Just one more reason to stay healthy, eat well, exercise, and wash your hands

Being a slow health care newsday (referring to my other blog), and not having posted anything to this blog lately, I started getting a little fidgety. So I went blog hopping, and came across this article by a 3rd year med student on the west coast. It may be a little late for me and some others, but his thoughts on why you don't want to be hospitalized just seemed worth sharing.

Hospitals: Worse Before You're Better

"Above all, do no harm," is pretty much bullshit. Let me warn you.

You do not want to be a patient in a hospital. One, it means you're sick enough to need to be in a hospital, which is pretty sick. Two, we'll make you feel much worse until you feel much better. If you do get admitted, please just expect the following to happen. If you're in a teaching hospital, with attendings and residents and medical students, more of this may happen. Be prepared in advance, so that you don't get all crabby when I try to be happy-nice medical student and ask you some questions. (I realize you probably don't mean to take it out on me, and that I'm always trying to put on my nice-happy face so that you won't want to take it out on me, but you're probably tired and frustrated and you'd take it out on Mother Teresa (may she rest in peace) if she were in my place, too.)

You will be poked and prodded, have your blood drawn multiple times per day, from multiple arms and wrists.

You will tell your story to at least three people not uncommonly 8 or more, and you will get annoyed, because we will ask you the exact same questions over and over again.

You will not get any sleep; people will constantly be bothering you with questions, physical exams, or lab draws.

You will be told lots of things, by lots of people, often things that use medical mumbo-jumbo. It will be confusing, probably which test you're getting, or what medicine you're on. Many times people suck at explaining this stuff in normal terms, so please, please ask.

You may wet the bed, or defecate in your bed, and it may not be immediate that you get cleaned up.

You may be in a room with a noisy neighbor, or worse, a demented one that sits in a chair all day with her legs wide open and up in the air, making high-pitched shrieking noises all day.

You will probably smell, and when you do get washed up or get a sponge bath, it won't be that fulfilling.

If you're infected or contagious, people won't want to touch you without gloves, and won't enter a room with you without a mask. Necessary, but I'm sure isolating.

If someone decides you're an interesting case, or you have something about your body that is different or rare or special, you may be made to feel like an object as a doctor teaches using you as an example.

Even if you're not an interesting case, people may talk about your care with other team members like you're not even there in the room, and many times, they will talk in medical code.

I'm not condoning this behavior or this system, but I'm saying often, it's how it works. Many of the causes are medical, part of diagnosis or treatment, but others are political, legal, structural, academic, technologic and institutional in nature. We have a nursing shortage; we must teach future physicians; the law requires this; unions require that; paperwork must be done accordingly; technology is from the 1980s; there are limited resources available for health care. And on and on and on. If I could design the hospital system over again I would, and maybe I will when I'm older, but in 2006, this unfortunately may be your hospital experience.Just more reason to stay healthy, eat well, exercise, and wash your hands, right?

History IS repeating itself

I didn't grow up during the rise and fall of Hitler and Nazi Germany, so for me to claim it feels like those are the times we are living in now, must be taken with a grain of salt. But I have seen enough movies, and read enough history to know, if the times we're living in now are not akin to the rise of a Nazism and Facism in Europe in the 1930's and 1940's, then we're not far off. If you can't see the parallels with Nazi Germany, then you must be living in a different country than me. Republicans and other right wing extremists will stop at nothing to subvert the will of the majority, forcing their beliefs, that they are the superior race and have been appointed by God, to impose their will on America, while they blame all our problems on immigrants, blacks and Jews. As I speak, Mitch McConnell, and his minions are raising roadblocks to all legislation designed to help average Americans under the guise of fiscal responsibility. They condone violent and verba...

The results are in

And I am iron deficient, big time. [Which would account for my low hemoglobin] Test Result Ref Range IRON 30 59-158 mcg/dL TOTAL IRON BINDING CAPACITY 231 250-420 mcg/dL IRON SAT 13 20-50 % My Ferritin levels were good, but that could be because Ferritin is also an "acute phase reactant", that is sometimes increased with acute or chronic disease. Folate and B12 levels were also within the normal range. The only problem now is determining what is causing the iron deficiency, which in the case of men, is [very] rare. My oncologist has given me a Globin Fecal test to perform, and has scheduled me for a consultation with a colorectal surgeon to discuss performing a colonoscopy, which could be problematic because of my large spleen. In the mean time, I've decided to start taking an iron supplement, it's only the quantity that is causing me some consternation. I've been told by a very knowledgeable person that to overcome an iron deficiency, I need to be taking 300 mg o...

Stop the stupidity!

Rural medical center (in Georgia) suspended from vaccination program after inoculating school district staff. Give me a break! Trying to get kids back to school, while protecting teachers, bus drivers and other staff, is exactly what school districts should be doing. If they have vaccines, give them out. We should be giving out vaccines to all who want them, whenever available. Trying to adhere to rigid guidelines will only result in fewer people getting vaccines, resulting in the discarding of precious vaccines, and less protection for everyone. Of course we should be giving first priority to healthcare workers, and any other essential public service employees, such as policeman, fireman, etc. first, but when they're not around to receive shots, or refuse shots, then give them to anyone willing to take them. What I would have objected to is the medical center trying to capitalize on the pandemic to make a profit, from giving vaccines to people far down the list of recipients, but ...

LIVING WITH MCL

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