Showing posts with label Doctors. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doctors. Show all posts

Saturday, July 30, 2011

Getting old is a bitch...

Earlier today, as I sat on the couch drinking a Dr. Pepper and eating some taco flavored Doritos, I began to notice that about every other commercial was some kind of over the counter medication.

GasX, Tums, Viagra or something similar. I started wondering if people had the same types of issues in the 1800's and earlier.

It made me think of a conversation I had with my doctor several years ago. My cholesterol was way out of whack, so he put me on what he called the "caveman diet". He explained to me that cavemen didn't have cholsterol problems or cancer or any of the other common maladys we have these days. They were bigger, stronger and faster than modern man. He said it wasn't until we became farmers instead of hunter/gatherers that we had the health problems we are experiencing in modern days.

Believe it or not, my cholesterol dropped about 70 points in no time. I felt much better.

I'm sure my numbers are way out of whack again, and I should probably do something about it before it kills me.

Can you imagine a world without Tums or Tylenol? I can't, not when our fast paced lifestyles make it easier to eat at McDonald's than cook a healthier alternative at home. Eating healthy is a lot of work and requires more time and planning than most of us have available. But through the miracles of modern science, we can have bypass surgery and all kinds of medication and still keep eating the crap that causes us to need the surgery and medication.  Seems a little counter productive when you think about it.

I'm not preaching, believe me, I'm as bad as the next guy. But as I inch closer to the 50 year mark, like many people, I start to wonder how much time I have left. Death isn't what worries me, it's what sort of quality of life will I have in my older years? I don't want to spend my last days, weeks or years sick. I guess I should start doing something one of these days...

Thursday, July 7, 2011

A tale of two doctors... revisited.

Ok, I'm man enough to admit when I am wrong. Yesterday morning I went off about this doctor I had to go see. I was in a shitty mood and didn't feel too great so I kind of replayed events in my mind under those circumstances.

I saw the doctor again yesterday and he was what every doctor should be. He took the time to explain everything, answer my stupid questions and in general, be a good guy. Maybe he read my blog post from yesterday morning? I kind of doubt it though...

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

A tale of two doctors...

I think I told you a couple of times that I go shooting with my Doctor when ever I can. He isn't just my Doctor, he also takes care of Joe Texan and Big Mullet. We like this guy because he is a GOOD Doctor. When he comes in the room, he sits down and actually asks you what is going on. And then he does something amazing, he listens to what you have to say!

I recently had to see a different doctor. He came into the room with a plan. It wouldn't have mattered if I told him I had fire shooting out of my ass, his plan would have been the same. Maybe this guy is good at what he does, but, in my opinion, there is more to being a good doctor than  ordering a CT Scan or MRI. The ability to communicate with and listen to patients is a big deal too. Maybe I expect too much, but for what it costs to see a doctor these days, I don't think so.

Maybe if more doctors would go shooting with their patients they would have to order a whole lot fewer expensive tests.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

My Cousin Barack Obama and Our ObamaCare Family Feud

Milton Wolf is a badass. Go check out his blog if you get a chance.

It got to suck for obama to be dissed by his own family, but sometimes that's what you get. Especially when you have a complete disregard for the law, the Constitution and the will of the American People. obamacare is a disaster for our Country. It is going to destroy the best medical system in the world and replace it with a european style socialized system that will rely on rationing and second rate care.

Don't believe me? Read the words of an actual Doctor and obama's cousin...

By Milton R. Wolf M.D. - FoxNews

When Barack Obama and I first met he had already become president and was furiously erecting the government-controlled health care system that bears his name and I had already begun a very public crusade to save America from it. Fate would never reunite our mothers who grew up together as young girls, cousins and friends, after they were separated decades ago, but now their sons bridged a divide in our family that was created by decisions not our own. It’s not often that a president’s most vocal critic comes from his own family, but I believe the inviolable oath I took to my patients demands that I oppose ObamaCare.

Today, ObamaCare is on the ropes—in the courts, and in terms of public opinion. While the Supreme Court denied Virginia’s petition to hear its ObamaCare lawsuit on an expedited basis earlier this month, this case will soon be heard by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. In a more high-profile case, Judge Roger Vinson ruled the individual mandate unconstitutional. This lawsuit, which was filed by more than half the states in the union and led by Florida, will be heard in the U.S. appeals court in Atlanta in June. And in poll after poll, it has become clear that more than one year after ObamaCare’s passage, the American people strongly reject it. The fundamental flaw at the core of ObamaCare is the mistaken belief that the government can spend your dollars more effectively than you can. This tragically pessimistic belief views all Americans with suspicion as either incompetent or unrighteous but either way in need of big-government control.

Sadly missing from the national health care debate was an honest discussion of the origins of our health care system’s shortcomings. Let me be clear, while we certainly have problems, America still has the finest heath care system in the world. That patients flee their government-run systems -- like Great Britain’s and Canada’s -- and flock to America for our medical miracles should be an obvious clue to not recreate their failures; obvious to everyone, that is, except ObamaCare supporters.

While the Constitution does not give the federal government the authority to interfere with our health care, the big-government types have been at work for decades and have, by any fair assessment, wreaked havoc. The first health care waiver was granted in 1929 when the American Medical Association successfully lobbied that Blue Cross be exempt from certain regulations and taxes. Thus began the era of crony health care where Big Government’s friends were more equal than the rest of us.

In the following decades, Republicans’ and Democrats’ health care intrusions fueled increasing costs which priced more and more Americans out of the market. Many of the problems we face today are a direct result of those bad laws. The 1942 wage controls (and later tax laws), for example, forced the devastating marriage of health insurance to employment. Ask anyone denied employment or trapped in a bad job because of a medical condition how well that’s working out for them. Meanwhile state insurance monopolies create artificial barriers to insurance portability, increase costs dramatically and are responsible for 1 out of 4 uninsured Americans. The list goes on and on and the big-government type’s solution to these bad laws is always the same: more laws!

To call ObamaCare a doubling down on these government failures is a probably a betrayal of basic math skills -- it’s more like a quadrupling down. ObamaCare mandates that every free citizen purchase state-sanctioned insurance while it increases taxes (on everything from tampons and tanning salons to gold and the sale of your home); it increases spending even more; it turns health insurance companies into public utilities; it eliminates proven free-market reforms and it sets in place the mechanism for health care rationing. What’s more, ObamaCare has been ruled unconstitutional.

The unkeepable promises of ObamaCare are, as we say in medicine, too numerous to count, and are already collapsing. You can keep your current doctor and your current insurance. No tax increases. No rationing. Reduce the deficit. Four million new jobs created -- “400,000 almost immediately.” Public hearings. These are the pathetic peddlings of false hope.

Read the rest at the link above...