Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Saturday, September 5, 2009

Patient vs. doctor centered care

Sep. 4 Afternoon
I have been a popular girl this morning.
I had a line at my door earlier: the docs, vascular access, palliative care were all lining up with their teams.
That’s just the beginning.
I may be seeing infectious disease sometime.
“The Docs” include the attending hematologists, who just happens to be my normal outpatient hematologist Gautier, then a fellow and residents.
I can never tell who is who. If they had clear badges announcing where they were in their studies I would approach them appropriately.
Not every doctor is created equal. I want to decipher who is who and what they know. Name tags with their titles would be GGRREEEAAATTT.
The RNs have bright yellow badges with RN on them. Something like this could definitely be passed along.
I don’t want to hear any whining about this from the medical community.
We are now talking about patient centered care.
This is Doctor-demigod centered care.
On these lines, 5am blood draws should never, ever happen.
They should be erased from the earth only to be spoken of as a horrible past memory of patient torture.
We need sleep to heal. Being stabbed at 5am certainly interrupts my beauty rest.
Then, when I give in and get up after the assault, everybody says, “Wow, you’re an early riser.”
Wouldn’t you be too if someone crept into your room in the early am and stabbed your arm with a needle stealing your blood?
Just a hypothetical question, but It may interrupt your sleep.
This is done so all labs will be ready by nine am so the docs can round at that scheduled time.
I’m voting for 9am sticks and 11am rounds.
This would be patient centered vs. doctored centered care.
The days are not so long gone where doctors are catered too and if their whims are not met they’d be allowed to throw mantrums.
With advanced care nurses the practice is equalizing and more holistic care practices focusing on the patient are occurring.
Also, patients are becoming more educated.
It’s only a recent mindset that a patient is a CONSUMER paying for a PRODUCT.
Most people still do not ascribe to this certain thought process.
I, knowing how much I pay, do.
I am big business. I’m not saying patients get to throw hissy-fits and act like divas, but it’s time we know and are acknowledged that we are an integral part of our care team.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You go girl ... checking in before I hit the road. You'll be in my thoughts today ... wishing you well. Stay strong ... & know that a lot of people are pulling for you Hill.

And I'll check in later to see how you are doing.

F

Anonymous said...

Hey...
How are you feeling? I hope at least now you are feeling a little better,hang in there...