I have recently become convinced that finding a “cardiologist” isn’t necessarily the key to success for integrating Track Your Plaque program (TYP) practice with your HMO or other types of medical care.
I lucked out and am now well on my way to 100% integration. I’m not exaggerating: If I continue to prove myself worthy, I can easily see continuous and permanent 100% integration.
I can’t go into detail at this time. At some point, I believe I’ll be able to describe the incredible support for TYP and my more general health that I worked to establish and that I’ve found within my HMO.
In short, I have found a local TYP program Jedi Master to assist me under the tutelage of Dr. William “Yoda” Davis.
For now, what I can say is that I believe getting help from ANY medical professional who is already familiar with TYP or is open to new ideas is more important than that they be a cardiologist or even a doctor. I DID luck out. I lucked out incredibly. But I also followed a particular path, without understanding the full implications of what I was doing, that made the odds of things going well much higher. Let me explain…
(image courtesy of msn.com)
Before I begin, let me say this. I’m NOT saying that the roadmap I used is the only path to finding your own TYP Jedi Master. I’m just going to describe the roadmap that I used in the last 6 weeks and believe might be useful to you in your search for your own TYP Jedi Master.
First, I got clear about where I really wanted to go.
Should meetups with Cardiologists really be the goal? No, absolutely not. If Dr. Davis’ assessment of the state of mind of his cardiologist colleagues at his blog is accurate, then, the odds are slim that you’re going to find a cardiologist within your HMO or even outside your HMO who is familiar with TYP or is even much interested in finding out about it.
These cardiologists think they know everything and if they haven’t heard about it that can only mean that it must not be important right?
I now believe that looking for the “right cardiologist” will turn out to be a dead end 98% of the time. Ok. I’m exaggerating I admit. That path will lead to failure only 95% of the time.
But there are other medical professionals who are much more likely to be open to new ideas and they can also be an information source for using HMO services more effectively, even in support of TYP.
To summarize this first point… Don’t get stuck thinking you need to find a particular kind of doctor or even a doctor to help you. Be open and think instead about the goal of 100% TYP integration with your more general health care services and work toward that.
Milestone two… Establish some good numbers.
After 3 months of following the TYP program, I was able to establish some numbers in my medial record that, so now I’m told, weren’t unique in their improvement but, were surprising enough that they double checked my blood.
I’m NOT saying you need to have that kind of improvement to get more attention. I am saying that the more improvement related to TYP that you can put on the table in the form of real data that your HMO itself created, the more seriously you’ll be taken at Milestone four…
Milestone three… Tell your story and prove yourself worthy by helping others.
I tell you no lie. Jedi Masters are lurking at the TYP forum and at Dr. Davis’ blog. They are everywhere.
And, get this: They’d love to find you as much as you’d love to find them.
But it turns out that Jedi Masters are busy people and they can’t look for you in every nook and cranny of the internet. They care about people’s health and helping them deal with their diseases more effectively. And, by the way, you’re not the only person they can help.
So, how can you make it easy for them to get to know you? How can you make the case to them, before you even know who they are, that they SHOULD take an interest in you?
Well, one way to increase the odds of getting their assistance is that you make an effort to become a part of the TYP community, either at the TYP forum or at Dr. Davis’ blog.
Tell your story. Do some research to help someone else you don’t even know with a question. Give someone else feedback about an issue you know something about. Be positive. Take control by believing that your action can make a positive difference in your own life and in the lives of other people.
Dr. Davis, somewhere, I can’t recall–I’m almost positive it was at his blog–made the point that taking action to help others can make a big difference for the good in your own life.
I can confirm that my putting out time and energy along the lines described above helped my newly acquired Jedi Master know who I was before he found me.
Milestone four… Create a dilemma for your Primary Care Physician to shoehorn TYP into your health care.
Wow! Just about a month ago I wrote about my intention to use my blood test number improvements to try to shoehorn the Track Your Plaque program into my HMO’s medical care.
What I did was simple. I made the case to my Primary Care Physician that the improvement in my numbers had to do with my participation in TYP and that I wanted to be sure that my participation in the program was integrated into my HMO health care.
Really! That is what I told him. And his job is to look after me and he can’t argue that I shouldn’t do the TYP program because my numbers have improved so much so what’s he going to do?
In my case, he recommended that I see a specialist for follow up and that led to other and better things…
Milestone five… Get serious and do what is necessary to prove how serious you are.
Just 4 weeks ago, before I met with the specialist for follow up, I prepared a document that provided an overview of my current cardiac status.
My intention is to take an updated copy of that document to every doctors appointment I have from here on out having to do with heart disease and/or diet.
Now you may say: If I prepare a document looking something like that, I don’t know where it will lead. I don’t know what they’ll do with it.
And you’re right, you don’t know where it will lead. I don’t know completely where the document I prepared will lead me.
Here’s the thing… You want your HMO to take your understanding of what TYP can do for you seriously. Well, then, you’re going to increase the probability of doctors and others taking you seriously the more serious you prove that you are about TYP and your own health. It’s just that simple.
At the risk of being repetitive, let me say that what you’re looking to do is to get your improved numbers into the system and let your doctors know that the reason the numbers are improving is because of TYP.
Then you tell them that what you really need is support for the program that is helping you to achieve these great numbers.
Milestone six… Be flexible and don’t give up.
I did luck out. My newly appointed Jedi Master was in place and ready. Sheesh was I lucky. But I also took the steps I mention above which turned out to be important in helping me to find him and helping him to know who I was even before I found him.
If you live in an urban or otherwise metropolitan area, I’ll bet there are a dozen Jedi Masters ready, willing, and able to assist you if only you knew about them and they knew about you.
Be flexible about who that Jedi Master is and what role they play in your health care organization. Remember: Luke Skywalker had expectations about what a Jedi Master ought to look like and what kind of “being” a Jedi had to be before he met Yoda and his expectations were shattered. So were mine before I met my new Jedi Master.
Finally, don’t give up looking. The odds are very small that the Jedi Master you finally find will be a cardiologist and you’ve got to figure that you’ll need to meet with 5 to 25 medical professionals before you find him or her.
May the Track Your Plaque Force be with you!
January 18th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
While I understand the rare need for a member of the medical establishment, I also believe that it is even more important to take solid control of your health. As you and Dr. D have described many times, we are all quite aware of the changes which need to be made to acheive vibrant health and regression of disease. Trying to plead with a doctor to help guide you in your journey (which should be a desire and goal of theirs), is most often futile, as you don’t represent a medical ‘cash cow’ for them.
Take control of your own destiny Jedi Knight, and utilize our SAD health system only where it shines supreme… in essential emergency services.
May the force be with you!
January 18th, 2008 at 3:08 pm
Hi John Phillip,
I agree with you completely about the need for taking control even if it means ignoring what your doctor says.
However, it turns out also that I have found a local Jedi Master who knows more than I do about a lot of things and yet, like Dr. Davis, is open to new and better ideas. This Jedi is willing to work with me on detailed diet and blood test result issues and can also order blood tests and prescribe medications all within my health plan.
I am as surprised as anyone that I lucked out and found someone who works in a way that we expect that our health care s