I have had several medical issues during the last few years. They have ranged from a life threatening condition to being over diagnosed for medical conditions that rarely exist.

These experiences have led me to be feel traumatized and disillusioned by our country’s health care system. I have felt powerless, hopeless, ashamed and humiliated.

There is shame attached to being ill in this country and this state of being was exacerbated by my dealings with doctors and their systems. It all adds up to self-doubt, ongoing irritability and facing a crossroad.

Instead of falling into a prolonged depression or withdrawing from life, I have decided to share steps we can all take individually and collectively to stand up to the healthcare system. I need to take my power back.

The steps you can take when you interface with the healthcare system are:

Tell your doctor that you are anxious about your visit because you have not been feeling well and you are wondering if there is something seriously wrong with you. This will alert your physician that you really want her to be sensitive and in tune with you. You may think that the doctor should be aware of this already because it is common sense. Many physicians lack good bedside manner so you have to insist on being treated respectfully and with dignity.

Bring a trusted friend or family member to your doctor’s appointment and create a list of written questions for her. Modern medical treatment allows your doctor visit to last five minutes or so. Insist the physician stay with you until he answers all your questions. Ask her if you can email or call her if you have more questions. (You will).

If you have several ailments such as gastrointestinal problems, muscle/joint pain, back pain, and headaches-ask your doctor if there could be a medical reason why you are having all these issues. What happens today is that your primary doctor will refer you to different specialists: back doctors, hip doctors, gastrointestinal specialists, neurologist and others. They will focus on one specific problem area and most likely not communicate with the other specialists that are working with you. Insist that you primary physician coordinate all these other doctors so they may be able to come up with an overall assessment as to why you are having all these issues.

Don’t allow your physician to put you through unnecessary tests. I wanted to go back to my allergy shots after being off them for a year. My allergist insisted that I needed to have a CT scan of my sinuses because I had post nasal drip before she would OK the allergy shots. I had this test and it led to several possible life threatening diagnoses. While these assessments were frightening, it turned out that I would have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than coming down with any of these potential ailments. The CT scan also exposed me to radiation that could be potentially harmful.

I should have refused to have the CT scan in the first place. Isn’t having post nasal drip a common occurrence and not something that needs to be tested? This is over diagnosis and over testing at its worst.

Don’t be afraid to refuse unnecessary testing. Confer with your friends and other folks knowledgeable about medical issues before making any decisions about testing.

Ask your doctor how you can prevent your medical condition from reoccurring and what the alternatives to taking medicine are. Will exercise help? What about dietary and life style changes?

We should put pressure on legislators for medical labs to create medicine with no side effects. It seems that it is accepted in our society that all drugs have side effects. Why should we acquiesce to this idea?

I know the use of supplements has improved the quality of my life. However, the supplement industry is unregulated and the possibility for being harmed by them is possible. Supplements also have side effects that need to be studied through regulation. We need to convince our law makers to regulate the supplement business.

Health care should be a right and not a privilege that only people of means can afford. We must demand that health care be accessible to all and that healthy people make a healthy nation.

I believe that we do get beat down by the health care system. My wife and I have a top notch, expensive health plan and I often feel that I am treated as a number to be rushed through in order for profits to increase for the shareholders of the insurance companies. If my care is supposedly first tier, what happens to patients who have less insurance coverage than me? What happens to folks who have no insurance? These are frightening thoughts and we have all know documented stories of folks who have been mistreated because of inadequate or no insurance.

It dawns on me that one of the steps I can take in my recovery of being emotionally wounded by the healthcare system is to ask that the hospital who refused to take care of me, at the time of my near death, to apologize for their mistreatment of me. I know the chance of this happening is slim, but knowing what I need here is indeed liberating.

The next step to healing is:

I want to know if any of you are interested in joining me in creating a website/blog with the main purpose of organizing people around the issues I raise in this blog. This could be a place where folks could tell their stories. I hope it could become a voice of the voiceless with enough members to help individuals navigate their way through health care dilemmas and be instrumental in creating health care policy change. I hope to hear from you.