I do exactly to the letter what I am told. As I always tell DH, "If the doctor say two steps forward, one step back, you know I will do it."

But DH is more like your husband. Once, he fell and it was obvious that he needed stitches on his head. The only way he would go to the emergency walk in was to drive himself with me as the passenger. I let him as the facility is just around the corner.

The doctors will consider you a good patient if you do whatever they tell you. I have been the advocate for a chronically ill husband for 30 years. Do not hesitate to question a medical professional . Most have not read through the patient chart enough to see what the last specialist changed or ordered. If you are the one that is really sick, you need someone there answering guestions . As an example, DH was in ICU recently, attending RN had been there two shifts. She advised DH they were giving him a light diet, he should take it easy at first since his surgery was two days ago. I said no surgery for last 20years. She argued with me. Told her read the chart. Current history right there. Her comment was well the nurse that turned him over to her told her he had surgery two days ago. I have learned to not take everything you are told to be correct all of these people were not at the top of their class.

I'm an RN. I comply with Dr's orders as long as they make sense to me, otherwise, explain. I don't think that the nurses think I'm a good pt. I know that nurses are overworked, but when when you are 1 day post op after major surgery and your IV pump is beeping for 1 1/2 hrs and you need something for pain, with your call button pressed and the light flashing outside your room, you get yourself out of bed for the 1st time without assistance, get to the door right across from the nursing station, and there are 4 staff members sitting there, one might understand that I was anything but happy with the nursing care. Word gets around the staff pretty fast, but with only their side of the story. Pretty soon you are labeled as a difficult pt.

Marilyn_brewster@hotmail.com Hi Marilyn, Jeri here. Will totally agree with you need to do everthing. I know how great you get around. Have a good trip. Mare, Your experience is like most of mine over the years. Really awful when you are a professional and know exactly what should be done.

I don't think I've ever been labeled a difficult patient, but I have been a clueless one on occasion.

When my first kid was born, they told me to get the nurse the first time I went to the bathroom so they could check for clots.

So, maybe an hour after giving birth, I needed to go to the restroom and I walked to the nurses station and told them.

They looked at me and said, "you were supposed to PAGE the nurse to HELP you to the bathroom."

Sorry, I've never done this before!! How was I supposed to know!

"....episode of non-compliance." Love it.

If I'm on antibiotics for something I will follow it to the letter. If I ever wind up on medication for age-related or chronic-issue I will follow it to the letter. However, I am a bad PT patient. I wind up in physio usually as the result of an over use injury from running but my physio, who has been taking care of my running injuries now for 15 years, knows better than to tell me to stop running. We negotiate and come to an agreement as to how much I am prepared to give up and how much he needs me to give up to fix the problem.

But I am also very prompt about going to the physio as soon as I realize I have a problem. I currently have a foot issue so the agreement is I can continue to run my normal days but only half the distance. We are both good with that. His specialty is running and dance issues and he is used to the demands of both groups of people.

Yes. I hire professionals because I haven't been through their course of studies and cannot do what they can do. Both for medical advice and legal advice. I don't hire a lawyer and pay him thousands of dollars not to listen to what he his experience has to say. And I'm not interested in having stiches in my foot for weeks instead of a week because I think it's ok to walk around on the foot I recently had surgery on. How I learned to listen ;)

"all of these people were not at the top of their class" Wow. I'm glad I don't live there.

I take a lot of medications. i try to follow all my doctors instructions as he has prescribed. I place all my meds in a weekly container so that on Sunday I know if I will need any refills. I am early for all my appointments. I try to stay informed too. I have had 2 or 3 colonoscopy's. They have gone smoothly. So far I am doing well. i have end stage renal failure. I do peritoneal dialysis at home at night. I have learned to do it by myself if my husband is not here to help me. But he is my champion and knows it all. I am a very lucky woman. I just learned how to give my self shots for insulin. I was such a baby as i was afraid of the needle. Why? It is so painless. lol Just took a few days out of town doing all of this. Here it is Monday Morning and I'm still here. Not planning to go anywhere YET.

My DH and I recently left our internist of a dozen years. He failed to offer me the Prevnar13. He failed to admit me to hospital after I was in his office two days in a row, coughing my lungs out. He had prescribed three different cough syrups over a seven-day period, none of which helped. Eighteen hours after seeing him I was admitted via the ER, dangerously weak and with a minimal oxygen count. I was in hospital four days with pneumonia.

My DH and I have always figured this guy was no whiz kid and merely 'OK', but waited too long to move on. We'd been 'assigned' him after getting a good review on the whole practice of which he was a new member.

I've been the 'good patient' too many times in my life and have been seriously harmed for it. Now I work to inform myself before blindly following orders. I'm a good patient when I have a good MD -- and I have had two very good ones in 70+ years. I'm hoping my new internist will be as good as friends have said she is. (On my first visit she administered the pneumonia vaccine.)

almost do what dr recommends and sure wouldn't mess around after a colonoscopy...let me tell you, after having 2, 6 weeks apart...i did everything by the book...dh is terrible although he's getting better...fil would rather sit in wheelchair than use walker according to service people at the nursing home but at 95, he can do what he likes...

Both of us are good patients....I use to think everyone was until I had a knee replacement and the nurses were telling me how good I was, following directions and all...I finally told them they probably say the same thing to everyone. One nurse said no, some patients are very hard to deal with...

Yes I am a good patient. I am also extremely pro active in my health care, I am constantly educating myself and following up on new information about my conditions. I have had excellent doctors in most cases, they are all very happy that I am pro active and appreciate my medical knowledge. I have been very good friends with many of them. On the rare occasion I find one that is not a good fit for me and my medical team I ask for a recommendation from one of the other docs for someone to replace them with. It's essential for every one to be on the same page and in agreement with the care and medications because I take so many it could be dangerous if they weren't all informed. If I have questions about something I don't hesitate to ask about it. I want to be as well as possible that's the end goal for all of us.