What Your Doctor Doesn't Know Could Hurt You or Someone You Love

A closer look at healthcare...

Salem-News.com

(OKLAHOMA CITY) - Have you ever wondered when you first walk into a doctor’s office about the procedure and steps involved and what a bizarre obstacle course it is? In a perfect world, a doctor or physician’s assistant is supposed to do a thorough, live, question and answer session at the beginning of your treatment.

Nowadays, you mostly get a clipboard, a check off list by a lack luster receptionist and are sent to the waiting area to fill out your forms, alone. I have often wondered if that questionnaire even gets looked at because several minutes later when you are in front of the doctor, he/she will virtually ask some of the same questions. I think, “Didn’t you just read that on the forms I just completed?” But then I think to myself, “I’ll play nice and pretend it doesn’t irk me”.

Don’t you sometimes also feel they just aren’t into you and your complaint? There seems to be a vacant stare and lack of enthusiasm in many doctors nowadays. There are the obligatory few questions, sometimes a test or two, and often, at least, a prescription or two to go; all in less than 15 minutes. This will date me and many younger readers will not understand, but what ever happened to Marcus Welby, M.D.?

Because I have a serious health challenge I have seen many doctors in my day. I remember one such visit about 3 years ago. I was having severe migraines nearly every morning. A certain doctor was highly recommended to me as the expert physician with regard to migraines.  After going through the requisite gauntlet of paperwork; forms asking about one’s medical history, chief complaint(s), minor complaint(s), pain from a scale of 1-10, releases, the all-important HIPPA Form, I.D., insurance, promises to pay if the insurance doesn’t and so on; you finally find yourself before the great wizard with all the answers. In this instance, the doctor thumbed through my paperwork, asked me how old I was when I first started having migraines, and said it was very unusual to get them this late in life. As the words were exiting his mouth he reached for a prescription pad. Now, I had been in his office all of 3 minutes and he was already going to go for the “drug solution” in order to mask the cause of my pain. He didn’t even have the decency to look me in the eyes the entire time I was in his office. I don’t dissuade easily, so I asked him if he thought the migraines could be somehow related to my lack of oxygen because of a rare lung condition I have. He quickly dismissed the hypothesis and could probably have won some sort of speed record when he reached for the pharmaceutical treatment. We had not achieved a symbiotic relationship in the least. I never went back to him and essentially fired this doctor.

I had spoken earlier with my gynecologist about the migraines and she had started me on a prescription that was on some scheduled drug level that covered very little of the medication’s expense (the thought of how the insurance industry along with the pharmaceutical industry determine these levels make me see red) which made it mightily expensive, even with insurance. I was paying about $30.00 a pill out-of pocket for each headache. If you have several headaches a week that adds up fast and that was with insurance!  So, I was eager to find another way to deal with this pain. My ultimate goal was to find the cause and go from there but that answer wouldn’t materialize until a few years later.

To understand how usurious pharmaceutical companies are, Maria Angell, M.D., the first woman editor and publisher of the New England Journal of Medicine explains clearly how these companies often charge more for a particular drug for U.S. citizens, as compared to our northern neighbors in Canada or our Southern neighbors in Mexico. Many of these drugs are manufactured oversees but they represent themselves as American made.  This is a lengthy video but if you watch it in its entirety, you will never look at a pharmaceutical drug the same again; http://videos.med.wisc.edu/presenters/377.

So one day I happened to be talking with a girlfriend about the migraine issue as she also suffered from them. And this is the part I find most interesting, she said that a Coca Cola® and 2 Excedrin® Migraine Formula capsules knocked the pain right out, if caught soon enough. I tried it and guess what? It worked quicker and better than the pharmaceutical medications and cost a whole lot less. Some people are going to argue, but the Coca Cola® and Excedrin® Migraine Formula are not very healthy or good for you. You will get no argument from me on that score. However, I think it is probably a lot less toxic and dangerous than the stuff the doctors were eager for me to take.

Girlfriend’s advice score 1, doctors’  0.

