If you are a patient in my office, you may feel concern to hear that your doctor doesn’t like diagnosis! It isn’t the act of determining a diagnosis that I don’t like. It is that, once a label is given, there is frequently a change in mindset that follows “the sentence”.
I have had patients come to me that have been previously given a diagnosis of arthritis, who consequently attribute every subsequent twinge anywhere in their body to their arthritis. It doesn’t matter if the arthritis is in 2 specific joints of their neck, that foot pain they experience must just be “their arthritis acting up”. They don’t look for another cause! It doesn’t matter that they have been wearing stiletto heels all day, or that they haven’t stretched their calf muscles since junior high, they just blame that old arthritis and don’t look for another cause.
We can have a tendency to own our diagnosis- to associate with it and wear it as a label. It is MY sciatica, and we become tempted to view our lives in terms of this label. We may look for the associated symptoms of that diagnosis to be present in our life, and because we expect them to come we don’t see if there is any other reason we might be stiff or sore, or if there is anything we can do about it.
Of course, there is a usefulness to knowing our diagnosis, to prepare for what one might expect to come and to learn from others with a similar diagnosis. I write this to remind us of the other side, and to not let our diagnosis define us.
I was recently with two friends, one of whom has gone through a challenging time with a difficult disease. When this friend started to elaborate on what it was like in the worst part of his illness, the first friend changed the subject away from the other’s description of his low time. It seemed cold to me, but my friend explained that he felt it did not help our friend to review his limitations, and focus on his illness. When one consistently focuses on the negative and all that they cannot do, their world becomes very small.
I am not advocating one should ignore their suffering, to “stuff it” and “think good thoughts”. I just want to caution us against getting stuck in the rut of focusing on the negative. When we approach any situation with gratitude, and focus on what is possible, we will have a different perspective on the situation, and have more resources available for us to employ in our recovery.
As individuals, we will each take our own path, in illness and in health. We can learn from research and educate ourselves regarding potential parts of an illness with which we are battling, without owning the illness and adopting all of its symptoms. We need to spend at least as much time focusing on the positive as we focus on the negative in our health, and not assume that each new ache is “a given” because of what diagnosis we have or who we are. When my mother was 67, she told her doctor about her sore right knee. He said, “What do you expect? That knee is 67 years old.”
To my mom’s credit, she pointed to her left knee and said, “Well, this knee is 67 years old too, and it is just fine!” Don’t assume that you will suffer symptoms because you have reached a certain age or have been given a diagnosis. Let the symptoms you experience tell you their own story, and really learn to listen to your body.
If you want to know more about how to learn from your symptoms and achieve optimal health with Network Care, contact our office for an appointment. Call (416) 494-7337 or email info@WellnessFamilyCare.com