Choosing Your Doctor/(s)

At the risk of the medical profession banning me for life, yes, I’m going to look at this topic. Let me say at the start I have a great medical team: my GP, my specialists, my surgeons and my allied health practitioners are all fantastic. If they weren’t, they wouldn’t be in my team. It is that simple. Of course, they aren’t “mine” as in, I don’t own exclusive rights to them. Even so, to me, they are “mine”. I do share them with other nice patients!

My condition, psoriatic arthritis, is not terminal: so while my life does not depend on my doctors, my quality of life certainly does. In my experience, it is important to feel you “click” with your doctor/(s). I think that is important to anyone managing a chronic condition. We aren’t popping in once a year to have our blood pressure and heart rate checked or for an annual blood test. We need to be able to communicate on an ongoing and regular basis, years in fact, with someone we trust and whom we feel trusts us. Our relationship with our long-term doctors is, in my view, critical to ensuring we achieve patient goals. There would be no point in my seeing doctors who were not as into Movement As Medicine as I am, for example. Continuity of care is also important. I don’t have to relate my history every time I go for an appointment, my practitioners know my history.

Now, doctors are just the same as the rest of us. They may relocate, they may take maternity leave, they may make a career change. I’ve had my GPs take maternity leave, I had an endocrinologist move into management, a psychologist give up private practice. Or we move – I changed endocrinologist, gastroenterologist and GP when I moved from one side of town to the other. Doctors retire – my rheumatologist is currently in the process and I have proactively moved to one of his colleagues to ensure a smooth transition of care. Even if you are happy with your current doctor/(s), there will no doubt be a time you have to change.

Patients need to think about what is important to them, aside from clinical expertise. If you feel you gel or click with your doctor, you are more likely to follow their advice and instructions.

What do I look for (other than clinical/surgical expertise)?

Top of the list is a sense of humour. One of the ways I deal with my disease is humour and I need my doctors to be on board with that. This would not work for everyone, I acknowledge that.

The doctors need to have moved on from their registrar days in hospitals and not expect their sick patients to look sick! That’s me on my invisible illness crusade again. It doesn’t matter how much pain I am in, if I can get that lippy on, I will have it on. Don’t look for a lack of lippy as an indication of my state of health.

Me after my total knee replacement surgery. My nails were painted by Day 2!

Don’t speak to me like I am a child. The doctor is trained in their field, I’m trained in mine, don’t think I’m less intelligent that you are! If the doctor can’t adequately answer my questions, that says more about the doctor than about me. I don’t care how “medically dumb” my question is, I expect a proper explanation because I’m not medically trained – if I was, I may not have asked the question. Gold star to my knee surgeon, by the way. He excelled!

Which brings me to arguing debating. Yes, I will debate issues with my doctors. Once we’ve agreed a strategy, I’m a very compliant patient, because I then have equal ownership of the decisions made. Let’s face it, I’m the foot soldier here. The doctors are the commanders back at headquarters, they aren’t in my home every day ensuring I take my medications, (try to) sleep right, eat right and exercise. They aren’t the ones doing the hard yards managing my health on a day-to-day basis, I am. Flip side note here: I was once a member of a support group and another patient said her rheumatologist was going to be cross with her. Why, she was asked. Because she hadn’t filled the prescription the rheumatologist had given her three months ago. I don’t know how doctors deal with situations like that, I don’t think I’d be good at it! SO I take my hat off to those doctors that manage those situations smoothly.

The ability to admit they don’t know something. I don’t expect any medical professional to know everything (there is SO MUCH to know), but I do expect them to be open enough to say, “I don’t know, I’ll find out” or “I don’t know, ask your [other] specialist”. This is also about being curious. Your doctor needs to be the curious type. Those of us categorised as “complex comorbid” are not text book cases. Symptoms may be caused by any one of a number of conditions. I recently did the specialist merry-go-round to find the cause of an issue. From GP to gastroenterologist to rheumatologist to endocrinologist. Also, research takes about 15 years to become embedded in practice. Curiosity can work in our (the patients’) favour.

Although this is a bit of a long shot (I was lucky), it can definitely help if the doctor or specialist has an interest in the particular condition you have. Or has it themselves, which just about ensures a specific interest. Again, doctors are people too – they aren’t all text book “healthy”. They may have an interest in a specific condition because a family member or friend has that condition or simply because it interests them. We all have specific interest in our lives: yesterday was Melbourne Cup Day – I am not the slightest bit interested, but a girlfriend will have been there in all her finest frockery. I went to the gym and lifted heavy things. Why does one person become a virologist and another a microbiologist? Something about each attracts that specific person. My hope is they will be more up-to-date with treatment developments if they have that specific interest.

I do like to see they look after their own health. They exercise, don’t smoke, wear a mask (re Covid-19) and hopefully get enough sleep. Sleep can be difficult when hospitals ring anaesthetists at 3 am in the morning when a patient’s pain is uncontrolled, I know. I wonder how many calls each night some receive. To my way of thinking, if a doctor doesn’t follow the advice they give to patients, why should the patient follow that advice? Of course, as noted above, some doctors have chronic conditions themselves so they may not look like the embodiment of Superman or Superwoman and that’s fine.

Have I ever had a problem with a doctor? Yes, I have. I once ended up with two Merina IUDs in my body and was not at all well as a result. The story is a bit long for this article, but the experience taught me that patients have every right to question and to go to another practitioner if deemed appropriate. Which is exactly what I did in that case.

There are times when we have no choice. A friend had surgery that was only available from one surgeon in Australia at the time. Whether he liked the surgeon or not was not a consideration – if he wanted the surgery, that’s who my friend had to go to.

