How are you feeling?
It is a loaded question and one I never like answering. I see nuance in the answer, where others seek a black and white answer. Usually that question is a check in statement. The asker expects a quick yes and no more. But for me I hear, how are you in relation to your last infusion, pain in my hands, back pain, blood sugar, pump set, carbs eaten at lunch, bicycle ride, and TV schedule for the night. In order to answer truthfully I have to juggle a lot.
So as an example let me offer a truthful answer; my blood sugar is 153, my pump set is due for a change, the infusion was fine, but now I am lapsing back to normal, the weather is a little cool so bicycling may not work out today. I have yet to have lunch and oh Pawn stars is on tonight. So given all of that let’s say ‘fair’.
Filters
No one wants to hear any of this, so I filter the information and arrive at fine or wonderful, maybe even a little tough. Even if Practical Jokers is on TV and I had a nice (high carb lunch) but now I am paying for it, but my RA is doing pretty good, I might answer great. But no one thinks I am evaluating any of this before my trite single word answer. Even wants the bottom line one word short and sweet pat answer; ‘fine’.
With my filter on full bore I usually select from the following answers to this question. 1. Fine, 2. (my favorite) grouchy, 3. Feeling good, 4 a little tough today. Number 4 is reserved for a bad TV evening. I know they are not asking about the TV schedule but with such a broad question, I figure I can include anything I want and weight it as I see fit.
All of this gets more complicated when the doctor asks how are you doing? I still factor in all this stuff, but I also have to include and make more important the medical items. So when the doctor says how are you doing Rick, I have to measure things like pain, stiffness, A1C, back pain, energy, sleep, the movie I saw last week, what might be on TV and if I need to get home to walk the dog. This is not an easy answer to hand out. Faced with this uncertainty I usually go to answer #1 ‘fine’. It seems that number is usually the most logical choice. I am sure the dog will be OK, the movie was good, I can’t sleep but my joints are only somewhat hurting. Taken all together I guess I am fine.
The trouble is the doctor does not really want to know about my perceptions of the TV schedule (even as insightful as they are). So is there a good way to talk to my doctor about what she really wants to know? I found something that is so cool, I hope you will try it out.
Arthritis Power Registry
It is called the Arthritis Power Registry (APR) and you will find it under the research hub on CreakyJoints . The benefit of using it are twofold. First the data you enter will be combined so researchers can discern trends, work on treatments, or target the development of RA drugs. But also you can use the data you enter to take to your doctor and show them you participated in a scientific study (usually a plus) and these are the results from daily or weekly tracking of symptoms. These symptoms include joint pain, sleep, activity and social interaction. All markers of how we are doing with our RA treatment. While the data is a self-evaluation of disease outcomes, it is these perceptions of disease that the doctor is asking us about when they ask how we are doing.
I have answered the evaluation questions five times, and each time I discover something new about my disease and how I am functioning with it. I really enjoy that I can take the results to my doctor so when she asks ‘how I am doing’ I have a great answer both on paper from APR and I can add in my internal more comprehensive perceptions (like how Sanjaya is doing on American idol).
Continuing research
If that is not cool enough there is more. As I track my results a partnership of researchers at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), The Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI), Corrona, A private physician research group and CreakyJoints researchers, will receive the data in bulk and be able to discern population outcomes for participants. So your data is useful to you, your doctor, and RA researchers pursuing disease outcomes. This is cool stuff.
Now if APR could just track the popularity of TV shows, movies and sporting events we would really have something? Perhaps if my beloved Indiana Hoosiers win my mood will have an uptick, I will sleep better. However if Hard Core Pawn is canceled I might be depressed and feel worse. Come to think of it, with all that stuff going on, I might turn out to be ‘fine’. Darn I have a lot going in my mind.
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rick
Rick, I’d always like to respond by, “relative to what?”. To how I was feeling this morning, to how I felt yesterday, last week, last year.
And then you could go deeper semantically re “doing” vs “feeling”. Sometimes I am feeling like crap but doing great because I’m a trooper.
And, the larger part of the population is really not at all interested in the details of how we are doing/feeling.
So, usually I just say “okay, thanks”.
I think that for most of is with Chronic disease, we feel that way. Someone asks how I am feeling and what they really want to know is that I am fine (whatever that means). I often say that and keep going. A professor of mine called that social pleasantry, It is the social equivalent of grease in a ball bearing, it makes it roll.
For those of us with chronic disease, it is often more like sand in the gear linkage. It makes things grind to a halt if we respond as we know we want. For a little fun I often respond with ‘grouchy’. It breaks the social movement enough that it generates a laugh. Sometimes, not often, but sometimes people ask why I am so grouchy? Then I get to tell them. Otherwise, it is passed off as an odd form of social pleasantry and the day moves on. It givers me a chance to add a rare form of grease in the day, oddness. I love to find oddness in my life and spread it around, it is a harmless amusement. I mean unless I get punched, but so far it has only made folks uncomfortable not angry.
Rick! I’m not sure how I stumbled across this random post from 2015 but it made me smile. I’m still smiling. We all answer that question on autopilot, it’s a conversation starter and a polite greeting. In England they shorten the question to a simple “alright?”. The first time I was ever greeted that way, it startled me. “yeah, why?” was my prompt response.
I might also mention the random fact that I actually once owned an “Indiana Hoosiers” baseball cap, a souvenir I picked up while visiting my cousin on an army base in Louisiana in 1985. At the time, I had no idea what it meant, I just liked the way it looked.
Hope this made you smile. 🙂
Alana anyone who wore or wears an Indiana University hat is tops in my book. For years I only wore IU hats. I am glad you found my little post. I still say grouchy more than anything else and it still get the same reaction. Sheryl says I need a new pat answer. So I am trying a few out. Happy. Mean, about how I look (with a grouchy or happy face), and I have been known to throw in a random fact like “I feel like a landfill – Dumped on”. The last on still needs some work. Delivery is everything.