I had been wondering about the doctor’s visit, why was it that he came across so friendly and supportive “we have your back”, when it was clear to me that he had no idea what I was talking about, that he had not read, and had no intention of reading, the two books I was talking about? Why was I inclined to still think he was genuinely interested in being supportive when I could see he wasn’t?
The Games They Play
I have been avoiding to talk about the elephant in the room but I think can no longer avoid it.
Burns was tasked by the director of care to assess my mental condition, ostensibly to determine if I was capable of managing/administerìng my own medication. Why this even was a consideration I will discuss briefly in the next section as it is vital background information.
The Director of Care
This was a follow-up of the altercation I had with a nurse. The director of care said that he thought the only way to avoid having similar incidents happening again was that I should be responsible for looking after my own medication.
I did not agree with him but having tried to have a conversation with him previously I did not think it worth arguing about and I had to follow this up in writing myself.
I have already said what I thought of their management style and avoiding putting things in writing.
There should have been an enquiry into the incident and the nurses be given appropriate corrective training. But that was not done. I heard from some of the staff that the nurse had given a statement, which I from what I was told I believe was incorrect but I had never seen it or was asked for my statement concerning the event.
At the start of this saga, I had written to the director of care stressing again the importance of timely administration of Parkinson’s medication, and, as it was international Parkinson’s Day, I offered to give his staff a lecture on the physiology of Parkinson’s as it relates to the timing medication.
He declined, or rather he simply did not reply. At time I assumed that he was too busy. Maybe he thought what did I know anyway?
But if I had been allowed to give the lecture to the nurses at the time, with the support of management, the incident with the nurse would not have happened.
Dr Burns Visit
I was told by the director of care that he would ask Dr Burns to certify that I could administer my own medication.
Burns knows very well that I can. I had done that for years. So thankfully he did not bother to quiz me on my knowledge of pharmacology or if i could recognize the pills. He did give me the urine test lab report to read which I thought was a humorous touch, he’s human too..
He spent several minutes being friendly, saying how impressed he was with the effort I had put in to get to know Parkinson’s. They were trying to accommodate me by allowing me to administer my own medication but this was so difficult and out of the ordinary. Perhaps we should only do the Parkinson’s part and the pharmacist would still have blister-pack it.
I was a bit mean but I said that as he knows from the new treatment book, more flexibility is needed than is possible with the blister-pack approach.
So again I don’t know what his assessment was. I don’t know what is being planned, and I have nothing in writing!
While I have spent a lot of time documenting the events, they will have limited value in future because of their one-sidedness.
Further Musings
I would have left it there if it was not so serious. How does one determine if a person is sane? For one, the person doing the assessment must be sane and have the professional standing to do such an assessment.
Parkinson’s is known to cause delusions, illusions and hallucinations. So if one said, or even wondered aloud if “they” were out to get you? Then there you go, you are deluded!
So if we assume for the sake of argument they were really out to get you, how do you know that you are not indeed delusional?
This is a valid question and not easy to deal with. You have to construct a series of tests and traps. But be sure to know you can’t trust anyone, not even yourself…