#medical system
i think doctors can get into problems which are caused by the way they learn the discipline. because there is an enormous amount of information to assimilate, the correct recall of any part of which can be a life or death matter, there is a great emphasis on memorization of values. there’s no way around this—you must know these names and numbers. but it does lead to interactions like this: as a diabetic i suffer hypoglycemia. hypoglycemia is when my hands shake, i feel faint, i cannot stand or move easily, i have a tremendous urge to eat, and things like that. the cause of all those feelings is that the blood going to my brain lacks sufficient sugar for my brain to do its work, which causes the brain to enter an alarmed state and my body to produce emergency resources like epinephrine. this is how i understand hypoglycemia. it is not how a doctor, especially one who is not an experienced diabetic specialist, is likely to understand hypoglycemia. they will understand hypoglycemia as a state the body enters when the blood-glucose levels are below 4.0. when the blood glucose levels are below 4.0, the body will do what i said. this is not true. the body will do those things when it needs to. it is normally true that it needs to do those things when the blood glucose levels are below 4.0, which means that for the purposes of clinical experiments and statistical reviews, a blood-glucose level of below 4.0 can substitute for ‘hypoglycemia’, and anyway, ‘below 4.0′ is easy to remember, and also easy to check in a clinical situation, and for all of these good reasons it appears in the textbook, and will appear on your flashcards, that hypoglycemia is ‘below 4.0.’ but i do not enter hypoglycemia at below 4.0, i enter hypoglycemia at below 5.0. it has always worked that way for me, and it has never not gone that way. it is simply the case that, whatever it is about my body, it needs slightly more sugar to do what it does than most people. this is of course completely possible, just as it is possible for one to only enter hypoglycemia at a lower number. but i can never convince any doctor about this; they always think i am misinformed and they correct me, because they have the right number memorized and i’ve given them a chance to exercise it. then, because i’ve made that mistake, they think nothing is really wrong—i am not chronically experiencing low sugars, just chronically misinformed—and send me off. now i have to lie and say that i was ‘below 4.0′ because they want to hear it, and they’ll never learn from their mistake. if there is a good solution to this miscommunication it isn’t available to the patient during the appointment.
I’ve spent so much of my time since my arterial rupture, neck deep in the medical system; barely treading water, but it’s gotten me so far. Things are getting close to as under control as they’ll probably ever be, given that my conditions are degenerative and progressive.
It’s time to really pull things around and live as hard as I can again. I think I’ve always done as much as I can to be authentically me, but this year I’m determined to get back some of what I’ve lost (whatever small amount I can). It’s time to restore balance.
I’ve already come so far in the past 3-4 months and after spending hours again this week wrapped up in medical stuff sapping my energy, I’m once again reflecting on when I can finally direct all my energy to my passions again. I may never have that luxury again, and I have to be okay with that, but what I’ve been pushing for this entire time, Quality of Life, is all about having the energy, time and freedom to have a life outside of the medical complex.
I’m almost there. I can feel it.
{please don’t remove my words}
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Doctors insisting that all women take pregnancy tests before having an X-ray is sexist and paternalistic. I’m a lesbian who’s never been sexually active, but I’m always required to take a pregnancy test “just in case.” This practice reflects the general culture of doctors not believing and trusting women, and it needs to change.
Yup. I’m an asexual woman who has never had sex. And maybe 1 in 10 doctors believe me when I tell them that.
But, really, it’s not about identity or orientation. It’s about trust, and it’s about the way our culture handles risk.
In many cases, it’s not individual doctors making this decision. It’s a policy in their workplace. And that is all about them maybe getting sued. So, really, it’s about the fact that our culture has no way to let me, the patient, take on the (legal) risk associated with having that a x-ray. So, this part of the problem is actually legal and procedural. Somehow, informed consent isn’t holding up in our legal system, and I don’t understand why.
Of course, there is part of this that is directly about trust. And I would argue that the institutional policies actually help to inform that lack of trust.
So, there’s something that needs to change legally/in policy and something that needs to change culturally.
IMPORTANT PSA!
Taking a ride in the woo woo wagon will not shorten your wait time at the hospital. You’re not cheating the system. Regardless of whether you arrive at the hospital via ambulance, bus, car, etc. You will still be triaged, and your wait time will be dictated by that!
I’m not even a medical professional I’ve just had a lot of medical emergencies and I have seen enough Karens who get mad poor paramedics and nurses when this doesn’t work out for em
