Week 14 – Question of the Week: How do you wish your doctor would help you prep?

Week 14: 2011-06-9

Today I’m asking all readers to comment on this question:

How do you wish your doctor would help you prep?  Are there any concerns beyond stockpiling medicine?

Have you tried talking with your doctor?  Are you afraid to even broach the subject?  Has anyone tried my advice on getting your doctor to help you stockpile medicine?

Check back soon and see what your fellow readers have to say.

Image – gonococcal eye infection of the newborn

About Cynthia J. Koelker, MD

CYNTHIA J KOELKER , MD is a board-certified family physician with over twenty years of clinical experience. A member of American Mensa, Dr. Koelker holds degrees in biology, humanities, medicine, and music from M.I.T., Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, and the University of Akron. She served in the National Health Service Corps to finance her medical education.
This entry was posted in Uncategorized. Bookmark the permalink.

7 Responses to Week 14 – Question of the Week: How do you wish your doctor would help you prep?

  1. C.D. says:

    I have been lucky in that my current Primary, and most of the specialists I personally have seen have been clients of mine in my primary employment (I manage a shooting range/prep store/gun store), and thus we have all known from the outset what each other’s attitudes were on preparation for “supply chain issues”.

    As a side note, my Dr. routinely will write prescriptions for antibiotics with a refill or two. I just have to keep track and refill the prescription when I have used it. The next time that I need to take, say, Cipro, I fill the new scrip and use the old one, thus keeping my supply as fresh as possible.

  2. Jeff R says:

    I am afraid to bring this subject up. My wife requires Thyroid medication. She is a very ethical and honest person. The thought of trying to explain the whys of this request has her mortified. I fear because of our incredibly litigious society most physicians will be very averse to any such requests.

    Doc obviously you are an exception and I appreciate your work with this site.

  3. Anonymous says:

    I personally have been ethical and forthright with my personal health practitioners about preparing for medical disasters in a potential TEOTWAWKI scenario/s.
    I am sharing some personal experiences encountered here, which all relate to trials and tribulations of finding a MD who is a fellow prepper.

    Here are three occasions with three physicians.

    The sad reality is that the first, my primary caregiver, was a jewel in the rough and she closed her practice in my locale and moved far away. Although she herself had not evolved yet to the actual practice of preparing herself or her family, she acknowledged the potential increase of my concerns to be personally prepared, and validated my requests for issuing me Rx’s for broad-spectrum antibiotics for my medical storage preps. There was a long standing doctor-patient relationship here with us and one of mutual trust, professional and moral ethics. Of course my medical competency and antibiotic use prudence was a key component in her granting this Rx transaction.

    The next RX request I made was presented to a specialist I was referred to. Our relationship was short, but none the less, I was prescribed some rarer, older meds due to a personal history of chemical allergies from most of the newer diuretic preparations. Thus I had to ask this time for an extra Rx to fill for my storage preps of this newly added med. He flatly declined – even though he knows both my husband and I are medical practitioners! There was no further discussion from him on this issue. I thus had to find another specialist who would serve my needs to take care of my medication preps.

    This brought me to the latest conundrum. I was referred to another primary physician, since mine had moved away. This time, I knew to ask outright about his beliefs regarding Armageddon medicine and prepping before I even let him examine me on the initial visit. I was relieved to find an open mind and also a mutual mindset when it came to the practice of medical prepping.

    All went well until I became acutely ill with a near-syncopal episode in a public place, (I knew I was having a severe allergic medication reaction and took measures to self-medicate with an antihistamine immediately), and was transported to the ER in tachycardia. Upon negative labs, ekg’s, and 8 hrs of waiting for the second set of neg CKMB’s and my primary to end his office hours to come to see me, I was finally greeted by an unknown “partner MD” covering for my MD. My MD was off for an extended weekend. I had never met this MD before. He admitted me to the hospital. I objected, based on my personal knowledge of my medical history and that I had experienced this before, and treated myself with Benadryl and some O2, monitored my b/p and rested. We thus, would also have to change medications again.

    He became outraged at my attempts to treat myself (which by the way worked), and gave me an ultimatum that if I had not agreed to the in-patient stay, that he would remove himself from my case and that I would have to sign out, AMA.

    You know, I have treated Pt’s for 35 plus years, and I have never treated them with audacity.

    I even tried to reason with him that I was going home with another MD, my husband, and we would be fine and if I had any other untoward symptoms, my husband would have me back there in a flash. But, no. I have to stay. I felt entrapped. I was entrapped. I ended up asking again for the hospital administrator, who was also out of town, and instead was referred to the Sr. Nursing administrator, who was next in charge. She repeated the same words. They took the collaborative path of cohorts instead of listening to my plea.

    The negotiable offer was made to stay for a 24 hour obs. I complied and stayed and did not sleep a wink the entire night. I then had to wait until the 25th hour and still he never did come back to examine me. I called the administrator again to ask when I could sign myself out. He ended up writing a discharge over the phone, (verbal order), and I went home….quite angry, and had to start all over to find a new primary physician that would be compatible with my needs as a prepper.
    One week later, I received a certified CYA letter from this MD, stating he was dropping me as a patient on the basis of Mistrust in Him. Great observational skills on his part!

    What did I learn from this experience in reference to medical prepping?

    It is imperative to seek out by the reference of a friend or another MD, who you trust, to discuss if that physician or practitioner is a prepper himself. Keep searching until you find one that you can trust. Ask all the questions of whom will have access to your personal information and assigned to your care, in his/her absence? Can you sign a contract with your physician to be able to dispense a Rx to you, so you can self-medicate when you clearly (and in my case, by license), know what you’re doing, and also agree to relieve that MD from medical harm, malpractice.

    The working relationship must be based on mutual understanding, respect and trust. It will be difficult to find a fellow prepping MD, but not impossible. When you do find that MD, honor him or her by referring others to them.

  4. marilyn says:

    I wish I felt comfortable even bringing this up with my doctor. A couple through the years I felt that way about, but not now. I’ve experience with records that have influenced future doctor opinions! I’m not taking a chance with that again. More need to have an open mind like you do. I appreciate your blog very much!!!

Leave a Reply to C.D. Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *