Weird experience

[Crankin]

OK, maybe I am just being silly, but this made me lose faith in the physical and mental ability of humans around here.
I went to get a hip x ray, so I can get PT. First, I go into the changing room, where I had to put on the blue scrubs, because my pants had a zipper. Now, I know they make one size fit all, but I could not believe the size of these things. I had to wrap the tie one and a half times around my body to get them to stay up. No joke, both DH and I could have fit in there, and maybe one of my grown sons. Then, I noticed about half the chairs were supersized; i.e., they were really the size of a love seat, but I know they were for one person.
OK, on to the actual x ray. I was greeted by, "Wow, why are you here?" by the tech, after he verified my identity... He asked if I had had a trauma to my hip. I said no, that I was a cyclist and x country skier and that it has been bothering me more and more during activity for about a year. So, then when he asked me to put my toes together for the x ray (like a snowplow in skiing) he was amazed that 1) I understood the directions and 2) that I could do it. He was even surprised I could verify which hip hurt me, saying that most people can't.
I don't want to sound "virtuous" compared to others, but the two things together (the abundance of huge people and the lack of people's ability to understand directions), were quite distressing to me. I live in a community where 70-80 percent of the people have college and/or graduate degrees and there seem to be an awful lot of active people around here. Maybe they go into Boston for a routine x-ray, so the local hospital never sees them?
It was just depressing.

[Chicken Little]

People in pain take drugs. People want to know what the pain is from, so they get XRAYS. Drugs prevent them from following directions and acting like they know what is going on. One size fits all for the clothes, even if you are pregnant. Outpatient XRAY is a study in sociology, as you have now experienced.

[malkin]

Often, people simply don't listen.

And people don't believe that general directions apply to them personally. Things like NO PARKING and "Please return your seat backs and tray tables to their upright position" are more honored in the breach than the observance.

[jessmarimba]

The hospital I stayed in was just rebuilt, since they needed larger beds and larger beds wouldn't fit through the doorways of the old building.

And I kind of enjoyed that the gowns were so large. I couldn't tie them behind me by myself so I wrapped them all the way around - more coverage :)

The weirdest experience for me was that my wing had an alarm system on the door so that patients with electronic anklets couldn't get out. I guess they sometimes get dementia patients in for long-term therapy but it sort of felt like I was imprisoned.

[Crankin]

Oh, well, I know that people don't listen. In my meager 2 years as a counseling intern with adults, I've seen it all. And I thought I had seen it all working with adolescents!
It was just a silly vent. Maybe they are used to people on pain drugs.

[Kathi]

I once had a PT tell me he liked massaging my back and hip because he could feel my bones, whereas, most people you can't get "through the fat".

I have the same experience with dressing gowns. I just had my mammogram and besides the gown wrapping around me 3 times, I had to roll the sleeves up just so I could use my hands to turn the magazine pages while I sat in the waiting room.

[OakLeaf]

Spend a couple of hours in the ER and you'll overhear a lot of what they have to deal with ... I wonder the opposite, if people who seem articulate and reasonably sane get the attention and explanation we need when we're really too dazed to make any decisions at all. And of course the X-ray techs have to deal with probably a disproportionate number of people sent over from the ER.

I can't believe they let me out of there without a neck X-ray. It's dawned on me gradually how very, very close I came to breaking my neck. I declined a CT of the head because the tech said it was for my jaw and orbit, which quite obviously were not broken. Whether or not I might have had an undisplaced fracture of C1 or C2, OTOH, was not at all obvious. :eek:

[tulip]

I would think that people who are getting X-rays are scared, in pain, and perhaps dazed because of some injury. I would not assume that they are all stupid, uneducated, imbeciles.

But hey, that's just my experience. The first time, I was a child with a potentially life-threatening disease. I was uneducated, having only completed the first grade. The second time, I was a teenager (okay, so yeah, imbecile counts there) with a broken ankle. The third time I was an adult with a broken toe that hurt so much and I was a bit embarrassed about how I broke it (fell into a pool at a funeral--long story). The fourth time was actually my husband who had cut his hand and had lost so much blood and passed out in the waiting room and nearly died and I pitched a fit and barged into any room that had a whitecoat in it. The fifth time I arrived by helicopter and was not conscious. The sixth time I was nearly passed out with pain from slamming my hand in a car door and I fainted and heaved.

None of the times were just out of curiosity about why something hurt. I think that's a luxury because most people go to get X-rayed because they have to.

