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Tuesday 14 May 2013

Diabetes Blog Day 1 - Share or Not Share


I joined up for Diabetes blog week. Fun stuff. Read about it here.

So for today's topic, we were asked to pretend our medical team were reading our blogs. Imagine that! Getting to know us instead of the numbers.

I guess some people might find it confrontational to share more than their numbers with their healthcare professionals. You go to your endo maybe 4 times a year, talk HbA1c, talk lipid profile, talk BGs.  You see your educator and they teach you how to push the buttons on the latest gadget they can give you and talk even more numbers, insulin dosages, correction factors. So people might not necessarily offer up themselves, as people, owning their diabetes. All they do when they visit their HCPs is present the disease.

How would I feel about my HCPs reading my blog? I'm in a unique situation. I work for my endocrinologist, my main HCP. I was already working for her when I was diagnosed. So before she knew my numbers, she knew me. We're both massive movie buffs and happily advise each other on what we've seen cinema wise. We take lunch at the same time and talk about holidays, our partners, our mothers-in-laws (or for me, my future mother-in-law). I have no issues with her seeing anything. We have a policy where I just leave my log book on my desk, on the current week. She can see it anytime. She knows if I don't leave it out, I'm having problems, but she lets me get on with it quietly. She knows I like to figure out and play around with things myself first. She also knows I will ask if I need help. Like I will just blurt out any random thought I have, in front of anyone. I'm sure she hates it. So for me, I don't think I would have any problems sharing my blog with her. I don't even think I mention her, unless I say how awesome she is. I love her as a person before I love her as my endo.

My DE is a little different. I didn't know her before I saw her. I knew of her, because she is who we refer to. But I had only ever emailed information regarding mutual patients. On my 1st visit she treated me in that same clinical way that my GP used to treat me (please note the used to. Last time I was seeing the practice nurse for an updates care plan, he saw my name on the practice software and pulled me in for an impromptu consult JUST to wish me a happy easter). Halfway through my consult with my DE she asked where I worked. Endo revealed. The consult changed. It became so much more about what was best for me as a person, and not me as a patient. Because we clicked over something,  I felt I could be more open with her.

I think thats important. Be open with your healthcare professionals. Blogs are open, a public forum. You can pour your soul into a blog, and you can get to know someone 76965km away through their blogs. So why would I not award that same courtesy, of seeing who I am as a person, and not just as a disease, to my healthcare professionals? How can they possibly do their very best by you, if you don't want to let them know whats important in your life for your health management?

I love my HCPs, all 3 of them, and would never say anything bad about them. If I have an issue with a decision they have made for me, I will tell them straight up, so it never even makes it to my blog. So me? I'm happy to be an open book. I think if you want the best from your healthcare professionals, you have to let them into your life. If you lie and hide your true feelings about your health, they can only help you based off that misinformation, and that's not going to help you. Respect that they have spent years studying how to help you, don't waste that.

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