what a belittling post
Not intentional, just facts as I see them.
My own personal experience with the medical profession is mixed. My first dentist visit, at 12, was to a dentist whose office was smaller than my clothes closet. He didn't use anesthetic and the Stanley pliers (I know because I used an identical pliers my dad had in his work shop) he used to pull a molar which was rotted nearly to the gums was the most painful experience of my life. He put me in fear of dentists until I was in grad school, but by that time several of my other molars were in trouble and an ex-navy dentist pulled them. He used a cream to numb the gums and then injected Novacain. I never felt a thing. However, the bridge he installed later crumbled within a month, and so did the replacement a month after it was put in. All the dentists since then were equally painless, including the one who did the root canal. His x-ray was hooked up to his laptop, which was next to his chair, and he had wires connected to his instrument that were attached to a button which I held. I'd press it when ever I felt pain, or when I felt what he wanted me to feel.
While I was teaching at Clarks, I also supervised corn rougers for Prairie Valley seed company. I had ten groups of ten kids, with one kid from each group supervising the other nine. I walked back and forth behind the ten, zig-zag, 100 rows at a time, supervising them. After three summers in the field my hammer toes and flat feet were so painful I could hardly walk. A couple podiatrists said they could fix the hammer toes and I let them. Big mistake. It was the most painful operation I ever had. I was off my feet and in a wheel chair for two months. The Z cut in the tendons allowed wires embedded in the eight toes to be pulled straight, straightening the toes. Pulling the wires was also painful. They ignored the fact that I had no normal padding beneath the balls of my feet. Within a couple years the toes started curling again and started hammering again. They are now more painful than they've ever been and walking is always painful. Even as I set here typing I have pain.
My son flew with me to visita client in Chambers, Ne. It was his first flight in a small airplane and he loved it. We both picked up a chest infection. We went to our doctor in Central City and the doctor gave us both Penicillin shots. What the doctor didn't tell us was they he used a glass syringe with a platinum needle, which he flamed between patients. The patient before my son had Hepatitis. The flaming didn't kill the virus that had aspirated into the neck of the glassy syringe. My son got the full load. I got a much smaller load. We both caught Hep B and were sick as dogs. I got over it rather quickly. My son didn't. I recognized the symptoms of hepatitis and called the doctor for an appointment. He gave my son and I a time which was after hours. When we arrived he and his wife, who was a nurse, were gowned, gloved and masked. There were white sheets lining the hallway, walls, floor and ceiling, from the door to a small room where he took an x-ray and said my son had cancer and we should get him to the hospital in G.I. ASAP. I drove down HiWy 30 at over 100 mph. The Dr. in G.I. looked at the x-rays and agreed but told us to take him to Omaha. I flew him to Omaha. The Dr at the hospital there took painful biopsies several times over the next year before announcing that he didn't have cancer but had chronic hep C. We watched his E-ant slowly decline for a decade before they returned to normal. The nurse who worked for the doctor who gave the Penicillin shot, when his wife wasn't there, was a former student of mine and called to tell me about the glass syringe stuff, and how my son and I got the hep C. I didn't sue him but it was enough that he gave up his license voluntarily when the news got out.
Most of my life I have needed glasses. With strabismus I needed prismatic lens. Because I had to be at 10 feet to read what others could read at 50 feet my lens were thick. In the summer I often taped the bridge to my forehead to keep the glasses on my nose. When featherlite plastic lens with silicon pads came along I was in heaven. Then I saw a Lasik eye surgery ad and decided to check it out. After that surgery I had 20/20 in one eye and 20/30 in another, with no strabismus. I can drive without glasses, and shoot as well. I was having some cloudy vision a lot of floating bodies and went to an opthamologist. He said I was in the first stages of a cataract and scheduled a surgery. When I got home I decided to investigate cataract surgery. I learned that before they replace a lens they take measurements and calculate the diopter of the replacement lens. I also learned that they cannot reliably repair cataracts in patients that have had Lasik surgery because the conjunctiva is usually too thin, and stretching of the thin conjunctiva renders useless any pre-calculations. I canceled my appointment. I also learned that the doctor who pioneered Lasik surgery is now the leading opponent to Lasik surgery. So, what do I do about the cataract? I did some more research and found that a Russian PhD biochemist developed N-acetylcarnosine, which dissolves cataracts. I got some and gave it a try. It worked, but it's not approved for use in the US. Imagine that. It also reduced the floating bodies I was having, or maybe they just settled out or got re-absorbed.
My wife is alive today because of the DaVinci Surgical Robot and a very talented Dr. Ed Rains. He's left Lincoln and Brian has stopped using the robot, but my wife is alive and well with a cow valve that is supposed to last at least another 15 years. And she doesn't have a big scare down her sternum nor a lot of painful memories.
I have several other medical episodes that I could relate, about both me and my wife, but this msg is long enough. I hope you understand why I am cynical about many doctors in the medical profession in general. If I left the impression that the only good doctors are the expensive ones then I apologize, because that wasn't my intention.
