Monday, March 23, 2009

patient's words or doctor's words?



At least half of the middle aged patients whose teeth I treat, suffer from (apart from my treatment) blood pressure, diabetes, heart conditions and such other general disorders. Since the conditions and the drugs used for relief, have some bearing on my treatment, I make it a point to quiz everyone in detail regarding their general health. In most of the cases what I hear is vague, exaggerated or underplayed. I have patients who have mild acidity, worrying their head off about the cleaning or a minor filling that they have to undergo, and people with 250+ sugar levels and 180/115 blood pressure assuring me that they have only minor problems and goading me to go ahead with complicated extractions.
This patient said that he had some cardiac trouble, an year back and that he is fine presently. He recited the list of drugs which were prescribed, saying , “ I take ********0.5 mgs for giddiness, *********25 mgs for blood pressure, *********5 mgs to prevent clotting of blood, *********10 mgs for acidity, ********* as a tonic etc etc.
As I usually do with such cases, I told him that I do not rely up on what the patients say and asked him to bring the prescription written by the physician. He brought it the same evening. I looked at it and have decided to depend up on what the patients say, in future. You see the prescription here.

3 comments:

A. Knight said...

Please tell me the prescription is written in kannada... else i need to join literacy classes :))

Brinda said...

didnt you ask the patient to read it for you? :):) or you should have asked the patient to bring his doctor who prescribed it ! ninage hengo sigtaare intahavaru, Raghu?

Anil Jagalur said...

I know a doctor who writes not only legibly but so beautifully, that I hate to give the prescription away to the pharmacist, because I am afraid he might like to keep it for himself. When I complimented him he put on a sad face. I was perplexed.

"You know Anil, many people think I am a bad doctor because my handwriting is so good"

Your patient doctor must be a really good one, then!