we have to be stronger - be our own advocates. And in some cases, perhaps have everybody communicate with the GP so that he can also wrangle some of it for us. I'm trying to do this now - get everybody to send absolutely everything to the GP (even have given psychologist permission to talk to him about health concerns that I bring up with he. They work in the same office, so she sees him often).

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    1. I hear you there, seems like a common complaint for most of us Lissa.

      My psych is very open and so far has not suggested medication, fingers crossed he doesn't!!. My GP is great, but she only works 3 half days per week and is really hard to get into see, so I am sort of managing it all myself, but she does get all the reports and I always make a long appointment so we can go over it together. xxx

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  3. You didn't have to take Captcha off, sweet friend. It wasn't just about your blog, I promise. And I do understand why people have it. (My blog post was such a joke - I was trying to be extremely light hearted after a very controversial, tense week).

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    1. I know, but I didn't mean to have it on, I hate it so much and struggle to read it half the time. xx

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