Thirty three years ago, four arrogant residents sat in the doctor’s dining room in Lutheran General Hospital and criticized the “old docs” for having their patients on “too many” medications. We marveled at how these older docs just kept prescribing one medication after another. We chided them for prescribing medications whose sole purpose was to treat the side effects of the patient’s other medications. We swore we would never be that stupid.
Thirty three years later, I am humbled, every last bit of that arrogance is gone. Yes, my patients are on “too many” meds. Yes, some are on meds whose sole purpose is to treat the side effects of their medications. Yes, I’ve aged! What I didn’t know as an arrogant young resident was how much my patients liked being on medications!
Yes, my patients must really like being on medications! They may protest, saying that their medications are too expensive. They may moan and groan about taking “all those pills.” They may even complain about side effects! What they won’t do is take responsibility for what ails them!
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Lose weight, stop eating sugar, go on a low fat diet, exercise, stress less, spend time with the family, take their meds like they are supposed to, follow up for office visits as directed, go to physical therapy, see a counselor, stop cheating on their spouses, and cut out the alcohol are just a few things they won’t do!
What’s a doc to do? Medicate! Give a pill for each ailment. Talk yourself blue in the face about lifestyle modification and then give a pill. Your talk goes in one ear and out the other. Your patient thinks you are a nag. Get militant? Write a blog? Over the last 33 years, I’ve done it all.
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When I woke up today, I decided that, if my patients weren’t going to change, I was. I’m old enough now to know better. Medicating patients who fail to care for themselves makes me a codependent. I don’t like being a codependent!
My “New Day Resolution” is to start unloading medications. It’s time to be a militant about something other than smoking. It’s time to demand my partners (patients) uphold their end of the deal. Knowledge is power. I will teach them how to care for themselves and demand that they pass the course!
Diets and Other Unnatural Acts focuses on change through “Chicken
Steps.” It’s time to “Chicken Step” my patients to health and dedicate my next
33 years of practice to reducing my patients’ medication burden! Today, I will
find a way to get my patients motivated! Today, I will be better at delegating
responsibility for my patient’s health to my partners/patients. Today, I will
remind them that the life they save may be their own.
Posted by LiveWellthy.org at 1/31/2012 7:37 AM
