Nothing better communicates our services than sharing real life stories of working with our clients.
I have a client who spent COVID isolated from his medical team.
His primary care provider, cardiologist, pulmonologist, nephrologist, and GI specialist had not seen him for two years. When they called us, it was after much hesitation of what to do and how to move forward.
When I asked him what medications he was taking, he showed me a bag of free floating pills all mixed into a plastic baggie.
After calling each physician, it was clear that no one was communicating with each other and everyone had a different medications list. No one knew the whole picture.
No one could see how poor his diet was, or that he wasn’t using his cpap. On paper, he had all the right medications, and all the right treatments. But in reality, he had no idea what he was doing, and was embarrassed to ask for help.
He was scared to admit how desperate his situation was, scared to be taken out of his home, and scared to be away from his life as he knew it.
During the last two months of his life, I was begging someone to help us with a medical procedure that would drain fluid behind his liver and make it easier for him to breathe. Three days before he died, they drained seven and a half liters of fluid off of his liver in the ICU. With no other medical options at this time, he decided to focus on comfort instead of aggressive treatment.
Five days after his death was when he was scheduled for the procedure at the outpatient clinic.
I lament over the timing – the system that moved too slow, the lost years to COVID, and hindsight that haunts me as I experience healthcare through the point of view of a person lost in multiple blind spots of the over-fragmented healthcare system.
While it haunts me, it will always refocus me to my why.
– Why it’s important to care for people and not patients.
– Why being proactive is always better than dealing with the large catastrophic event.
The sooner you address these things with humanity and continuity of care, the more time and quality of life we get.
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If you have an aging loved one who isn’t getting the proper support they need, we can help in a free Clarity Call.
