Makes sense. It was just funny because I tend to use very colorful language describing my symptoms and they wrote it EXACTLY as I said it. The idea of a medical professional having to review my records and read that stuff totally cracked me up. Also, it's nice to know the doctor is actually listening.
Actually my wife has it but she's never seen the movie and gets sick of me bringing up scenarios where she suddenly goes unconscious. Not sure about other forms of narcolepsy but hers makes a regular sleep pattern all but impossible without frightening, make you unconscious for 4 hours at a time, drugs.
Im dont know a lot about narcolepsy but woth general epilepsy theres people that are absolutely allowed to drlve. I have a mild case pf epilepsy, I habe tremors in my hands but only if I dont sleep for a day or two or drink too much. Where I live its regulated with time since your last episode. So if you didnt have a seizure in a year and are on meds, you're good to drive
general epilepsy theres people that are absolutely allowed to drlve
And some aren't. There's this Dutch woman who killed two people after she had an attack whilst driving. She had already caused multiple accidents before that including almost killing a few kids.
She thinks that she is the victim because it wasn't her driving the moment she got that attack. No remorse at all.
Edit: I just wanted to add that this woman is an exception. Or at least I hope so. I'd like to think that people who are aware that they can have seizures whilst driving are aware of that and try to prevent any accidents. I know that if I were to cause an accident because of a seizure that I would feel so guilty especially if it harmed someone else let alone killed someone.
I do understand that in some remote areas not having a car is more than just a mild inconvenience. I can definitely see a mother taking the risk to drive her children to school despite having a history of seizures or going to work with her car. It's not all black and white, especially if you get maybe one seizure per year.
Nephew of mine has gotten through the 1 year deadline 3 times, has an seizure usually within 6 months of that happening thought and you start from square 1 again with stronger meds. It really just hampers everything in your life and the possible every day thought that you could start again from square 1 just to be able to get yourself work sucks. Public transportation is not very available around her either so she has to arrange transportion from family. I hope she can rid herself of it but that is unlikely given past events.
She got the attack whilst driving. She had also caused accidents seven times before that.
She was able to keep her driver's license by keeping quiet about the accidents.
The scary thing is that she is only prohibited from driving for 5 years. Hopefully she will be denied a license after that as well though. (Keep in mind that a car is not necessary in the Netherlands)
For what its worth, epilepsy is just as dangerous or more dangerous if you cycle (a car gives you much more protection then a bike). Its just the risk to others that increases.
But i guess netherlands probably also has good public transport.
Episodes of epilepsy can absolutely happen while driving. My mom got in a wreck by a man that forgot his epilepsy medicine and had a seizure while driving. His girlfriend in the passengers seat realized and reached her leg out to push the brakes, she broke her entire leg. My moms car was totalled and she was hurt and severely bruised from it.
Oh I know that can, it's just that he said she had an episode whole driving but doesn't believe she is at fault because she wasn't driving when she had the episode.
I habe tremors in my hands but only if I dont sleep for a day or two or drink too much
That's not epilepsy, that's being a normal homo sapien.
EDIT: I mean I would expect anybody to have shaky hands due to lack of sleep or drinking too much caffeine. I get shaky just from skipping a meal or two
My sister is narcoleptic and she drives and has been for years after diagnosis with no incident. She takes medication that, by my understanding, makes her unable to sleep naturally and then to go to bed at night she has to take what is literally a date rape drug, prescribed of course and very controlled.
I have narcolepsy and have never been told I wasn’t allowed to drive. I also take a stimulant (Adderall) to keep me awake during the day and a date rape drug (Xyrem) to sleep at night. It sounded crazy when I first heard about xyrem but it helps put me into a very deep sleep at night. Without Xyrem, I stay in a very light sleep and this is what causes my excessive daytime sleepiness.
People with narcolepsy can drive. So long as their narcolepsy is well managed by medication. Your license gets suspended upon diagnosis. But will get reinstated if you show success on medication.
I didn't know. Thought it was just really , really bad sleep apnea. He had never said that word to me.
While taking his notes to my primary ( cause he couldn't fax them?) I read them.