[limewave]

The last time I had an x-ray, I was told for the first time--10 minutes earlier--that I probably had ovarian cancer. I needed surgery to hopefully remove the tumors and a full hysterectomy--in 4 days!!! I would need to take at least 6 months or more off of work. I wouldn't be able to drive or walk up stairs during that time. And DH had just proposed like a day earlier. Not only was I facing my own mortality, I was worried about how this was going to affect DH. Would he still want to marry me when I was going to have this mess going on and I wouldn't ever be able to have kids?

I'll stop rambling now, it just brought up a lot of memories I hadn't thought about in a while.

All that to say that I was a blubbery mess. I think I needed the xray technician help me change and get me on the x-ray table.

[Biciclista]

I don't recollect any time having been on the xray table where I impressed anyone by knowing what body part I had that needed xrayed. Perhaps the xray tech was just so impressed with you that they let it flow through the entire interaction?

ps I had a dental technician tell me she loved working on my teeth because my CHEEKS were so thin they didn't get in the way!

[lph]

Oh lord. Not to belabour the point, but it reminded me - the only time I've gotten an x-ray anywhere except at the dentists was when my elbow was dislocated. I was a moaning, selfcentered hyperventilating mess, and could barely tell where I was, let alone make sense of what anybody was saying to me. I guess I have a pretty pathetic pain threshold.

(but when they pulled it back - boom, all better. Amazing, just amazing.)

[jessmarimba]

Ooh I did just remember (along the lines of being uncooperative with medical technicians) - when I was rolled in for my CT scan after my wreck, the lady asked me to move from my bed to the table without help. I looked at her like she was crazy (I had just come in duct-taped to a board with a back injury!) and she just glared right back. So I did it anyway. I think she was in too much of a hurry to get a second person to help transfer me.

[GLC1968]

I've had too many xrays to count (and yet I've never actually broken a bone!) but I do remember one situation in particular.

I had been in a car accident (a woman ran a stop sign and plowed right into me as I was moving at bout 35 mph). As a result, I was strapped to a back board with a neck brace and all the other precautions. I'd been waiting a long time because there was some other bad accident that night and the e-room was slammed. They rolled me into the x-ray room and I sat there for awhile, strapped to the gurney, alone. Eventually a couple of techs came in and I was begging them to let me up to pee. I had to go when I'd left the office 4 hours earlier but didn't want to have to go back in to the building and ride the elevator back up to my floor, so I figured I'd hold it. HUGE mistake.

Anyway, I was begging to go pee and when they clearly wouldn't comply, I started begging for a bed pan. I swear that they all thought I was insane but I was in so much pain (and not from the accident)!

I still ended up having to wait over an hour for a doctor to release me even after they were done. When I finally did get to pee, it was such a relief that I started crying while on the toilet. :eek:

[GLC1968]

Crankin - to your original point though, there is something to it. I saw my OB-Gyn a few months back and when he asked how I was doing and I said 'great' he looked at me kind of funny. I'd just lost 25 lbs, I was fit, I had no problems, I was on no birth control at all and I'd just had a clear mamogram. When he didn't respond right away, I asked "are you wondering why I'm even here?" and he kind of laughed and then said well no, it's just that hearing that everything is fine is so rare that it caught him off guard!

While the general public is getting unhealthier, I'm sure it's even more pronounced for the medical field where most people only go in when there is already something wrong, you know?

[Tri Girl]

when I had my ultrasound (they were seeing if I had appendicitis) I was so drugged up and out of it, I'm sure I acted like a loon. They wheeled me up and asked if I was allergic to iodine. Not being in my right frame of mind, I got mixed up and said "yes" (even tho it's not iodine I'm allergic to, it's chlorhexidine- which since I said I was allergic to iodine they used chlorhexidine during surgery and I had a HORRIBLE allergic reaction to it ALL over my torso). :rolleyes:
I should never answer important questions while under the influence of heavy narcotics, that's for sure.

Anyway- I, too, was a nutcase. I can only imagine the people they have to work with. Poor saps. ;)


But yes, that's a very weird experience.

[Crankin]

I guess it was weird because it was obvious I was not in writhing pain, just a normal chronic sports injury. I understand the techs see people in all kinds of horrible conditions, and I wouldn't want that job. I do not assume everyone who goes to the hospital is an uneducated, unhealthy slob; but my DH got the same attitude when he kept going to the doctor for chest pain... until finally he had to practically grab the doctor's coat and insist on an angioplasty, after a particularly horrible incident on a ride. Yes, people who are in great shape *do* have medical stuff.
I think I'm getting overly sensitive in my old age; I don't like it when I get "compliments" regarding the shape I am in (most of the time said in a tone, like "good job, how do you do it, because I can't") or, more recently, I'm spoken to like I am an idiot, which tends to occur when a medical person sees my actual birthday and they know how old I am. But that's another issue.
It's not that I don't like compliments, but it feels sort of back handed to me.

