The Patient's Playbook: How to Save Your Life and the Lives of Those You Love by Leslie D. Michelson

Author:Leslie D. Michelson [Неизв.]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780385352284
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Published: 2015-09-01T04:00:00+00:00

Surgical suites are booked for fixed periods of time with little margin for delay. My surgery wound up being two to three times longer than expected, blowing the entire operating schedule for that day, because I was that patient, the one with the unexpected anomaly. Being that case makes you prone to medical error, especially if you’re in a facility that doesn’t have a lot of experience dealing with your specific condition. Thankfully, Dr. Udelsman and the staff at Yale had plenty of experience to anticipate—and masterfully handle—my surgical surprise.

What’s more, had I gone to a surgeon who did not use intraoperative PTH testing—or one who did but lacked the wisdom to know that my plateauing numbers meant there was another bad gland—the outcome would have been grim. I’d have been sewn back up, gone through the healing process, and still not been cured. That would have meant more surgery, more sedation, more scar tissue, more anxiety, and more costs. Which is just the kind of terrible experience I want to help you avoid.

In the next chapters, I’m going to teach you how to get to the No-Mistake Zone by following the four steps of Intensive Case Management, which are: Immersion, Diagnosis, Treatment, and Coordination.

By following these steps—that is, by immersing yourself in the illness, reaching an accurate diagnosis, picking the right treatment and provider, and coordinating all aspects of care—you will vastly improve your outcome in any situation. And while I explain the ICM steps in order, you’ll find that immersion and coordination are so important that they are practiced at every turning point, not just at the beginning and end of your journey.

Thankfully, my surgery went well, but looking back, I realize that my biggest mistake was letting a couple of years’ worth of unexplained elevated calcium go by. I should have been tested sooner. But I didn’t recognize my lapse until I was diagnosed. Here I’d been counseling clients that, when you get lab results back, if anything is outside normal limits, and your doctor doesn’t address it, you have to ask, “Should we be investigating this, to find out why this number isn’t normal?” It’s a simple question I should have asked, too.

Over the years, I’ve seen people dwell in guilt and uncertainty over the decisions they’ve made in their own care or the care of a family member: I should have gotten Dad to the doctor the minute he told me he was feeling dizzy. Why did I push Mom to get that surgery? How could I have ignored my symptoms for so long?

But let’s stop worrying about the things we didn’t do last year, or the actions we wish we had taken yesterday. Instead, let’s focus on where we are now. Resolve to move forward, with a clean start, and do all you can today to get the best possible outcomes.

Part of that process involves accepting the reality that you may need help. You might think you can manage everything yourself. But you just don’t know how you will react to a scary diagnosis.

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