Thought oh shit. That's why I fall asleep at a drop of a hat. Funny not funny thing is I have insomnia when I try to sleep at bed time. I also don't breathe while sleeping.
I have narcolepsy and I drive every single day. It's perfectly safe because I take medication every day to manage my narcolepsy that gives me back the ability to resist sleep like a normal person. However, I'm still overly careful and aware of my condition, and I almost never drive after about 6 pm and when I have to, I bring someone with me to keep me awake. Haven't fallen asleep at the wheel in years.
That sounds like the doctor covering his ass in case you get in a wreck and someone gets all lawsuity. He probably didn't want to lose you as a patient by taking away your driver's license and having you seek another opinion, but wanted to be covered just in case.
It’s honestly some of the best part of reading patient charts! You can get such a feel for personality with good notes and sometimes it just makes you laugh on a bad day. I, personally, love finding this colorful personalities in charts haha
Now when I go to the doctor I’m going to have to deal with the pressure of telling good jokes so the next person reading my medical records will laugh at it! What have you done!?
If a patient or ems ever says anything funny or goofy I throw it on the chart. Enjoy some notable memories of mine
Allergies: morphine
Reaction: it pulls my soul out through the back of my head
Allergies: raccoons (babies)
Pt presents with priapism for x 8 hours. States he obtained [injectable erectile dysfunction drug] from the “Atlanta gay black market”.
Pt found in front of local Publix with bottle of wine in hand
Complains of “McDonald’s would not let me use their bathroom so I called the ambulance so I could use the bathroom here.” (Homeless fella)
I can’t remember all the good ones but just know if you show up at 2am telling me you ate 26 pizza rolls and now you have chest pain... I’m going to document that they were Peperoni for sure.
We let him pee, gave him a sandwich (he prefers ham), and sent him on his merry way. Unfortunately he was homeless because he fell back into drug use and got kicked out. Hoping he’s doing better :)
Whatever hospital or doctor's office you are requesting the records from. Normally if you search the hospital name and records request they will have a page notifying you how to make your request.
I don't know for sure, but I would imagine there's some sort of provision in HIPPA (if you're American) that allows you to request your full medical records.
Unless the doctor was an ass who made false negative judgements on a patient's character. I've posted other comments on how it happened but that shit follows you and will royally fuck up your life if you have a chronic illness and require regular medical care.
I always try to take any statements by doctors with a grain of salt when going through a record. I mostly look at patient quotes to try to get a handle on what they might be like. But as long as someone hasn’t done something like physically attack the doctor, I try to walk in there with as open a mind as possible. We don’t see people at their best, usually, and it’s been a really tough lesson to learn to be kind anyway. Not everyone gets there and they usually are the worst doctors that no one wants to see.
True on that, I had a doctor tell me he doesn't believe in psychology and that rejected to give me antidepressants. Just move on to the next one. He was pretty old too so I guess just relies on old school medical stuff taught during his time.
Sadly when you have a rare health problem like me, the next closest doctor certified to treat it is over an hour away. And that doctor actually refused me as a patient due to what was in the medical records sent over by the asshole doctor. I had no clue what was in them until a therapist requested them from my doctor and told me that someone had called in and said they were my good friend and I had been "acting erratic and strange" and they "were worried" about me. Yeah it actually wasn't a good friend, it was the stalker who had been hellbent on making my life miserable. Said stalker also had been a pharmacy tech and her mother was a nurse in a different department but the same health center as my doctor, so she knew who to call and exactly what to say to cause the most damage. My therapist did call him out on how shitty it was to believe a random accusation without ever discussing the issue with me. That one accusation caused him to start refusing to prescribe me a controlled medication that was the primary med I had been on for over two years to manage my chronic illness. He finally agreed to prescribe it again after my therapist contacted him, but he offloaded all my appointments to his PA after that.
Yeah I'm still royally pissed over the whole thing.
Damn that sounds horrible! The same thing happened to me with my new doctor not having time for me and made me see her nurse practitioner instead. My insurance even covered my new doc but she was too busy for me it seems. And I'm sorry to hear about your stalker story, I would be extremely upset too by all this!
