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Team A :: Talk Show Host Dealing with Immobility
Diane Godfrey | Donna Slosburg | Harry Spring | Andrew Agwunobi | Linda Quick | Beth Eastman
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Talk Show Host Wrestles with Immobility
Lupita Sordo is always on the move. As the host of En Confianza ("In Confidence"), a popular television talk show in Mexico, she's at the spinning hub of culture, interviewing leading figures in sports, politics, and entertainment. She often travels to Florida to be with family and friends.
Those many work hours require Lupita to be on her feet a lot; 6 years ago she began experiencing aches in her right leg. Over the course of many months Lupita's problem developed into something more serious.
Lupita's doctor in Acapulco felt the problem was sciatica, or pressure on the sciatic nerve that runs from the lower back down the back of each leg, caused by a disc in her spine that may have slipped out of position. After an MRI scan, he suggested treatments including exercise and wearing a prosthetic device under her foot to help relieve the pressure on her leg.
By the spring of 2003, Lupita was hardly able to walk at all. She was limited to taking only two or three steps, from her bed to the bathroom and back. "I had to stop working," she says, "because the pain was too much." She was afraid that treatment outside of Mexico might be expensive. She is 67 years old, and supports herself. But then another cousin in Florida gave her some very wise advice. She said, 'It's better that you spend the money now to walk and be self-sufficient, than to use it later to pay someone to push your wheelchair.'
Her doctor has referred her to a pain specialist in Florida--her only hope for relief and return to work.
TRANSCRIPTION
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Man 1: Lupita! Where’s Lupita’s husband?
Lupita: Yes. I’m getting a little bit of a different way we're going to present here. I’m Lupita and I have on the phone my cousin, Andy, from Miami. And my husband, whose going to tell me how to do everything!
[Laughter]
Man 2: I don't know if we mentioned this but this is all being videotaped. For the record, these people are not related to me.
[Laughter] |
| 00:57 |
Lupita: And on paper said she’s 67 and he said he was 57. So I lost 10 years that’s great.
I’m a 67 year old, very independent, professional-minded woman. And I’ve been doing interviews and I’m very aggressive. I do a lot of research. All of a sudden, I had this horrible pain in my right leg and I just can’t even stand anymore. So if you won’t mind if I get my chair here. It’s too painful to sit and I just don’t know what’s wrong. My doctor keeps telling me that maybe it’s my sciatica or maybe a disc slipped out of place.
Perhaps I need to do exercise and wear this thing on my foot, and that’s going to help me be better. But it’s just not working. I’m bedridden now. And now he's referring me to this doctor. So Andy, there’s somebody in Miami that’s supposedly going to able look for a cure for me. |
| 02:00 |
Andy: What did the doctor tell you? What sort of doctor is it?
Lupita: Well, I think I have sciatica.
Andy: What is that?
Lupita: I’m not sure.
Andy: Well you’ve always been the educated, professional one in the family and I’m just a taxi driver and...
[Laughter]
Andy: So you’ve said it’s sciatica and he referred you to a…
Lupita: Pain specialist or something.
Andy: Pain specialist.
Man 3: I keep telling her she needs a consultation. She needs confirmation...
[Laughter] |
| 02:27 |
Andy: So if you want to move to Florida, we’re here for you. Your family's here for you. We’re going to take care of you, but you have to let us know which doctor do you want to go to, where do you have to live when you come here. I know that you cannot work anymore and the financial piece of it and how does that work? And you just have to go somewhere to get this information and we’ll do whatever we can.
I remember that there’s a website, they're saying something that the state has some kind of a website, Florida state. I don’t know anything about it, but maybe you can find out some information when you go there. You just have to talk with your husband about your decisions and then you decide.
Lupita: OK. Thank you, Andy.
Andy: Okay, bye. |
| 03:15 |
Lupita: Understand. I’m a professional and I know how to research. But I’m scared. I’m losing control. And that’s scary to me. I’m no longer as dependent. So I’m now on the website and I’m checking on Florida. There's this thing myflorida.
Andy: I hope you and your husband has made all your decisions first and if you want to do this.
Man 3: We’re working on it.
[Laughter]
Lupita: Do you know about this myflorida.com?
Man 3: I did some research honey. And I found that there’s a lot of information out there. In fact if you have time, you should go and look because you’ve talked a lot about what you need. But this site has what you actually need and can give you that information.
Lupita: Does it tell me about the reputation of the physician that you were referring me to? |
| 04:01 |
Man 3: Yes. It has links that gives you information about the physician - where he went to school, what hospital appointment that he has, his credentials, his volume of certain surgery cases. There is all that information in there so you can either get a consultant as I'm recommending or you can evaluate a pain specialist, as your primary care physician has recommended.
Lupita: And can I compare it to somebody else that’s in the area?
Man 3: Yes you can. They have developed the most sophisticated system in the country for comparing physician care. You can go look at that and decide whether this physician recommended is the one for you.
Lupita: Well, we don’t have a lot of money. So how much is it going to cost us?
Man 3: Price is all there. Everything the physician charges is there: a consultation, the fee for certain surgeries, even the information regarding insurance, they’ll give you, if they know what kind of insurance. We, of course, get this thing out of our pockets, so price is very important to us.
Lupita: Well I have to make sure I going to get the outcome I am expecting. Is there some expected outcome results of how this physician performed? I just don’t want to get anybody. |
| 05:08 |
Man 3: There is, but I think in our case, we’re not certain of the diagnosis. You can look at various alternatives depending about your diagnosis is and know that physician is performing the way you would want.
Lupita: And is he accessible? Is there…
Man 3: That’s very important to us. We can’t afford to live with our cousin, the taxi driver, for too long or live into a Motel 8.
[Laughter]
Man 3: And so accessibility, of course, means how long it takes to get an appointment. You need a wheelchair access, how much? How do we get there by ambulance or something?
Lupita: Does he speak Spanish? Because I understand things better when they’re in Spanish.
Man 3 : That’s very important to us as well. That information is all in the site. What about the profile that you were talking about that you developed? Could you explain that to me?
Lupita: Yes. It wouldn't have been so wonderful if there was just something I could go out and fill out that information on about me. And the doctor could send the digital image of the MRI to this physician and then he can perhaps make a plan of care. We can talk about that plan of care. We can have an interactive session. |
| 06:15 |
Man 3: I’ve read about that on the website. It’s just like amazon.com. You put your profile in and then you can view the information about the care in the industry you need.
Lupita: And maybe they'll have an idea of something else other than sciatica, because maybe it’s not sciatica.
Man 3: It could.
Lupita: Maybe it’s something else.
Man 3: That’s right. You can do the research all the way, right there through the pages of the website.
Lupita: And it’s important for them to know I’m allergic to cookies. I wouldn’t want them to give me the wrong drug.
Man 3: They wouldn’t. It’s a query tool that you’ve never seen before. Provided personally, directed to your personal health care. |
| 06:47 |
Moderator: Thank you very much.
[Applause] |
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