Be your own Medical Historian.

Be your own Medical Historian.
      As I get older and my medical history gets longer I am pleased that I designed a way to avoid repeating my entire medical history every time I have to visit a doctor or dentist, or for that matter any other type of health care professional.   For years now I have kept an up  to date medical history on my desk top computer and available on any other electronic device I chose.  So when I shuffle up to the desk at reception and they thrust a pencil and clipboard at me to summarize my past medical history and medications in addition to the days complaints, I pull out the copies I have in triplicate in my pocket, clip it onto the clipboard and hand it to the receptionist, thereby saving the time and effort it would take to write them out and then line up at the reception desk again. I then settle in to the waiting room with my phone, pad  or notebook and look around for material for the next day's blog.
      Being a patient of a university teaching unit I usually agree to seeing a resident and/or my own physician.  Here I tear off the second copy to avoid going over the lengthy history and hand it over to the appreciative resident after a polite but short chat, confident that I still have a third copy, just in case.   An astute friend of mine remarked that if everyone did that how would doctors in training ever learn the art (and it is an art) of skilful history taking.  I had to point out that for many that skill has been thwarted by the focus that is  so frequently directed to communicating with the computer rather than with the patient, but that's another topic.
   I have been reflecting on how much easier physician encounters would be for most folks, if they had an accurate portable summary of their medical history that they could keep updated and stored to be printed out as required.  Since continuity of care is often lacking and many see a physician on an episodic basis, that physician is not familiar with their history.  Many patients, particularly those with complicated histories and several medications are not very precise in communicating their medical history and medications.  Indeed, after a lifetime in medical practice, I sometimes have difficulty in recalling details of my own medical history when confronted by a very busy (and businesslike) young man or woman, old enough to be my grandchild (? greatgrandchild).   
   As the population ages and a larger and larger proportion of the population is over the half century mark I think we have to take our health care into our own hands, unless we want to be quietly euthanized, obviously a satisfactory solution for that portion of the population who think it a burdon to keep us alive.
   So, I may decide to direct my efforts towards helping you to take care of your present and future health care needs, or I may just wind up this blog and start a new one on how to find first class food and world class theatre in or near London, Ontario.  It might be more fun!