So as I go from doctor visit to doctor visit I keep being reminded of a something that happened to me a few years back and it still bothers me to this day. Why does the medical system not recognize us as individuals with different needs.
A little background about me... I am not the healthiest guy around. I have a cataract in my one eye so severe I am now blind (I'll find out at the end of the month if I can finally have surgery on it), I need monthly injections in both eyes in order to keep what vision I do have (Lucentis/Ilea) - in case that escapes people, I VOLUNTARILY go every month and get multiple NEEDLES injected INTO my eyes (and I mean the needle goes IN the eye here folks, 2 years of this and its still EWWWWWWW every single time), I have ulcers, Crohn's disease, I was in a nasty car accident 17 years ago which means major back and neck problems, the steering wheel collapsed and pinned me for almost an hour until they jaws of life'd me out, this lead to blood pooling in my legs which 17 years later means my legs look like toothpicks compared to the rest of me, I have no balance, can't do stairs and hobble around on a cane most days. Not to mention multiple strokes over the last few years (oops guess I did mention them, sometimes I forget - that's a stroke joke folks LOL)
But I hobble around and go on.
Get the picture? If not here is Mr. Burn's doctor to explain it to you:
So what's with the sob story? Well the point of the above list is not to whine or bemoan or feel sorry myself or elicit sympathy in any manner. No, its simply to set the stage for my real beef.
So back in 2016 I became ill and by the time I finally dragged myself to the emergency room was in pretty bad shape. I am a guy after all so it was days past when I should have gone but fortunately I weigh too much for the wife to muscle me in the car herself so she doesn't win those arguments. We get to emergency, I'm in so much pain I can barely breathe and remain conscious. I manage to gasp out bronchial pneumonia and am quickly rushed to the waiting room to sit for 4 hours (gotta love medical systems).
They get me into ER at some point and of course want to do all the pre-requisite blood tests and such. By this point I have had nothing to eat or drink for about 9 or 10 hours, so when the blood tests come back there is only one conclusion to be drawn:
I'm diabetic!!!!!!
Oh and i also have bronchial pneumonia but that doesn't matter.
Now I've been diabetic for over 25 years so hearing this news wasn't exactly a shock to me. However, it quickly became the sole focus of every doctor, nurse and employee of the hospital over my week long stay.
You see, my blood sugar was close to 800 (American scale). This is in fact is pretty high (I always ask if I have the high score when I meet a new doctor). Normal blood sugar ranges from 100-120 to be considered in the "normal" or acceptable range. After 150 or so they start talking to you about going on meds, 250-300 doctors get panicked, at 500-600 which is my normal daily level, they are amazed I am walking, talking and functioning in general. Apparently I should be in a coma or something. So at 800, well you can imagine the fuss, I swear the guy with the gunshot wound got bumped behind me.
Now I am not a huge medicaton guy at all. I generally believe that they cause more long term problems than they solve (look at the side effects for any of the good drugs). I believe more in I guess you would have to call it natural or holistic medicine. Mind over matter, simply perservance, etc. Man has the ability to to heal himself through willpower alone for the less severe conditions. I'm not talking about regrowing limbs or healing gun shots or whatever, seek medical attention for those, but for the common cold or earache or little things like that I really do think we rely too much on medications, gain immunity to antibiotics and create super bugs and such.
Having said all that it should come as no surprise that at the time I was admitted to the hospital I was not taking any drugs for my diabetes, hence the 500-600 daily numbers. Still waiting for the point to all this rambling? Well hang in there I'm getting close.
Now as soon as it was determined I was diabetic and not currently on medication it was as if time itself stood still. The earth stopped revolving around the sun and sun itself dimmed in horror.
While it had been confirmed I did indeed have bronchial pneumonia (no surprise to me I get it every 3-4 years so recognize the symptoms) it turns out it was a particularly virulent new strain that season. You might think this would be a cause for concern or at least a major focus.
Nope, you'd be wrong. You see, I'm diabetic. Over the course of my many decades being diabetic I have come to realize that is an extremely powerful word to medical professionals. It can literally freeze them in place when used at the appropriate time.
So I'm admitted, get my own little room and what I believe is the bed that doubled as the main torture rack from the Tower of London back in they heyday of torture. I am given a couple injections of insulin (quick acting and a long term one) and as an afterthought (seriously they had to go out and get the antibiotic bag) get hooked up to the IV machine with antibiotics in one wrist and saline in the other (since I was completely dehydrated).
15 minutes later, an orderly comes in and tests my blood. 15 minutes later, an orderly comes in and tests my blood. 15 minutes later, an orderly comes in and tests my blood. 15 minutes later, an orderly comes in and tests my blood.
No, those aren't typos. They tested my blood every 15 minutes for the next 6 hours, Why???? Because I'm diabetic of course. My saline bag and antibiotics would run out and not be changed for hours at a time, even after calling the nurse in, but hey that's not why I am in the hospital right? Or is it? Nope because you see I'm diabetic after all.
