My mother almost died several years earlier than she did. She was caught in what I call the specialist swamp. Over time she collected layer after layer of medical specialist to her care. Like so many retired people, about all she did was go to doctor's appointments. Retired people tell me they are busier than they ever were and some say they have no idea how they ever found time to work. When I question these people it becomes clear they are busy going from one doctor to the other. Hearing those kinds of reports has kept me working even though I am well past the age when most retire. 

This became a dangerous swamp for my mother. Each doctor prescribed a different set of medications. Each one had a different diagnosis to offer. Far too many of them told her she was allergic to something either in the air or in the food she ate. By the time I realized what was happening, her weight was dangerously low, and she was very dehydrated. At my insistence my father took her to one of the more famous clinics for a complete evaluation. I will always believe that saved her life. They organized the medicine she needed and took away the ones she did not need. They convinced her she could eat again and in the process added several years to her life.

Even though I experienced that with my mother, a few years ago my wife spent a week in the hospital trying to get past the same kind of problem. She had had arthritis for many years and, as would be expected, the treatment for that disease over a long period of time can cause many other problems within the human body. It happened so gradually we did not notice, but we gradually added doctor to doctor to doctor and there was no one place where all of her records were kept or reviewed. Somehow the combination of drugs almost destroyed her blood's white count and she could no longer fight off any bacteria that came along.

I watched the parade of doctors through her room for a week as they searched for the cause and fought to get her count stabilized. I was amazed to discover how little they knew about the side effects of the drugs given by some other physician. I was appalled to discover that some did not even know the side effects of the drugs they prescribed. We live with the assumption that when we fill out the forms in a doctor's office and carefully record what drugs we currently take that the doctor actually pays attention to that list and knows what each drug does or what things each drug might do. I am convinced that is a fantasy. The specialist sees a chart on the way into the examining room and it is filed until the next visit. They aren't sitting up nights examining the side effects of drugs they don't prescribe and may not be doing that with the ones they do prescribe. No one is comparing how these drugs react to each other and how that changes the side effects of the drugs.

What then should we do? I have taken some definite steps to be sure this does not happen to me now.

First: I asked my primary care physician to be in charge of all aspects of my care. I will go to no specialist unless he is in agreement and fully knowledgeable of the reason I am going and the treatment prescribed. He will have a copy of all test results and be totally informed of any change in medication. All of my information is in one place and under one physician’s care.

Second: I am accepting responsibility for my own health and care. I will read the side effects of each medication for myself and if there is a question I will ask for an answer. I will no longer live in the fantasy world of someone else doing that for me.

Third: I will no longer be the meek and mild patient that just accepts whatever the doctor says and agrees to any treatments offered. I shall learn to ask WHY at every turn and continue to ask until I am satisfied and then make the decisions for myself. 

In medical care being passive can be a sure ticket to the specialist swamp.