HealthyConcerns.com

Love and Loss and the Tango

Don't miss this post about Love & Grieving over at the Treatment Online blog.

Mostly don't miss the video at the end: an interview with Alex, a man who has lost his wife of 57 years.

Depressing? Not so much as you'd think.

First of all it's a wonderful story about how they kept growing, but growing together rather than apart, during their long marriage. Second it's a story of how he honors his wife by not staying home and not fading away and not giving up.

We're used to hearing stories about devoted couples where one spouse dies and the other follows soon after. But this post and story describe a different kind of devotion.

Since I know two women in their 30s who have lost their husbands in the last coupleof months I'm glad to hear it! And glad that they don't have to believe that continuing their lives is a sign of lack of devotion, love or grief.

Even the smart people can be dumb

Last weekend BlogSister #2 shocked me...really shocked me. No, she didn't show up pregnant or on drugs or announcing an impending divorce. She admitted to mis-using anti-biotics.

"Admitted" isn't even the right word because, in fact, she seemed to indicate no awareness that what she had done was wrong, wrong, wrong. What had she done? Well, she wasn't feeling well for a couple of weeks, suffering form a chest cold, so she was "finishing up" a bottle of anti-biotics from the last time she was sick, and hoping to feel better.

So clearly stupid anti-biotic trick #1 was not finishing her bottle whenever the last time she was prescribed the meds was. Stupid anti-biotic trick #2 was taking a random, unprescribed number of anti-biotics this time around.

BlogSister #2 is smart. Highly educated. Cares about health and fitness. But contributing to the ultimate extinction of the humanr ace at the hands of some super-virus!!! OK, maybe I'me xaggerating...a little...but I thought everyone knew you weren't supposed to do this kind of this with anti-biotics.

Just goes to show you.

Does ShortWoman have the answers?

My blog buddy ShortWoman writes a post that is by turns depressing and then (somewhat) hope-inducing. [Yes, I'd be grateful to anyone that could tell me what word I really want to use...since somehow today my brain can't get past "hope-inducing."]

She begins with a series of links to articles confirming just how broken our current health care system is. But wait, you think, I reall already knew that. You think you know it, but seeing the compendium of reasons listed all at once is still a sobering confirmation.

And then she lists:

Some things we can do to fix the system

Mix and match from this smorgasbord of possibilities:

1.  Make insurance companies work as mutuals or not-for-profit companies in order to provide health insurance.   

2. Encourage the existence of major medical policies. Not everybody needs common cold insurance; everybody needs hit by a truck insurance.

3. Remove barriers to individuals purchasing their own health insurance, including additional paperwork, higher fees, requiring proof of existing insurance, and "pre-existing conditions" rules. Not only does this eliminate a middleman, it reduces prices by allowing individuals to seek lower rates.

4. Require insurance companies to treat all insureds in a given geographical area (such as zip code or county) as a group for rate setting purposes.

5.  Change the IRS rules to allow anybody to deduct their health insurance and healthcare costs.

6.  More doctors "opting out" of the system, thus removing the dysfunctional middlemen.

7.  More states following Michigan's lead and requiring hospitals to be non-profits. 

And if all else fails...

8. Universal single payer healthcare. Basic coverage for everybody, plenty of room to make money in the supplemental insurance business.

So, what do you think? Are these the answers?

My thoughts are in the extended entry...

Article in this month's Journal of Medical Practice Management

If you happen to be a subscriber to the Journal of Medical Practice Management (and there are lots of 'em) you'll find a little article by yours truly in the March/April edition entitled: The 5 Things Patients Want.

Text of the (slightly edited for final printing) article after the jump...

Grand Rounds is up at Health Business Blog

The ever-growing and ever-addictive best-of-the-medblogosphere, Grand Rounds, is up at Health Business Blog.

David kindly links to my post about my annual exam, and there are a couple of other posts that caught my eye, including:

Over My Med Body has a fascinating story about a woman who recalls every single day of her life. I have a mindlike a steel trap when it comes to things like phone numbers, other people's birthdays, details from business meetings. But days of my own life. No friggin' way!

And every time I visit donorcycle, I'm glad I did, because it's a rare and thought-provoking blog about organ transplants and the ethics involved.

Those are just two our of dozens of thought-provoking, fascinating, poignant, and even humorous stories from the medblogosphere. So check out the Grand Rounds.

Healthy Story: My annual exam

I have to say that since switching to Kaiser last year I have been nothing but pleased with their care (if not their administrative communications.) Here's the story of one more doctor's appointment gone right!

Yesterday was a banner day all the way around.

