On Mar 22, 10:14*pm, "LDosser" wrote:
"Han" wrote in message

...



Swingman wrote in
m:

On 3/21/2010 7:35 PM, Han wrote:

So "effectiveness studies" should give you better care (less side
effects) and less costs. *Your irrational fear of someone deciding
for you what kind of care you are going to get has warped your mind.
Do your research of what you think you need and have a good talk with
someone you trust, then with your doctor. *And, please, do write down
your living will, advance directives or whatever you want to call
them.

I don't mind giving you a personal, real life, less than 72 hours old,
example of the above.

Appointment at the VA for shoulder problem on this past Friday AM
(believe me, I _earned_ the VA medical care ("entitlement", if you
wish), the hard way!).

This was the third visit on this issue, taking four months to get this
far, each visit hopefully getting closer to an actual diagnoses, and
subsequent relief, based on something besides conjecture on the part
of the primary care physician, a GI specialist (but as long as I ask
the right questions, a competent health care professional).

Not enough doctors to go around in Orthopedics, so, after two and a
half hour wait, get a PA, *(very accented English and hard to
understand, but very nice, attentive and obviously caring). PA
ultimately makes determination to give steroid injection in shoulder
(step 5 of apparently a 10 step procedure that must be followed, in
order).

Relief is not as obvious as have been led to believe, so after a few
hours start doing some research on the expected efficacy of the
injection, with particular emphasis upon the site of the PA
administered injection, (posterior shoulder in this instance, with the
main problem exhibited on the anterior).

*From a doctor friend: "A lateral injection is generally the preferred
site and best for the desired result. The posterior location is
considered the easiest place to administer the injection. It is the
site that requires the least amount of skill, and the site where it is
recommended for the unskilled to administer the procedure".

Light pops on ... basically, got a steroid injection (ouch!), in an
area of the shoulder least likely to benefit from the procedure, and
by an unskilled PA, with no doctor available.

Next possible appointment, and to then OK the escalation to the step 6
- to see if an MRI is warranted: late July, 2010.

Don't get me wrong, this better than no care at all, but arguably
"second rate" by any medical yardstick.

That said, I accept the entirety of any blame because I failed to do
my homework beforehand. Had I done that, I could have asked the
correct, informed, questions and probably gotten a better result.

However, this anecdote is NOT partisan conjecture ... it is actual,
day before yesterday, "US government health care", in practice.

Moral: we should be damn careful what we wish for ...and, if you get
nothing else from this little anecdote, most definitely prepare
yourself to do MUCH more in managing your own health care when this
bill passes.

... and it appears that it will pass.

As LDosser, I have a comparable story, but far less severe than either of
you. *Pains in shoulder radiating down to hand. *Turned out that I have
some osteoarthritis in neck vertebrae. *Exercise helps, but all the tests
to get there! *Including something the name of which I forget, whereby
needles administered electric shocks to find out whether there was
something wrong with the nerves in my arm. *My problem was made worse by
my posture sitting at a keyboard almost all day.

Testing electric conduction. They were going to put me through that hoop
until the neuro-surgeon got a look at the MRI and called me at home. Just
about had a heart attack getting a call from a physician at home. ()

I once had a doctor call me at night. Evidently the lab called her
reporting that my fasting blood sugar was 40 so she immediately called
me and left a voice mail. When I called back she asked how I was
feeling, then sorta laughed. If the lab was accurate she would have
noticed it when I was there and that there was really no point in
calling in any case. ;-)