I enjoy having friends, like just about everyone does. But that’s not why I’m in this business. When a patient needs help, I will do my best for them every single time. And if a few colleagues get bruised egos along the way, so be it.
She was a 53-year-old woman, but I don’t think she even would have liked to hear me to refer to her as a woman. We’re talking about someone who was short and stout and wore the kind of cap one would expect to see on a newsboy during World War I. She wore a very male looking zipper jacket, and told me she had the name of the other woman to whom she had dedicated her life tattooed on the back of her neck.
Regardless of all this, her face was red and she was crying. She told me she was chronically suicidal and never thought about anything else. Despite being medicated, her depression seemed to have gotten worse. Read more on What is there to Treat?…
Filed under Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, medicine, News, Psychiatrists, Psychotherapy by on Oct 2nd, 2012. Comment. 
I don’t think I know anyone who can say they’ve never had a headache. And some have them often enough that they’re given about as much attention as a hiccup or a sneeze. But sometimes, a headache can be more than a headache.
I was in Minneapolis doing a rotation in neurology through a university headache clinic. A lot of people were referred through primary care physicians and some even from other neurologists. They were strange headaches to them, but headaches that were frequently seen by these university neurologists in Minneapolis.
I remember seeing a professional football player who had cluster headaches with such intense pain that it brought him to tears. There were many middle aged and older people, but there’s one girl I remember in particular. She was 23 years old and was given to me to see with no pre-screening. Read more on Headache or Tumor…
Filed under Brain, Diagnosis, Doctors by on Oct 2nd, 2012. 1 Comment.
Ever heard of capitation? In healthcare, it can mean that a clinic makes more money by following more patients. Payments are per person, rather than per service. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, then, that they refused to dismiss this guy from their care.
He was a 32 year old young man who was diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. He had been working independently as a pool cleaner but he couldn’t stand it anymore. He was always nervous. As a matter of fact, this man was nervous about everything he did. Perhaps it was a generalized anxiety disorder, but surely something a great deal more. He wasn’t having panic attacks, and he exhibited far more than the usual one or two things found in generalized anxiety disorder.
I tried to start him on some medications — as much as I didn’t like the medications he had been started upon. He had been given regular Xanax in slowly increasing doses. As nervous as he was, he wasn’t stupid. He said, “It’s really funny. The medication makes me sleep, but it sure doesn’t stop me from being nervous.” Read more on The Nervous Pool Cleaner…
Filed under Diagnosis, Disease, Doctors, medicine, prescription drugs, Psychiatrists by on Sep 27th, 2012. 2 Comments.
I have spent as little time as possible on the staff of hospitals. The interface between doctors and administrators has always seemed to be dominated by petty politics. People are interested in money, and secondary to that, some vague sort of reputation or power.
A large and prestigious Midwestern hospital used to have a certain kind of meeting every few months. This hospital had only the vaguest of University associations — just enough to make it look academic and research oriented. I knew perfectly well it was neither.
It was a luncheon meeting of the medical staff and a few administrative types — uncommonly well-catered. There were about 25 folks, but only two other women who looked as uncomfortable as I was.
The meeting was to discuss certain hospital statistics, including some case details. As the meeting agenda was passed around, the head of the hospital reminded us of the meeting “rules.” We were gently reminded that no recordings were permitted and neither were extraneous notes. We each received an agenda, which were carefully counted out as they were distributed. We were told that at the end of the meeting they would be collected — and counted — before any of us could leave. Read more on Hospital Accountability Is An Ideal (Not Always Reality)…
Filed under Diagnosis, Doctors, End Of Life, medical errors, medicine, News, prescription drugs by on Sep 24th, 2012. Comment.
As it turns out, this whole bit about the use of antibiotics in livestock and poultry is a complex issue. It’s well beyond anything that anyone would guess at first blush. The best online summary is the position paper put out by Food Marketing Institute. Curiously enough, it doesn’t have a year on it. Based on the references, I’d guess it was probably around 2005.
The Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of therapeutically low doses of antibiotics in feed. However, very few studies were conducted. They decided that giving little bits of antibiotics to animals would help avoid illness. What this means in practical life is that they will grow faster and produce more meat prior to being slaughtered and eaten.
Everybody agrees that using too many antibiotics in humans can cause humans to become resistant to those antibiotics. This has been blamed on everything from patients who want a prescription for an illness that isn’t caused by bacteria to doctors feeling they need to give a prescription to justify their fee. This kind of talk has been around for a long time. Read more on Antibiotics in Livestock Feed Endanger The Entire World…
Filed under medicine, News, prescription drugs by on Sep 23rd, 2012. 1 Comment.
I happened to be watching CNN when Mr. Buckley, the father of an unarmed Marine killed in Afghanistan, was sharing his story. He was fighting tears and so was the CNN reporter. I was not doing too great myself.