So, a couple of years go by and the migraines are continuing. The Coca Cola®/Excedrin® Migraine Formula remained the solution. I did worry about the long term usage of this treatment but it appeared to be the only logical remedy in sight.

My lung condition started back in 1984, post gall-bladder surgery. The second I was discharged from the hospital, in fact on the car ride home, I developed an ugly cough. I also noticed a shortness of breath that I had never experienced before. Prior to surgery I used to be able to swim the long length of an Olympic-sized swimming pool with a couple of breaths and was first chair clarinetist in my high school band; So I knew I had a good set of pipes. Not one to panic, I passed it off as a flu of some type because a nasty bug was going around. I was living in Galveston and my husband, at the time, was a medical student at UTMB – Galveston. Could it have been a reaction to the anesthesia? Could too much have been administered? Or as a doctor friend of mine suggested, could it be while under anesthesia a virus came into play while under the influence? After several months it was apparent to me this condition wasn’t going away on its own so thus started a very long, series of disappointing doctors’ visits. Since I was, vicariously, in the brotherhood, I was sure I would get the best treatment available. But there was no immediate answer to be found.

Some doctors have such egos they don’t want to admit they don’t know what is going on. Instead they will write prescription after prescription hoping if they throw enough drugs at you, one or more will stick. I have to admit I fell for the grand plan for several years and obliged all kinds of drugs. It wasn’t until years later did I realize they did not have one iota of a clue as to what was going on with me. If the drugs were non- toxic and didn’t carry a side effect warning list a mile long, then that would be one thing, but most all, if not all, synthetic prescriptions drugs are born in a lab and are toxic. This will eventually impact you in several organs and areas of your body, not the least of which are your heart, kidneys, liver and intestines. Many of the popular cholesterol-lowering kind come with a raft of nasty side effects. It is suspected that Restless Leg Syndrome is one of the side effects linked to long term usage. The cholesterol-lowering and heart burn medicines, to name two categories, were not intended for long term use. However, I know several people who take these toxic drugs on a regular basis without really knowing the devastation that may one day befall them. It is not unlike a long term cigarette smoker, they may get lucky and have no ill effects but the opposite is more likely. And there is such a disconnect, most people will not even link their medication usage to possible subsequent organ damage. You probably won’t see it if you are not looking for it. And if someone were to suggest to me that these medications aren’t toxic, then why is it recommended to have one’s liver enzyme’s checked on a regular basis when using cholesterol level lowering drugs? Why does the Mayo Clinic state on their website these meds have been associated with an increased risk of fractures of the hip, wrist and spine when it comes to long-term heart burn medication usage? http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/heartburn-gerd/DS00095/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs.

A friend of mine’s daughter recently passed away due to heart failure. Her death has been blamed on the long use of a prescription medication that she was taking. When young people, otherwise healthy, suddenly drop dead, I wonder if prescription medications were involved, either by the person themselves or passed down through the parent’s altered DNA. Many drug trials have very short testing periods and the long term effects are garnered through the public’s usage. How many times do you see ads on TV with lawyers blaring the next class action lawsuit for a drug once considered safe by the FDA and now known to cause death and/or mayhem?

Twenty years go by and I was still searching for the answer to my chronic dyspnea (shortness of breath) and went to yet another pulmonologist. He was befuddled, too, but he actually did listen to me. He suggested a simple procedure to be done on an outpatient basis. When the day for the test came, of course there were the requisite forms waiting. Whenever I go for a medical procedure no matter how standard and simple the form is, it always stalls my heartbeat for a second. This is the one that disavows any liability on the part of the doctor or the hospital should something go amiss. So, I sign and in I go for the simple outpatient procedure called a bronchoscopy.

