Turning 50: Doctors, Doctors, Doctors

I am racking them up. Growing up with parent with chronic medical problems, a lot of lessons were learned on my part. I have two siblings and I can only speak for myself when I talk about the lessons that I learned. Trusting in your physicians is the core to dealing with health problems. In my adolescence I watched as my parents struggled with trusting physicians. Medical science is evolving and not perfect. The same can be said about medical care. Today physicians are truly dealing with an uphill battle with internets quick and easy information sources. I take complete responsibility for my own proclivities to jump on sites like WebMD or MayoClinic.org!

Watching my grandparents and parents struggles with medicine was my personal foray into awareness and proactive. I will admit, I am not healthiest person in the world but I am trying. The one thing I learned in all those years, don’t be afraid of your doctor. If you are not going to live a extremely healthy life, exercise every day, eat a healthy diet, then your physician is your new go to when you hit 50 years. Genetics is the second battle we are fighting. Sadly, genetics works against us, and we have fight back by being aware and working with a doctor.

In college I learned the importance of having a physician one phone call away. In my freshman & sophomore year I was hit with Mano. Yes, you can get mononucleosis twice! I ended up in urgent care because my schools clinic was too busy with many, many other patients who had the same ailment. On my second visit in my sophomore year to urgent care, I ended up with the same doctor from the year before. The physician told me, it’s time to start finding a general practitioner to help with your care moving forward. Finding that doctor was easy, and my health improved greatly after that point. When I moved to San Francisco after college, I found a new GP pretty quickly after moving into my apartment. Having a health advocate or physician, helps you in the long run. I’ve even shared on here before, my go to advice to parents shipping their kids off to college. After you move them into the dorm. Find them a GP to go to locally. School clinics can be overwhelmed in times of pandemics.

Another lesson I've learned in these first 50 years, one doctors doesn’t fit them all. Doctors are not perfect, and they age just like we do. I’ve had four general practitioners in the last 31 years. The first two changes because of moving. The third doctor, was actually 2 doctors in one. I found third one through friend referral, that doctor would announce a new partner the next year, and the subsequent year had me seeing the new partner because the original physician announced his retirement. The writing was on the wall, because the my new physician was already in his late 70’s. He had only gone into private practice, because financial reasons, because his wife was suffering alzheimers. Previously he was an virology researcher at UCSF and one of the teams Robert Gallo worked with during the 80s research of HTLV-III (HIV & AIDS).

That physician was seeing me during the years my father was struggling with health problems that were the result from contracting MSSA during a surgery. This physician advocated for me to do yearly physicals. Those  physicals have opened me up to the importance of managing my health better. They also give me more guidance with seeking specialized care for certain conditions. Some friends ask how I find my physicians and my go to answer. FRIENDS! Especially friends who work in the health field. These friends truly care for you and will want the best for you, and they know more than most. Don’t be afraid to ask help or suggestions when you need to find good care.

Doctors can be scary for some, but they can help more than you know. Another lesson, it is important to always listen and learn. Read up about what you and your doctor talked about. Don’t be afraid to ask for reading materials. More important share things you are truly concerned about and before you jump on the latest fads out there to improve your health. We are prone to play doctor, I think it’s just human nature to question and explore outside of the box. Sometimes it works in your favor and sometimes it does harm you. I myself have dabbled and paid the price once or twice.

Doctors come in droves when you get old. Most doctors want to champion your health in a positive direction. But we know our bodies and we can tell when the direction we are headed are not in the right direction. That’s where my final lesson came from my childhood. Watching my father return to doctors who were not helping keep him out of the hospital, but instead put him back there. Sometimes one doctor is not the right doctor, and it’s time to find a new one. Don’t pledge an allegiance to one doctor. Keep aware and consider at 50, to get yearly physicals. It’s better to have answers that sit there and create more questions.