Modern, Local, Organic, Pictures, Pets – My adventure in life as a "modern" Bellingham Hippie.

In my last post I introduced some important first steps toward improving your health (especially if you have a health concern). One of the most important things is to educate yourself about food, what’s in food, what’s in the stuff that’s in the food, what it means and where it comes from.

This post I want to focus your energy back on your health care providers. Often when you have a health problem doctors can seem like the last people you want to talk to. Do they really listen? Do they care? I’m not getting better, are they taking me serious? Or worse, I’m getting worse and they tell me, “It’s a progressive disease” and tilt their head in just that way. You don’t have to just deal with it and them.

Of course there are people whom actually do get worse and nothing seems to work. However, that is no excuse to give up! Sometimes what is making you sick is the simplest thing that you didn’t really investigate enough – like gluten, or just wheat, or dairy. Or your body is so run down that simply cutting something out won’t result in a noticeable change. Keep dragging your ass off the floor when you fall. Perhaps this sounds crazy or like someone whom hasn’t had to deal with anything difficult ever. That’s simply not true. I refuse to give up, I pull myself off my ass after a good cry and a few days or weeks wallowing and get going again.

Anyway, back to your health care team. That’s what it needs to be – a team that works together.
Depending on what your health issue is you might already have health care providers to turn into a team. What you need are people whom want to see you get better, or at least providers that want to help you reach some goals you set.
Usually, you’ll have a general practitioner. They are the center of the wheel. You see them first when symptoms start disrupting your life. They then do what they can within their scope of practice, then they will refer you out. In Washington state a primary health care provider could be a medical doctor, a nurse practitioner, a naturopathic physician, even a chiropractor. They all do different things and can’t do everything. He or she is your base. When Rick was really sick two years ago (I can’t believe it’s been so long!) he saw a nurse practitioner as his primary. We are both very fond of nurse practitioners, they are nurses first, which means for the most part they are great listeners and most likely love their jobs. That is exactly what you need!

From there you often have a specialist. Rick had two, a dermatologist and a gastroenterologist. Your primary should communicate with them so that they all have a clear picture as to your health care. Of course you need to make sure that these other specialists will listen to you and not just try to rush through your appointments. Make sure that they know about each other and about the medications that you are taking for any and all conditions that you have.

It can take some time to build a good health care team, but it’s worth it. With a cooperative team you are more likely to make some sort of progression instead of getting stuck in a sort of miserable stagnation. Put in the effort to create your team, bring in others outside the “norm” as you need to for a different point of view, such as nutritionists/nutritional counselors, acupuncturists, or perhaps massage therapists. We all know something different and love to share our ideas!

Stay tuned for the second part of this post – Your health care team 2!