What the Drug Abuse Epidemic Costs Other Patients

OK, I admit it, I'm in recovery. So, yeah, I fall in part of this category.

BUT - since I've been in recovery many years, I also don't fall into this category. I now fall into the "regular, old fashioned patient" category.

Regular patients can't get quality medical care anymore.
I have some conditions that I watch. I don't have the disease, but my conditions are well enough advanced that I expect certain blood tests at least every six months. I can't get my doctor to order the tests. Simple things like blood sugar, weight and balance tests....

Doctors aren't being taught medicine. They aren't being taught to think. Maybe it's the insurance industry that messed everything up. I don't know - maybe the pharmaceutical industry.... It's like there's a pill for every ill, and if you aren't sick - actually exhibiting a disease, doctors don't know what to do anymore.

Since I moved to Tennessee, this is particularly evident. I'm used to world-class medical care. California, Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Reno....

But in East Tennessee, there is an epidemic of doctor-caused drug addiction. Opiate addiction, in particular. There is also a healthy weight-loss clinic business, which is uppers, downers, painkillers, HCG, and more.

The doctors around here have resigned themselves to patients who are looking for drugs. When they find someone who is interested in changing their life, changing their health, they - the doctors - either don't know what to do, or they get excited by the prospect of someone in their care actually getting better. Unfortunately, we have many more doctors of the former type than the latter. 

So, people like me, who pretty much know what is going on in their bodies, have an idea of what the protocols are, and are working to avoid developing worse conditions, are lost in the system - or not treated at all. I would love to find one of the doctors who get excited about someone getting better.

I had a doc in Knoxville who wouldn't touch me. Not even to check my glands or see how my reflexes were doing in my legs - which work, but have "issues" from past injuries. Maybe he didn't want to be a doctor. It was really strange.

Here, I have a female who will check me, listen to my heart and stuff, but she won't run the blood tests that I need run. I've asked for the tests and they still don't make it onto the orders.

I don't understand this new medicine. There are more specialists than ever, but nobody is practicing medicine. They are all sticking their heads in the sand. 

I'm not trying to game the system or commit insurance fraud. I'm not looking for drugs. I just want certain conditions watched so that they don't get any worse.

There are several medical colleges around this area - Duke being the best, Vanderbilt being next in line. Then there are state colleges like UT and ETSU. I'm sure there are others that I don't know about, since I'm relatively new - even after 12 years - to this area. There are pharmacy colleges, medical colleges, private and public universities. Why is medicine like this?

Maybe 15 years ago, things changed. I had a family practitioner who did everything. She watched my heart, blood pressure, did my pap smears and sent me for mammograms. When it was time for surgery she sent me to a surgeon to be evaluated. Not for surgery - just to see if it was warranted. True, she missed the asthma, but I never said anything about it, so how could she know? She told me to quit smoking, and I finally did a couple years before it was diagnosed.  

But today, good luck! If you find a doctor who will take the insurance you have (if you have any - even with the ACA, it is expensive) and has openings, you may not get quality medical care. Just because a doctor has the papers, doesn't mean they are any good. I've had burned out shells, doctors who won't touch me, doctors who will refer instead of treat, doctors with staff that were rude, and doctors who you can't even get in to see.

Therapists aren't much better. Drug addiction has caused a booming business in the therapy trade. Only it isn't real therapy. It's teaching coping skills to the uninitiated, and doling out head-meds for depression and anxiety to keep the patient under control. That isn't recovery. No more than suboxone is an answer for opiate addiction. It's just state-sponsored drug addiction - whether suboxone/methadone or head-meds. Same thing.

Finding someone who isn't interested in making their patient a zombie on meds - to help the patient find real healing and mental health - that's a therapist worth his or her weight in gold.

Medicine is a business, true. But it isn't a healing business anymore. I miss the hands-on people we used to have who practiced medicine.

So, even a person who is not addicted will have difficulty finding quality medical care. It's all because the addiction costs are so high. Burn out of physicians who might otherwise be quality caregivers, therapists only interested in what drugs one is on... It's a racket! And the poor patient is the loser.

