S1 Ep 6 - Taking to the Streets of Portland to Ask People About Their Experience with Doctors and Healthcare

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04/12/22 • 44 min

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In the season 1 finale of Third Opinion MD podcast, I’m taking to the streets of Portland, Oregon with my friend and colleague, Alisha Harrington, to speak to real people about their experiences with the healthcare system. You see, I strongly believe that true healing comes from real listening, and I wanted to hear the unfiltered stories of people in everyday settings. Alisha and I visited food carts and a local park and interviewed people about their experiences with doctors and healthcare.

I know that many of their stories will sound familiar to you, and you may have experienced something similar in interacting with the healthcare system. In this episode, I’m also sharing 8 “dos and don’ts” for you to use on your own healthcare journey, so you can get the best results possible. You can find these listed below, as well.

Read the full show notes, and transcript on my website.

Some of my pearls of wisdom around how to best interact with your healthcare system:

Write down the specific department, and the direct phone number for the doctor you are working with, or have been referred to. It’s easy to get lost in a phone tree or get bounced around in referrals.
Request and keep a copy of your health records, preferably every year or six months. Read through them. Ask questions or ask for revisions if something is incorrect or no longer accurate about your current health status. Maintain your records because you will likely change doctors. In being your own best advocate, it’s important that you also keep the records and understand your own health history.
Remain calm and in control of your emotions when you are working with people in healthcare. It’s reasonable to be frustrated and feel overwhelmed. For the best care, keep to the golden rule of “treat others as you’d like to be treated.” It goes a long way with doctors who are limited by time to engage with you..
Don't let insurance coverage dictate what you should do for your health. Self care is the key to supplementing what insurance won't.
Use the Patient Elevator Speech to use your time at your doctor’s appointment wisely and efficiently. You’ll want to consider 10 points, some of which include:

When your symptoms started, and where they are located (pain, nausea, anxiety, etc).
The quality and intensity of a symptom, especially regarding pain.
What you were doing when the symptoms started.
If there is anything that makes the symptoms better or worse.
If you’ve had the symptoms before (a prior episode).

Resources

Download the full Patient Elevator Speech

Read the full show notes, and transcript on my website.

Some of my pearls of wisdom around how to best interact with your healthcare system:

Write down the specific department, and the direct phone number for the doctor you are working with, or have been referred to. It’s easy to get lost in a phone tree or get bounced around in referrals.
Request and keep a copy of your health records, preferably every year or six months. Read through them. Ask questions or ask for revisions if something is incorrect or no longer accurate about your current health status. Maintain your records because you will likely change doctors. In being your own best advocate, it’s important that you also keep the records and understand your own health history.
Remain calm and in control of your emotions when you are working with people in healthcare. It’s reasonable to be frustrated and feel overwhelmed. For the best care, keep to the golden rule of “treat others as you’d like to be treated.” It goes a long way with doctors who are limited by time to engage with you..
Don't let insurance coverage dictate what you should do for your health. Self care is the key to supplementing what insurance won't.
Use the Patient Elevator Speech to use your time at your doctor’s appointment wisely and efficiently. You’ll want to consider 10 points, some of which include:

When your symptoms started, and where they are located (pain, nausea, anxiety, etc).
The quality and intensity of a symptom, especially regarding pain.
What you were doing when the symptoms started.
If there is anything that makes the symptoms better or worse.
If you’ve had the symptoms before (a prior episode).

Resources

Download the full Patient Elevator Speech

Previous Episode

S1 Ep 5 - The Scavenger Hunt of Your Family's Historical Past to Find Your Inner Doctor

2 Recommendations

In this episode, I want to take you with me on a scavenger hunt, to look at my past, present, and future. In episode 1, I talked about my mother, Christina Stemmler, M.D., who was an integrated physician. She studied Chinese medicine, she was a family physician, and she had a profound effect on me and my interest in healthcare. She died in 2008. Throughout her career, she gave several talks and was a prolific writer; so, I have the opportunity to introduce you to her in this episode from rare audio recordings. I’ll be talking about her because I’m, right now, at the point in my life where I really want to understand the “before and after” of me.

