{"id":2072,"date":"2016-07-07T20:55:06","date_gmt":"2016-07-07T20:55:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?p=2072"},"modified":"2016-07-07T20:55:06","modified_gmt":"2016-07-07T20:55:06","slug":"changing-doctors-think-leave","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html","title":{"rendered":"If You Want to Change Doctors"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-1842\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/350\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" alt=\"Second close-up of picture\" width=\"257\" height=\"300\" \/>Want to change doctors? Think you could do better with someone else? Well&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>It&#8217;s not unusual to feel frustrated with your medical care at some point during the course of life with illness. Perhaps you have a friend who is so happy with his or her doctor that you think yours isn&#8217;t as good. Or, you might have heard that a doctor &#8220;over there&#8221; has some kind of &#8220;magic&#8221; treatment that your current doctor either does not know about or will not use, and you think, &#8220;I should change.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>But before you leave, it&#8217;s a good idea to take a step back (or a deep breath, as I talk about in my book,\u00a0<em>Don&#8217;t Panic!: How to Keep Going When the Going Gets Tough (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com\/works.htm\">http:\/\/www.maureenpratt.com\/works.htm<\/a>)\u00a0<\/em>and seriously consider what you&#8217;d like to do. Changing doctors is a big step and will entail a lot of time and effort on your part, and might not guarantee that you&#8217;ll be feeling better after you do. Also, with any doctor, much of the follow-through is our (the patients&#8217;) responsibility; if you&#8217;re not willing to do what you need to do now, you might not do what you need to do with the new physician either.<\/p>\n<p>Here are some considerations to weigh before you take the plunge and change docs:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What am I dissatisfied with regarding my current doctor? Have I discussed these concerns with him or her? Have I tried to work out my problems with my current doc?<\/li>\n<li>Are there things about my current treatment that I am unwilling or unable to do, and how might this be affecting my state of health? Why am I not doing these things (or don&#8217;t want to do them)? Will the situation change if I move to another doctor?<\/li>\n<li>Am I being realistic about the extent to which treatments can help my health get back to 100%? For example, do I understand my illness and, if it is incurable, do I accept that I have certain limitations or that the treatments for my illness are going to be limited no matter which doctor treats me for it?<\/li>\n<li>How does personality play into my dissatisfaction with my current doc? Am I expecting my doctor to be my friend, or do I want a competent physician who knows how to work with the health issues I have?<\/li>\n<li>What are my expectations about the way a physician&#8217;s office works today? (ease of getting appointments, organization of information, etc.) Am I sure that another office will be &#8220;perfect,&#8221; or can I approach the office I work with now differently so that I am not as frustrated\/dissatisfied?<\/li>\n<li><\/li>\n<li>Pray over any decision you want to make, and ask for wisdom and objectivity. Sometimes, if we think about it a bit longer and away from the heat of a difficult day or encounter with our docs or their office staff, we can see more clearly where problems might be solved where we are. And if you do decide to change, help your new doc and his or her staff by bringing all your records, list of symptoms and past tests, hospitalizations, and other information. Allow time to get settled in &#8211; and keep praying for understanding, wisdom and compassion for all!<\/li>\n<li>Blessings!<\/li>\n<li>Maureen<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Want to change doctors? Think you could do better with someone else? Well&#8230; It&#8217;s not unusual to feel frustrated with your medical care at some point during the course of life with illness. Perhaps you have a friend who is so happy with his or her doctor that you think yours isn&#8217;t as good. Or,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":548,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,43,1242,1047],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-chronic-pain-and-illness","category-encouragement-in-life","category-food-for-thought","category-good"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If You Want to Change Doctors - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If You Want to Change Doctors - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Want to change doctors? Think you could do better with someone else? Well&#8230; It&#8217;s not unusual to feel frustrated with your medical care at some point during the course of life with illness. Perhaps you have a friend who is so happy with his or her doctor that you think yours isn&#8217;t as good. Or,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-07-07T20:55:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"mpratt\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"If You Want to Change Doctors - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"If You Want to Change Doctors - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","og_description":"Want to change doctors? Think you could do better with someone else? 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Or,&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html","og_site_name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","article_published_time":"2016-07-07T20:55:06+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg"}],"author":"mpratt","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html","name":"If You Want to Change Doctors - Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg","datePublished":"2016-07-07T20:55:06+00:00","dateModified":"2016-07-07T20:55:06+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/files\/2015\/10\/Second-close-up-of-picture-257x300.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/2016\/07\/changing-doctors-think-leave.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"If You Want to Change Doctors"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/","name":"Good Days...Bad Days With Maureen Pratt","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/#\/schema\/person\/b47fd8e9d9cc9750d5779f75b8669a32","name":"mpratt","description":"Several years ago, Maureen Pratt earned her Master of Fine Arts in Theater Arts\/Playwriting from UCLA's School of Theater, FIlm and Television. 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 &amp; 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\/2072","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=2072"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2074,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2072\/revisions\/2074"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2072"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2072"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/gooddaysbaddays\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2072"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}