The English patient

When am I going to get to stop being patient? Chris isn't the only patient here, unfortunately. I am thinking about this a lot recently. Interestingly, the French word for waiting is "patienter." To wait and wait and wait.

The chances of Chris not being a psychiatric patient while still on medications are nil. The obvious explanation to many is that if you are a psychiatric patient, by implication you are mentally ill. The less obvious explanation is that taking an antipsychotic guarantees you are a psychiatric patient because psychiatrists are the only ones who can write the prescription. So, in my darker moments, I can see Chris being a psychiatric patient for years and having to rearrange his life to suit the office hours of his psychiatrist. Why would a psychiatrist kill the goose that lays the golden egg? Because psychiatrists are involved in the arcane area of your mind, it is difficult to point to anything and proclaim victory, unlike, say, with a course of antibiotics. This can work to their advantage. What's the rush, after all?

Today Chris trotted off to the family doctor for an ECG. An ECG? Whatever for? This time it is harder for me to find out what's going on because now, in addition to his psychiatrist, we have added a doctor I have never met who oversees the meds. She has recommended an ECG for Chris. Once you go down the slippery slope of meds, one thing leads to another, and the next thing you know, you're having to gets tests to check on the meds and who knows what else. I am not at all happy that we now have two doctors mucking around with Chris. Come to think of it, it's three, with the family doctor. The psychiatrist I can accept for a limited period of time. Her professed aim is to have Chris no longer be a patient and she claims that she does not believe in meds for long periods of time. We'll see. . . .