I started the day by having two old fillings replaced. I haven't had a filling in so long I had no idea they have all this new-fangled stuff they do. They don't really shove a filling in the cavity and seal it up. It's more like they're plastering your mouth...putting gunk in there, then curing it with some ultraviolet light device, then adding more gunk. Weird.

I couldn't eat before, nor after for a while because of the numbness.

Then i had a very stressful work day, complete with potential blow-ups being averted. And the not eating thing played in, since I tend to get a little cranky when my blood sugar drops.

Last but not least I had my annual exam. Something to look forward too while getting my teeth drilled and dealing with stressful work stuff.

Most of my life I have had very healthy blood pressure. But the last two times I've been to the doctor (last year's Annual and in March when I had my sinus infection) the blood pressure numbers have been high when the nurse takes them pre-appointment, and then back to normal levels when the doctor takes them 20 mintues later.

So, my biggest concern when trundling off to the doctor's office was that my very stressful day was going to result in a repeat performance of the spiking blood pressure. Self-fulfilling prophecy?

Find out...

Grand Rounds is up at Fat Doctor

It's Vol. 2, #30 of Grand Rounds up at Fat Doctor. The Rounds continues its growth. She received over 50 submissions and neatly categorizes them.

A couple of posts that caught my eye:

NeoNatal Doc has trouble sympathizing with a woman who has lost two babies, and whose third lives, but is a preemie. Why? Because she's only 20 and single. Don't just read the post, read the comments. My opinion: first I feel sorry for someone who has lost a baby that they wanted, no matter their life circumstances.  Second, it's unfortunate how quickly the discussion veers from wondering what messages this girl was raised with about her self-worth, or about from where we get love to hoping that girl feels grateful for her care and doesn't feel like life "owes her" anything. This despite a complete lack of mention in the original post about how her health care coverage was being provided. Of course some commenters have been down a simliar path and share their stories. Great read.

Dr. Steven Parker from WebMD blogs about the fact that yes, food really is love. At least to our brains. I guess I can blameit all on my brain then :)  Can we re-write parents to teach children that health=love? Worthy goal. Good luck with that. I think we need to teach advertisers too, for a start.

Fat Doctor also kindly links to my friend's story about being told she was stressed, when it was really something more serious and mysterious.

So another great week at Grand Rounds. Check it out!

Healthy Story: "Don't be a woman under 40 with a health problem"

Talked to a friend I hadn't heard from in a while yesterday. She's a vibrant young woman in her 30s. Always doing a million things, currently she has scaled back to working on her documentary filmmaking and launching a software company she founded.

Last month she started noticing some very disturbing physical symptoms. Half her body would go numb for no apparent reason. When she laid down to bed her heart started racing, and she couldn't sleep well. Sometimes she got faint while standing for a while, like when filming. Things like that.

At first she ignored it, not wanting to be a hypochondriac.

But eventually she did seek assistance, unfortunately waiting until passing out necessitated a trip to the E.R. 3 such trips later, after being told the first two times that it was stress, she was finally admitted to the hospital. There they discovered it isn't actually stress that's the cause (although it might be exacerbating things.) They don't actually know the cause yet, but they're afraid it may be M.S.

Would it have made a difference if they had admitted her and taken her symptoms seriously the first time she landed in the E.R.?

Obviously I can't say.

But I can tell you what my friend thinks:

"Don't be a woman under 40 with a problem. Actually, don't be a woman over 40 with a health problem. You'll get told it's all in your head for as long as they can get away with it."

Is it really that simple? Any man out there had the same dismissive experience? Any woman been taken seriously with vague and possibly stress-oriented symptoms? Let's hear it!

Grand Rounds is up at Treatment Online

This week's Grand Rounds is hosted by Treatment Online, a blog that deals with treatment for depression, anxiety and addictions.

Given their focus they start off with several posts focused on mental health issues. Perhaps the saddest of these posts deals with the rampant depression found amongst Emergency physicians...and their fear of actually seeking treatment for themselves, from GruntDoc.

They kindly link to my post where I find I have the attitude of a teenager when it comes to snacks in school.

So go for it...check out this week's Grand Rounds.

No more snacks in school

So, what do we think of this new bill that aims to remove all junk food from schools?

I do find the following a bit ironic:

The bill would apply to all foods other than the official school lunch, the meal for which schools receive government aid and which is already covered by other high-nutrition standards.

OK, how much you wanna bet most school lunches are heavy on the meat and cheese and other high-fat but highly-subsidized foods?

I also question this applying to foods that clubs/groups sell for fundraisers. I mean seriously, what will they sell door to door if not candy bars? And isn't that then trying to legislate what adults buy, not what kids eat?

I know, I know, you'd think I'd be 100% all for this. I am obviously still mentally stuck in high school...when I'd certainly rebel against such an idea.

What do you think?