This post has been shared by the AdvoConnection Blog. It was written with a patient-client audience in mind, but might be useful to you, too.
It is provided so you can find it in a search here at myAPHA.org, but you’ll need to link to the original post to read it in its entirety. Find the link to that post at the end of the excerpt.
When Your Doctor Goes Missing and Other Medical Conundrums: How to Take Command
Summer vacation this year was comprised of two weeks on a road trip with my husband as we left our (new) home in Florida, drove north to Upstate New York, then home again, visiting family and friends along the way. It was one of those vacations that you thoroughly enjoy, but then, can’t wait to be home again! This year I had an extra reason to want to be home. About halfway into the trip, my knee began to hurt, then began to swell, becoming increasingly painful. There was nothing I could identify that would cause it – no injury, no bug bite, no known allergies – nothing. Further, ibuprophen, naproxen, heat, cold — nothing would touch the pain. It grew worse and worse, hour by hour, mile by mile… Now, before we go further, let me set the stage here. I’ve spent the last 12+ years of my career preaching / teaching to other patients the wisdom of getting to know a doctor before you need that doctor for a difficult situation or emergency. Of course, that’s not always possible, especially when a specialist is needed. But for primary care it should be a relatively easy thing to do. Taking my own advice, after our move to Florida 15 months ago, I had researched possibilities and chosen the doctor I wanted. (We’ll call her Dr. Mahoney). In this year+, I had visited Dr. Mahoney three times either for introductory purposes, or for those tests they give us age 60+ people (blood sugar, cholesterol, etc). I cultivated a good relationship so that when something dire came up, it wouldn’t be my first visit to a stranger. Now, suffering this most excruciating pain, my knee now the size of a football, we had arrived at that day of dire. So I dialed. “Dr. Mahoney is no longer with our practice. We’ve assigned her patients to Dr. Andrews. When would you like to come in? We’re booking next Tuesday” – which was five days away. What? Oh no! “Are you KIDDING? Where is she?” I demanded, thinking I’d just go track her down at whatever new practice she had connected with. “She and her husband have left the country,” I was told. When you are in that kind of pain, with something even Dr. Google couldn’t pinpoint, that kind of news just knocks you flat. Frustrated, hurting, upset, hurting, angry, hurting, dismayed,…