“I BROKE MY FEMUR.” My friend Barb lives in Texas and told me the news over the phone. She has MS and tripped over a chair leg while going out for dinner. I asked her if she had a cast on it, and she said the doctor and therapist wanted her to spend time with bed rest before they began her protocol of casting it and doing physical therapy. She did not know when her therapy would start, and neither did her medical team. She spent weeks at home before she was called to do physical therapy.
Another friend was waiting to get a confirmation of a doctor’s appointment, hoping to get in earlier than her scheduled appointment. She was waiting for a cancellation. She waited by the phone for two days.
So, what’s the big deal about time? Time is important to us. Our lives are filled with work, family activities, cooking and maintaining our homes, and, perhaps, a little break to have dinner with friends or watch a movie. We live packed lives and often remark that, “I just don’t know where the time goes” or “There just isn’t enough time in a day to get everything in!”
Life changed dramatically when the light bulb came into people’s lives. People used to go to bed when the sun went down and awaken when the sun rose. When our days had added hours due to illumination, we extended our days and packed them with more things to do. We could shop at night, attend more church and social activities, and add more events to do since we gained more usable time.
When we have to wait for anything, we might stress out about getting everything in. Our medical time world is probably filled with appointments, which can lead to more appointments. Our doctor can tell us to get another x-ray, blood test, or MRI. We have to schedule those, plus get transportation to the facility, if we need to take medication before the test. A basic checkup at the doctor could lead to weeks or months of follow-throughs. What leads to our stress is that we wonder if our appointments will be on time, if we get a cancellation call, or if we have to wait an hour for transport after the appointment.
It’s not just going to medical procedures that overwhelms us—it’s the fact that going to a doctor for an ache or pain can mean weeks or months of more appointments. We can be overwhelmed when we realize that finding out what is causing a pain will take months of appointments! That is a real time commitment.
Another time-restricting medical experience is if we have to be hospitalized or spend some time in rehab or a nursing home. Our schedule is not our own. From meal times to physical, occupational, and speech therapy time, to activity time, we are very busy. Add to that the fact that our bodies heal at their own rate. Our new knees or hips will heal—but not as quickly as we might have hoped. After all, we want to get home, get back to work, or just feel better as soon as we can! We have places to go and people to meet!
Why does medical time stress us? It interrupts what we want to do. We might have scheduled a family birthday dinner or a church event and miss it because we are running late. Everyone has to deal with health appointments. There are dentists to see, eye doctors and appointments for glasses, dermatologists, endocrinologists, and orthotists (a healthcare professional who makes and fits braces and splints for people who need added support for body parts that have been weakened by injury or disease). Those types of medical conditions can really take a lot of time for fittings, follow-up appointments, and possible appointments with yet another healthcare professional!
So, how can we manage medical time? First, it might help to admit that appointments are just a part of life, and important if we want to stay as healthy as we possibly can.
Also, it could be helpful to speak with our nurses, receptionists, and doctors and ask if there is any way we could consolidate our appointments so we do not have to come to the office two or three times. We could start using digital medicine like MyChart, and communicate by email or phone.
Time is such an integral part of our lives, and we guard it so we can use it in ways other than work and medical care. Asking our healthcare professionals to help us manage the number of times we go to their office, or if a checkup can be handled digitally or by a phone call, might decrease the times we visit the medical office. It is important to take care of our bodies and follow the doctor’s instructions, but we should consider asking if we could streamline a few medical events.
Although taking care of medical time can be frustrating, we should be grateful we have the resources to take care of our health. It would be a great (and healthy) use of our time.
Sister Karen Zielinski is the Director of Canticle Studio. Canticle Studio is a part of the Sisters of St. Francis of Sylvania, OH’s overall advancement effort and has a mission of being a creative center where artists generate works, products, and services in harmony with the mission of the Sisters St. Francis. She can be reached at kzielins@sistersosf.org or 419-824-3543. ✲
