Tuesday, July 3, 2018
Monday, July 2, 2018
Guilderland to Valley Falls
Dorothy's pomegranate tree seems to be flourishing in its outdoor setting.
Dream on.
Last night in dreams, not unpleasant, an involved and complicated compendium in which my spirit animal appeared to be a newt or salamander.
Sunday, July 1, 2018
Second Opinion
When the doctor delivers the diagnosis of a disease, the patient, surprised to hear it, asks for a second opinion. The doctor says, "OK, I also think you're a fat slob."
So that passes as a joke, but not a very funny one, especially to us older folks.
Before the widespread use of ultrasounds, CT scans, MRI's, even x-rays, it used to be said that doctors diagnoses were correct less than 50% of the time. I can remember my mother visiting the family doctor because she had pains in her stomach and asked what it was. He told her he wasn't able to see inside her belly, but told her to take some medicine that might help. Later when she threw up blood, he was able to diagnose her with a stomach ulcer--a bleeding stomach ulcer.
For sure, medicine has improved since those long ago days, but it is far from a perfect science. Technology allows a better look into our insides, but patients are still subjected to a whole slew of "differential diagnoses." The more detailed inspection of the body opens to the insight that the human body contains imperfections and irregularities that may or may not cause symptoms, and those symptoms may be a sign of disease, or not.
With so many options on the table, so to speak, and with so many more medical staff involved, plus the lack of relationship to the patient, the chances for error and misdiagnosis are many. It's a cliche, and wrong, to say that the doctors don't care. They just don't care enough.
I don't think I'm special in any way, nor do I think I have worse luck than most but, medically, in a little over a year's time:
* I was led down a hospital corridor and handed materials for an invasive procedure instead of a routine US.
* I was told that an embedded tick posed no threat on one visit where it was removed, that what looked like the typical bullseye rash on a second visit was just from scratching, but a third visit, to another facility, resulted in a positive Lyme test.
* I was brought into a room at the urologist's and handed preparation for a surgical procedure when I was there for a follow-up office visit
* Underwent major surgery based on ultrasound readings that were later found to be incorrect. "Those things happen sometimes," said the doctor.
* Wore a Holter Monitor for 48 hours and was later called and told it had been mixed up and/or erased.
Who knows what's next.
So that passes as a joke, but not a very funny one, especially to us older folks.
Before the widespread use of ultrasounds, CT scans, MRI's, even x-rays, it used to be said that doctors diagnoses were correct less than 50% of the time. I can remember my mother visiting the family doctor because she had pains in her stomach and asked what it was. He told her he wasn't able to see inside her belly, but told her to take some medicine that might help. Later when she threw up blood, he was able to diagnose her with a stomach ulcer--a bleeding stomach ulcer.
For sure, medicine has improved since those long ago days, but it is far from a perfect science. Technology allows a better look into our insides, but patients are still subjected to a whole slew of "differential diagnoses." The more detailed inspection of the body opens to the insight that the human body contains imperfections and irregularities that may or may not cause symptoms, and those symptoms may be a sign of disease, or not.
With so many options on the table, so to speak, and with so many more medical staff involved, plus the lack of relationship to the patient, the chances for error and misdiagnosis are many. It's a cliche, and wrong, to say that the doctors don't care. They just don't care enough.
I don't think I'm special in any way, nor do I think I have worse luck than most but, medically, in a little over a year's time:
* I was led down a hospital corridor and handed materials for an invasive procedure instead of a routine US.
* I was told that an embedded tick posed no threat on one visit where it was removed, that what looked like the typical bullseye rash on a second visit was just from scratching, but a third visit, to another facility, resulted in a positive Lyme test.
* I was brought into a room at the urologist's and handed preparation for a surgical procedure when I was there for a follow-up office visit
* Underwent major surgery based on ultrasound readings that were later found to be incorrect. "Those things happen sometimes," said the doctor.
* Wore a Holter Monitor for 48 hours and was later called and told it had been mixed up and/or erased.
Who knows what's next.
Before the Fall
June 17, 2016 was just another day in the life process. Early in the morning he had gone to his usual duty of getting the kids on the school bus, then home, to the post office and Stewart's, and worked on the pool. After lunch, he went to Wiley's to get chlorine for the pool. One wrong misstep while lifting the bag, and life changed forever. That was the last day he drove; the Subaru, recovered from the store, remained in the driveway for months. His trip to the Emergency Room was uneventful. He had complained of "an awful shock to his back," but they chalked it up to the fall, and discharged him in a matter of hours, nothing broken they told him.
Since that day, he has not only not driven a car, but that day was the last day he walked unaided.
Doctors say his condition, unspecified as it was, is progressive, and the fall, and the recovery time thereafter,just made him more aware of the progression of the disorder. He has seen 4 different neurologists, traveled to 2 clinical trial sites, had a remote diagnosis from U. Mass, participated in a study of neurological disorders through a statewide study, and has completed drug regimens which failed to be of even minimal help.
At the time of the fall, he had no health problems, took no prescription drugs, and even at an older age was more active and fit than many who were years younger.
The summary of his diagnoses includes a rare form of a variant overlapping with an even rarer form of another. Probably, they say, as there's no way to confirm a diagnosis in a spectrum of more than 200 possibilities.
Knowing more now than I did then, it is all too true that the medical profession tends to fall in lockstep when it comes to peer review. A second opinion, a third, and infinite others, are regurgitations of what has gone before.
Hope for recovery at first prevailed, then dimmed, only to die. I will never believe that a hard fall would trigger any latent symptoms into an abrupt and complete immobility.
Since that day, he has not only not driven a car, but that day was the last day he walked unaided.
Doctors say his condition, unspecified as it was, is progressive, and the fall, and the recovery time thereafter,just made him more aware of the progression of the disorder. He has seen 4 different neurologists, traveled to 2 clinical trial sites, had a remote diagnosis from U. Mass, participated in a study of neurological disorders through a statewide study, and has completed drug regimens which failed to be of even minimal help.
At the time of the fall, he had no health problems, took no prescription drugs, and even at an older age was more active and fit than many who were years younger.
The summary of his diagnoses includes a rare form of a variant overlapping with an even rarer form of another. Probably, they say, as there's no way to confirm a diagnosis in a spectrum of more than 200 possibilities.
Knowing more now than I did then, it is all too true that the medical profession tends to fall in lockstep when it comes to peer review. A second opinion, a third, and infinite others, are regurgitations of what has gone before.
Hope for recovery at first prevailed, then dimmed, only to die. I will never believe that a hard fall would trigger any latent symptoms into an abrupt and complete immobility.
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