I am not sure if this is the best board for this, so feel free, Mr. Moderator, to move it to another.

I picked up some mags in mid-December for airport reads. I read one article from (I believe) Barrons. The title led me to think one article was about re-claiming one's life from the medical profession.

So I start reading it and it is a recount of all the medical testing the author and her husband are going thru. It had gotten to the point that it was difficult to schedule medical testing or appointments because there was often other tests/appointments scheduled for a particular day.

This was reminding me of my parents who are creeping up on the last half of their 80s and the medical issues are beginning to be cumulative.

But as I am reading the article it turns out that the couple are in their 50s and really do not have medical issues. All of the testing is for preventative medicine. Reading it you can imagine the new American life is to cease being a productive individual in your 50s and dedicating yourself to spending your life on preventative medical testing and appointments until testing and appointments for real medical issues begins to rule your life.

I wonder what other people's take might be on that. Maybe the couple and their friends are a non-representative bunch. Maybe they are just the leading edge.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Sun Jan 02, 2011 7:29 pm I am not sure if this is the best board for this, so feel free, Mr. Moderator, to move it to another.

I picked up some mags in mid-December for airport reads. I read one article from (I believe) Barrons. The title led me to think one article was about re-claiming one's life from the medical profession.

So I start reading it and it is a recount of all the medical testing the author and her husband are going thru. It had gotten to the point that it was difficult to schedule medical testing or appointments because there was often other tests/appointments scheduled for a particular day.

This was reminding me of my parents who are creeping up on the last half of their 80s and the medical issues are beginning to be cumulative.

But as I am reading the article it turns out that the couple are in their 50s and really do not have medical issues. All of the testing is for preventative medicine. Reading it you can imagine the new American life is to cease being a productive individual in your 50s and dedicating yourself to spending your life on preventative medical testing and appointments until testing and appointments for real medical issues begins to rule your life.

I wonder what other people's take might be on that. Maybe the couple and their friends are a non-representative bunch. Maybe they are just the leading edge.

Damn... I am in my 50s and deal with chronic leg and low back pain. Dealing with all the tests, surgery, ortho people, MRIs, ad nauseum - never seems to end. And they can't fix the damned problem. I dread the future if this is any portent.

This is a bit off subject, but I had posted about a female with stroke like symptoms. She started both the traditional medical path of appointments, MRI, tests, etc. etc. She also went to a 'curandero,' or a person who heals by laying on of the hands. The former would have led to weeks of an excruciating headache while running tests and going to appointments. The later gave her immediate relief. She is not cured, but is 90% back to normal. The traditional doctors have told her she has done incredibly well and not to quit her medicine. The thing is that she never even started the medicines after looking at the side effects. For her particular thing, she has quit going to traditional doctors and goes back to the curandero every couple of weeks to handle recurring (and lesser) symptoms. She said that she has relief 15 to 30 minutes into each hour appointment.

So instead of the pain in the ass of repeated appointments with her GP and a specialist two hours away, she goes to a guy a couple of blocks away for an hour a month for which she pays $75 a visit.

This is not meant to say that traditional medicine does not have its place. It does. But it can also lead to a grand disruption of your life and a huge cost which somebody has to pay. And that gets back to the point of my post.

I can relate to all of this and i am not in my 80,infact i am only in my mid 40s and after reading the last posting all i can say is help lol.

I had my first heart attack at 40 my secondmy second at 44,then i had a mini stroke at 45.

And i had my driving licence revoked due to epilesy,wow what a life i have left,but what the hell,i am still alive maybe due to taking a lot of meds every day,lets all enjoy life to the full.

. .

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:06 am . This is not meant to say that traditional medicine does not have its place. It does. But it can also lead to a grand disruption of your life and a huge cost which somebody has to pay. And that gets back to the point of my post.

That's the 'key' to the whole thing . . . $

I have constant leg pain, and chronic arthritis. EVERY time I go to my practitioner, he tries to insist on a slew of expensive tests; mostly only 'offered' at the Hospital . . . which he owns about half with a group of other area Physicians.

When I presented my achy balls, and he felt them; he knew right away what was happening. He wanted me to get 8 different tests; just to ward-off any other explanations. (Calcium deposits on the vas deferens, epididymis, and around the testicle sheath . . . little annoying bumps that can stop blood-flow, and cause pain.) There is a really simple solution, and I've asked about it. Not without a whole bunch of tests and a few psychiatric exams, and 2-3 days in his Hospital. Nearly a year's-pay for a procedure that has been performed for thousands of years, that he really could do in his office for a few hundred dollars, in 30 minutes or so.

When I was in my late teens (1977-1980), I worked at the same hospital my Mom worked for, in the Surgery Suite, as an Attendant. I got to hear a lot about what really motivates the Drs. All they talked about was Money and ways of getting more and more; from the 'customer' or their Insurance carriers. They actually had seminars to understand how to bilk the Insurance carriers, and list proceedures so they could ask for a higher fee.

