Check Your Meds!

With all the serious things going on the world, it is almost impossible not to dig into them…and write about them. When my wife writes a column, it is almost always about life. It is not that she doesn’t care about the serious side of life – we receive in our driveway daily the deadly serious New York newspapers, as well as The Press of Atlantic City, and she reads them all rather thoroughly. However, she doesn’t care to write on heavy topics. As a matter of fact, she encourages me to lighten up from time to time. So, here it is:
My right leg has been giving me pain for a couple of weeks. It started in the knee, then down into the calf, and now my ankle has begun to swell a little. We’re in Austin, Texas, visiting our son, Benjamin, and his family. As we sat discussing our day yesterday, I mentioned my leg issue, and my determination to see the doctor when we return home. Our daughter-in-law, Soledad, asked me, “Are you now taking any new medicine which might have leg swelling and pain as a side effect?”
In fact I had a new blood-pressure medicine. So I looked it up online, and voila, it listed my problem as one of its side effects, and went on to suggest seeing my doctor if the problem persists more than a couple of weeks. So there I was, wondering what was wrong with my leg when the first thing I should have done was to question myself what Soledad asked me.
This experience brings to mind a heart problem a friend of mine had. His issue was so severe that he went to a Philadelphia heart hospital, was put to sleep while the doctors ran a probe through his groin and into his heart to investigate. They did not find anything, but afterward he was speaking to his cousin about this ordeal, and she inquired, was he taking any pain medication — she had read that prolonged use of it can cause the issue he described to her. And yes, he had been using it day and night for years.
So here is my takeaway – do my part to know the side-effects of any medication I take. Don’t expect the medical professionals to forewarn me. Further, a learning from my friend’s experience is, do my own research and don’t assume it will always occur to your doctor to seek out the simplest solutions first. There is a business-management adage which I believe applies here as well: “Your professional is only as good as you are.” While that applies to lawyers and accountants, I believe it applies to doctors as well. If we want their best, we need to give our best.