McSleepy wrote: . . . you have the right to expect, demand, . . .
I agree 100%. And by the same token, of course, a doctor has a right (in some specific circumstances, anyway) to refuse to treat me at all if I am asking him to do something he is not comfortable with or if he feels threatened by what I attempt to do in conjunction with his treatment. BUT, that said, the doc has NO right to hide information from me that is needed for me to make informed decisions about treatments he recommends should be administered to the body that belongs to me.
McSleepy wrote: . . . a doctor who tries to micromanage the patient . . .
It is not micromanaging for a doctor to offer his help. That is his job, offering to be helpful. But it is nevertheless illegal for him to attempt to force his help on me or to deny me the opportunity to look elsewhere for help or to deny me the opportunity to help myself.
McSleepy wrote: . . if you expect that to be turned into a rule . . .
Actually, the point is that it is
already a rule--just a rule that too many patients are sadly unaware of.
I hope no one misreads your words and concludes that there are no rules in place to protect patients' rights to have a say in their own treatment. Patients
already have the right to decide for themselves what they will and will not accept and will and will not do in conjunction with any doctor's recommendations. For example, to use your own analogy, a doc can only write the Rx for the pill. He cannot force you to buy it or force you to take it in the dosage he recommends. And in most cases, he would be jailed if he forced it down your throat if you are a conscious, rational, adult patient. Furthermore, most OTC drugs are much, much, much more dangerous that a few-cm change in airway pressure to optimize PAP therapy.
The big problem is that too many patients are asserting their rights to refuse PAP therapy completely because they find it uncomfortable or ineffective at the pressure(s) prescribed. And they have the legal right to refuse it, although there could be legal repercussions if they operate heavy machinery. The better situation would be that, instead of asserting their right to refuse it altogether, they would use that very same legally-protected right to find a pressure that was comfortable and effective for them themselves.
Do you see my point that any argument that a patient has no right to change pressures is also an argument that a patient has no right to quit using the machine, which is something no one believes?
In review, if a patient has the right to refuse CPAP and to suffer the consequences, then obviously a patient has the right to refuse 12 cm and accept 13 cm or 11 cm, especially if that saves his life and makes that life worth living, regardless of what some pouty, lousy doc might think about that legally-protected choice.
I repeat: Patients, you have no need to fill out a form to assert your rights to choose whether or not you accept PAP or at what level. You already have that right. Just use it. It is nice when a doc respects your rights and continues to be helpful once he finds out you are participating in your therapy. Good docs will do exactly that. Always. They may be willing to make pressure decisions without you, but it is illegal for them to do so without your permission, just as it would be illegal for them to make your medication decisions independent of you by forcing pills down your throat without your permission.
