Jan's Story
My patient is a 70-year-old who lives alone, suffers from chronic knee pain and recently had a hip replacement. She has trouble feeling “good” about herself due to her weight and multiple chronic conditions, including hypertension, hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis, and glaucoma. She was prescribed medication for her hypertension right before I started working with her. Around this time, she stopped taking her cholesterol medication as directed because of an aversion to taking multiple medications.
“I’m always excited to hear from you.”
Chronic knee pain, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, osteoarthritis, glaucoma
from 147/91 to 124/72
Chronic knee pain decreased significantly, eliminating the need for a knee replacement
She works at a halfway home and cooks dinner for 40+ men every day, so she is more active than your typical 70-year-old. I love to work with her because she is so motivated to minimize her medication intake. During our monthly discussions, we talk about how weight-loss through a portion-controlled, low-fat and low-sodium diet and regular exercise can help improve her health conditions.
I educated her on the importance of adhering to her prescribed medications and how it contributes to her overall health. While she refused to restart her cholesterol medication, she continued to take her other medications as directed. After highlighting the importance of regularly monitoring blood pressure levels, I got her in the habit of not only checking her levels, but also logging each reading so we could measure her progress during our monthly check-ins.
For her, the biggest benefit of CCM is having an encouraging voice in her corner. She has no friends or family nearby, so I am her support system, and I am continually coaching her on proper eating habits and regular exercise.
We talked about everything I reviewed in the EMR prior to calling her. Her blood pressure was 147/91 when she started CCM, while her latest reading was 124/72. She lost 15 lbs prior to starting CCM and has lost an additional four since. Additionally, her doctor cut in half her hypertension medication, with the possibility of discontinuing the drug altogether in the future.
Finally, we discussed how her chronic knee pain has subsided enough that she postponed her total knee replacement surgery, something she didn’t think was possible. Not only is she in a better place physically and mentally, but she can avoid a rehabilitation stay and continue her selfless act of cooking for vulnerable members of her community. Between a combination of medication compliance and diet/lifestyle coaching, the program had a real-life impact on this patient’s journey to better health.