I received a very encouraging and thoughtful email from an informed reader last week. I asked for her permission to share it here on my blog. Here it is (Copied and pasted):
Dear Dr. Sapkota:
I found your blog while searching for useful information for my friend whose elderly dad was just admitted with pneumonia, sepsis, and renal failure after a few days of some unusual fatigue and hallucinations followed a fall yesterday. He is fit and active and had had a cold a few weeks ago. He is now on a ventilator, iv fluids and abt, and they have been given a prognosis which improved from a 5% chance of survival yesterday to a 15% chance today. Your information was by far the most useful I found, for the way you explained disease process and atypical presentations in the elderly: thank you!
I love your book idea, and I love your patient centered approach to diagnosis, and I love your analysis of the new cholesterol treatment guidelines. I am thrilled to see a focus on prevention of heart disease as the big picture, comprising lifestyle changes as well as pharm. I would like to know more about your book and when it will be available. I agree that the vast amount of internet information – even the factually accurate and non-marketing-driven information – presented without context or point of view is problematic.
I became a nurse practitioner midlife after a career as a television writer for one of the MTV Networks, which was eating my soul. I love what I do now, and am amazed at how much of the work of primary care is about decreasing health illiteracy enough that the patient will not only take their medication for newly diagnosed hypertension, but also refill it when they run out in order to keep taking it, and also return for follow up in two weeks rather than a year and half when they get a bad headache again.
I agree with you: even the most limited patient can understand a complicated problem if you explain it correctly. I love that you are willing to take the time to do this! You are a pretty good writer, as well as – clearly – an excellent and passionate doctor, and I will look forward to reading your book, so please add me to your list!
With kindest regards,
Lisa DeLille Bolton, RN, FNP
Community Outreach Family Nurse Practitioner
Nashville General Hospital at Meharry