[Robert Bruce Yelverton]

I wish to address your medical care; the need for your medical team to allow both you and your advocate to participate in your care.  The medical care team should advise you what tests, procedures, and treatments they are planning. They should advise you why and what they expect to accomplish.  The medical team needs to listen, answer questions, and discuss your/advocate’s questions and input.  Always insist your specialists be contacted and allowed to consult on your treatment.

Communication is often the biggest problem during your hospitalization. Request that your nurse be included during any physician’s visit/exam. Your nurse needs to be able to give a report of past and current conditions. Your nurse needs to hear your physician’s findings and orders for your further care. It often happens to me that communications between nurses and my physicians are extremely poor.  The nurses may be unaware of simple orders, i.e. you can go back on a normal diet, or you can be discharged. Your various physicians do not know the orders of each other. Another pet peeve. Your doctor advises you of an order, but it is documented very poorly or not at all. You advise your nurse, but she is clueless. It often takes an extremely long time for the order to be worked out.

Always remember that the hospital has a chain of command that is available to resolve any problems or complaints: Unit Nurse Manager, House Supervisor, and Hospital’s Patient Advocate. For example, your nurse call button requests very often takes as much as 30 minutes or longer.  I will always make a 2^nd request after waiting 15 minutes. When the 2^nd request is not answered, I place another request at 30 minutes for the Unit Manager to contact me ASAP.

Anytime something unknown to the medical team/staff is causing a trigger that aggravates your MG, immediately advise them you need help in alleviating that trigger.  One of my pet peeves is prior to a procedure you are placed in an exceedingly difficult, painful, and warm/hot position (drapes covering you). This is due so you are ready for the doctor when they enter the procedure room. I have waited as much as ten minutes and often much longer. I explain why this will aggravate my MG. I request they wait to place me in position when the doctor arrives. Really, it normally will only take around a minute or less.

I could go on but will allow other members to give some of their advice or similar issues.