I doubt it is any different today.

I have become very annoyed at the modern day medical profession, and their constant search for more $. Those negative feelings are partly responsible for my interests in Holistic practices, and Naturopathy.

I know . . . There are some really good doctors out there, and I tend to lump them all into the same barrel; but even those 'good' doctors are concerned with profits. They have offices and nice lifestyles to afford.

They reel-in their clientele with "the wish for better health" and need for all these testings; to 'be on the safe side', when mostly, it's to garner-off law suites, and fines. Create a track record, and once that's done, and the Insurance carrier is forking over huge barrels of cash, keep it up.

If they'll pay once . . .

It's all about profit.

artisticlicense (imported) wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2011 4:43 pm That's the 'key' to the whole thing . . . $

It's all about profit.

That is part of the reason I think physicians should be replaced by robots which would have no profit motive.

Arab Nights (imported) wrote: Mon Jan 03, 2011 9:06 am This is a bit off subject, but I had posted about a female with stroke like symptoms. She started both the traditional medical path of appointments, MRI, tests, etc. etc. She also went to a 'curandero,' or a person who heals by laying on of the hands. The former would have led to weeks of an excruciating headache while running tests and going to appointments. The later gave her immediate relief. She is not cured, but is 90% back to normal. The traditional doctors have told her she has done incredibly well and not to quit her medicine. The thing is that she never even started the medicines after looking at the side effects. For her particular thing, she has quit going to traditional doctors and goes back to the curandero every couple of weeks to handle recurring (and lesser) symptoms. She said that she has relief 15 to 30 minutes into each hour appointment.

So instead of the pain in the ass of repeated appointments with her GP and a specialist two hours away, she goes to a guy a couple of blocks away for an hour a month for which she pays $75 a visit.

This is not meant to say that traditional medicine does not have its place. It does. But it can also lead to a grand disruption of your life and a huge cost which somebody has to pay. And that gets back to the point of my post.

When despite the curandero's palliations, she suffers a major stroke, it will be incredibly disruptive and costly. What do they say about penny-wise and pound foolish?

it is very different in a Health Care system where doctors' pay is not related to the number of tests they commission...

gareth19 (imported) wrote: Tue Jan 04, 2011 12:55 am When despite the curandero's palliations, she suffers a major stroke, it will be incredibly disruptive and costly. What do they say about penny-wise and pound foolish?

Perhaps I did not explain the timeline well. She suffered the stroke-like symptoms and immediately went to the emergency room. That started the path in the traditional medical system. Coincidentally, she had heard of the curandero the week before from a friend while just having a general female conversation. As a 'why-not?' kind of thing she went to him the next day AFTER the medical event and AFTER going to the emergency room. After a couple of hours in ER care and the start of many tests, she had a raging headache, could not speak well and had to be helped walking. She found a noticeable improvement after one session with the curandero and her friends could not tell that she had a medical crisis after three sessions with him.

That should explain it very clearly. There was the event. Traditional medical care began immediately. The curandero began the next day. Traditional medicine and the curandero went in parallel. Relief began immediately with the curandero.

In my opinion, far from it being a case of penny-wise and pound foolish, it is a case of looking for relief and finding it quickly in an unexpected place at a very reasonable price. It is a case of both penny- and pound-wise. And time-wise.

Let me toss in one more personal observation. Some of the posts here tell about individual's medical issues. I did not mean this to be a dump on them. If you note, what caught my eye is that the people were healthy. They had just gotten into a situation where preventative medical care ruled their lives just as treatment for existing medical problems often rules the lives of the elderly. My immediate thought was to wonder if any economy in the world can support that. I would think that your 50s are the time when a lifetime of experience makes you most useful to the world. To divert from that to spending your time having medical tests run is scary.

I guess from my viewpoint doctors can end up being a lot like car repair guys. There are those that either just came out of school and don't have experience or are just "poor" at what they do. As patients we have to go beyond showing up with our car and paying the bill. Its of value to know enough to know when your getting lousy work done.

I used to take my car to a place that not only wasn't good at car repair but they made sure I had to come back. (Shoving a screwdriver into a gasket worked for example) BASTARDS! The worst part about these thieves is that once I started asking everyone I worked with told me "Your insane to go to these hacks!"

If you read up a little and take a step back and ask yourself if your care is really helping you - I think you can judge if your doctor is a good one or not. If its just experience? Thats one thing that maybe gets better with feedback and you being proactive about your care. If its just a "dud" (or worse!) you are best served to get up and not see that doctor. And if your GP is the one sending you? Tell him / her that this is not working out and why. It may save the next slob a lot of trouble or you may find out that your just not understanding why they do things the way they are.

There are some good online resources that can help you find out the experience of other patients. This is of course just "opinion" but it can be of some value in finding out of they know anything about your particular case. Also true about looking up meds and what others experience when using them.