This cardiologist blames Reflex medicine. I agree. If you live to be 93, your number one goal for the rest of your life should be to avoid doctors and hospitals. They'll end up killing you.
Sunday, July 12, 2009
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IF YOU ARE READING THIS, YOU NEED TO FIND SOMETHING ELSE TO DO. GO SPEND TIME WITH YOUR FAMILY
8 Outbursts:
nick, you always have the option of refusing. Nobody can force anything onto you. As for the xray with dye after tube placement, I have had patients where the tube was thought to be in the stomach when in fact wasn't, and tube feeds ended up into the peritoneal space. Whether it's considered standard in the group that does them I don't know. I have seen it done both ways.
This is an important question and one I have as well. I would prefer to have my pain management procedures without anesthesia, for example, because I can handle it just fine without--but they get a hell of a lot of money for the anesthesia, much of which comes from my pocket.
I've also attempted (unsuccessfully) to turn down meds I absolutely didn't need. I know I'm not a doctor and don't have as much knowledge, but I knew that one was not good for me in particular.
I know there are other doctors who perform the same procedures w/o anesthesia. I don't want to be a doctor shopper though and I prefer to stick with people over time who know my history.
Well, as I was reading this blog my wife (a plastic surgeon) just got a call from the ED in reference to a a patient who is demanding to be seen by a plastic surgeon for a less than 1cm partial thickness lip laceration that not only doesn't need a plastic surgeon, is unlikely to need a stitch. The ER doc is too scared of liability (i.e. a lawsuit for an "ugly scar") to tell the patient no and now my wife has to drive in to see the patient. The patient will get a stitch, the insurance company will get a bill for an ED visit, a consult, and a stitch. All unnecessary. And THAT's why medicine costs so much and why any attempt at rationing is doomed to going down in flames of lawsuits, just as happened in Tennessee and Oregon.
What should the patient do when doctors order completely unnecessary tests or ram unnecessary meds down their throats? This has happened to me far too often, most recently they did an x ray study with radioactive dye to check PEG tube placement after a change DESPITE the fact that they were able to verify it with the stethoscope and were getting return of stomach contents ("could be false return" they said). RIDICULOUS!! I pitched a fit to not have to do this unnecessary test, but resistance was futile against "hospital policy" and "we won't feed you without the test"
What's a patient to do?
Even though I'm in the 5%, I agree! Iatrogenesis is going to happen at some point. I have myself down to two medicines (and only half a dose of one of those) and am very happy about that.
I cannot seem to convince my doctors that a certain level of disability is not a moral failing on my part or theirs--I need to get my ischials/sacrum cushioned so that I can sit up longer, I'm far more worried about what the mega-arthritis drugs could do to me over the long term. One can be healthy and disabled.
I just have to say as a hospice nurse I am often bemused when a 93 yr-old pt says to me after being admitted to hospice "Why me?". And the 90 year old who is still angry that the MD elected to not remove a polyp from his colon 5 years ago. That patient is now on hospice for colon ca.
I agree that the goal should be to avoid doctors, hospitals, and aggressive treatments after a certain age....but our culture hasn't educated it's people to seek quality of live vs. quantity.
no one has any ideas of how I should respond when I am being forced into ridiculous, unnecessary things?
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