Free-Reprint Article Written by: Vicki Rackner MD See Terms of Reprint Below.
***************************************************************** * * This email is being delivered directly to members of the group: * * [email protected] * ***************************************************************** We have moved our TERMS OF REPRINT to the end of the article. Be certain to read our TERMS OF REPRINT and honor our TERMS OF REPRINT when you use this article. Thank you. This article has been distributed by: http://Article-Distribution.com Helpful Link: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act - Overview http://www.gseis.ucla.edu/iclp/dmca1.htm --------------------------------------------------------------------- Article Title: ============== Medical Advice: How to Talk with Your Doctor about Embarrassing Medical Problems Article Description: ==================== The realization hit Natalie like a ton of bricks. Her mother, Joann, had literally died of embarrassment! Joann had noticed blood in her stool almost a year before she was diagnosed with colon cancer. At first she told herself it must have been those beets she ate. Then she thought it was most likely her hemorrhoids, although she had not had a flair-up of hemorrhoids since Natalie's birth 52 years earlier. The truth was that Joann was embarrassed to talk with her doctor about private topics such as her bowel habits. Additional Article Information: =============================== 809 Words; formatted to 65 Characters per Line Distribution Date and Time: 2006-08-23 11:36:00 Written By: Vicki Rackner MD Copyright: 2006 Contact Email: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] For more free-reprint articles by Vicki Rackner MD, please visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/d/index.shtml#Vicki_Rackner_MD ============================================= Special Notice For Publishers and Webmasters: ============================================= TEXT Copy-and-Paste and HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of Article Are Available at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/r/talking-about-embarrassing-medical-issues.shtml#get_code If you use this article on your website or in your ezine, We Want To Know About It. Use the following URL to let us know where you have used this article, and we will include a link to your website on thePhantomWriters.com: http://thephantomwriters.com/notify.php?id=3429&p=load --------------------------------------------------------------------- Medical Advice: How to Talk with Your Doctor about Embarrassing Medical Problems Copyright © 2006 Vicki Rackner MD The Personal Health Journal http://www.drvicki.org/drvicki-store-health-journal.html The realization hit Natalie like a ton of bricks. Her mother, Joann, had literally died of embarrassment! Joann had noticed blood in her stool almost a year before she was diagnosed with colon cancer. At first she told herself it must have been those beets she ate. Then she thought it was most likely her hemorrhoids, although she had not had a flair-up of hemorrhoids since Natalie's birth 52 years earlier. The truth was that Joann was embarrassed to talk with her doctor about private topics such as her bowel habits. She didn't raise the concern with her doctor until she had bloating, cramping and abdominal pain. This led to the diagnosis of colon cancer that ultimately took her life. Natalie's brother-in-law, who was a nurse, wondered whether Joann would still be alive if she had told her doctor about the blood in her stool when she first noticed it. Let's face it; certain topics are embarrassing to talk about with your doctor. I call them the 5 P's: 1. Peeing 2. Pooping 3. Paying 4. Procreating 5. Psychic moaning Although at first blush the challenge of talking with your doctor about embarrassing medical topics seems simple enough, for some people, it can cause significant suffering. Hillary, for example, had what's now called a shy bladder. She had not used a public restroom in over 20 years. She was too embarrassed to talk with her doctor about this; instead, she remained a prisoner to her bladder. Ed was laid off from work and could no longer afford his asthma medications. Instead of talking with his doctor about it, he decided to do without He wound up in the emergency room with an asthma attack that could have been avoided with regular medication. Tom had some sexual side effects from his blood pressure medicine. Instead of talking with his doctor and getting a different medicine, he just stopped taking it. The doctors wonder if this might have contributed to his heart attack. Jerry noticed his loss of appetite and sleeping problems as his caregiver responsibilities for his aging father mounted. He wondered if he might be depressed, but dismissed the thought because real men don't get depressed. Imagine how each of these stories might have been different if these individuals who suffered in silence could have talked with their doctors. Here are 6 tips that can help you talk with your doctor about embarrassing medical topics: 1. Own the embarrassment. Say to your doctor, "This is a taboo topic in our family, so it's hard for me to ask. Is it normal to have a funny smell coming from your belly button?" 