"Eric R Snow" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 2 Apr 2005 13:58:46 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:

"wmbjk" wrote in message
.. .
On Fri, 1 Apr 2005 20:05:14 -0500, "Ed Huntress"
wrote:


Hell, I'd do it, if I didn't have insurance and I was looking for
every
angle to cut expenses. It beats the hell out of taking nothing.

You'd buy drugs at the vet to save 10%, as opposed to reimporting
which saves much more but conflicts with "compassionate conservative"
philosophy? Oh wait, I just noticed the date on your post.... ;-)

Wayne

I think you got the percentages backwards, Wayne. d8-)

As for the drugs, I've spent most of my days over the past year reading,
studying, editing, and writing about pharmaceuticals. I'm with Gunner,
self-medicating with vet drugs beats nothing. A lot of information is
available. It's a matter of learning how to read it.

I have the greatest respect for physicians, but they can't be specialists
in
everything. Over the past 30 years I've been ahead of my MDs (and even,
once
or twice, endocrinologists) on much of type I diabetes treatment, and
I've
often given them updates. Within very strict limits, if you make a
concerted
effort and combine it with some professional medical diagnosis, some
people
can get away with it. . .most of the time. It's a balance of risks.
Greetings Ed,
What you say about doctors not being up on everything is true. There
is just no way, unless they never saw patients. And a good doctor
won't mind a bit if you bring in something the doctor hasn't seen yet.

That's been my experience. A few years ago my son's pediatrician went in the
back room and came out with a stack of _The Physician and Sportsmedicine_
for me. "Here," he said. "Read these." (I was reading about medial
epicondolitis, of which my son had a mild case at the time). "Then go tell
the other Little League coaches how to keep from wrecking their kids' arms."

He knew how to deal with the condition but he didn't have time to read *all*
of it. I did. So I fed back some of the info to him, and ran a couple of
one-evening sessions for the coaches.

Late last year I had to read everything published in the medical literature
about a particular drug. It took me a month of, maybe, half-time reading.
How could any practicing doctor do that? They deal with hundreds of drugs.
It's impossible.

After the work I've been doing for the past year I have more regard than
ever for the doctors who really work to keep up. It's a phenomenal amount of
work.

--
Ed Huntress