Stonefly Communications Group: Believeinhealth℠

My story concerns the importance of empowering people to take more control of their health.

It's less a story about me than it is about my parents and grandparents and about my observations of those two generations (now deceased) as they grew older and their health problems increased.

In the eyes of both generations, the doctor was "King"---the ultimate medical authority who was always right and whose judgment could never be questioned. Whatever medical wisdom that the doctor handed down was pretty much similar to the Ten Commandments---carved in stone and not to be ignored or even questioned.

This attitude of unquestioning acceptance led to substandard treatment of these family members in many cases and to actually creating additional problems at other times. My parents especially were not well versed in making the connections between the drugs or treatments they were taking and the side effects that were sometimes the result.

If my parents had been more open to questioning what was happening to their bodies and why, they might have made some changes that would have produced fewer medical problems and a better quality of life.

But changing doctors was out of the question. Choosing a doctor was like choosing a marriage partner---once the decision was made, you were in it for life. And, unfortunately, the choice of doctor wasn't very well thought out. It was usually the result of informal talks with friends or other family members who may not have even been treated by the doctor in question but who knew someone who had and…etc.

And certainly my parents and grandparents were also handicapped by their generational timing---they had no access to the multitude of sources of medical information that exists today. That being said, there are no doubt millions of people in the US today who are just as handicapped with regard to access to medical information and treatment. The cause isn't the time they live in but rather their background and/or living conditions---living in poverty, having no access to the Internet, having limited (if any) access to necessary transportation, having no medical insurance, dealing with language barriers, etc.

So if I had a wish for all of us today, it would be that we were informed and empowered consumers of healthcare. This may fly in the face of what seems to be a monolithic, uncaring, and sometimes incomprehensible healthcare system in this country, but it's where we need to point our efforts. And the positive changes won't come overnight. Rather they will be the result of sustained efforts by countless committed people---in places large and small---who are doing whatever they can to live and share their belief in health.