Monday afternoon, 4:35 p.m.
Annie: "Dr. Grumpy's office, this is Annie."
Ms. Daughter: "Hi, this is Mrs. Substantia's daughter, and her Parkinson's disease is really bad this afternoon!"
Annie: "What's going on?"
Ms. Daughter: "Her tremor is out of control! She's shaking everywhere, and can barely walk!"
Annie: "Has she missed any medication doses?"
Ms. Daughter: "No! She got her morning pills right on time!"
Annie: "What about her 2:00 p.m. afternoon pills?"
Ms. Daughter: "I haven't given her those yet. Should I?"
It's amazing how often crap like this occurs.
ReplyDelete"I stopped giving the phenobarbital because my dog wasn't having seizures anymore"
"He stopped peeing in the house so I didn't refill the insulin"
"She's been acting really sluggish lately...Oh, she's supposed to STAY on the soloxine FOREVER?"
Those were all just last month.
It is amazing how much of my day basically comes down to this:
ReplyDelete'So I recommend you do the treatment plan as discussed previously'
And these people get to breed??? And vote???
ReplyDeleteI think I am really, really glad I don't work with the public any more. Thanks for reminding me what I am missing.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like a little bit of caretaker fatigue. Aging parent problems dumped onto daughter who has her own work, family, societal burdens. I sympathize with the lady and wish her well.
ReplyDeleteSubstantia nigra.... i get it...ha
ReplyDeleteThis is one of those things that new doctors or staff don't understand about the clients: they lie outrageously and have no idea they're doing it. Inexperienced people will make the mistake of believing the clients when the client answers a direct question like "has she missed any medication doses?" I'm glad to see that your staff is well-trained enough to ask follow-up questions.
ReplyDeleteIt can be soooo easy to slip up on timed medication doses. It's even harder when you live alone, an alarm goes off, and 5 minutes later you've forgotten about it.
ReplyDeleteBut for crying out loud, at least recognize it and don't lie about it. I have never met a doctor that would rather hear, "Sure! I take every single dose at the exact second I'm supposed to!" when it's clear they haven't, instead of a more honest, "I'm doing my best, but I still manage to miss 3-4 doses a week."
ALSO. At this point I'm convinced that Dr G has a checklist of references he wants to use in his posts and waits for things to happen to match.
Medication adherence is tricky even when you are extremely motivated. Any ritualized behavior (same behavior at same time(s) of day, repeated ad infinitum) has the potential for 'spacing out' (who remembers brushing their teeth this morning in particular detail - what you were wearing, what you thought about for that two minutes, etc). Keeping track of someone else's meds is harder.
ReplyDeleteGlad Dr G's staff know how to ask the kinds of questions that help find out what's up..and they seem to have great skill at not saying what they are really thinking!!