[KnottedYet]

The problem is that 2/3 of Americans are fat and in poor health. The worst in the world.

Those of us in healthcare get used to working with that population, and forget how to work with the other 1/3, who come to visit us MUCH LESS OFTEN.

It's an exposure problem. That which you are exposed to the most becomes the default.

[marni]

[ I think I'm getting overly sensitive in my old age; I don't like it when I get "compliments" regarding the shape I am in (most of the time said in a tone, like "good job, how do you do it, because I can't") or, more recently, I'm spoken to like I am an idiot, which tends to occur when a medical person sees my actual birthday and they know how old I am.)

What particularly irks me is being called "young lady" and " sweetie " by all those who cannot be bothered to remember or use my first name. This seems to happen particularly when I am getting mammograms, and as for the week I spent in the hospital getting x rayed 2x a day for a lung collapsed by a bike accident. Why at 6 am and 11 pm at night? They'd finish and then I would sit around in a wheel chair in an empty corridor for an hour or so before they remembered where they had left me. And all the time with the sympathetic pats and the "sweeties, honeys and young ladies."

My mother used to give verbal SWAC (Swat you with a cane) awards to people who treated her patronizingly or like she was an idiot.

[PamNY]

I think I'm getting overly sensitive in my old age; I don't like it when I get "compliments" regarding the shape I am in (most of the time said in a tone, like "good job, how do you do it, because I can't") or, more recently, I'm spoken to like I am an idiot, which tends to occur when a medical person sees my actual birthday and they know how old I am. But that's another issue.
It's not that I don't like compliments, but it feels sort of back handed to me.

For years, I had every intention of becoming livid the first time someone referred to me as "spry." I don't think people use that word much anymore, but there will be an equivalent.

More and more comments seem patronizing as I become older. Alas, I probably sounded that way myself when I was younger. One of my dearest friends was my parents' age and I cringe to think what I may have said to her through the years. But you know, she was the only grey-haired person at the rock concert. She was more adventurous and fun than a lot of my same-age friends. And I may have pointed this out in ways that sounded patronizing.

My hope is that she understood, and I hope I can be understanding too.

[roadie gal]

In my town, which has a very high percentage of very healthy, fit people, the paramedics had to buy all new guerneys that would hold people up to 500 pounds. The old ones were rated to 350 lbs.

The table for the CT scan had to be upgraded to a 500 lb load as well.

In the ER we were going to get the 500 lb guerneys, but they didn't fit through the doorways (as someone has already mentioned). They had to replace the chairs in the waiting room to make them all bigger. And all of our wheelchairs are supersized as well.

It's rediculous.

[Becky]

I just want to know where I can buy my own hospital gown that fits me. I would bring my own to my doc appointments and physicals if it meant not drowning in something "one size fits all".

[Crankin]

Thank you, Roadie Gal and Knott. I know that you are both in the medical field. It's true, we are not used to seeing people who are at least healthy "looking," but I would hope to be treated as an intelligent person who is invested in my health, unless I show them otherwise!
I keep thinking that if I talked to my clients the way I have been talked to, I wouldn't last very long. Sure, a lot of them don't comply with the things we discuss in session all of the time, but, that is why they are seeing me.
And don't get me started on the new pcp I saw last week. I decided to give her a chance, after seeing her for a sinus infection. She just had no clue as to how to talk to an older person who leads an active lifestyle, so I will be looking for someone else.

[Jolt]

Thank you, Roadie Gal and Knott. I know that you are both in the medical field. It's true, we are not used to seeing people who are at least healthy "looking," but I would hope to be treated as an intelligent person who is invested in my health, unless I show them otherwise!


That's just it...isn't it better to talk to one's patients assuming they are intelligent and can understand their condition/treatment/tests/etc., rather than assuming right off that such isn't the case? Treating someone like an idiot is not a good way to start the interaction and will only make that patient not want to take your advice!

[KnottedYet]

I don't think any of us are deliberately treating our patients like "idiots."

We do not assume all patients are unintelligent.

I think this is a conversation you need to be having with the person you feel insulted you.

[Crankin]

Knott, I did try to have the conversation with my new pcp, in the context of my physical. I told her that I want her to be a partner with me in my health care and I explained everything I do in terms of my lifestyle, so she would understand that I am not a sedentary 57 year old. After she told me she should use my cholesterol ratio as a case study and asked me what my secret was (ah, riding my bike 3,227 miles last year and eating well), she went and continued to speak to me as if I was 10 years old. Then she went and forgot to give me some paperwork I needed and faxed my prescription to the wrong pharmacy, after I showed her on her computer where to send it to. I feel like I am dealing with a bunch of ADD people, I have to keep on track, because every doctor in this practice does this.
Jolt, you hit the nail on the head. My clients are struggling with all kinds of issues, poverty being one in many of the cases, in addition to mental illness. I don't dumb down anything and I have been pleasantly surprised at their openness and facility to articulate the issues. If someone doesn't seem to understand something, I explain it, but not like I'm explaining it to a 3 year old.

