GP Checkup

All went well today with my 6 month general checkup. I got my usual cholesterol lecture so I got out my life expectancy calculations from an insurance company site, and 5 year risk factor calc from the the American Heart and Lung site. Both showed only minor improvements if I modified my lipid panel to the recommended levels. So the good doc after failing to get anywhere with the "scientific" data tried the scare approach. Something like "Frank even with these numbers you don't want to be that 1 in a hundred that has a heart attack. How would you feel if that happened to you". I quietly (I was being nice) looked at him and said "I likely wouldn't feel anything for long and how would you feel if I was that 1 in 100 patients that had a serious reaction to the statins"? That pretty well ended the lecture.

I also showed him a printout of my ECG taken on my equipment. I could tell he was taken back at the detail in heart waveforms and pacing images.

We parted on friendly terms so no mushroom cloud. I would really like to get alone with him, but I am the type who takes charge of my own medical situation as long as I'm conscious.

Next week is phone check time on the pacemaker. I don't expect any surprises and am mostly interested in the battery life projections.

happy new year to all. Let's have fun next year.

fank

3 Comments

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by peter - 2008-12-31 03:12:05

When I was in hospital for over 2 months I had plenty of time to see patients coming in needing stents and bypasses. I could not help noticing that just as many thin people as overweight people were coming in needing treatment. All drugs are a chemical cosh and therefore have the potential to do much more harm than good. A heathy scepticism over your medication is not a bad thing. I do take tablets but only those that I have established that I am beneffiting from. This means there are 3 drugs that the doctors wanted to keep me on but I worked out the advice was wrong. I am amazed at the way doctors in and out of hospital are willing to prescribe drugs like confetti. One of the drugs I dont take is warfarin despite having permanent AF. I dont take it because I have idiopathic thrombocytopenia and because I know there is a risk of blindness for those on warfarin long term. Other reasons for other drugs is that they make me feel really ill. If you can work out for yourself what drugs and dosage you should be on , you will last a lot longer. Cheers peter

way to go frank

by jessie - 2008-12-31 12:12:50

i was at the dr's to-day and i spoke to him about feeling like a hundred in the a.m. immediately he said you are going again to see the orthopedic surgeon. i had two hip replacments in 2001 and 2002 6 months apart. about 4 years ago my ortho guy said that these hips may not last long and you may need them done again. i hate to say it but my p.m. has more life than my hips. anyone ahd experience like this. i am not looking forward to 2 more operations but i also don't want the wheelchair scenario. in the a.m. i kid you not i walk baby steps to the b.r. and my balance is off later in the day because i am assumning the trendellenbewrg position. i also take my care into my own hands because most of them are money grabbing men and women who want little relationship as possible as they want to see as many as possible. sorry for the bitterness but i am a bit ticked off to-day. thanks jessie otherwise life hey it is good eh frank. yeh lets laugh.

Cholesterol lecture

by Jalapeno - 2009-01-01 02:01:40

Frank, I went to my doctor's appointment yesterday and got the cholesterol lecture also. I am not on any drugs for high cholesterol and my doc doesn't want to start me on any at this time due to possible side effects. She has given me three months to lower my levels. You are my hero and I will be bugging you in about three months if I can't bring down my numbers.

You know you're wired when...

Your pacemaker interferes with your electronic scale.

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My pacemaker is intact and working great.