When was the last time your pharmacy did an instant message conversation with you to ask where you’d like your prescription delivered?
Not only are the doctors at our clinic both very convenient and very good, but there’s nothing like having a pharmacy where:
- they’re very friendly and greet me by name.
- there’s usually no wait, and never a wait longer than 5 minutes.
- the prescriptions are cheaper than anywhere else.
I’m trying to remember the last time I had a prescription or went to a clinic. Hmm. Nineteen ninety…
What you’ve got is a dearth of kids.
No physicals? You’re old enough, they’re usually done along with some no-fun procedures at your age. Never a need for antibiotics? No moles checked? Wow, you a manly specimen of a man!
Kids would do it for you. In my case I do get a yearly physical, plus at the moment I have a couple of medical issues that are helped with some prescription medications. I’m hoping the continuing loss of extra poundage will do away with that need.
I’m not a huge believer in physicals just for the sake of physicals. I’ll definitely get scoped when I’m 50 and probably have bloodwork done at the same time. I also think it is vitally important to keep an eye on one’s blood pressure, but I can do this at home. Other than this I just go to the doctor when there is something worth going to the doctor for which is rare. I most certainly won’t go to the doctor for antibiotics unless I get strep or something else that antibiotics can help. If a doctor prescribes them without actually culturing a harmful bacteria first he’s essentially saying “Here’s something that probably won’t help, probably won’t hurt, but will definitely make you go away.” I’d like to blame this sort of idiocy for causing resistant bacteria, but farmers are more likely to blame for most of it. Even more interesting a lot of antibiotics are prescribed for sinus and ear infections. It turns out these don’t do much either. Not because there are no bacteria present, but because the bacteria aren’t accessible by your blood. It makes sense really. Sinuses are just big holes in your head. If the infection was in your blood it would be a blood infection not a sinus infection. It would have been lovely had we studied this before giving out antibiotics by the fistful.
I remember this part of my childhood. My friend Larry when he got the sniffles his mother would take him to the doctor who would run a battery of tests, say “Larry’s white blood cell count is a little high.” Really? No way. High white blood cell count and a cold? What a coincidence! (Even as a 10 year old I knew this was stupid). Larry would be prescribed antibiotics and be sent home where he would recover in 3 to 5 days. When I got a cold I’d be sent to my room where I’d recover in 3 to 5 days. I wish more mothers were like my mom.
Congrats on the weight loss! Eating right and exercising works for so many things. Maybe you’ll find your own visits to the doctor decreasing. 🙂
Last time I got antibiotics I had strep, proven with a swab. In fact, we recently bought our own home strep testing kit to avoid going to the doc without a reason. There’s good reason to get antibiotics if you have the strep bacteria. It can turn nasty in ways you really don’t want.
Your comments about ear infections are interesting. We have had a run of ear infections in the last week. 3 people in the house. In all three cases the doc (different in each case) prescribed antibiotics, and within 24 hours things were much better. You think the ear infections would have gone away that fast without them? I’m trusting the docs and results on this one.
I think you’re right that a lot of people run to the doctor when it’s not necessary, particularly for children. I don’t believe we tend to do that. In fact, Terry hates taking the kids to the doctor so she resists as long as possible. And from what I’ve seen, doctors are not handing out antibiotics right and left. It seems like those days are past. Doctors know not to hand them out without good reason. You take a kid in with sniffles and they’ll run a quick strep test and if it’s negative send you home with instructions to come back if things aren’t better in a week.
As for my weight loss (nearly 25 pounds at this point with about 40 more to go), it’s just a result of eating right. Exercise doesn’t really lead to weight loss, just healthier body parts, and I haven’t yet integrated that into my life in a regular way. I’m waiting for Cerner to get a gym opened up at my location, which should be sometime this summer. My mode of weight loss right now is simply counting calories and not eating more than my self-defined limit. You can’t go wrong with that.
“There’s good reason to get antibiotics if you have the strep virus. It can turn nasty in ways you really don’t want.”