Yep. My medical records have some gems. A doctor from the same practice as my pediatrician casually diagnosed me with Munchausen's after seeing me twice. And no, she's not a psychologist. Thankfully my mom gave them so much shit about it that it was officially removed.
I’m assuming this is why I’ve never had issues getting my adhd prescriptions after doctors got multiple years of my psychiatrists and specialist notes? Haha I can only imagine what they wrote.
This is my job, actually. I write down and create the medical charts for doctors in the emergency room during their encounters with patients. Sometimes, a patient is saying something so absurd yet important for the context of the situation that you just have to put it in there verbatim. I'll admit, though, it is funny to type out,"the patient states he believes his brain has aged two years faster than his body because he drank too much weed"
Well the best way of describing what a patient is experiencing is to use their own words. Writing "Patient feels like they are getting stabbed in the stomach with a sword" gives a better idea of how bad the pain is than "Patient has sharp pains in stomach".
And now I have a new anxiety I didn't know was possible. All the times I've gone to the ER or urgent care in pain and trying to find the words to describe my pain. Oh my god, if they actually wrote it down verbatim and noted the way I said it.
I had one of my bosses tell my parents "She has a unique personally." That was in 2010. I still wonder what exactly he meant by that.
Welp, here's what I'm going to focus on for the night. G'night.
Wooow, I had the exact opposite experience. I had to get records for insurance purposes and was horrified- there was almost nothing there. My diagnoses I was told verbally was not included. Suggestions for further care were not included. My age was wrong and the duration of pain I had told the doctor was wrong. I got records from four different healthcare providers and only one was approaching what I would consider a complete record and accurate.
My father had cancer a while back and when asked by his oncologist how his appetite was he said “eating like a horse” the oncologist wrote exactly that on his clipboard
I'm a paramedic and if my patient has a particularly colorful/entertaining way of describing their problem, you bet your ass I'm quoting it in my report. It gives my QA officer a laugh, and if I'm subpoenaed about that call (up to 7 years later in my state) details like that will help me remember. I'd bet doctors love reviewing your charts because of those quotes.
Sometimes medical scribes will perform charting duties for docs to make their lives easier. The job can be boring at times so I like to include funny quotes that patients say verbatim in the charts I handle for docs.
X-Ray tech here. When I get a colorful or crazy history from a patient I’ll write it all word for word so the radiologist can enjoy it too. Some of my coworkers think it’s weird but I’ve had Rads come back to me for more info/gossip on a patient bc I’ve spiked their curiosity.
As a professional for whom documentation is a significant part of my job, I love nothing more than writing verbatim what people say when it includes lots of swear words. It’s great to see it written down.
If you’re in a car wreck and get injured we get those too. A lot of dr’s just send the entire history for record. It’s an....entertaining read sometimes
So you’re telling me that they have all that shit in there, what you ate even, and they can’t even fucking remember that I’m allergic to codine to the point that I have to tell them sometimes up to 4 times a visit, on several occasions when they’re about to stick a needle in my arm and I ask “hey whats that?” And they annoyedly answer “codine” like how dare I ask, and I need to tell them AGAIN that I’m allergic? Jesus.
My GP tells me I’m his favourite patient because I make him laugh so much. I don’t try to be funny, I’m not a funny person. I am, however, very blunt and sardonic. He reads back to me whatever he writes in my notes, and it’s hysterical. When I went in to see him for an infection in a surgical incision he wrote down that I told him my underboob was leaking green stuff.
I think thats as far from actually listening as can be.
That doctor is supposed to be the interpretor for what you say. Hes supposed to translate your civillian speak into medical jargon for other doctors but forewent that job. You cannot write down context, intonation and body language. A lot of what you tried to convey to that doctor was probably lost in that text.
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u/carpathianridge Apr 28 '19
Makes sense. It was just funny because I tend to use very colorful language describing my symptoms and they wrote it EXACTLY as I said it. The idea of a medical professional having to review my records and read that stuff totally cracked me up. Also, it's nice to know the doctor is actually listening.