I recently lost my primary care physician. She left and the search for a new doctor began. I wanted to find another female physician but settled on a nurse practitioner. I saw her July 2nd and really liked her. We went over medical history and but then a brief exam mainly consisting of listening to me breathe. I warned her that I would sound horrible and she would either think I had pneumonia or worse. So she listened and agreed I sounded awful. Then she talked about her "health goal" for me. She said she wanted to get me feeling at least 75% better. She also said she didn't want to step on any toes (referring to my pulminologist) but wanted to add another inhaler to my list of meds. I started the new inhaler and within 2 days my lungs were completely clear. The first time in 6 1/2 years. It has been miraculous to me and has made me question why my lung doctor has never tried to add anything or why he just accepted the condition as (my new normal). I forgot what good felt like. I think I need to stop just accepting what doctors say and start advocating for myself.
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5 comments:
Good lesson learned! So glad you feel so much better.
Congratulations on finding a provider who is focused on YOU!
You are correct. We all must advocate for ourselves and/or take someone with us to be our advocate. (I can't wait to hear what your Pulmonologist has to say for her/himself!)
That is wonderful news. What a relief that must be. I'm a big believer in nurse practitioners. They seem to listen and actually care.
I have COPD and know how lungs problems can really restrict us. These smokey days haven't helped. What is your new inhaler? I use Dulera and it is not doing the job it once was.
Keep breathing easy.
My PCP just retired but she also hired her own replacement and I am happy with her. My dentist retired a while ago and sold her practice, my eye doctor retired soon after my own retirement and sold his practice -- something about being of a certain age makes this a thing I guess.
Boy,
Dani, doctors can be incredibly complacent and lazy. It's not them that's sick after all. When you aren't getting better you need to apply pressure to the wound - the wound in this case being the doctor!
I'm glad you've found a good PA. I think many times they are better than an MD!
Deb in Canader
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