I was back at the hospital this morning for the first time in almost 4 weeks. My last trip there to see a Doc was the last day I had my Hickman, as my Doc removed it that day and since then I have been closed to the outside world, regarding IV access anyway. So that means any blood work I have from here on out will require a stabbing, as I like to call them. Fortunately for me my Doc decided that things were stable and I didn’t need to come for blood every week, thus my 4 week break. But this morning, back in the Ambulatory Clinic where I give blood and see my Doc, I was stabbed for my blood for the first time in quite a while. I don’t remember the last time actually. Fortunately my Nurses use a butterfly needle, which is nice a small, and near painless. For the Patient, present and future, I encourage you to always request the use of a butterfly needle, it may be in the vein a little longer but if you are like me you prefer the smaller needle and if you are a regular it is easier on your veins as well.
On that note, the note about requesting a smaller needle, I would like to take a moment to encourage everyone, Patients and non-Patients, to think about being proactive and taking responsibility. Here’s what I mean.
I like to call myself a Professional Patient, a status that I have appointed myself as my hours spent interacting with the “Healthcare System” have been many in the past 3 1/2 years. To be a Professional Patient I believe you have to go the “school of hard knocks” as some would say, it comes with experience and only experience. Part of being a Professional involves taking responsibility, for your care, for your health, for yourself really. That can involve a whole range of things from asking questions of your medical team, to checking your drugs, making what you determine to be healthy Positive choices, all areas of being a Patient really.
In my experience, when I am participating, actively, in my care, whether it is talking with Docs, taking my own blood when I had my Hickman, or just planning my day of rest, exercise and balancing things, when I am being proactive I feel sound. I don’t feel like a dependent Patient who relies on others for everything, sure there are times when I have and will need to do that, but when I don’t have to I make the effort not to and I have learned that for me it is really important to contribute to my own health. Take responsibility for it. And I feel that lesson I learned through being a Patient, as with most every lesson I’ve learned on my Journey, it transfers over to the rest of my life too.
When I can contribute, and when I deem it to be healthy, constructive, Positive, I do, and it is one of the best feelings I’ve had.
I was fortunate to be able to present some of these kind of thoughts to the Commission on the Future of Healthcare in Canada (the Romanow Commission) last week as they held an open public hearing with presenters from a variety of groups interested in the future of our healthcare.
One of my points to Mr. Romanow was that the reality is that in Canada we don’t really have “healthcare”, we have “sickcare”. For the most part we don’t focus very much of our energy or resources on the sources of our Health Challenges or preventing Health Challenges, we are much more focused on the symptoms of those Challenges. I feel that the best way to tackle any Challenge is to place a significant portion of your efforts and resources towards handling the source of the Challenge, without neglecting the symptoms. However in what we call Healthcare we don’t do that very well right now, and I feel a major component of making the transition to focusing on the source of our Health Challenges is personal responsibility for health.
If everyone, individually, put greater focus on their health I really feel that generally we would have much less sickness. My personal theory is that there is a direct relationship between destructive choices and the lack of that feeling I mentioned above, that feeling of contribution and self-worth. I’m still developing a Geoff version of that theory but I really believe that when we find a place where we are contributing to the inside and outside world many of our not-so-healthy choices fade away. It’s a work in progress and I’ll keep you updated on the progress.
Hope you had a great weekend and I’ll be back again soon.
Always…
Live Life. Love Life.
Geoff
