While it is not bad to be the ideal patient to your kindly doctor, that is: do what the doctor says with no questions asked, it is important for seniors to be an empowered patient which is basically being above all the things that are being done to your body. Yes, that’s right, it is your body and you should be the one deciding what to do about it. Furthermore, being one step ahead of your doctor will help you decide better on your treatment options or at the very least, will help your doctor decide for you.
I understand that many of us seniors depend on our family doctors for illnesses, no matter how trivial or serious it might be. Back then, we just bring our health maladies to our trusty doctors – just your generic GPs – and wait for prescription letters with a couple of nesting instructions to bring home. Nowadays, whenever you feel something bad inside your body, you need to Google up the type of doctor you should be going to or else you will be shooed away by your GP to a specialist. Googling it up saves you a trip or two actually.
This is exactly why you need to be aware of what’s going inside your body more than ever. Due to doctors specializing left and right, it’s quite impossible now to just stick to one doctor for all your healthcare needs – even your pain has its own doctor! There’s no way all of your doctors will be able to keep up with your concerns – that is, if they cared enough to go the extra mile at all.
Judging from my experience these days – not that I am generalizing things – your “specialized” doctor will just do a quick browse through your medical records. Nod a little on points he must be agreeing with and shakes head when he sees something he does not like. Ask a couple of questions and writes on a pad which I suppose is YOUR new medical record, or more specifically, your record with their office. If you don’t take the liberty to point out important facts, he is more likely to miss them. Sure he’ll order more test, ask for more information but these are all done to confirm or eliminate a suspected disease. Not to make you feel good again.
Times have indeed changed. Gone are the days when the doctor took care of your health concerns and you couldn’t care less. Now you need to be informed, empowered, to be able to help doctors in treating you. It is now your responsibility to know nooks and crannies of your body and inform doctors of them beforehand so there will be no surprises. You have to do your own research, know your illnesses and what they can do to you as well as the kind of doctors you should be consulting. Choices are made with you making the largest input.
Jumping from one doctor to another is certainly not helping things either – albeit not unavoidable. So before you blabber about your health to a doctor, make sure you are going to stick with him for as long as possible. If early on, you feel uncomfortable working with this doctor then might as well save time and energy by gracefully exiting the clinic and finding a doctor that suits you best.
