Tupeak Hope

While I’ve spent the majority of this month writing about things from the viewpoint of both a patient and a care provider I have decided to make this post focus on you as an individual and your responsibilities to yourself both as a patient and your own primary caregiver as they should be considered on in the same for if you don’t take care of yourself, or at least try to, how can anybody else help you?

The topic for today is our eXpectations for both ourselves and others. We must always remember, whether we are healthy or not, to set reasonable expectations for ourselves and those we may interact with during the course of our lives. While it may seem easy, there can be many challenges in the way of doing so. As mentioned in earlier posts, we are often harder on ourselves and expect more of ourselves than even our worst critic could ever express. It is for this reason that we must set reasonable expectations. We must also reevaluate them often to ensure that they are still reasonable given the current circumstances in our lives.

The subject of today’s post is the questions we ask ourselves. I remember many years ago (don’t even ask how long ago!) learning the phrase “who, what, where, when, why,” and sometimes even adding how to the end of that. While that lesson was framed in the aspect of writing as a child in school, it can serve us well in this discussion as well. Regardless of whether one is a patient or a physician or other practitioner we can find ourselves wondering about the answers to these questions when interacting with the other.

The topic for today’s discussion is value. Not the kind of value one may think of in the terms of monetary value, but rather today we will touch on the surface of how we value ourselves as it pertains to both a patient and provider. First, I wish to address how we value ourselves from a patient perspective. It is not uncommon for a patient who has experienced a seemingly devastating illness or injury to feel that they are now less of a person or somehow less valuable than they were prior to the diagnosis.

\Understanding each other is a skill most if not many of us could use to spend a little more time practicing. It is far easier to make snap judgments and not give others the benefit of doubt or the energy required to attempt to put ourselves in the other person’s position, or shoes, as the old cliché goes. This applies to both life and healthcare equally. It also applies equally to both providers as well as patients in the healthcare setting.