In looking to the future, I am also introducing you to my nephew. He is my sister’s son, and he is 7 years old. One of the things that fascinates me about him is that I’ve never taught him the concepts of energy medicine or Qi, that life force energy that is so essential to health according to Chinese medicine. However, in this interview you will hear his wisdom as he talks about energy with an unfiltered understanding, and the connection he has to his environment of before and after. It’s profound to hear him speak about his experience, and I’m delighted to share it with you.

Moving forward in this podcast, I’m going to continue to uncover clues about my mother’s life and her legacy before she died. This is more than just detective work. It’s a gift left in her writing, in her recordings, and from my memories. It’s a treasure not just for me to understand my true essence and calling, but an opportunity for you to learn from two generations of women propelled to make changes in the understanding and delivery of healthcare. If you haven’t had a chance to listen to episode 1, An Introduction to Third Opinion MD: Time to Take the Doctor Out of the Equation and Put You in Charge of Your Health, I introduced my mother as one of the reasons why I am producing this podcast.

In this episode, I share:

Looking forward and backward in my family’s timeline to see how our lineage has connected with healing and energy.
What it means to be an integrated physician.
Recordings from my mother, Christina, when she gave lectures to her patients as an integrated physician.
An introduction to the future through my 7-year old nephew. I sent questions to my sister to interview him about his grandmother, Christina. His answers demonstrate how easily children can understand energy and healing.
My family’s history of trauma, including every generation moving to find a better future.
My mother’s history of having been a doctor and a healer. She studied both Eastern and Western medicine, much like I did.
How our history can inform our present, and how it can impact our future.
Why the entirety of a person’s history (personal, family, social, cultural, spiritual) is important in understanding their current health.
Review the steps I teach you when we work together so you can form your own third opinion.

Next Episode

Inner Smile Meditation: A Bonus Guided Qigong Meditation

Part of my mission in starting Third Opinion MD is to offer you a blended perspective about healthcare, and to provide you with simple tools to restore and maintain your health. In this short guided meditation, I’m introducing you to something that I learned from my studies with qigong: the Inner Smile Meditation. I first learned this from qigong master, Lee Holden, who had learned it from his mentor, Mantak Chia. In this bonus episode of my podcast, I’m sharing my version of this meditation with you.

The Inner Smile Meditation

As part of the introduction to this meditation, it’s important to keep your mind focused and listen to my voice as I guide you through it. You will be smiling just slightly on the outside, and you will be sending your smile to five important organs in your body. I think this meditation is one of the most loving and adorable meditations. Why? Once you’ve smiled at your organs, your organs will start to smile back at you. Each of them has a life of their own, they're a part of you, and you will get to visualize them in a new way as you smile at each other.

There’s research that shows that doing this type of visualization work helps with mind-body work. It also helps quiet the “monkey mind,” which is what Qigong Master, Liu He, calls the racing thoughts that are often taking up space in our heads. I like the Inner Smile Meditation because it provides a single thing for your mind to focus on, while also setting the “Yi,” or intention, to guide your Qi (your life force energy) in a positive and healthy way through your body.

If you have felt challenged by meditation in the past because you’ve been told you need to empty your mind, I invite you to try this approach. In this guided meditation, I’ll walk you through the steps, and I think you’ll find it to be very beneficial and quite different from other sitting meditations.

Please find a quiet place when you are just starting out. When you’re ready, I invite you to join me for the Inner Smile Meditation.

If you love this meditation, and would like to have me speak about health or teach a workshop for your group or organization, please reach out. I’d love to learn more about your group and find ways to best serve you. You can go to the speaker inquiry page.

Here are key timestamps to refer to when you listen to this episode repeatedly for practice: