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Blogs by Alice E Lewis
Looking For Trouble 5/1/2006 5:26:18 PM
Looking For Trouble
I went to the doctor today. It was like I thought it would be. He did give the guaifenesin prescription that I asked for, but he also wants me to come back for blood work. That's what doctors do, apparently. They look for trouble. I never thought of it that way before. Doctors look for trouble. If I had trouble of some sort, I would know it. I wouldn't need a doctor to tell me. Don't fix what ain't broke. That's the rule for a lot of things, household maintenance and such. But doctors don't want to leave it until it's broke. They want to tinker, even if it shows only a few signs of wear.
I have white coat syndrome. That means my blood pressure goes up when I am at the doctor's office. The rest of the time it is just fine. I take my blood pressure often enough to know that it is fine. I know it is so, but this new doctor can't leave well enough alone. He doesn't believe me. He wants to do lots of other checking. The only time my blood pressure really is up is when I am fighting an infection. This is not one of those times. It was up only because I was at the doctor's.
Harvey said that given enough time you could teach any doctor. I hope so. All I needed was to get prescriptions for my asthmatic condition. But now that I'm on Medicare, he is planning on giving me the works. Why am I going along with this? It must be to keep him happy so that he will continue to give me the asthma and allergy medicine I need. Now there I have an actual problem. My lungs got weakened as a young child during the WWII in Europe, when I had diptheria, and untreated bronchitis for months and months afterwards. Had that not happened my lungs would still be healthy. But since they are weakened, I need medication for that. But that's all. Barring an accident, everything else I can take care of with herbs and healthy living.
Herbs, that is another topic. I told him I was taking herbs. I told him I didn't need any antibiotics all last winter for the cold and flu season. He was glad of that but, he said he was going to have to talk to me about that, the cost of herbs, etc, etc. I'm not sure what else he was going to say when I interrupted him, and told him I grow my own. He dropped the topic right there.
If he finds any problem in my blood work I'm going to have to be firm, and tell him that for the next six months I will treat whatever needs treating with herbs and life-style changes. Only if that does not work at all, will I consent to take additional pharmaceuticals. That's probably going to drive him crazy because I will be preventing him from prescribing pharmaceuticals.
I treat myself when cold or flu threatens. I take mega-doses of vitamin C, and a quart of my herbal tea, stuff which I grow myself. I give myself three days for this treatment to work before I even consider going to a doctor. Within three days the cold or flu is no longer a problem, and I don't need a doctor.
Looking for trouble, which more than likely is not there, is not in my outlook on life.
