TRUST

It seems like a joke day, so here goes:

Two brothers, both mobsters, had lived pretty seedy lives and both had spent time in prison. While they each had made a lot of money, they knew one day their reckless lives would catch up with them. Sure enough, one day the youngest brother got knocked off by a hitman from a rival mob.

After finishing up making arrangements at the mortuary, the older brother headed to the church to make final arrangements there. He pulled the minister aside and said, “Listen, I want my brother to be remembered as a good guy. I will make a large donation to your church if you promise to say my brother was a saint during your eulogy.” The minister agreed and just as promised, the mobster made a large donation to the church.

The day of the funeral arrived and the church was full of people paying their final respects. The minister performed the eulogy, but near the end, he said, “This man was a sinner. He was a scoundrel, a liar, a thief, and took advantage of everyone he could, but next to his brother, he was a saint.”

What’s this have to do with Myasthenia Gravis? Not much, but you know how I’ll do anything to make you laugh. Laughter is good medicine, especially for those of us with MG. There are a couple of lessons we might learn from this joke, however.

First, the older brother tried to paint his brother’s life as different than it actually was. He didn’t want people to remember his brother as a bad guy, so he tried to cover it up.

I’ve been guilty of sugar-coating or not sharing everything with my doctor during appointments. Some of it was ego and some of it was because I was afraid my doctor would think I was a whiner if I told him everything. How crazy is that? The one person who really needs to know the truth, and I try to tell him life is full of unicorns and rainbows. Withholding information from your doctor only makes their job more difficult.

The second thing I learned from this joke was, like the minister, don’t agree to do something with the full intention of not doing it or hedging on what you agreed to do.

When my doctor tells me I need to exercise, telling him I will but not following through doesn’t help my condition. In fact, failure to do so will most likely lead to my symptoms getting worse. If I have no intention of following his instructions, why am I even showing up for the appointment? If there’s a reason I don’t think I’m going to be able to follow through with his instructions, then I owe it to him to have that discussion rather than lead him to believe I will adhere to them.

It all comes down to this. With Myasthenia Gravis, or any other chronic condition, the relationship you develop with your doctor is crucial. You need to be able to trust your doctor and he or she needs to be able to trust you. That includes being honest when answering their questions or sharing our intentions, even it if makes us uncomfortable doing so.

The relationship you share with your doctor has to be built on trust. You have to be willing to provide them with ALL the information they need to make a proper assessment and develop a plan of treatment and they need to be able to depend on you to follow through on items you’ve agreed to. Likewise, you need to be able to trust your doctor is listening to your concerns, properly assessing your condition, and selecting the best possible plan of treatment for you. This only happens when you’re open and honest with each other.

Trust. It requires honesty, effort, and commitment, but the benefits are so worth it.