But it doesn’t go quite so smoothly and I am unintentionally given a double pneumothorax (punctured both lungs), chest tube, pneumonia and one week’s stay (non- complementary) in the hospital.  The hospital charges me and my insurance about $18,000.00. I have to pay out of pocket about $3,000.00 of the $18,000 bill. This includes hospital room, food, drugs, respiratory therapist treatments, radiologists’ and doctors’ charges. The thought crossed my mind to sue for the $3,000 but I talked myself out of it for a few reasons. 1. The doctor, to my knowledge, was skilled and did exactly what he was supposed to do. He was blameless and it was just an unfortunate event. 2. I was under sedation so I don’t have any proof otherwise. 3. Suing someone is so distasteful and not my first impulse. Only if there is blatant mal-practice would I even consider suing, but then if there is malpractice, I believe it is our duty. We need to weed out the dangerous doctors as much as we need to weed out dangerous airplane pilots. It is for the better good of all. 4. I figured I could work a deal with the hospital to simply wave my part of the debt being that it was an unplanned accident and they were getting the bulk of the bill paid for by my insurance company.

Although no longer married to a doctor, I remember a thing called professional courtesy. I know the hospital has some leniency in cases such as this. When I called the billing office to plead my case there was definitely not a sympathetic ear on the other end of the line. Apparently, professional courtesy and acts of common sense have disappeared like a quill pen, cursive writing and a hand-written thank you card.

I found so many errors and double billings, it wasn’t funny. Plus the hospital accounting department never sent me an itemized statement so a lot of what they said was not able to be corroborated. There were four account numbers assigned to me with shifting amounts. I once found a glaring $ 7,000 error, not in my favor, but erroneously presented to me for payment. After several years of paying on these bills I had figured I was done. The hospital turned me over to collections for a couple of hundred dollars I figured I didn’t owe. My credit score was plummeting in the meantime.

One day I called the hospital to let someone have it between the ears. I knew I wasn’t going to get anywhere but I was so ramped up and angry after speaking with the collections people I was going to get my money’s worth doing some ranting therapy of my own design. By a strange little miracle, I was connected to the nicest, kindest and not the least of which, an intelligent lady, who in a weird twist of fate had been married to one of my ex-husband’s professors while he was in residency training. She was so sympathetic and after hearing my story she considered the accounts paid in full, wrote the collection agency and had the bills rescinded. She was old school and knew what professional courtesy was all about. Technically, it wasn’t really professional courtesy but she knew, in the spirit of things, a lawsuit would have cost the hospital a lot more than $3,000.00 to defend and she righted a huge wrong.

This is one reason I advocate so strongly for people to realize there is no simple, invasive procedure. Do you know the procedure of removing molars unnecessarily is being practiced on a regular basis?  It is estimated to be over a $3 billion dollar industry according to Jay W. Friedman, DDS, MPH in an article written in 2007. Apparently, the risk of this procedure greatly outweighs the benefits. http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/pdf/10.2105/AJPH.2006.100271

Recently, Dr. Oz said, on his television show said there are countless, unnecessary operations to remove hysterectomies and fibroids from women . According to him and other doctors, If the fibroids are benign and not blocking a major artery they are best left alone.  www.doctoroz.com/videos/fibroids-what-you-need-know.

When I went to the dentist recently, the dental hygienist wanted to inject me with some antibiotics. I told her, “No, I wasn’t interested it that “preventative” medicine”. Hadn’t she heard about the overuse of antibiotics? When I told her that the drug would course through my body she said, “No, I am just going to inject this around your gums.”… I had to shake my head. Doesn’t she know that this chemical will go systemically throughout my body? Then she wanted to swab fluoride all around my teeth and gums. Again, I had to decline. If you don’t know about fluoride in tap water and toothpaste, I suggest you do some research. The benefits of fluoride are controversial. I choose to eliminate this chemical from my diet. Many countries have banned this toxic substance from their drinking water or never allowed it in the first place. www.fluoridealert.org/govt-statements.htm

If a child drinks several glasses a day of tap water and an adult drinks several glasses a day, which person could possibly get too much? The ratios for tap water fluoridation in the U.S. were set up with an adult-sized person as the standard. Wouldn’t that suggest that children can get too much?

