The Last of the Autumn Joy Sedum
An amazing flower which begins as pale green and very slowly changes to pale pink
deepening over a period of several months to this dark purple.
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listener
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1:00:00 AM
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I noticed that when Bernie was at the MSNBC forum, he spoke to Rachel Maddow about the importance of Howard Dean and the 50 state strategy. :-)
ReplyDeleteMy doc wrote back:
ReplyDelete"That is fine. I recommend a Mediterranean diet, daily aerobic exercise and weight loss of 10
pounds."
So, it's official: she was just ticking off boxes. I strongly suspect docs have flow charts they follow and just proceed accordingly. The loss of 10 pounds thing rubbed me the wrong way. She said the same to me last year and I did in fact lose about 5 pounds. But that got reset and doesn't count? [Mah*Sweetie says that if that's the situation, he suspects we don't actually die, we disappear! LOL!] I've been eating a basically Mediterranean (and organic) diet since I was 19 years old…long before there was a catchy name for it. I've told that to her too, but it's as if our conversations never happened. It makes me feel like a number, like all too often docs don't really see the person anymore, don't really acknowledge the choices, work, needs and preferences of the person in front of them in relation to the accepted goals and the big picture. Or am I just getting cynical in my old age?
Not really. Except you're saying "docs" when it's just one doc.
DeleteWell, Bill, I see it as docs plural because I came to this doc less than two years ago when another doc said "I'm putting you on statins" (like I had no choice), and my numbers were only borderline at most, not at all high.
DeleteTwo in a row. But my experience with the doctor I have is so very different.
DeleteLucky you, Bill! Keep that doc. I've had doctors who were good listeners, gentle, kind, and wise. We had a fabulous and encoring pediatrician. My gynecologist (who has also been my surgeon) is warm, intelligent and skillful. But there is something about family docs I have encountered that is rather frustrating. I think they must have a difficult role, since specialists have the advantage of a more narrow focus. All the same, I've had at least one stellar family physician, but he retired. The new fangled way of keeping track with computers and buttons to push seems to have diverted docs from the art of listening.
DeleteI think you are at least partially right about the electronic records keeping, listener; in some places they have a helper to take care of that. I was thinking about the system you described of short office visit, lab tests ordered, then follow-up visit to discuss test results. One (small) lab I worked with was right next to its biggest client (internist or GP, I don't recall which). The doctor would keep an appointment log with indicated lab tests, which he shared with the lab. The lab would call the patient, who would come over and have the tests done. Results would be ready when the patient came in, so only one visit instead of two. More convenient and less expensive for the patient, and the doctor could see twice as many patients. My oncologist (I'm down to one or two visits a year) has standing orders for me; a week or so before an office visit I go in and take care of the labs, and they are ready when I see him. (They are actually ready and accessible by me online starting the day my blood is drawn and typically completed the day after that.) I hate doctor shopping with a purple passion, but a physician who doesn't pay attention is not a good sign, I think.
Delete--Alan
NEWSFLASH!! A little fanfare hère: Taaaa, ta ta ta, ta ta taaaaaaaaaaa!!!
ReplyDeleteGranddaughter Everly Rose's quilt is DONE! I literally completed it 10 minutes ago! All that I have left to do now is to wash and dry it before tomorrow evening when we are going over to our Son & DIL's house to bring it to her! I am SOOO happy, excited, and relieved!!! :-D
Hmmm, I wonder why the word "here" posted with a grave mark over one "e"!! Curious and curiouser. ;-)
DeleteCongratulations!
DeleteSurely the grave sign was just a bonus--a complimentary extra.
ReplyDeleteWe had a bit or rain this morning, then clear weather, then lots of clouds and some scattered thundershowers and light rain at times. Coming home this evening it was cold and clear, and fog was just beginning to rise. I expect we will have fog in the morning. It has been several years since we had a foggy winter, which helps to maintain soil moisture (and also causes big automobile and truck crashes, particularly in one place along the freeway).
--Alan
listener wrote: "Huge! Yikes! Some part of me doesn't like huge...as though it makes the work less valuable to the consumer."
ReplyDeleteYes, a good part of the economics of that huge cotton harvester is that one man replaces about four--maybe more if the machine moves faster or harvests more rows. My aunt picked cotton by hand when she came to Fresno. I can't begin to imagine how many people it would take to equal one of those machines. Mechanization of farming has dramaticlly depopulated the countryside, and the process continues. But one must remember that many of those jobs that disappeared were badly paid, brutal, dangerous, dirty and mind-numbing. But when machines do do almost all the work and human labor is divided into a huge number of tiny subtasks that add little value to a product, but at the same time human input is paid by the hour, what does that mean for our society and for capitalism? I think we must somehow transition to a Social Credit--a payment to people that will enable them to buy the output of the country's industry. Or something a bit like that. What we have is not working well.
--Alan