The Blank Slate Problem
In 2016, I started experiencing a series of severe health events that landed me in the ER several times, eventually led to an MCAS diagnosis and a long path of rebuilding my health.
It taught me a lot about how healthcare actually works — and how much of the burden of continuity falls on the patient. Every new provider. Every urgent care visit. Every appointment with someone who doesn’t have your history. You start from scratch. You try to recall everything accurately under stress or just when asked, in a room that doesn’t feel like yours, out of sorts, with someone you’ve never met and often forget a detail or two.
No one has the full picture. And you’re the only one trying to hold it together.
This is the blank slate problem. And almost every patient I’ve ever spoken to knows exactly what I mean.
