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This blog is being written based on my experiences, as well as several of my friends. We all have one firm belief about Medical Teachings in this country.
We all believe there is ONE more thing that should be a chapter in the books and probably the most important chapter of all. IT should be entitled
CHAPTER ONE -- LISTEN TO THE PATIENT, THEY ARE THE ONES LIVING THIS LIFE - NOT YOU!
Doctors are wonderful people. So are the medical staff in general. They get years and years of training, they study for years about all kinds of disorders, and are taught all about the human body, and in some cases, given the right field, the mind. However, I am beginning to seriously doubt that they are taught one vital lesson. I do not believe they are taught to LISTEN to the patient. A person goes in and says, "no one can seem to figure out what is happening, then starts to describe what is happening." The doctor/doctors/medical personnel, began to automatically think, 'okay, we either have a hypochondriac, or a self diagnosis person here, and they are probably just exaggerating a wee bit. They say they have a nerve problem that keeps their nerves from being deadened so we can take out a tooth, sew up a cut etc. Or they say 'well, that neck pain could be from the way you sleep. Or they say, that body jerking could be a mental problem, or perhaps it could be this or that. They don't listen to the exact symptoms, even if you have been living with this for 50 years or so. They are doctors, nurses, they are educated, you are not. Life's experiences are not enough for them to judge, to make an educated analysis of what might be going on. For instance, my recent nerve conduction tests were done on the right side of my body. They came out fine. However, on the right side of my body I had a grapefruit size tumor removed in 1994 from under my arm, which included cutting thru the muscle and the nerves. I also have no cartilage in my right knee. I have severe muscle cramps, and my body jerks violently when it begins to relax. If I don't stay rigid, and start to relax while sitting, or laying down my body starts jerking. Not just the usual jerking one gets just before falling asleep, and restless leg syndrome has been ruled out. IT is not just my arms, or legs that jerk. It is my entire torso. It as if I have turret syndrome without the vocal part, or little ping pong balls inside my body in various locations from head to my toes trying to escape. It feels like an electric shock. BUT NO, IT COULDN'T POSSIBLY BE HAPPENING. THAT IS CRAZY. Not long ago, I talked to a young man on one of the game sites I play on. He was terrified. He was afraid he was going to be "put" away by his doctor because he was having the same type of jerking problems. He was scared, his doctor suggested psycho analysis, because there was a chance the young man might be 'possessed'. That is the craziest thing I have heard yet. There is a football coach who lives in central Texas who does the same thing. A woman in Portland Oregon who works in publishing has the same problem with the jerking, as does a woman in Corona California. A woman on Web Health said she felt so alone, so scared, and just downright stupid when people looked at her when this started. I know how she feels. DOCTORS DO not listen. They don't listen when you tell them, "HEY look, I have been living with this. My family has been living with this. They don't listen when you say, "UH, my nerves won't deaden. I can't tell you how many times I have passed out because like most kids, and adults, when I get cut or hurt and have to be sewn up, the nerves have to be deadened and mine won't deaden. DOCTORS DO not listen, or if they do, they let it go in one ear and out the other. AFTER all, they studied books, they went to school and against all odds, they know better. The human body is the human body. They studied it. NO, they studied cadavers, they studied pictures in a book, or plastic components, they studied charts. But I don't think they realize, that while our body's may all look alike, they may have the same type of nerve, physical appearance, that each of them are different. That each of us are different. Just because we all have red blood, doesn't make us all alike. OUR bodies react differently to different things. Smoking kills people. BUT not all people. I can name several people who died from lung or breast cancer or brain cancer that never even touched a cigarette. I can name someone who can smoke a marijuana joint and be as calm and nice as anyone you would ever want to know. But if that person drinks just one beer, he's mean, angry and would just as soon knock the living daylights out of you as to look at you. So, I am writing this in hopes that it gets passed on and maybe, just maybe, some doctor somewhere will say, 'hey you know, maybe we need to rewrite a few books to include the following statement.
