373) July Meds and Clinic

July 7, 2009
Wednesday

Transplant Clinic: Liz and I come in for my clinic visit and Dr. Lewis is right on time. My weight and BP are up slightly and for the first time since coming to these clinic meetings, Maxine, the intake nurse gives me a copy of my lab results, saying "...you wanted to see them I thought". These reports are pretty cool I think. They have a full review of everything that they find with columns of the category, result, flag (if needed), and reference. So, for example, the first line under BASIC has:

Sodium 140 ___ 136-145 meg/L (and so on down to...)
Chloride 108 _H_ 98-107 meg/L (etc..)

So, this gives me some things to highlight while we are waiting between the medical folks and I have 7 H's or L's to ask Dr. Lewis about. After my questions and his answers Lewis does a perfunctory exam and continues to indicate I am doing well, from his perspective.

I tell him I've been having some water retention in my feet and I think it might be from the heat these past few weeks... which is unseasonably hot for the past few weeks. Dr. Lewis doesn't think it’s the heat. He asks how much salt I am eating and I reply, "according to the labs I seem okay..." So, he asks me to "watch" my salt intake for a while. I agree.

Now, from my perspective, this is a constructivist way to give a sort of Ericksonian command or "suggestion" in which you suggest a behavior without ordering it. When orders are given, like, "Stop eating salt" or "Don't eat so much salt", some people's defenses or hesitancies have a difficult time following the directive, either consciously or unconsciously.

So, when we say things like "watch", we circumvent most of the person's defenses and they think of it more like a challenge, rather than a command. "Watch for red pickup trucks" helps you to notice them when they appear in your vision, and you do so because there is no pressure to do it: you just remember to do it.

I probably shall remember my self attending to salt and how much of it I am ingesting.

So, the visit is entertaining and I am going to watch my salt intake and notice the foods that I eat with lots of salt in them.

Bernadette comes in and gives me a new med sheet, noting that I am going to go back to taking the Dapsome because they should have had me on it for 6 months instead of 6 weeks. All other meds are remaining the same.

We are all happy and we begin to set some dates for August labs and clinic.