Letters to the Editor
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AFTER REVIEWING INFORMATION FROM AN ON-LINE or A BOOK SOURCE -----
I summarize this information in one or two pages, provide my Name, Age, Address, Living Partner and contact information, health insurance provider.
I accurately describe my current health, drugs ie (penicillin VK 500 MG), and the medical doctors treating me with phone Nos.
In bullet form * ----------------
I provide my honest response to each item raised that is important in my opinion.
It takes one or two pages max. in Word or Wordperfect, or Printed format for their ease of readership. I give it to the front desk or attending nurse, for doctor review at their convenience.
I shut up, until the Doctor asks for additional details.
My wish is that we may established a partnership and that they can be more informed initially, by reading what I provide them.
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Ha! Nequals fell for it.
Yet another twisted, truncated MSM story on the supposedly-failing American healthcare system. But Nequals falied to include this quote formt Reuters write-up of the same story:
"Nolte said the large number of Americans who lack any type of health insurance -- about 47 million people in a country of about 300 million, according to U.S. government estimates -- probably was a key factor in the poor showing of the United States compared to other industrialized nations in the study.
'I wouldn't say it (the last-place ranking) is a condemnation, because I think health care in the U.S. is pretty good if you have access. But if you don't, I think that's the main problem, isn't it?' Nolte said in a telephone interview."
In addition the authors acknowledged that the U.S. was a rather extreme statistical outlier in this survey, which makes me very suspicious that there was a seriously flawed methodology in this study. Frankly, I don't know, and I am guessing that Nequals doesn't know either.
But we do know this about some of these foreign-based reports on American healthcare, timed with American elections. Remember the Lancet study that indicated something like 650,000 Iraqi deaths as a result of the liberation and the subsequent civil conflict? Turns out that was a pretty suspicious report too, notwithstanding the fact that it is still quoted as gospel by the credulous Salon readership:
http://news.nationaljournal.com/articles/databomb/index.htm
Nequals, it's a free country! Go to Canada for your hip replacement! Get you coronary catheterization in Finland! Pop down to Mexico if you need an MRI! Don't let this big, bad American healthcare system run you down!
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Doctors google too
When I had dizzy spells I googled and diagnosed the condition (not a serious one) before going to the doctor. I didn't tell him my finding, which he confirmed. Part of the treatment was a series of exercises to do at home - he sat down at his computer and googled them for a printout for me!
There is some great information out there - for example tinnitus was really bugging me until I read a web article by a specialist that showed me how to cope with it. I didn't need to go to a doctor - the doctor was there, sharing his knowledge with me. And here in the UK the National Health Service has a website with self-help guides and such. http://www.nhsdirect.nhs.uk/index.aspx. I think the fact that American doctors rely on patients for their income must affect their attitude to internet information.
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I didn't take the advice given...
And now I'm 100% pain free without any surgery or medicine. I was diagnosed with degenerative disc disease in 4 discs in my back and neck. I sought an alternative form of treatment and I found one that worked (after a long, difficult, and hard look though). There is a lot out there!
Scott Ahrens
for INTERNAL ENERGY PLUS
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Progressive diseases
My mother has a disease that is basically Lou Gehrig's. It is horribly cruel, progressive, and incurable at this time. She is now dependent on a ventilator for breathing and she cannot walk at all. She receives nutrition through a feeding tube. When her symptoms started, I dismissed them as stress. Then I decided that she did have a real health problem, and I convinced her to go to a doctor who referred her to an irresponsible, arrogant neurologist. After a very frustrating follow-up appointment during which he had no advice except for "Get more physical therapy and try to stop falling down," I found a new doctor for her. We had no idea what disease we were dealing with, but we believed that it was treatable. As more and more diseases were eliminated from the prospects, I started to do more research on reliable internet sites. By the time that we visited a very famous neurologist at an ALS clinic, I could recite her entire case history and tell you which symptoms were present and which were missing. The first thing this famous neurologist asked me was "Are you a medical student?" The last thing he told me--after he diagnosed her--was that he knew that I was smart enough to do the research that we would need to do in order to take the best care of my mother. I knew that I needed to stay informed for two reasons: 1) Because maybe I had missed some obscure clue that would point us toward a curable disease; 2) Because we would be encountering a lot of doctors and I would be the one constant throughout the entire disease progression. When she suffered from respiratory failure, I was the one who explained her illness to the doctors who treated her. They asked me questions because her disease is so rare that they were not familiar with the intricacies of it. I have always been very careful not to appear arrogant or a know-it-all, and I always explain that I am only an expert on my mother--not a medical expert in general. One problem that I encounter is that the doctors and nurses start to think that I know more than I do, and I have to ask them to back up and explain things that I haven't yet researched. I write down terms and then immediately find out as much as I can. I know that my mother would not be alive without everything that i have done. In fact, I performed CPR on her and saved her life. I mention all of these details not to paint myself as a heroine or my mother as a martyr. We are just doing the best we can, and our doctors are so stretched that they cannot dedicate every moment of the day to my mother's treatment. That's where I come in. The best doctors--the wisest doctors--and the most compassionate doctors--they are the ones who are receptive to me and respect my knowledge. They tell me where to go for information, and I keep a list of questions/information/etc. I in turn respect their expertise, and I never try to give them advice about my mother's treatment or which medications she should be on. We all make a great team, and that's what is needed in this age of managed healthcare. If the insurance/HMO industry continues in the direction that it has been headed for the past decade and a half, we will be required to spend even more time monitoring our own healthcare in order to give our doctors a break. They have to deal with insurance, pre-authorizations, the Medicare bureaucracy (which, by the way, has actually been beneficial for my mother), on top of trying to see more patients in less time. I view my role as that of my mother's advocate and the person who can answer questions about what happens between doctor and hospital visits. I am so thankful for the great doctors whom we now see, and they have truly made my mother's life better than it would have been otherwise. But without the information that I learned on the internet, I would not have been able to discuss her symptoms in a sophisticated manner that would let them know that i am indeed educated about this awful disease.
Oh, and as for disease forum sites, the thing that I see over and over again is people who are convinced that they have fatal diseases, based on a single symptom. If a doctor tells you that you are healthy, don't assume that the doctor is wrong. Maybe he/she has indeed overlooked something, but most likely not. Live your life and don't keep focusing on a disease that most likely does not affect you. Get a second opinion if you feel that you need one, but trust me, even from the standpoint of someone who has been personally impacted by such a disease, there comes a point when you should turn off the search engine and just start living.