School Orientation and Health Care Decision

I was running around East TN State University yesterday, trying to get all the stuff covered that I needed to cover in a one-day orientation, advising and registration session. In the middle of it, I'd heard that the Health Care Reform Act had been upheld.

I didn't hear about the controversy until I was driving home, listening to the radio. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? I think John Roberts is trying to oust a sitting president, and if the Dems have any sense, they will oust John Roberts. If that were only possible...

The Supreme Court has clearly stated duties in the Constitution. They've been trying to legislate instead of stand impartially and compare all actions of the President and Congress to the Constitution, and that is just a problem for me.

I'm so fed up with the gamesmanship in Washington DC. It's just so much posturing. Nothing gets done because they just want to stall so the other guys can't act. It doesn't matter who's in office, really. It's just that the Dems seem to care a little more about the people and a little less about themselves and a lot less about corporate interests.  As an individual, and not a corporation, I prefer the Dems.

As for whether John Roberts will get his wish of ousting a sitting president from the Supreme Court or not, I certainly hope not.

How do I figure that, anyhow? Well, by upholding the health care reform act, Roberts stirred up republican opposition to the act, perhaps making them angry enough to oust the president for Mitt Romney (Egads!!) along with all the dems in congress who passed the bill to begin with.

However, if the Dems play their cards right, and put health care on a person by person basis, show the shenanigans and manipulations as bald political posturing, they have a chance. With Obama in the lead, I'm not so sure that will happen. He's too willing to allow crap. The "no-drama" side of him has to get put away. I'd love to see him yell and scream and have a few choice words at the republicans. That would be a bit better than his cool and calm exterior. Show that he gets pissed. Because if a president doesn't get pissed, he's not much good as a president.

I've been very ill....

I've been fighting kidney issues and on antibiotics again. I'm a victim in this 60-40 split of health care - meaning that I don't have health insurance. So, I muddle along like the rest of us. I have to pay the doctor out of pocket, and I have to purchase my meds at full price. I keep fighting dehydration to avoid complications and seem to be losing. I've had tests that I'm still paying my 20% on, and the doctor couldn't tell me why I've got this condition and didn't really help me. He just ran up a lot of bills, and I quit going to him. Even with insurance paying 80% at the time, the bill was pretty high.

When I get dehydrated, the condition seems to get worse, and I need antibiotics to stop the bleeding and then I get better for a while. This has been going on for over 24 months, so now it's considered a "pre-existing condition" and no insurance company will help me with it for quite a while. My kidneys are weakened because of all the meds I take for another condition. I've been on them so long that my kidneys are just processing fluids without discernment.

So, this hot weather hit and the humidity climbed here in Tennessee, and I started having trouble keeping hydrated. I've had this trouble since I moved here just over 5 years ago. This summer seems worse than usual, and long-time residents say that it is worse. Anyway, I've been using lots of "-ade" type drinks, lots of water and still having trouble.

What this means is that I'm never feeling very good. I hurt all over, I have headaches, my digestion is messed up and I'm starting to get very grumpy. I have been eating when I'm thirsty, because I don't feel thirst, which is playing havoc with weight and blood-sugar levels. Even when I drink a lot of water, I'm still eating a lot. So, things are getting worse. My limbs are swelling a lot, even though I'm on water pills. My only hope is that the weather will break and we'll have rain. Then, maybe the temp will go down, too.

So, I'm too grumpy to pay attention to the news. I've been hearing stuff about a mine cave-in in Utah, and it sounds fishy. I'm glad the shuttle crew landing OK, but it was a nail-biter. And I've heard that Florida is getting cut out of the primary process because they want to be first instead of second for voting dates. Well, the rush to be first was won a long time ago because of a law passed in New Hampshire. Can't change another state's law, can they???

While I have my take and thoughts on all of this, I'm too short-tempered to deal with much right now. Maybe when the weather breaks, I'll be able to yell at the radio again. Meanwhile, I'm just turning it off.