"Doctors think a lot of patients are cured who have quit in disgust."  Don Herold

Do you trust your doctor?  Your nurse?  Your hospital worker?  Your medical clerk?  I don't...after being at the VA Medical Center for over 18 years!  You learn not to trust when you're at the VA!  I have been screwed so many times at the VA Medical Center, that I have learned to miss-trust everyone!  I've wanted to get out of the VA Medical Center since 1992, and I finally did in 2008.  At the age of 60, I qualified for Medicare after a two-year waiting period on a disability...and where did the disability happen?  You'll never guess...the VA! 

When this happened, I couldn't get out of the VA fast enough...before I get murdered...or WORSE!  But, I would now have to pay for my medical in the private, and that was okay, as long it was affordable.  Aside from the disability, a few of the things that happened to me at the VA are as follows;

- I won't go back to the VA for any reason...not even DOA (dead on arrival); for the last two years, I have gotten my flu shots elsewhere.

- To remove a growth on my left ear, the procedure was done with liquid nitrogen, and my ear was burned, that I had to go to dermatology for three visits.  Because of the blistering on the ear, I had to go to the emergency room about three days after the procedure.  A complaint didn't do any good!

- I've been hospitalized three times because of the medication I was prescribed...and one time I landed in intensive care with a bleeding stomach. 

- I get a blood test every year, so I knew my glucose (sugar) was elevated, so I was not surprised when I was told that I had gone over the line, and I now had diabetes.  But, I was amazed at how I was given the news...buy letter...and told to make an appointment with my doctor about 3 months down the road and we would talk about diabetes.  How impersonal can you get? 

- I had tolerated pain under the right rib cage for about 3-4 months.  To make an appointment with my primary doctor would take months...so I went into the emergency room, to get this problem looked at right away.  The people in the emergency room took care of the problem all right...they made the appointment for me with my primary doctor...for about three months in the future!  Needless to say...I was appalled...

- When I was homeless in 2005, I was living on the VA Medical Center grounds.  When I moved, I changed my mailing address.  At the end of 2010, I have still not seen a letter...a bill...any correspondence from the VA...and a follow-up and complaint to the post office didn't do any good.  I, eventually, had to write to every company and change my address. 

"The worst thing about medicine, is that one kind makes another necessary."  Elbert Hubbard

From; Green Change.org; (How drug companies corrupt doctors)  Recently, Senator Grassley, ranking Senator on the Finance Committee, has been looking into financial ties between the pharmaceutical industry and the academic physicians who largely determine the market value of presctiption drugs.  He hasn't had to look very far. 

Take the case of Dr. Joseph Beiderman, a professor of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School, and chief pediatric psychopharmacology at Harvard General hospital.  Thanks largely to him, children as young a two years old are now being diagnosed with bipolar disorder and treated with a cocktail of powerful drugs, many of which were not approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration), and for that reason, none were approved for children under ten years old. 

In June (2010), Senator Grassley revealed that drug companies including those that make the drugs that he advocates for childhood bipolar disorder, had paid Biederman $1.6 million in consulting and speaking fees between 2000 and 2007.  Two of Beiderman's colleagues received the same amount. 

Or consider Dr. Alan Schatzaberg, chair of Stanford's Psychiatry Department, and president-elect of the Massachuettes General Hospital.  Grasseley found that Schatzeberg controlled more than $6 million worth of stock in Concept therapeutic, a company he founded that is testing mifepristone, an abortion drug, otherwise known as RF-486.  At the same time, Schatzberg was the principle investigator on the National Institute of Health grant that included research on mifepristone.

"I get the bill for my surgery.  Now, I know why those doctors were wearing those masks for."  James Boren

HMO/private sector: In 2010, I've been away from the VA Medical Center for two years now, and there have been some problems in the private sector HMO that I currently have.  I have not been exactly a happy camper with the new HMO in the private sector because;

- The first thing I did when I left the VA, was to get a second opinion on the diabetes outside the fences of the VA.  The diagnosis was the same thing.  When I reported to a specialist on diabetes, she prescribed 1,000 mg of metformin.  I was not going to take 1,000 mg. of anything, so I cut the tablet in half.  The reader has to remember that I had just gone over the line of diabetes, and my A1C was 6.9 and my average numbers were about 162.  So, I wondered why there was such a high doseage of medication. 

About a month later, I found myself being taken by ambulance to the empergency room, where I spent 12 hours, with severe constipation, something I had never suffered before.  The reason for my hospitalization was never known.

Four months later, over the Columbus Day week-end, I suffered from cramps under the foot and numbing on the right side and hand, and again I was taken by ambulance to the emergency room, where I was admitted and stayed for two days in the hospital.  The problem was never found by doctors, but I guessed it was the medication that was the culprit. 

More than a year later, and at the end of 2010, I still have numbing and needles and pins in my right foot for about an hour each day, so things are still not right. 

Over the first two years at my private HMO, there have been problems...so it has not been peaches and cream.  Over this time, I have counted about 12 problems that I have had with the HMO, to lengthy to list here.  So much so, that at the end of 2010, there was open enrollment at another local HMO, and I enrolled and got accepted.  I don't expect to use it until early 2011. 

"My doctor is nice.  Every time I see him, I'm ashamed of what I think of doctors."  Mignon McLaughin

Guinea-pigging?  Experimentation?  The American people and people around the world, have to have a lot of trust in medical people, etc.  But, is that trust dwindling? 

Because of miss-trust of the medical profession (as we know it), I think many Americans are turning to the alternative healing of chiropractic; accupuncture, etc., which use no drugs and so forth.  In my own case...I've had over 100 visits to a chiropractor since 1976 on my wellness plan.  That has allowed me to reduce my intake of chemicals prescribed by the 'drug-dealers' of this nation. 

To say that ALL medical people are corrupt or immoral would be like 'throwing out the baby with the bathwater,' and I won't do that!  But, the medical field has its share of thugs; mobsters; weenies; liars; cheaters; fraudsters; criminals; the immoral and corrupt people, etc. So, from now on in 2010...I have to treat everyone who crosses my path the same...'you'll have to earn my trust.' 

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Copyright; 2010; Jerry Aragon/The Humor Doctor
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