Doctor doesn't listen to you? Maybe this is why...

[Bernard]

Folks on epilepsy forums complain from time to time about doctors that do not listen to them. I suppose it's only fair to present the other side of the coin...

There's an open secret in medicine: Patients lie.

They lie about how much they smoke and whether they're taking their medicine. They understate how much they drink and overstate how much they exercise. They feign symptoms to get appointments quicker and ask doctors to hide the truth from insurance companies.

...

Some researchers estimate more than half of patients tell their doctors they're taking their medicine exactly as prescribed when they're not. In reality, they don't like the side effects, can't afford the pills or didn't understand the instructions.

A study by researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine found a big gap between what patients said and what they did. Researchers looked at how patients with breathing problems used an inhaler equipped with a device that recorded the date and time of use and compared that with what the patients said.

Seventy-three percent of patients reported using the inhaler on average three times a day, but only 15 percent actually were using it that often. And 14 percent apparently deliberately emptied their inhalers before their appointments to make it look as if they were good patients.

Doctors say patients who lie may put their health at risk

[Birdbomb]

Sometimes the lies are NOT deliberate, there can be underlying mental health issues, that the doctor may not be aware of. Dementia, depression can alter one's own preception of reality.

This is where it is important for the doctor to spend more than 4.5 minutes in active conversation with their patient, so they can pick up on any cues.

My ortho doc spends at least 30 minutes with me. I take opates as a control for pain and some of the time is an assesment of that medication, the rest is planning my health care. Even my primary care physician is spending more time too, and she is a military doctor on the base.

[brain]

Well here's another perspective:

COMMUNICATION PROBLEM:

Car Accident made me deaf overnight, while I can talk,
Doctors have trouble understanding me sometimes, and
"assume" ... and we all know "assumptions can get oneself
into trouble".

For this reason - I have someone WITH me when I go - I
cannot express how many times, the Doctor has documented
in their reports of what "I" had supposedly stated (and did not)
and because of witness(es) present, talk about furs being
ruffled and feathers flying ....

*sigh*

I end up being the scapegoat.

It would have been hilarious if it weren't so pathetic, Doctor
versus Doctor (Medical Doctor -vs- Theologian with Doctorate).
So much Adieu.

I'm not looking for some pity parties ... but I've seen this happen far
too often with 25+ years under my belt with my husband and I in
the ministry - pastoring & being in mission homes, personally we've
seen enough .... Rather than hearing the Doctors say "We don't know"
they play 'Blame the patient' game - and label them as psychological
or toss them into psychiatry unit when they really don't belong in there.

There is NO HARM in saying - " I DON'T KNOW " ... I've said it numerous
times, and it didn't kill me or ruin my integrity or smash my ego.

Maybe they should teach that in Med School?

[Bernard]

I think the responsibility lies with both parties to ensure they are communicating effectively to the other party and being understood.

[brain]

I think the responsibility lies with both parties to ensure they are communicating effectively to the other party and being understood.

We've been trying to get this message across since 1988!
So far only 2 Doctors (none of them are neurologist or epileptologist) are
patient enough to even write it down or ask me to write it
down.

But even having a normal hearing person WITH me wasn't
of any help / nor was having an interpreter there wasn't
of benefit either.



This current neurologist I have now knows some sign language
so it's a great help - so the tide's changing for me on this
end - FINALLY - but it took nearly 19 years for this to happen!

[Bernard]

or ask me to write it down.

Perhaps you could take your own little notepad and pen with you and just write down anything important without putting the onus on them.

BTW, it is great when you find a good doctor who cares enough to spend the time with you and get it right.

[brain]

Well we finally found out what the heck was going on, and it
turned out that it was our tenant that was causing severe
frictions with my Doctors, and I'm grateful (sad that I lost
my epileptologist) that my other Doctors have recorded the conversation
and he was threatening them!

That was the whole problem, but unlike the epileptologist, the other
Doctors weren't going to dump me because of an unruly
tenant that had no business barging in like that.

However, my plan of having calls made after a specific time
(when the tenant is gone for work) is working like a charm!
I'm counting the days when that lease expires and when I
give him the boot, after 5 years, because he knows I'm not
renewing his lease and he's been given the 2 months advance
warning, and now been given the 1 month advance warning,
and must be out 1 week before Memorials' Weekend. I already
have 5 different prospects.

But the Greatest News is - I'm Seizure-Free 3 months and
counting! While my Neurologist is fully aware I do have temporal lobe epilepsy
with complex partial with secondary generalized tonic clonic's, He wants to wait
a little longer to make sure I stay seizure-free and I won't
see them again until August.

[Bernard]

Great news on the 3 months seizure free.

I must confess though, that I'm a bit confused about the rest of your post. Are you saying that a 3rd party was calling your doctors to discuss your care?

[brain]

Great news on the 3 months seizure free.

I must confess though, that I'm a bit confused about the rest of your post. Are you saying that a 3rd party was calling your doctors to discuss your care?

BINGO!

OR When they called for me - HE was attempting to barge in!