2. Find the words. Your doctor speaks a specialized language acquired through years of training. Sometimes patients are embarrassed because they don't know the "right words" or have a hard time describing the problem. Remember that your job is to communicate. You don't need to know the fancy words to do that. If a patient said to me, "Dad had an operation on the dingle-ball thing at the back of his throat", I would know just what he meant. And, the patient would seem relieved when I said, "Oh, you mean the uvula." The best way to make sure you and your doctor understand each other is to use anatomically correct words. Get a basic anatomy atlas. Use anatomically correct words with your children. 3. Practice saying the words. Sometimes embarrassing words can be hard to get out of your mouth. Gertrude, a 90-year-old patient said to me, "You youngsters don't understand how much things have changed. When I got breast cancer in the 1962, the words 'breast' and 'cancer' were not uttered in polite company." Some words are still embarrassing to say. Practice saying these words out loud when you're alone! That will make it easier to say them at the doctor's office 4. Find the right person to ask. You may have an easy rapport with the nurse or physician's assistant at your doctor's office. You can bring up the sensitive topic with them. Say, "Trish, could you please give the doctor a heads up. I want to know why I should say no to those steroids my buddies at the gym are offering me. I would love to look like they do." 5. Find the right way to ask. Maybe it's easier for you to drop a note or a cartoon to your doctor rather than ask in person. Find the style that works best for you. 6. Remember that your doctor is there to help you, not to judge you. Your doctor has heard it all before. I promise! Your doctor will not think less of you for asking an embarrassing medical question; in fact, your doctor with think more of you for overcoming your fear and helping you take charge of your health. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Vicki Rackner is a board-certified surgeon who left the operating room to help families take the most direct path from illness to optimal health. Her book, "The Personal Health Journal", can save your life today by helping you understand your health story. Empower yourself with the tips and tools that will help you direct your story and partner with your doctor more effectively at: http://www.drvicki.org/drvicki-store-health-journal.html --- END ARTICLE --- Get TEXT or HTML Copy-and-Paste Versions Of This Article at: http://thePhantomWriters.com/free_content/db/r/talking-about-embarrassing-medical-issues.shtml#get_code ..................................... TERMS OF REPRINT - Publication Rules (Last Updated: May 11, 2006) Our TERMS OF REPRINT are fully enforcable under the terms of: The Digital Millennium Copyright Act http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c105:H.R.2281.ENR: ..................................... *** Digital Reprint Rights *** * If you publish this article in a website/forum/blog, You Must Set All URL's or Mailto Addresses in the body of the article AND in the Author's Resource Box as Hyperlinks (clickable links). * Links must remain in the form that we published them. Clean links should point to the Author's links without redirects having been inserted into the copy. * You are not allowed to Change or Delete any Words or Links in the Article or Resource Box. Paragraph breaks must be retained with articles. You can change where the paragraph breaks fall, but you cannot eliminate all paragraph breaks as some have chosen to do. * Email Distribution of this article Must be done through Opt-in Email Only. No Unsolicited Commercial Email. * You Are Allowed to format the layout of the article for proper display of the article in your website or in your ezine, so long as you can maintain the author's interests within the article. * You may not use sentences from this article as an input for any software that steals sentences from others in order to build an article with software. The copyright on this article applies to the "WHOLE" article. *** Author Notification *** We ask that you notify the author of publication of his or her work. Vicki Rackner MD can be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED] *** Print Publication Reprint Rights *** If you desire to publish this article in a PRINT publication, you must contact the author directly for Print Permission at: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ..................................... If you need help converting this text article for proper hyperlinked placement in your webpage, please use this free tool: http://thephantomwriters.com/link-builder.pl ===================================================================== ABOUT THIS ARTICLE SUBMISSION http://thePhantomWriters.com is a paid article distribution service. thePhantomWriters.com and Article-Distribution.com are owned and operated by Bill Platt of Stillwater, Oklahoma USA. The content of this article is solely the property and opinion of its author, Vicki Rackner MD http://www.drvicki.org/drvicki-store-health-journal.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX --------------------------------------------------------------------- *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* To have your article appear in this distribution list, you must absolutely be a client of thePhantomWriters. We offer a paid article distribution service, and this is one of the more than 60 groups where we submit our client articles. To learn more about our program, visit: http://thePhantomWriters.com/x.pl/tpw/index.htm Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/thePhantomWriters/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
