MANY MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS

LACK COMMUNICATION SKILLS

          Some of my favorite people are members of the medical profession.   I know that I am alive today because of the knowledge and care of a large number of  doctors, nurses, and other medical personnel.

          However, I am sad to report that medical professionals do not always communicate with one another, and sometimes vital information is not even shared with their staffs.

          For years I have requested that all lab reports and recommendations of various medical specialists be sent to my family doctor.  My goal was to have all of my medical information flowing into one central office.  From there, any specialist treating me could access whatever background information that was needed.

          With the advent of computers, it would seem that this would be a simple procedure.  Just zap the pertinent information via email to whatever doctor was doing what doctors do -- examine, prescribe, operate, console, etc.  Unfortunately, in too many instances vital information is kept secreted away in some doctor’s computer.

          Examples of communication failures abound.  After a week of injecting a blood thinner twice a day into my stomach, I was ready for  a fairly common eyelid surgery.  As I was being wheeled into the operating room, the doctor appeared and canceled the operation.  Seems that eye doctors had only recently learned that using that blood thinner could in some rare cases, cause blindness.  So he canceled the operation.

          My question was why did we come right down to the wire, and why was this information not sent out to the entire medical profession?  To top it off, a member of his staff called me the next day to see how I was doing post op.  Obviously, they weren’t even communicating internally.

          This week I had a follow-up visit with the surgeon who had removed my cancerous lower intestine.  Following the usual “how are you doing?” questions, he said he routinely performed a colonoscopy in the first year after surgery.  He asked me when was I operated on.  I told him I sometimes had trouble remembering what I did last week.  Actually, it had been two years since the operation. 

          His next question was “Did you see an oncologist and did you have radiation treatment?”  I told him that the “cancer” doctor told me that it would be five years or longer before I had to be concerned, and “no, I did not have any radiation treatment.”.

          I have come to a number of conclusions.  First, even though I had made this appointment several weeks ago, he apparently had not read my file.  Or, even worse, none of the oncologist’s report had been sent to him. 

          I have asked my family doctor to forward all pertinent information in my file to the surgeon since I will be meeting with him again in the next week or so.  The surgeon should have this information in order to make wise future decisions concerning my health.

          I don’t know what it will take to alert the medical profession about this major, life dealing problem of failing to communicate.  Perhaps the AMA will undertake to conduct seminars for doctors on the new computer medical information programs currently available.   I sure hope so.

           One concluding thought.  I totally admire and love all of the doctors who have treated me, and I will also admire and love any future doctors.  I am not in the business of upsetting those who help me; I just want them to be better informed.

                                                         

DON'T SHOOT AN UGLY GUN

          A very beautiful glossy flyer was in my mail box today, advertising a specially engraved, Nickel plated, Colt Model 1911.  Only 100 are being made available in Missouri.

          The year 2011 marks the 100^th anniversary of this .45 caliber pistol, and it is being offered  through the auspices of the NRA and American Legacy Firearms.

          According to the flyer, “Life’s Too Short To Shoot An Ugly Gun!”

          No cost is mentioned but there is a “layaway plan.”  $200 down and $100 a month.  There was no indication of how many months.

          I have several problems with this sales promotion.  First of all, nobody in his right mind would use this gun for protection.  A big dog or a shotgun would be better.  If your ownership of such a weapon is to demonstrate your patriotism, then all you can do is display it in your gun cabinet where only visitors would see it.   Or, you could carry it openly around town although this would not be a good idea.  And, if you used your concealed carry permit, you would be defeating the purpose.

         I carried one (Army issue) when I was serving on a  PT boat in the South Pacific during World War II.  We put tracer bullets in the clip so we could signal in the event we fell overboard.  I shot it many times and not once could I hit what I was aiming at. (I have to admit that what I did hit was totally destroyed.) Worst of all, it was a real tiger to clean.  I could strip it down, but I had to get my buddy, a gunner’s mate, to put it back together again.

          At least these “patriotic, commemorative guns” are made and engraved in the USA. 

RAISING THE DEBT CEILING

          Many of us are on fixed incomes, so it is essential that we operate with a tightly controlled budget.  I get a lot of satisfaction watching our expenses to be sure that we do not exceed our monthly budget.  The goal, of course, is to keep expenses below income.

          Unfortunately, circumstances do come in to play and last month was no exception.  We were suddenly faced with some unexpected household expenses and our car’s motor mount sprung an oil leak. (I never even knew that our car had a motor mount.)   On top of this, we were blessed by week-long vacation visits by our two daughters and grandson.

          As parents, we were determined to make their visit a happy one, so our food and entertainment costs rose accordingly.

          I soon realized that we were creating a serious financial problem.  There was no way we could stay below budget at the rate we were going.

          So, I did the only thing left.  With a stroke of the pen, I raised our debt ceiling by $500 which automatically kept us within the budget.  I began to relax, and all was right with the world.

          If necessary, I will raise our debt ceiling again next month.  After all, those bills must be paid.

          Incidentally, a Standard & Poor’s representative called me this morning to  offer a word of caution.  Apparently our credit rating may drop from AAA to just AA.  I told him I did not care.