McThag posted about this experience in the VA regarding a vitamin D deficiency. I chuckled because I had a similar experience with a former private doctor.
Doc: You have a low-level of vitamin D. I am going to give you a supplement.
Me: Cool, thanks.
Doc: I wonder why is it so low.
Me: 10 years working nights and I don’t do sunlight.
Doc: Well you should. A nice 30 minute walk every day will help you with that and to lose weight.
Me: You did read my medical history, right? Family history of basal carcinoma, I already had it (I point at my nose) and fractured vertebrae? Or do you think I walk with a cane because it makes me look cool?
Doc: <mumbles something and changes subject. >
I have respect for good doctors, but zero when it comes to servile admiration for any doctor. It comes from having peeked many years behind the curtains and knowing how many times they actually wing it and fuck it up royally.
LOL, been there done that.
My favorite is going in to see the doctor and being a little overweight. Everything is because you are fat.
Doctor: “You need to lose some weight.”
Me: “I know, but that’s not my problem right now.”
Doctor: “We should check your blood sugar to see if you are pre-diabetic.”
Me: “Can we do that after we deal with the fact that the bone in my leg is poking through the skin?”
I did *not* get that lecture from my doctor, despite not seeing her for 18 months.
That’s why they say Doctors “practice” medicine.
We’re all guinea pigs!
And the only reason I have anything to do with the VA medical system is when I had my service connected disabilities rated.
Yeah, I keep getting lectured about my weight and being told I ‘need to be more active’, followed by being told I need to rest my feet and knees more due to injuries everytime I go to the VA for an appointment.
You get that too?
“You need to exercise more!”
(exercise exacerbates the problem they’re paying disability for)
“You need to do less of (exercise).”
(I get fatter)
GOTO 10
I shouldn’t taken up baking…. 😀
Walk on your hands? 🙂
…and Bernie and his commie friends are pushing VA For All…
That is a big reason why I left medical school. They were teaching us to ask every question we could think of, and then enter abnormal findings into software that would give us a list of possible diagnosis. That is not the kind of medicine I wanted to practice. After being a medic for two decades, I just didn’t think that was the way to do it.