I started the American Natural Health Initiative because I think American social behavior simply does not value human life. It’s not hard to find instances that support this — ridiculous profits for big corporations, the sorry state of our healthcare system, industrial toxins that persist despite knowledge of their danger, or genetic engineering that puts profit above human health. I am and will continue to be against all of these nefarious anti-human forces. These concerns are dwarfed, however, by the urgency to fight my own country about what the military is doing. As I say this, please remember that I am an honorably discharged veteran.
First, I openly send condolences to the family of Lieutenant Buckley of Long Island. I applaud his father’s courage, for it was obviously difficult for him to come forward. I must thank him for doing so and assure him that his son’s death — which his son saw coming — was not in vain. Lieutenant Buckley was gunned down in the heinous manner of an execution. An Afghan soldier, armed with an AK47, shot him on a basketball court where there were witnesses. The Afghan soldier had informed Lieutenant Buckley — as he apparently had in the past — that he did not belong where he was. For all intensive purposes, the perpetrator has “disappeared.” The stated purpose of the Marines – the unarmed ones in Afghanistan — is to help train our “ally” in police and military operations. As far as I can figure, the unarmed Marines are supposed to be doing things like playing basketball with our Afghan friends — who are armed. They even share a barracks. Read more on Marine Killed — But Was It A Casualty Of War?…
Filed under Government, Healthcare reform, News, war by on Sep 22nd, 2012. Comment.
Cutting back on football practice during excessive heat in order to diminish death can only be a good idea.
DJ Searcy, age 16, died during practice drills at a football camp.
About a year ago, scientists studied the surge in heat related deaths on the football field and noted some real problems. Problems like the tripling of the average death rate from one per football season to nearly three per football season, the need for 14 days in order to “acclimate” to heat, and the need to closely monitor obese linebackers. The American College of Sports Medicine actually came up with concrete recommendations such as practicing without full gear, using a “cooling tub”, and taking plenty of breaks. Read more on Less Football = Less Death…
Filed under Sports by on Sep 18th, 2012. Comment.
No, you probably haven’t heard of the 51st state, the state of Jefferson. It’s been removed from most history books and long forgotten. An initiative that originated in the counties of southern Oregon and northern California, they even had their own flag. It’s a square with two x’s inside of circles, meaning “we’ve been double crossed.”
The people thought they had been double-crossed.
The issue surrounding the attempt to create this state was the same one that was at the heart of the American Revolution. There was no adequate representation.
At the time, the people of southern Oregon and northern California were talking about a vein of copper that couldn’t be gotten out of this place — and still has not. They felt decisions were being made by interests elsewhere, such as the southern California movie industry or the state government of Sacramento which was perceived as having little to do with them. Read more on Betrayed…
Filed under Government by on Sep 13th, 2012. Comment.
According to Mitt Romney, God lives and always will inside the Republican platform. Seems to me this would be a difficult place to confine a Supreme Being. When I heard this, I was in the car with my husband. I could only think of one response, and that was to pray aloud. “Dear God, how do you put up with all this crap? Your friend, Estelle.”
At the recent political conventions, each party claimed to be more religious than the other. Is this what politics has come to in the 21st Century?
Although I consider myself a true believer, I will admit to having had philosophical angst about His or Her existence. I cannot and will not accept the God about whom everyone says “I remember you in my prayers.” I cannot imagine either Mitt or Barack going to church or kneeling next to bed with a list clutched in their fist that says something like “the folks who lost their houses in the storm.” Neither can I imagine them letting God do His or Her will, which might include letting the opponent win. I think that they, and most of the folks I know, use “magic prayer.” This means that when you say it you have already done it. I have questioned a few Christians about this, and that is what it sounds like to me. The reason I have not questioned more Christians about this is that it tends to get them very angry. My husband does not like me to do things that might get me beat up because he is lots bigger than me and would definitely end up defending me. I can certainly see why someone would want to pray out loud in a life threatening situation. Like military active duty type war. Everybody wants victory, although at that precise moment, they are probably praying for their buddy to survive. Read more on Prayer on the Platform…
Filed under Religion and Politics by on Sep 13th, 2012. Comment.
Britney Spears doesn’t make the news much anymore. Her career is probably still going strong, but her wild ways and scrapes with the law are old news. The media has latched on to new starlets and scandals, and they will never run out.
However, I noticed recently a story about conservatorship of this once-superstar (perhaps now only a mega-star?), and wanted to take the occasion to talk about this very serious legal step of conservatorship.
Miss Spears’ father is her conservator, and he wants her boyfriend appointed as a co-conservator over her well-being, and this might be a sign that he’s getting ready to marry her. There is something very wrong with this picture.
People having conservatorship over other people should not be taken lightly. Read more on Brittany Spears, Conservatorship and the Abuse of Power…
Filed under Celebrities, depression, Family, medicine, News, Psychiatrists by on Sep 3rd, 2012. Comment.