Mom Needs to Talk to Her Doctor Right?

I initially thought of telling her to talk to the doctor, but decided against it due to privacy issues. Under the HIPPA law if someone has stated that they don't want their relatives talking to the doctor about their medical problems the doctor will not be able to discuss the problem with that person even though a person can leave a message of concern. The other risk is that if the patient doesn't want their family talking to the doctor about them and the doctor starts discussing with the patient something that they heard from a family member that patient can file a complaint with the Office of Civil Rights which is through the Department of Health and Human Services. If after the investigation is done and it is proved that the doctor was in violation of the patient's privacy even for the sake of family they can get in to a lot of trouble including a very hefty fine. And even if there is no risk of violation of the law and the doctor wants to treat the patient, the patient as long as they are capable of making their own decisions does not have to comply with treatment recommendations.

In the end, it is every person's decision (as long as they are capable of making the decision) whether or not they are going to talk to their doctor about problems and then after doing so decide whether or not they are going to agree to the treatment plan. If the patient is not willing to agree to the treatment plan they must let that be known to the doctor so that the issue can be handled a different way. There are a lot of things I would like to tell my mom's doctors about her as far as her Diabetes because of concern but can't with some of them because of the way she signed the privacy issue. And they can't make her do the right things for her Diabetes even if they did talk to me about it. I had to fight for the past year to get her to go to a Podiatrist for care of her feet as it has been over a year since she has been to a Podiatrist at all, and even then when she went it was only for other problems with her feet that were unrelated to the Diabetes. The doctor that she was going to for those problems is also supposed to be very knowledgeable about Diabetes (knew this based on the information I saw on his page that is connected to the group that he is part of because it has a consent form on there that Diabetic patients get with information about Diabetes and then it says in the part with the consent that the patient agrees to let the doctor take care of their corns, callouses, and nails) but did not push mom hard enough to come in and be checked if not for that but to be evaluated once a year. If he had done so for the past several years we would have known about the Neuropathy she has. It's not in a position where her feet are without sensation but she does have some of the tingling. We didn't know that she had this part until almost 2 years ago when she was having a first consultation with the Oncology Department at Mayo Clinic after she got diagnosed with breast cancer. During the exam when they were checking everything is how I found out that she had the Neuropathy.

I have tried to get her to understand that she must wear shoes in the house but she won't do it on a regular basis. Not even at times when she would wear socks like in the winter. And even though I have gotten her to go back to Podiatry (she has chosen to go to my Podiatrist because of the way he has helped me-I went for other problems with my feet), and gotten her to check her blood sugar when she starts to notice symptoms of lows before she starts to eat something to bring it up so that we know what the number is I can't get her to wear shoes in the house and I can't get her to take better care of her Diabetes. So the lesson I learned the hard way over the years is that while I am very concerned about her wellbeing with this disease I can't force her to do something she doesn't want to do. If she doesn't want to take better care of herself so that she doesn't have complications from this disease that is her choice. Daughter of Type 2 Insulin Dependent Diabetic.