Please note: this transcript is not 100% accurate.
Dr. Meenal Agarwal 0:00
We have to take our health in our own hands. This is Dr. Meenal and welcome to Uncover Your Eyes, where we uncover reality. As a mom and eye doctor, I want to know it all. Taking your health or healthcare in your own hands. Is that really that bad? No, I think that’s what we all need to do. Now, we need to take our health in our own hands. I don’t know if it’s the healthcare system that’s strained, or doctors are overworked, or things have gotten worse post-COVID. But I feel like there’s not enough room for the regular ailments that we used to have. There’s not enough room to accommodate us. When I call my doctor, sometimes it takes months to get an appointment for a regular ailment. So what’s going on? You know, despite the shift in healthcare, to becoming more proactive, and more preventative, for some reason, I still find that we’re not told about our problems until we’re past borderline. Being borderline is not enough to be making those proactive or preventative health care treatment plans. That’s scary. So we have to wait until we develop that ailment, and not be borderline for us to get the attention that we need for our problems or health concerns. So of course, then we’re going to take our healthcare in our own hands, we have no other choice. Are we going to fight for our healthcare? What are we going to do? Well, I think most of us end up turning to Dr. Google. I don’t know if that’s such a bad thing. I mean, I used to tell my patients, you know, don’t google everything. But I myself find that I’m always constantly googling things, especially when I can’t get help from a health care professional or provider for that concern. I’m googling. When my child has a high temperature for a certain number of days, I’m googling is that worrisome? How many days? Do they need to have a high temperature for before I take them to the hospital? Or what should that temperature be before I take them to the hospital? Can I alternate Advil and TYLENOL? How often how long. Recently, one of my children fell and her cut his lip pretty badly. I didn’t know if he needed stitches. I couldn’t get in touch with our healthcare provider. So I ended up googling it. How to know when your child needs stitches for a cut. It answered me. He is healed now. But I also find myself googling things about myself. What creams should I use for Eczema? How should I help my under eye bags? My knees are hurting today. So should I use ice? Or should I use heat? I’m googling things all the time, whether it’s for my family, myself, or my parents, most of us who are in that sandwich generation, find ourselves pressed for time as well. We’re working parents, and we have to run a household. So can we always be accommodated at our healthcare providers office or clinic? No. Sometimes we don’t have the time. So we rather just google it and see if it’s serious enough, right? I know, essentially, we should be calling our local telehealth line. But sometimes I find that they direct me to the hospital. Do I really want to wait six to eight hours or more at a hospital? Just the thought of that drains me? So I would rather turn to Dr. Google and see should I be going to the hospital or not. I also find those very helpful urgent care clinics that have started opening up everywhere. And sometimes that’s great. And sometimes I find when I get there, especially for a broken arm or a broken leg for the kids or a sprained ankle. The things I need are closed, the X-ray is closed, or the person that’s supposed to take bloodwork is not there. So then I’m stuck again. So then I end up turning to Dr. Google. Can you blame us? No. So, I’m torn. Because as a health care professional, yes, I don’t want all my patients turning and believing Google about everything. But at the same time, when they’re in a bind, and when I’m not around, and when they need that urgent help, sometimes it’s all they have. Sometimes it’s all I have. I think, in the end, we have to take care of ourselves. We have to care about our own health, obviously, the health of our children, our partners, our parents, and of course, friends, we have to take our health in our own hands. A patient of mine, who is an emergency doctor at a local hospital, has been seeing me routinely for years for eye exams. Everything has always been good. One year, I noticed his prescription had shifted quite significantly, which is abnormal for his age range, and just abnormal for the trend he had been having over the years. So I asked him, you know, have you had a checkup with your family doctor recently? Do you have a family doctor? I mean, you are a doctor. But have you had one? And he kind of shied away and said to me, No, I haven’t had one in the last few years. And I said, Okay, what I’m going to ask you to do is I mean, you’re going to be working soon. Can you have one of the nurses take your bloodwork? And check if your sugars are high? Because as optometrists, we know that sometimes shifts in prescription can be correlated to higher sugar levels. So he said, Oh, do I really have to? And I said, I really would. I mean, of course, I’m going to recommend your physical and you know that. But you have to take your health in your own hands, because no one else is going to, you’re taking everyone else’s health on. But you need to look after yourself. So he ended up going back to the hospital when his shift started. And having his sugars checked. The next day he called me and his sugars were over 15. I think it was something close to 20. Actually, he was in shock. Then he revealed to me, his father had Type 1 jJuvenile Diabetes, so he must have been at high risk for it. Was it denial, I don’t know. But he found out that his sugars were high, and he needed to be put on insulin urgently. And he was thankfully his prescription ended up settling down. And he was very thankful that I pushed him to take his health in his own hands. But that’s a learning lesson for all of us. Whether you’re a patient listening, or whether you’re a health care provider, or health care professional, take your health in your own hands. Make sure that you are getting those checkups that you need. Make sure that you are reaching out to your health care providers or to Dr. Google, if you really have to the make sure that you are following up on your health checks. And when you’re told you’re borderline, try to ensure that there are proactive steps that are taken for you to prevent that disease onset. I was also told a while ago that I had good sugars, so I believed it. But then one day, I decided I’m going to just log on to the portal and check. I usually don’t, but I will. And when I looked at the range where my sugar was, and what was borderline diabetes, or borderline sugars, I fell in that range. Well, when I saw that, that’s when I knew I had to take my health in my own hands, because no one’s going to tell me until I developed diabetes. So I decided to take those proactive steps learn more about my sugar levels, learn more about what I can do to help myself to be there and be healthy for my children, my family, my parents, everyone. Again, an example of taking your health in your own hands. So if you haven’t had a physical in many years, or you haven’t seen your eye doctor in many years, or you haven’t seen your dentist in many years, please ensure that you are seeing your healthcare providers for everything and making sure that your overall health is taken care of. Because if you don’t do it, no one else will do it for you. Thank you, listeners and viewers, for tuning in. If you want to catch more episodes of Uncover Your Eyes, make sure to Follow or Subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and on YouTube. To learn more about me, follow me on Instagram @Dr.MeenalAgarwal. Until next time, keep those eyes uncovered!