As many in my age group, I spend time in doctor's offices!! My husband just had his FOURTH lumbar surgery. Fortunately, I missed his first when he was 13, but have experienced the PTSD that resulted, and nursed him through THREE back surgeries!!
My Primary Care Physician gave me a lecture last week about not following through on recommended tests, mainly the Dexiscan that checks my borderline osteoperosis. I remembered having had the test, so when the scheduler called I asked to make sure that I wasn't imagining things. Sure enough, I had had the scan, but 4 years ago. "Medicare pays for one every TWO years," so perhaps that was in fact cancelled, or ignored. Gee, I don't see my dental hygenist but once a year, or two, and certainly not every SIX MONTHS!!
Doc said there are two schools of thought: ONE, don't see the doctor unless something is WRONG / BROKEN. TWO, prevent major breakdowns by seeing the doctor for preventative tests and catch problems BEFORE they get to be catastrophic. I commented that: "this world is not my home, I am just a passin' through" and was obviously of the first attitude and he was working the preventative angle. I thought his CNA would start laughing out loud; perhaps she had never heard a patient question the protocol, or her doctor.
Before Medicare we had a $5,000 deductible Major Medical insurance policy as that was all we could afford, and we figured we could probably pay $5,000 on a credit card if necessary.
So we prayed a lot that we would STAY HEALTHY, and stayed away from physicians. It seemed to work, better than NOW where since Medicare pays we get all these annual tests, doctor's visits, procedures!!
I do NOT take prescriptions for any chronic maladies. Tom does, but I don't and I was so lax about pills I often skipped the vitamins until I found one of Tom's old weekly pill trays - too small for his needs - and started filling it when he filled his morning/evening tray each week. I still will find days unemptied as I just FORGOT to take the 3 or 4 supplements for that day! Freudian slip, I would call it! So what is the purpose of getting a bone scan if you won't take the prescribed pill!!
Then there was the MONTH LONG Halter monitor and the stress treadmill last year to which I gave the heart PA a negative response. Actually, I gave him what he asked for. He gave the distinct impression that I was a malingerer. The 24 heart monitor gave the same indication that the previous test had - several years before - a very common heart arrythmya, more noticeable when I was laying down and trying to GO TO SLEEP, but it also happened during the regular day on a regular basis. Nothing to worry and lose sleep about. So I passed on the MONTH LONG monitor and the stress treadmill!! I am definitely of the FIRST school of thought - if it ain't broke, don't try to FIX IT!!
There are way too many older folk who want every little ache and pain fixed and the advertisements for medications on TV don't help that mindset. OH MY, after hearing the avoids - why would any one put something that "could cause all that" in their body?! The cost of medication would take a DRASTIC drop if they were prohibited from advertising PILLS on TV, radio, and every magazine that you pick up. Two or THREE pages of warnings should scare users away, but DOCTORS are right up there with GOD - no one realizes that their continuing education is oft times paid for by the drug manufacturers - so if "good old doc" says this pill will help, who am I to question?
Another troubling question: where do the unused pills go when the patient dies? The hospice nurse in CO flushed them when Tom's mom died. That was to avoid being mugged, as visiting nurses were in some locations, by people wanting to sell them on the street corner to support their drug habits. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE WATER TABLE if the flush is into a septic system, and what must water treatment facilities in big cities have to do to cleanse the water of these ADDITIVES from upstream flushes?!
I must have too much time on my hands, or think I should be able to unravel all the puzzles in life like I do my knitting when I miss a stitch, or drop a stitch. GOD is good all the time and I think that I will depend on THAT!
