At the Doctor’s Office

*This article was originally published on 9/3/2017 and was updated on 1/29/2022 When I became a caregiver to my dad, I quickly realized that I was not going to be able to keep all of his medical information in my head. After years of packing my brain with medical facts, I began to feel I

*Note: To watch Episode #10 of  “Navigator Nuggets”, my weekly Facebook Live show (Mondays 8pm ET) where we had an informative discussion on this topic, click here.       In December 2017, a 75-year-old woman in stable condition recovering from a brain bleed at Vanderbilt University Medical Center died after a nurse committed a

My husband may not be happy that I’m sharing this but getting him to go to the doctor is like dragging a toddler out of Disney World at the end of a long day. He doesn’t kick and scream, (ok, he doesn’t cry either) but he puts up fierce resistance. He comes up with a

Part 3 of a 3-Part Series in recognition of Health Literacy Month   I’m the parent of a strong-willed, teenaged daughter. Since she was a very young child, she’s always wanted to know the “why” behind just about everything, including the many directives issued by me and her dad. While this can sometimes be exasperating,

Part 2 of a 3-Part Series in recognition of Health Literacy Month Imagine being placed behind the wheel of a brand new car. Sounds really nice, right? Now imagine you are only 13 years old, you haven’t taken a single driver’s education class, and you have no idea what to do. Unfortunately, this is often

Part 1 in a 3-part series in recognition of Health Literacy Month   Before I became a caregiver for my dad, I had only peripheral knowledge of his medical challenges. I remember getting frustrated with him during conversations about his declining health. I would ask about his most recent visit with his primary care doctor

Have you ever heard the saying, “What you don’t know won’t hurt you?” It’s sometimes used to glorify the “ignorance is bliss” mentality. The idea is that we can’t worry about issues if we don’t know about them. It is also used to justify lying by omission, the act of leaving out “small details” to

My father was college-educated and had no obvious difficulty understanding medical advice in his earlier years. However, when he began to develop dementia there was a very noticeable change in his intellectual capacity. When I accompanied him to doctor visits, I noticed that not only did he struggle with understanding his instructions, he was also

There have been numerous changes to the way health care is delivered in the United States. Regulatory agencies, electronic medical records and insurance companies have altered the way physicians practice medicine. One of the unfortunate consequences has been the erosion of the doctor-patient relationship. Many patients don’t trust their doctors anymore. With less time for