I anticipated and began this session with a mixture of delight and guilt. We chatted easily at the beginning, as we always do, about my recent road trip to Portland and back and about Francis’ planned trip to France in early September.
Then I told him about my first two counseling sessions with Lisa Galen on the San Leandro Campus. “She says she knows you,” I told him.
He smiled. “Oh, yes, Lisa! My wife and I know her very well.”
Okay, this feels weird. My physical therapist and my behavior therapist know each other. I know that HIIPA “(Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996) is United States legislation that provides data privacy and security provisions for safeguarding medical information.” This means Francis and Lisa can’t “compare notes” about me. It also means that neither can discuss my diagnosis and treatment plans outside of my sessions with them. But what about me? Am I violating HIIPA by blogging about my medical care in such great detail? Or if I discuss either’s treatment plan for me with the other one?
So I did tell Francis what Lisa was saying and doing. He listened without comment. Any slight facial expressions were ones of approval. He did seemed pleased that I have made a plan to walk on Mondays and Thursdays. I reiterated that I still do my physical therapy routines (that he has assigned over the past year) at least 6 days a week, and he said, “I can accept that!”
So he made my next bi-monthly appointment for September 27.