Now as I mentioned earlier, my daily numbers run high, but they are fine for me. I am used to that level and it is what works for me. If I go over 800-900 my sugar is too high for me, if I go under 300 I am that snickers commercial where I get cranky and under 200 I'm a puddle on the floor. So I explain all of this to the ER doctor, to the nurses, to the ward doctor, to the on-call endocrinologist and well generally to anyone who will listen. From each of them I hear the same thing.... Nope you are wrong, we need to get you down under 150 ASAP.
Well they continue to inject me with insulin at WAY too high a dosage for me to handle. Remember how I mentioned I get cranky under 300? You should me at 150 LOL. I tore into them like a wolverine on a T-bone. Well at least until I passed out for the next 2 days, lost 7 pounds ( I was 163 pounds admitted, 156 on day 3) in those 2 days due to being unable to keep anything in me and of course felt like absolute crap.
After finally meeting with the endocrinologist again she admitted that perhaps they had overdone it and promising me that she whould listen and take into account my 25 years of living with this myself, we hit upon a plan. I would take insulin and stabilize in the 300-350 range for now and we would deal with this once I was over the bronchial pneumonia. Oh you forgot about that? Yeah, so did they.
The Point (Almost)
Thanks for sticking with me this far. Now my endocrinologist was rather large herself (always fun getting advice from those who don't follow it themselves) who told me she was diabetic as well and the importance of maintaining low blood sugar. She explained how anything over 150 was dangerous. I again reiterated my position of what was normal for me. We went back and forth when finally I hit upon the solution of how to get my point across.
When someone simply cites/quotes a textbook at me it's generally hard to argue, after all those are the facts. But in this case, I had an avenue of attack. I pointed out that what was in the textbook was simply an average of all studies done and therefore could not be applied to any specific person other than as a simple guideline or starting point, certainly not as a rule. She replied that was true but the data fit for 70% of the population.
Ah-ha my opening appears. I asked her (keeping in mind her large frame) if she would be so accepting if suddenly all clothes only came in sizes 4-16 for women, because that is what fit 70% of the population. Stunned silence greeted me. I pushed my advantage. Just because it works for the majority does not mean it should be forced on all. One size does not fit all. It can not even be extrapolated to do so as a linear function. as the size of clothing increases there are generally subtle changes in the design to correct for the larger size, so it drapes better, accents different things, etc. So in medical terms, the same logic must apply. You can't simply use the number out of a medical text book written 50 years ago.
She finally relented on that point and commended me for presenting a different viewpoint she hadn't considered before. I was extremely gratified. I had actually gotten through to a DOCTOR!!! That's got to be one of the toughest nuts to crack to convince that they might not know everything (about you).
My elation was short lived however. She then turned her points towards the dangers of high blood sugar. One "fact" she threw out was diabetics are 50% more likely to have a stroke than people with low blood sugar. She assumed since I had already had 2 strokes myself this might be meaningful.
Now I am a data driven guy. 50% wow that's a huge increase. But hold the phone.... 50% of what exactly? See here's the problem, no one knows? The medical profession is full of all these fun facts and factors... X% increased chance of this, y% lower chance of that. But do they ever tell you the base chance? Nope, because they don't know it.
So I asked, 50% of what? what is base chance that is increased by 50%? She replied she didn't know. I told her she was just fear-mongering. I decided to try a thought experiment.
Let's take a normal, healthy male in his 50s. This guy eats right, exercises and does everything a doctor could dream of for a patient to be in perfect health. Now lets say we start at age 30, what are the odds that this individual has a heart attack on any given day?
10%? - Nope that would be 36 heart attacks a year
1% - still too high at 3 a year
0.1% - 1 heart attack every 3 years? Doesn't sound too healthy to me
0.01% - Now we are getting closer, 1 heart attack every 36 years? So a heart attack by 66 for the perfect candidate?
0.005% - This puts our healthy individual into a heart attack every 54 years or by 84. That's pretty realistic I think
She agreed with me that 0.005% seemed like a fair number. So if I have a 50% increased risk my risk of a heart attack on any given day is 0.0075% vs the perfect candidates risk of 0.005% I asked.
Given those odds, what are the chances that even cracks my top 100 concerns of the day?
Why does the medical profession feel the need to fear-monger so much? Is this where the media learned it from? Are they truly that beholden to the big pharmaceuticals that they have to push product that much?
The Point (Finally)
As I have recently moved back to Canada I again find myself having multiple doctor appointments in the weeks and months as I get settled in. Once again I find myself having to explain over and over again why
ONE SIZE DOES NOT FIT ALL
Thank you for your time in reading this.
EDIT: If you follow me or caught my post yesterday about my first week here (https://steempeak.com/@ancientknowled3/reflections-on-my-first-week) you will know that I set a target for week 2 of having 1 post break the $1.00 mark organically. I am VERY happy to say that post did in fact break $1 in its first 8 hours. THANK YOU TO ALL WHO UPVOTED ME.
I am now setting my next goal for the week to be $1.50 on a post this week, organically (no bought votes).