Good communication between people with asthma & COPD and their health care providers is essential for making the most of health care, and for ensuring that quality of life is the best it can be. Communication isn’t always easy, though, and both sides have to work to make sure that understanding is reached.
Being “the patient” can sometimes feel intimidating and confusing. Many of us have had the experience of leaving a doctor’s office never having asked a question we went in meaning to ask.
Here are some things to think about to make your interactions with your health care provider the best that they can be.
Prepare for each visit. Write out any questions you have, or anything in particular you have to report. That way, even if you get flustered during the visit, you can refer to your list and make sure you do not forget anything important. Take along any records that you keep at home. Many people with asthma keep symptom diaries, and/or logs of daily peak flow measurements and medication use. It can be tremendously helpful to your care provider to be able to go over these to track how you’ve been doing from day to day.
Take along all of your inhalers and other medications (including the ones that are not for asthma or COPD). This is vitally important, especially if you are taking more than one or two medicines.
Be assertive (not aggressive). Speaking up is not always easy, but it is important for your care provider to know what your concerns are. If you don’t get a response initially to your question or you are still worried, just ask again. If you don’t understand what you are told (doctors and other health professionals sometimes forget and lapse into medical jargon), ask for clarification. Be both persistent and polite. You should be able to keep interactions respectful and friendly while still being firm about getting the information that you need.
Similarly, if you do not feel comfortable with a proposed treatment or test, make that clear to your care provider. There may be alternatives available, and you can’t know until you bring it up!
Be truthful. A health care provider needs to know what is really going on with you in order to make good (and safe!) decisions about your care. If you have not been taking a prescribed medicine or have not been doing your peak flow measurements, say so! Giving incomplete or false reports in these situations can be DANGEROUS, because your health care provider is basing your treatments on the information.
If you have not been following the recommended plan, it is also very helpful if you can explain the reasons that you haven’t. That starts the conversation. Then you can work out a plan together that comes closest to fitting all your needs (health, safety, convenience, comfort, and cost).
Find a health care provider you can work with. Even the smartest, most accomplished doctor in the world might not be the right one for you if you can’t communication with each other. Most health plans offer a choice of different physicians and other care providers (such as nurse practitioners). Don’t be afraid to shop around until you find someone who is right for you:
- Someone you trust
- Someone who listens to you
- Someone who respects you
- Someone who answers your questions and explains things in a way you can understand
- Someone who is willing to negotiate with you and take your concerns into account
Be a partner in your own care. You are the person who has the most power over your health. Doctors and nurses have expert knowledge and can guide you in choosing a treatment path, but you are still the one caring for yourself day in and day out. Take an action role!
BE YOUR OWN EXPERT. Learn what you can about asthma or COPD, especially about your different treatment options, and steps you can take to keep yourself healthy. Know what to do if you start having worse symptoms or if you peak-flow measurements go down (signalling the possible start of an asthma or COPD episode). Know when to call your health care provider and when to go to the emergency room. If possible, get written instructions to keep on hand.
BE YOUR OWN HISTORIAN. Keep records of your asthma or COPD care. Know the names of medicines you are taking and medicines you have tried in the past. Be able to report how well they worked for you, and whether you had any side-effects from them. If a symptom diary or peak-flow log is part of your care plan, keep it up to date and organized. Keep a list of things that have triggered your episodes.
BE YOUR OWN ADVOCATE. Health care is not one-size-fits-all. Your preferences and priorities are important in determining the asthma care most appropriate for you. Let your care providers know what is important to you. Do you just hate taking pills? Are you unable to take medicine in the middle of the day while you are at work? Is sleeping through the night your top priority? Speak up! Negotiate!
BE YOUR OWN DRILL-SERGEANT. There are difficulties with maintaining any kind of daily regimen, whether it’s exercise or diet or doing one good deed every day. Staying faithful to a medication and inhaler regimen can be even trickier, because we don’t like to be reminded of illness, especially when we’re feeling healthy. But remember that it’s sticking to your treatment plan that keeps you healthy. Be strict with yourself, and stay on your program.
Expect good asthma & COPD control. Some people with asthma or COPD are so used to having their activity limited and feeling crummy all the time that they have grown to accept this as normal. It doesn’t have to be!
With careful treatment (and sticking to the treatment plan), the vast majority of people with asthma can achieve good asthma control. Good asthma control means:
- sleeping through the night without being awakened by coughing or wheezing
- being able to exercise as much as a person without asthma
- not missing school or work due to asthma
- not having to go to the emergency room or into the hospital for asthma
- using a quick-relief inhaler once a day or less
- being able to do the things you want to do without asthma getting in the way