"LISTEN TO THE PERSON, THE PATIENT. THEY ARE THE ONE WHO HAS SUFFERED THESE PAINS, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO HAVE LIVED WITH THIS JERKING, THEY ARE THE ONES WHO ARE SEEING DOUBLE OR HAVING PROBLEMS WITH THAT BIG TOE. LISTEN TO THEM. DON'T THINK THAT JUST BECAUSE YOU WENT TO SCHOOL, YOU KNOW IT ALL. DON'T TAKE ONE OR TWO TESTS AND SAY, 'OKAY SORRY, IT DIDN'T SHOW ANY ADNORMALITIES. DIG A LITTLE DEEPER. SORRY, YES IT IS GOING TO COST MONEY. LET'S WORK TOGETHER TO COME UP WITH A GOOD HEALTH CARE SYSTEM THAT DOES WORK TOGETHER, THAT DOES SHOW THE PEOPLE WE CARE AND THAT WE AREN'T THINKING OF THEM AS JUST SOME ROBOT THAT MIGHT NEED TO BE REWIRED. THIS IS NOT THE 1500 HUNDREDS. AND IT JUST SEEMS TO ME THAT MEDICINAL STUDIES HAVEN'T CHANGED AS MUCH AS YOU THINK. Maybe they know a little more now than they knew then, but for humanities sake, and remember, you are part of humanity, and someday you may have these same symptoms, that perhaps you had better start training the doctors and the nurses and the assistants and every one else to collaborate, to listen to the patient. I am tired of being judged just because of some stupid tech or aide or doctor who doesn't want to listen to me. I HAVE TO LIVE LIKE THIS, YOU GET TO GO HOME AT THE END OF THE EVENING, AND PUT UP YOUR FEET. MAYBE YOU TAKE A FEW THINGS HOME TO STUDY ABOUT A PERSON, ETC, BUT FOR THE MOST PART YOU FALL INTO BED, OR AS MANY PEOPLE HAVE SEEN, YOU GO OUT GET IN YOUR CAR AND YOU LIGHT UP A CIGARETTE. I DON'T KNOW HOW MANY TIMES I HAVE SEEN MEDICAL PEOPLE WHO HAVE SAID,'OH, YOU SHOULDN'T BE SMOKING' GO OUTSIDE FOR THEIR BREAK, CROSS THE ROAD AND LIGHT UP. AND THEN YOU GRIPE OUT THE PATIENT FOR IT. OR YOU TELL THEM TO GIVE UP THAT NIGHT CAP AND GO HOME AND HAVE ONE YOURSELF. GET REAL PEOPLE, YOU ARE JUST TRAINED, EDUCATED PEOPLE, WHO HAVE GONE TO SCHOOL, STUDIED A BOOK, STUDIED HARD, I GIVE YOU THAT, BUT YOU ARE NOT GODS AND NO WAY IN HELL DO YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO SAY,
'OH YOU ARE AT THE END OF YOUR LIFE SPAN.' NO WAY CAN YOU SAY, 'YOU HAVE MAYBE TWO WEEKS LEFT, YOU ARE NOT A GOD, YOU ARE NOT A CREATOR OF THE UNIVERSE AND YOU DID NOT INVENT THE BIG BANG THEORY. YOU MAYBE ABLE TO LOOK AT SOMEONE AND SAY, 'I AM SO SORRY BUT YOUR BODY IS AT THE POINT OF GIVING OUT, AND YOU MAY NOT LIVE MUCH LONGER, BUT YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO TELL SOMEONE,' YOU HAVE TWO WEEKS AT BEST. I DO NOT CARE WHO YOU ARE.
This letter was prompted by what I have been going thru all my life. MY NERVES DON'T DEADEN,' AND BY the fact that some yahoo told the lady a few doors down that she had maybe two weeks to live. THAT BY the way was three weeks ago. This letter was prompted by the fact that I personally know someone who survived brain cancer for more than 6 months, the given diagnosis, and lived several years with it. This letter was prompted by the fact that every year at this time millions of people get ill from cedar fever. This letter was prompted by the fact that someone needs to say these things.
EVERY HUMAN BODY IS DIFFERENT. JUST BECAUSE THE HEART AND THE LUNGS AND THE LEGS AND THE ARMS ARE IN THE SAME PLACES AS WELL AS THE OTHER ORGANS, ETC, AND JUST BECAUSE THE BLOOD RUNS RED, DOES NOT MEAN ALL OF OUR BODIES WORK THE SAME. QUIT SCARING THE LIVING DAYLIGHTS OUT OF PEOPLE WITH THE STUPID WARNINGS ON COMMERCIALS. WHY IN THE WORLD WOULD ANYONE WANT TO TAKE THE MEDICINES YOU ADVERTISE WHEN THEY MIGHT CAUSE VOMITING, OR HEADACHES, OR DIZZINESS, OR IN SOME CASES BE FATAL. QUIT DOING THE STUPID STUDIES AND SPENDING MILLIONS UNLESS YOU ARE GOING TO STUDY IT CORRECTLY. I CAN'T GET INTO A FIBROMYALGIA STUDY BECAUSE I ONCE HAD A DOCTOR SAY 'OH, I CAN SEE BY THE KNEE, THAT YOU HAVE AT ONE TIME HAD LYME DISEASE.'
LAST BUT NOT LEAST, ALL YOU DOCTORS WHO THINK THAT FIBROMYALGIA PAIN STARTED OUT AS SOME KIND OF NEUROTIC, PHSYCOTIC THING THAT WAS CAUSED BY SOME KIND OF TAUMATIC EXPERIENCE TO THE MIND, YOU ARE THE ONES WHO ARE NUTS, NOT THE PEOPLE WHO ARE SUFFERING FROM IT, BUT YOU. IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY TRAUMA, BUT BELIEVE ME IT WAS NOT TRAUMA TO THE MIND.
SO, TO THE MEDICAL WORLD, YOU GUYS ADMIT YOU. JUST SAY IT, ONE TIME, AND DO IT ONE TIME. SAY " OKAY, I AM HUMAN, AND I WILL LISTEN TO THE PERSON WHO SAYS, WHATEVER THEY HAVE TO SAY. NO I DON'T HAVE A LOT OF TIME, BUT IF I CAN DO THAT JUST ONCE TODAY, THEN I WILL HAVE SUCCEEDED, AND I WILL HAVE HAD A GOOD DAY, AND MADE A DIFFERENCE". After all, isn't that what you started out to do? TO make a difference, to help someone?"
AMY JEAN SHULTS - ANGERSTEIN
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