Yes, cost is a factor as well. Clearly I am not talking about attending out-patient clinics in public hospitals where there is no choice of practitioner and it is possible the patient sees a different doctor each time they attend an appointment. I am an avid supporter of public health, but there are ways we could try to improve it especially in relation to chronic illness patients. Seeing doctors in private practice means you need to ensure you really understand how the safety net threshold works and that you are registered correctly as a family or couple if applicable.

One’s relationship with one’s doctors in not quite the same as with other service providers. A plumber comes in, fixes the drain and leaves. Job done. One’s relationship with one’s health care providers is more personal than that. The impact on my life could be considerable, so I need to feel I have the right doctors for me.

One problem is this. I’d love to take my GP out for dinner, but my understanding is that is ethically inappropriate, sadly. I also have an awful feeling we’d get into trouble – and I suspect if she reads this I am in trouble. I have sent a previous GP flowers because she had gone above and beyond on a particular occasion and I wanted to show my appreciation. Flowers are OK.

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Doctors and Exercise

I last wrote about incidental exercise, but what about a more structured approach to exercise? Many of us with chronic conditions would benefit from exercise. Most of us also probably have doctors in our lives, either general practitioners or specialists (called consultants in some countries) such as a rheumatologist.

Over the Easter weekend an interesting report appeared in the Medical Journal of Australia, “Exercise: an essential evidence-based medicine”. Naturally, I was excited to see exercise receiving coverage in the medical media!

Regular physical activity is highly beneficial for the primary, secondary and tertiary management of many common chronic conditions. There is considerable evidence for the benefits of physical activity for cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, musculoskeletal conditions, some cancers, mental health and dementia. Yet there remains a large evidence–practice gap between physicians’ knowledge of the contribution of physical inactivity to chronic disease and routine effective assessment and prescription of physical activity.

There was a similar report last year out of the UK, “GPs in England ‘unconfident’ discussing physical activity with patients – report”.

Now a nationwide study has revealed that 80% of GPs in England say they are unfamiliar with the national guidelines, and more than one in seven doctors say they are not confident raising the issue of physical activity with their patients.

“Many people have described [physical activity] as the most cost-effective drug we have, yet we are not implementing it properly,” said Justin Varney, co-author of the research from Public Health England (PHE). “This is as appropriate as having a conversation about smoking,” he added.

The medical advice I was given when I became sick was, literally, “Get some exercise.” Not how, what, when, frequency, intensity – just “Get some exercise”. As we know, I did better than that, I went and got an exercise qualification. After that, I asked my rheumatologist what weight he thought it would be safe for me to lift on the leg press, without negatively impacting my condition. His response? “I have confidence in you, you’ll work it out”. Which, in my case given my qualifications and experience, is fair enough. To a patient that is an exercise novice, I know my doctor would not have said that particular phrase. He and I have known each other quite some time now and have a very good patient/doctor relationship. I wouldn’t be writing this article if he had not set me on the exercise path in the first place. I share these conversations to provide real world examples of the above two articles.

Exercise is not a discipline many doctors are trained in, which is fair enough – they can’t be experts in everything and I need my rheumatologist to be an expert in rheumatology! Apart from anything else, a medical specialist would be a very expensive personal trainer. I really do not want to pay his medical charge rate for exercise advice. Look at it this way: a specialist or general practitioner may also send you to a physiotherapist, but do you expect that doctor to BE a physiotherapist? No, you don’t. So we should not expect our doctors to be able to write us a tailored exercise program either.

A member of a chronic illness support group today shared a similar experience, having essentially been told to “figure it out” by one of her doctors.

I recently wrote an article titled “Preventing Tomorrow’s Pain”. I didn’t really write it – I recorded a video. NOW, some time later, when I look back at that video, I can clearly see the improvement in my demeanour/attitude before I walk (after sitting in a conference all day) and while I am walking. Yes, I was pain free the next day and I swam 1,000 metres.

If your doctors don’t mention exercise, raise the topic with them. Really, your doctors don’t need to be exercise trainers, they just need to reassure you and encourage you that exercise will help you manage your conditions. They need to give you a medical clearance to undertake exercise. People like me can do the rest.

The above two articles, from opposite sides of the world, provide clear evidence that just because your doctor may not have mentioned exercise does not mean exercise should be ignored. Exercise may be the best medicine for you, just not mentioned by your doctor. Another contact told me when she offered to do exercise, her doctor was so surprised and said “You’re prepared to do that?” giving my contact the impression maybe he’d just given up over time trying to get patients to exercise. Doctor was very excited, patient exercises and her body does not “turn to concrete”. On a side note, I love that phrase, as it explains so well how many of us can feel if we don’t MOVE!

I use this graphic often: this is what happens if you don’t move. No, you don’t have to be lifting weights, start with simple stretches. Just MOVE it!

de-conditioning

Patients can be reluctant to try exercise as medicine. After all, instinctively we know pain is a warning signal and we believe rest will make it better even though science shows the opposite is true more often than not. We may fear those first few painful steps. A friend said the other day, “the cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek”. This, I feel, applies to exercise for so many people. We want the treasure: minimal pain, to be free of opioids, regain functional movement and retain quality of life. The cave is exercise and movement.

You may be reading this because you are searching for a solution. You are researching, perhaps. Do not be afraid to enter the cave. Ask your doctors, raise the topic of exercise with them. If they raise it with you, listen to them. Bear in mind the “how to” of exercise is not their specialty.

If you are ready and willing to try movement as medicine, call me or send me an email.

This article constitutes general advice only and may not be suitable in all situations. You should always seek a medical clearance to undertake exercise if you have medical conditions. Always apply the pain management principles of pacing when starting an exercise program.

Robyn Dunphy5 Comments