Finding Connections in Waiting Room C

I was recently in a waiting room for a respirology follow-up appointment for my severe asthma and I came across a wonderful patient experience moment. I have been fortunate to only need 6 month follow-up appointments as of late. It was the usual process of going off to Waiting Room C after spirometry. I previously had asthma follow up appointments with more complex sputum inductions, FeNo, or breathing tests. It was nice to have a simple and quick spirometry this time.

When I arrived at the waiting room it was full and I had originally taken a seat near the door, I soon discovered that I was in the way of people getting in and out of the door. I decided to move to a seat on the other side of the room. Waiting rooms always feel a bit awkward but usually I just settle into them.

Hearing perspectives

There was a patient who was speaking with another patient about their health journey and it was challenging to not eavesdrop since it was such a small room. I was inspired by their positive outlook when discussing their treatment options and how optimistic their perspective was.

It made me think of how important these patient interactions are. I had not approached this appointment as prepared as I usually am, although I had been mostly stable. I knew that there may be some medication tweaks or a decision to restart a medication that I had some issues with in the past and I was going to need to face that decision. I was nervous about making this decision, however, hearing about how the other patient embraced their difficult decisions was helpful.

Making connections: Applying a new perspective to my asthma journey

While there is no perfect formula for decision making, they placed a high value on certain aspects of their quality of life and indicated this is how they made decisions. For them, being pain free was important and their guiding principle.

If I applied a similar principle to my asthma goals and treatment plan, I would put a high value on being as free of prednisone as possible because it interfered with me feeling like myself. My second priority would be my ability to participate in physical activity.

In my experience, you have to own your treatment decisions and my heart felt one way and common sense felt like the other direction. With this decision, I felt like there was a decision that was best for me and then one that was perhaps medically best. Why don't the medication commercials show how stressful these decisions can be?

This took me back to a question that my specialist had proposed to me, that I would need to determine which symptoms I could live with. The patient in the waiting room was discussing this exact situation and how their decisions came down to how they needed to feel confident in their decision and what was best for them. Even if the decision strayed from what may have been preferred by some.

Hearing how another patient also felt conflicted at one time about their decision but was able to reframe their priorities and understand they were making the best decision for themselves helped.

I realized that I needed to adjust my outlook and know that I will make the right decision and know that many patients go through the same thing.

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