Question Everything!

Today I went to my family practitioner as a follow up to my head and neck injury. I learned why I have not been able to write a post since the short one after returning from the hospital. I look at a page and stare. That does not happen to me often. I usually find something to say either if it's face-to-face or in writing, maybe not profound, but something.

"Do you feel you've had a loss of cognitive functioning?" the doctor asked.

"I know there is information I should know, but I can't retrieve it. Also, I've tried to keep up my blog, I have nothing creative to say."

"Seems like you've had a loss. The sheer fatigue form the injury and the pain can cause that response too," the doctor said. "What's hard is you look like you are tracking, but I see now that you are not following everything I say."

My warning to my daughter's personal care attendant (PCA) when I returned home was, "If something I say seems off--question it--question everything!" Her chuckle reminded me that I had asked her to come an hour earlier for work than I had intended that morning.

While in the office the doctor went over all of the reports from the hospital. I had already been to two doctors and had a list of tests to schedule. I asked him to check on an ultrasound that was ordered on my liver. Neatly typed next to it was a finding that no one had told me about AND I clearly remembered no one had told me. There were also clear directions to get an ultrasound on both areas--"sooner than later."

Of course after determining a loss of my cognitive functioning I knew that my doctor may not believe me when I told him that I could clearly remember that no one told me. "Check the discharge orders," I sort of commanded. "Does it list it there?"

"No. There is nothing here. They missed it. I really don't think they are going to find anything serious though," he tried to comfort me.

"But what if they do? Or what happens with another patient when a doctor forgets to include the order and doesn't mention the finding to the patient?

When I was in the hospital my husband was home with my children much of the time. I was left as patient and advocate while on significant doses of pain killers. As advocacy is my passion I forced myself to focus, pay attention and question everything. No matter how much I did it obviously was not enough.

After my appointment my doctor "released" my medical records. Now I can read them on-line and while I can't review them all at once without fatiguing, over the next couple of days I will read every word. I quickly noticed two other things that were not accurate.

When I said "question everything" to my daughter's PCA when speaking with me, I said it laughing at myself knowing that I may not be completely accurate right now. But when I say to you as one advocate to another "question everything" when it comes to medical reporting it is no laughing matter.

--Allyson

Not sure how to make a comment? Blogger Help has a nice article on how to do it. 
Subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.