Looking into holes. Part seven

Malcolm Gladwell is a Canadian social scientist who’s always good for an illustrative story. In one of his books he focussed on the barriers to social mobility one of which was assertiveness vs deference.

Two families each with a child are in the doctor’s waiting room. The middle class couple say to their child

“Now when you go in there make sure you challenge what the doctor says if you are not happy. You know how you feel so if you’re not happy with what he says then steer him straight.”

The working class couple also briefed their child before he disappeared into the doctor’s office.

“Now the doctor is a very clever man so you make sure you listen to every word he says and you do exactly what he says”

I take statins . I have an inherited condition which means my liver thinks I don’t have enough cholesterol so kindly obliges by pumping it out at a rate of knots. I haven’t taken them since I came into hospital, initially because I was pretty much out of it  and latterly because I have asked about it and not got an answer.

“Should I continue taking them? Should I do so outside the hospital’s drug management? Should it be incorporated within my patient care plan? I have asked the question about five times and, through one of the staff, I was told they’d get back to me. And they have. The statins have been incorporated but withdrawn from my prescription regime. They interact negatively with an anti fungal drug they’re feeding me. I can’t tell you how good that feels; uncertainty is a killer but I now feel I have more control over outcomes.

Today is the last day of chemo so from now everything is about building up my immunity again. So antibiotics, anti fungal, platelet and blood transfusions and then after two or three weeks a another deep dive into my bone marrow to see where we are. It’s unusual to see a cure after one course but who knows we can live in hope.

This has been quite a short blog and the next couple of weeks are likely to be pretty uneventful so I’ll only post if I think of something interesting to say. Thank you to everyone who has been following me and the kind comments. Everyone likes a compliment but positive feedback goes a long way at the moment and I’m grateful for it.