Strep virus? I assume this is a typo. You mean there is good reason to take antibiotics even if a virus is causing your symptoms? Sure. There are such things as opportunistic infections. They are rare especially if the virus isn’t too severe, but yes they happen. The antibiotics are very unlikely to hurt you so why not? The only tangible harm is more disease resistant bacteria and rapidly escalating medical costs. Neither one of these is a consideration for that doctor treating that condition at that time. It might even be unethical for the doctor to not prescribe prophylactic antibiotics once you have presented yourself to him.
Yes, I corrected that immediately after I posted it. 🙂 Strep is not a virus and I know antibiotics aren’t for viruses. I’ve always hated biology and have to check whether I want to use “virus” or “bacteria”. Sorry.
I meant that the strep bacteria can easily lead to some pretty nasty problems if unchecked, thus getting antibiotics is a good idea in that case even though you may very well get better without the antibiotics. In that case I don’t think it’s worth taking the chance when the antibiotics can almost certainly fix you up and prevent worse problems. I didn’t mean anything about viruses.
Follow-up on ear infections: I think the reason we probably get the antibiotics for the ear infections is because we don’t go in until we’ve had them for a few days. I believe the standard treatment these days is to not give the antibiotics without waiting to see if things clear on their own first, and we’re always past that point. So I think perhaps you and I are both saying the right things on this matter!
“Exercise doesn’t really lead to weight loss, just healthier body parts.”
Do you think I’m just shilling for Big Exercise again? 🙂
The formula is pretty simple: calories in – calories out = fat.
You can lose weight by diet restriction alone. You can lose weight by exercise alone. The two together are unbeatable. The important thing is good health is more than just weight, however. Exercise is good for your health even if you don’t lose a pound. It would be interesting to ask your doctor on one of your many visits whether diet or exercise is more important. I predict the answer will be emphatically that both are important. Exercise does things for your cardiovascular system, brain, and joints that diet can’t touch.
You’re telling me things I already know, professor. My point about exercise is that many people just start exercising to lose weight and never do. Many studies out about that now. Exercise is not a weight-loss program by itself. Without a diet component you will just end up eating more, but you will have a healthier heavy body. And that leads us to the calories in/out mantra, which is what I preach to everyone.
As for my personal health and one of my “many” visits (I see my doctor once a year for a physical, and then the rare once-off when I get something like strep), weight loss wins over exercise right now and my doctor agrees. I have some restrictions in my life at the moment that make regular exercise difficult, but I can certainly put less food in my mouth. My general health is good (for not being overly active), I just have too much weight. Weight is more problematic for me than general health at the current time. My doctor knows that my long-term goal is to integrate an exercise program when it becomes more doable, and is thus happy with my progress and plan.
“You’re telling me things I already know, professor. My point about exercise is that many people just start exercising to lose weight and never do. Many studies out about that now. Exercise is not a weight-loss program by itself. Without a diet component you will just end up eating more, but you will have a healthier heavy body. And that leads us to the calories in/out mantra, which is what I preach to everyone.”
Vigorous agreement. You threw me for a minute, there. True you can exercise more and not lose weight, but you can also eat less and not lose weight. (Most of my information comes from reading research not one-on-one conversations with doctors so the advice a particular doctor gives to a particular patient may vary.) The conventional wisdom is for most people 20 minutes of moderate exercise per day leads to much better overall health and mild weight loss. To get to more serious weight loss this needs to be upped to an hour a day which I admit is a bit much to fit into most peoples lives. The advantage of focusing on exercise rather than diet is that exercise can become an enjoyable part of one’s life (listening to book tapes, walking the dog, walking the kids, walking the wife, walking by yourself without any dog, wife, or kids) and you don’t have to feel hungry all the time. To lose weight by diet and keep it off you need a level of self-control that is unusual in the general population. You also miss out on all the benefits that exercise provides such as keeping your brain young.
So here’s hoping Cerner gets that gym open soon!
I do usually take a long walk at work most days. I’ve fallen off that wagon a bit due to weather and busyness, but I’m about to get back on it.
I wish we still worked together. I’d love to take a walk with you every day.
Too true. I am much more likely not to skip a day if someone walks with me.