Our own Dr. Centor writes in his blog today about “the process.” It really hit home after seeing a patient today who never seems to make progress on his weight loss and diabetes goals.  We are constantly telling (berating) our patients to make major changes- quit smoking, eat less, exercise more, and on and on.  I feel like a broken record, and a frustrated broken record at that. And they never seem to take our advice.  But, as Dr. C opines, the result is not what is important, it’s the process.  As long as you are moving the ball down the field, you are doing good work. 

Each opportunity to work with our patients gives us a chance to espouse better lifestyle choices, better medication adherence, better processes. Our words are not magic. Sometimes they work; sometimes they just add another piece of straw. We must learn to focus on the process. We must try different motivational tactics. But we owe it to our patients to try, even if we believe that our actions are futile.
He makes a great point, and you should check it out the whole thing, as I haven’t done it justice.  http://www.medrants.com/archives/7401#comments

 Keep it up, and one day you will get that patient that quits smoking, loses 20 pounds, has a HbA1c move from 11 to 7 9 (well, it might be 3 different patients).  It really does happen, and those are the great days. 

While I’m thinking about it, only 41 more days until college football season.  Another one of the great days…