The good thing that came out of the simple, routine, out-patient procedure was the doctor happened to get a small tissue sample. It was sent to the Mayo Clinic and as a result the first credible diagnosis was proffered; Carcinoid Tumorlets. This is a rare, but often misdiagnosed, condition that resembles asthma but is not asthma and does not respond to asthma medications. Having a diagnoses after 20 years of searching was indeed good news. The bad news is there is no cure and no treatment.  It is a form a cancer in the loose sense of the term, as there are tumors (too many cells) where they shouldn’t be, however, the other good news is, they are indolent (slow growing). I asked the doctor if oxygen would help me and he said, no. So out the door of his office I go. I guess I didn’t fire him but he couldn’t offer me anything more. On the way out of his office I did ask for a handicap parking sticker form and he obliged. In retrospect, I am so thankful he wasn’t one of those doctors to want to medicate me with useless drugs, as many times the drugs will kill you quicker than the illness and/or interferes with your body’s natural healing properties. I wasn’t as enlightened back then and may have blindly proxied my input in the process.

So, five years go by and the handicap sticker has expired. I need to find a pulmonologist again in order to get my handicap sticker renewed and venture in to see a new doctor. She asks me why I came to see her that day and I honestly responded that I had come to get my handicap sticker renewed. You would have thought I had said she was ugly, fat and stupid. She looked at me with red-glowing eyes and snarled something to the effect, “I don’t do that here”. I was so shocked by her demeanor I couldn’t really explain myself. I tried to share with her that I had been told 5 years ago by another physician that I had a disease that was untreatable by Western medicine. I did a walk around test where her aid placed a pulse oximeter on one of my fingers. We walked around the office so it could read my oxygen saturation level. The funny, but serious, part is that my oxygen saturation level was so low the machine couldn’t establish a necessary baseline. The doctor seemed furious that she couldn’t get a proper reading. This doctor’s ego was so huge there wasn’t room for the three of us in the room, so, I Ieft. She did say she wouldn’t charge me for the office visit…How nice of her…”Doctor, you’re fired”.

But there is still the situation with the handicap sticker, so I look for another doctor. This time I wind up in the hands of the amazing, kind and concerned, Dr. Jones (not his real name-changed by request). I went in to his exam room with a little trepidation considering the previous fiasco. I explained that I have a non-curable lung condition and I would like to get my handicap sticker renewed. We did the walk around test, him and me. Not some tech or PA, but he actually put the machine on my finger and walking around the clinic we went. His eyes grew wider as he turned the LED away from my view. I knew that look because that is what happened 6 years earlier with Dr. “This is a simple outpatient test”.  The next question floored me because I had been asking for years the same thing. He said, “Have you thought about oxygen?” and then, at that moment, I fell in love with him.

It took 26 years to find a doctor who suggested what I had suspected for a long time. I got the portable oxygen just in time for a trip to Washington D.C. with my daughter and my grandsons. What a godsend that beautiful, sweet, gaseous oxygen was. It made the trip 100% more enjoyable.  I could end here and it would be a nice happy ending. But there is more to this story.

Story continues here

Always an avid reader especially with regard to American History. Having been reared near Manassas' Bull-Run and Fredericksburg, VA she has a fondness for Civil War History and West Point War Strategy. Coincidentally, she is the daughter and step-daughter of two Marines who fought in the Korean War. She grew up in the small civilian town of Quantico, Virginia surrounded by the Marine military base and Navy hospital. She has always viewed the soldiers in her family, as well as other soldiers, with high regard. As a teenager in the late 60's-early 70s she grew up in a time of civil unrest. "Question authority was de rigueur by most all American youth. Occupy Wall Street is very reminiscent of those formative, yet troubled years.

So, now that the rose-colored glasses have been crushed she is coming to write about the criminal activity of the pharmaceutical industry and to help others be enlightened before it is too late for them. She does not have any formal education in writing but comes with the strength and passion of a soldier.

Her web blog is: www.prescriptiondrugsarekillingus.blogspot.com