{"id":1854,"date":"2015-10-22T22:13:07","date_gmt":"2015-10-22T22:13:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=1854"},"modified":"2015-10-22T22:13:07","modified_gmt":"2015-10-22T22:13:07","slug":"chronic-illness-no-encounters-with-squirrels-to-report","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/10\/chronic-illness-no-encounters-with-squirrels-to-report.html","title":{"rendered":"Chronic Illness: No Encounters with Squirrels to Report!"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Image<\/a>
Image courtesy of Tina Phillips\/FreeDigitalPhotos.net<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After reading about the new and very specific medical coding that is being put in place because of the new healthcare regs, several odd-sounding scenarios struck me as funny, and I couldn’t resist sharing my humor with my docs (and I couldn’t wait to see if this drill-down-deep coding system was for real). \u00a0So, to my cardiologist, I said, “I will say I’m glad to report no encounters with squirrels.”<\/p>\n

We laughed, and then my doc insisted typing in “squirrel” into the search bar of the coding app. Sure enough, besides “encounter with squirrel,” there was “subsequent encounter with squirrel”…and so on. Also, there was “bitten by squirrel,” etc. In all, I think there are 6-8 codes related to squirrels!<\/p>\n

After the wondering (what\u00a0is<\/em> an encounter with a squirrel, as opposed to “bitten by squirrel?”), and sharing a good laugh, I turned to the more serious topic of how we communicate what ails us. True, it might seem outlandish to have to go into such detail with a coding system. However, there is a lot of good in fine-tuning our words so that our doctors know exactly how we are feeling. After all, if they don’t know, they cannot readour minds – and our overall healthcare might suffer.<\/p>\n

I have long-recommended that we patients each develop our own “health thesaurus” so that we can specifically (or as nearly as possible) describe our symptoms and the conditions under which we feel them. I’ve also encouraged each of us to understand as much as we possibly can about our illnesses so that we can link what is happening with us with verbiage that will resonate with the healthcare professional trying to understand. So, in this regard, a more specific coding system might be helpful…to a point.<\/p>\n

As our docs struggle to navigate the maze of those oh-so-detailed descriptions and find just the right code to fit our health and lives, we will probably have to be more than a little patient. But, too, we will no doubt find lots to chuckle over…even if it is that we have no encounters with squirrels to report!<\/p>\n

Joys,<\/p>\n

Maureen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After reading about the new and very specific medical coding that is being put in place because of the new healthcare regs, several odd-sounding scenarios struck me as funny, and I couldn’t resist sharing my humor with my docs (and I couldn’t wait to see if this drill-down-deep coding system was for real). \u00a0So, to…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nChronic Illness: No Encounters with Squirrels to Report! - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2015\/10\/chronic-illness-no-encounters-with-squirrels-to-report.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Chronic Illness: No Encounters with Squirrels to Report! 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She expected to be writing scripts. God had other plans. A few years after her graduation, Maureen was diagnosed with a life-threatening case of organ-involved lupus. Her life turned upside down as she grappled with the effects of the illness and other health conditions that ensued. She was no stranger to serious health challenges; even as a child, Maureen had survived numerous bouts of pneumonia, flu, and other infections. But lupus made her take a fresh look at her life goals - and took herlifelong, strong Catholic Christian faith and writing in a direction she'd never imagined. Today, Maureen writes and speaks about walking with the Lord while living with chronic pain and illness. Her most recent book is \"Don't Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (Franciscan Media). She is also the author of, \"Peace in the Storm: Meditations on Chronic Pain & Illness\" (Image Books\/Randomhouse), \"Beyond Pain: Job, Jesus, and Joy\" (Twenty-Third Publications), \"The First Year: Hypothyroidism, Second Edition\" (Perseus) and \"Taking Charge of Lupus: How to Manage the Disease and Make the Most of Your LIfe.\" She writes the syndicated column, \"Living Well,\" for Catholic News Service, and has also written for Saint Anthony Messenger Magazine, Journey for Women Magazine, The Upper Room Magazine, LupusNow, and Arthritis Today. Maureen's health continues to be a challenge, however she feels honored to be able to bring her perspective, from experience and knowledge, to others. \"Good Days...Bad Days with Maureen Pratt\" is a new way for Maureen to reach people who carry the burden of illness and pain in their lives, or who care for someone who does. Through the blog, she hopes to bring issues of health, wellness, and spirit into focus and, especially, inspire others that, no matter what health challenges, illness, or hardships they endure, each person can find a good way to realize the wonderful potential God has placed within each heart and soul.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/author\/mpratt"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/548"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1854"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1855,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1854\/revisions\/1855"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}