I'd like to begin this blog with a story told to me by an 80 y/o woman who was a participant in the research I conducted for my doctoral degree in nursing. She was telling me about a visit she had with her doctor that was focused on her urinary incontinence. She didn't feel that the physician was paying much attention to her when she tried to explain what she was experiencing. After yawning several times, he looked at her and said, "Now make sure you empty your bladder every single time you go to the bathroom."
Her response: "Why would anyone want to hold onto their urine?"

This is one example of how health providers and their patients end up miscommunicating, each missing the knowledge that the other is bringing. It's such a shame because both science AND consumers have a great deal of information that, if shared, could benefit all of us.

I'm convinced that we need to combine the vast knowledge generated through the rigors of science with the wisdom that is cultivated through the lived experience of a disease or disability. I know this firsthand. Soon after I started menstruating, I knew that the intense pain I was experiencing during my menses couldn't possibly be normal. Yet it took over ten years before I was finally diagnosed with severe endometriosis. Now in my later years, as I struggle with arthritis, I have noticed an increase in pain several hours after I have a glass of wine or cocktail. I suspect there is a connection but hardly any health professionals appear to have any real interest in chatting with me about my observations - something that quite possibly could lead to a better understanding of the disease, or at least a better way to manage it!

Some of the resistance to listening to these experiences comes from an attitude that is very patriarchal. Whether male or female, there is a tradition in medicine that encourages the belief that the doctor knows all. And as consumers, we live in a culture that socializes us to believe that our own thoughts and insights are somehow less valuable. But the older women in my study had been around the block a few times and knew better. One woman shared the following dialogue she had with her doctor:

He said: "I've got a medical degree and I certainly know a lot more about what's happening and what's wrong with you than you do."
And she said: "You're right, I don't have a medical degree. But this is my body and I know what's going on in it!"

This is yet another example of a missed opportunity for both that woman and her care provider. Each has important knowledge to share and neither will benefit from it because mutual respect has been lost.

Allwise Publications is my effort to value and respect both of these important sources of knowledge and combine them in a way that better educates both consumers and providers of care.

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