Doctors: Fuck’em all, let god sort them out.
Spent some time at my GP today, a followup to a visit earlier where I was written for BP meds. Now, I dislike any medication, and it is my goal to get off them, but today was just a nice little treat.
In several years, I have not heard one word about blood pressure. Not. One. Word. Now, I gotta take meds. So I take them, but the annoyance plus the expense plus whatever side effects I’m sure they’ll have just add up to leave me the fuck alone, you bitch. Today I ask her what it’s gonna take to get back off.
“Nothing, You’ll be on these meds forever”
So, four months ago, I didn’t need them at all, and now I need them for the rest of my life. And when I press her, she says “you need to lose 100 lbs and get your bp down to 90/60 before we’ll even talk about losing the meds”. In other words, no. I know you can’t do that, so I will make no efforet whatsoever.
Time for a new md. I’ve gotten some good reccomendations for finding a new MD from a couple people I have come to trust, and I’m gonna be following them, and hopefully it brings me to a physician who will work with me and not irritate me to the point where I’m insane with anger.
Every encounter I have had with the medical profession in the last ten years has ended with a decreased quality of life on my part. I’m beginning to believe Steve’s assessment of the profession is the most accurate one- if you ignore them you’ll have a better life.
Og, I understand completely.
A few years ago I went to a doc-in-a-box about a back/rib injury I sustained moving a washing machine up a flight of stairs. Nurses at the DIAB decided my BP was too high, sent me to the ER. ER treated me, and sent me to a GP. GP told me my BP and cholesterol were too high, here’s pills. Come see me again in 3 months. I said, “Doc, what can I do to get BP and cholesterol down so I don’t need to stay on pills?”
He said, oh, you should quit smoking and follow the AMA diet plan. Nothing else. Wouldn’t talk to me about plans to quit smoking, nothing. Just wanted me to come back for an office visit (that he could bill for) every three months.
I’m in the process of switching to an Osteopathic Doctor – someone who is willing to look at underlying causes of problems rather than just throw pills. We’re working on getting me off cigs; that should solve most of my BP problems on its own.
Have you factored into the equation the small detail of your age advancing at the rate of approximately one day for every 24 hours of life?
As you age things are going to fall apart. Some slowly, some less so, some precipitously. Getting pissed off at your MD isn’t going to effect these things one way or the other.
I got lucky and found one I trust. She’s a lot younger than I am and I’ll likely die before her and won’t have to worry about having to find another.
Gerry, I’ve been through half a dozen doctors. At each turn I get more bullshit. If I did my job like that, I’d have been fired years ago.
We’re not talking about the aging process. We’re talking about MD’s that treat medicine like an assembly line of drugem and billem. When a doctor makes a little effort to understand me and treat me accordingly, I’ll be hooked, My optometrist is like that, as is my dentist. I would travel cross-country to visit my optometrist.
You want the name of my doctor? He’s close by, and he’ll give you the straight dope as well as alternatives.
Lemeno.
Broad, if he’s not an absolute asshole, then yes, I do want his name very much. Email me.
Don’t you believe her, Og. They told my 47 year old husband the same thing: “You will have to take medicine to control your blood pressure and to lower your cholesterol.”
Well, I told him I knew better. He’s a stubborn cuss, and determined. He went on a wellness plan outlined in a book by Dr. Joel Furhman called Eat To Live.
At his 3 month check up (with no meds taken), he had the blood work results of a healthy teen and great blood pressure. As a bonus, while eating lots of food he loved and never going hungy, he also lost over 30 pounds (now a few months later more like 50 pounds). The doctors wanted to know just what he had done. They admitted that medical literature said diet and lifestyle could often change one’s b.p. and cholesterol, but that most people wouldn’t make the permanent changes required to achieve those results.