The tests are normal – now what?!

You feel like death. You try to ignore it and keep pushing through. But nothing you do seems to help. So you finally admit defeat and go see a doctor. They run tests. All normal. Yay? But now what?

As a society we put a great deal of weight on the authority of the doctor to speak on matters of the body. If they say you are healthy, you are healthy. If they say you are sick, you are sick. So what happens when your own experience of your body does not match the assessment of a physician? You start questioning your sanity. Your doctor might dismiss you as “difficult” at best or “attention-seeking” at worst (especially if you’re a woman!). Family and friends give credence to the word of the doctor over your own, and there’s an expectation that you’ll be fine now because the doctor said that you are. Such is the power of the role of the physician in our society. And you feel the weight of their judgement keenly.

Doctors are under immense pressure too. They must see as many patients as possible and assess, treat and refer in as little time as possible. They face a relentless barrage of stressful, emotional and life-altering decision-making all day every day (with voluminous record-keeping to boot!). Most doctors genuinely do care and do want to make a difference. But sometimes modern medicine does not have all the answers. And for someone whose job it is to always come up with an answer that is not an easy position to be in.

So, what do patients do when they come out of the consultation room with nothing but questions and a doctor that is relieved to see the back of them? To a certain extent we must keep submitting to the medical system because that is the only socially acceptable way a person can be deemed validly unwell. But the modern medical system is not optimised to support individuals with difficult to diagnose illnesses, unknown symptoms, or the daily management of chronic conditions. This fact is recognised by health professionals themselves and there have been calls to transform health services so that they can meet these needs. Patients and professionals alike see that there is a screaming need to relieve the pressure on the medical system and yet still provide support.

Shocker – I think health coaching represents a service that can help meet these needs. Health coaches can step in and support people in the management of health challenges when they step out of that doctor’s office and back into their daily life. It frustrates me to see that such services have not yet been incorporated into our clinics! But leaving that professional gripe aside, my personal belief is that fundamentally people need to feel accepted. Sometimes we just need to hear that someone accepts our experiences as real and our struggles ass valid. So, if all the good I can get out of my own mind-melting experiences of the medical system is an acute awareness of this need, I will keep saying this mantra over and over - “I believe you”.