Understanding Things From a Different Perspective

While working on the laboratory ethnography I’ve been having trouble analyzing my laboratory and trying to see undertones or deeper meanings to what seems to me to be our normal interactions. As I was trying to look at everything from a different perspective, I realized how I myself had started becoming similar to the stereotypical scientists and doctors that are too focused on the science and the medicine and not focused enough on the human experience of the illness. In my lab we collect and organize the medical history data on pediatric patients who have been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases. While going through one patient’s chart I learned that they had been noncompliant with their medicine for months despite the importance of his medication having been explained to them several times. My initial thought was why would anyone do this? It was clearly hurting themselves by refusing to take the medication. To me the choice was obvious and I assumed that it would also be obvious to others. However while trying to look at everything from a different perspective for the ethnography, I realized that I forgot to consider everything else that must have been weighing on the patient’s mind that was bigger than just whether they should take a pill or not. When they were diagnosed, their entire life was changed because they now had an incurable, lifelong disease. Even though there is treatment, it can take a while to find the right treatment for each individual and MS relapses are not small issues that they can just get over in a day or so and even the medication has its own unappealing side effects. Overall, while I still hope that this patient will one day come to the decision to be compliant with their medication, I am now more understanding of why it might not be so easy for them to say yes to their medication.