[Miranda]

Yep, I'm in the worked in healthcare crew as well. Agree with what's been said. Some peeps just don't need to be in the biz anymore lol. Sorry things haven't been going so well. I know switching docs is a PITA, but do you have another option? Insurance constraints can just sux I understand first hand. Hmm, maybe next time you say, "I'm here to see Santa because I want a new bici for xmas... but you look like the Easter Bunny... am I in the wrong place then?". Stupid is as stupid does, Forrest dhrrr. (((hugs))) Hope you get your doc worked out at least.

[JennK13]

I know what you're talking about, Crankin. Everytime I go for PT, my therapist is amazed that 1) I can explain where my pain is coming from and what makes it feel better or worse; 2) that I understand the exercises he gives me, and 3) that I'm actually able to do the exercises - apparently the general public doesn't have the flexibility or core strength that I have (and I'm not even in the middle of training yet!)

My chiropractor is amazed at my body awareness, as is my PCP. None of these three talk to me like I'm a moron - it's more like a relief to them. Not to say I haven't had a bad doctor; I've ended up in the ER because of a doctor who dismissed patients (she told me I was crazy and to stop doing research online - only to find after switching doctors that I DO have an autoimmune disease like I feared!)

I think it has to do with the obesity epidemic in our country, and a lack of people who are proactive in their personal health and well being. It's one thing if you're in a busy ER or urgent care; but when you're in a clinic for a PT exam, I wouldn't expect to be treated like I'm in pain or drugged to a point where I'm not coherent.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

That's interesting. Every year i go for my gynocology checkup and Pap test and sit in the waiting room there at the women's clinic in the hospital.
This year I noticed they had new chairs in the waiting room...and fully half of the new chairs were 'semi-loveseats'. But the 'loveseats' were just a little too small to fit two people comfortably. i had never seen chairs sized like that before, and it took me a second to realize the reason for them.

[Crankin]

Miranda, I almost spit out my oatmeal reading your post.
I can change my pcp any time I want... I have great insurance. My closest friend works in development at the hospital and told me about a new woman who is establishing a practice in the next town. I was going to call her to set up a physical when i got sick and went to my practice, where the original doctor's wife had joined recently. I saw her and she kind of guilted me into making an appt. for a physical before I knew it. I decided to give them one more chance and they "failed" their exam. She even tried to get me to have my pap, etc. done there, which I am not opposed to, but I so enjoy seeing my gyn, because she is a tri-athlete, who lost 150 lbs. and we used to see each other, for years at the health club, at 5:30 AM. She understands my lifestyle (and why I come in every spring with some type of "issue" from lots of riding).

[yellow]

If y'all haven't read it, pick up "How Doctors Think" by Jerome Groopman.

Over the last 3 years I have really changed how I think about medical care. I think I've had good, thoughtful care. But the obvious human limitations have been, at times, staggering. As a friend of mine who is an ER doc put it, there's more "art" to it than we think (and some docs are better at the art part than others) and often our expectations as patients are not in line with reality (whether that reality is uncertainty on the doc's part, an insurance limitation, or a false belief we might hold). I know I certainly had this problem; in fact I still struggle with understanding just exactly what appropriate expectations should be. The more I think about it, the more confused I get.

Anyway, the book is a good read :)

[roadie gal]

Thank you, Roadie Gal and Knott. I know that you are both in the medical field. It's true, we are not used to seeing people who are at least healthy "looking," but I would hope to be treated as an intelligent person who is invested in my health, unless I show them otherwise!
I keep thinking that if I talked to my clients the way I have been talked to, I wouldn't last very long. Sure, a lot of them don't comply with the things we discuss in session all of the time, but, that is why they are seeing me.
And don't get me started on the new pcp I saw last week. I decided to give her a chance, after seeing her for a sinus infection. She just had no clue as to how to talk to an older person who leads an active lifestyle, so I will be looking for someone else.

I absolutely cringe when someone refers to an older person as "X years young" or "Young lady". (It's almost always a female patient, not male that's being refered to.) I think it's demeaning to the patient.

I always speak to my patients as intelligent people who want the best for their health. Even with my ER time constraints I try to explain what is going on, what we're going to do to evaluate it, and what the plan of treatment is. I think people rise or descend to the level that we expect of them.

I must admit that I will occasionally insult the intelligence of some drunk fool, but that's another thing entirely.