Here’s another important thing you need to know in a medical crunch: When a person already taking medication(s) is admitted to a hospital - including the emergency room - or outpatient clinic, they usually receive new medications or, changes are made to the medication they've been taking all along. That can present some serious health problems for people with drug sensitivities. They become sicker or their medical problem is not adequately addressed while they're in the hospital or clinic. This is scary stuff! Here’s how to understand the problem:
Hospital-based staff members are not mind-readers. Worse, they tend to be crushed by heavy schedules and excessive responsibilities. They can't easily access every - or any - patients' complete medication lists. Communication lines might falter or not even be attempted. Medical professionals down the line aren't always able to know of recent medication changes. As a result, the new medication regimen being prescribed during the hospital or clinic stay, then at the time of discharge could 1) Omit necessary medications, 2) Add too many drugs treating the same problem, 3) Cause physical harm or 4) Hold incorrect dosages that simply do not help the patient.
Sometimes the situation happens in front of you as you scream, beg and plead in vain for someone to pay attention and to prescribe the medication you need versus the stuff they want to ply on you.
The patient and the medical staff share a problem called "A need for medication reconciliation." How that is to be accomplished is one serious matter. I've resolved it live on the spot for a few people.
Here’s how to solve the problem: You need to alert all medical personnel of the issues affecting your health. But what if relevant people aren't paying attention to you the patient, or to your loved ones demanding better care? See pages 42-47 of EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge for the LISTEN to the Person Before You: Lessons for Caregivers section. You can print it out and give copies to nursing supervisors, the head of the medical department treating you and anyone else you deem appropriate. There's NOTHING like in in the How-to and For Dummies line of books!
Here are a few more suggestions: Print out the "Don't Tell Me You 'Understand'" poem on page 7 and hang it over your hospital bed. Practice more patient-protecting ideas described in the book. Delegate authority and have loved ones or friends present facts to relevant medical personnel. Learn how to successfully advocate for yourself in dire medical straits. Practice until you get it right.
There are plenty of reasons that I chose the “Face your medical problems with dignity. Face your future with optimism” motto for my book-related blog and Self-Help coaching services. An improving and protected sense of dignity plus ever-better optimism and solid information help ill people to cope with medical, mental health and disability challenges. You can overcome despair that way, and allow yourself to heal emotionally, even physically despite devastating setbacks. We hear these great sayings over time, but I learned the lessons in my gut and every cell of my body. You can, too.
Every medical professional owes it to their patients to ask, “How can I help you today?” If they don’t, you’ll know what to do when you read the EMPOWER Yourself book.
Medical and mental health professionals recommend the "persevere past emotional and physical pain" message of It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry If I Need To: EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. So do clergy of different faiths.
You can learn the lessons to help you when you buy the E-book or print edition book from the publisher, Booklocker, which ships way faster than online book stores. Go to http://booklocker.com/books/3067.html
By the way, Americans, did you know that some doctors fear Obamacare - because it will fail to serve YOU? http://video.foxnews.com/v/1714511797001/
Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.
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