No bullshit, no run-around. Just heal me.

"Doctor, doctor, please
Oh, the mess I'm in
Doctor, doctor, please
Oh, I'm going fast"

UFO-"Doctor, Doctor"

I have never been the biggest fan of medical professionals.

Even though I have family who work and have worked in the medical field (not as doctors, but nurses and medical records), I have just never been the biggest supporter of doctors or nurses.

I don't know why.

A big reason might be my naivete towards medicine. On one hand, the advances in the medical field have been absolutely amazing. Diseases that used to run riot through the population like smallpox, polio, and cholera have been practically wiped out. Organ transplants, MRIs, new surgical techniques, and developments in prescriptions have done a world of wonders in helping people live longer and healthier lives.

Yet, in some aspects, medicine still seems like it is stuck in the Dark Ages where a sawbones would stick you on a dirty table to amputate a gangrene limb with nothing but a saw and a rag for you to bite down on. People pile up into emergency rooms and wait hours for treatment that should not take hours to recieve. Doctors give incorrect diagnoses. Surgeries are botched. People see 5 different doctors, get 5 different opinions, and are no closer to any answers for what is ailing them.

A few months ago, my father-in-law was in the hospital for what appeared to be heart issues. He was looked at several times but no one seemed to be sure what was wrong with him. At times like that, you want answers, not more questions. I was scared and saddened, as I did not want to lose another

father whom I loved. How are answers so difficult to find in an age of modern technology and medical advances?

I was plagued by ear problems earlier this year that I thought were going to damage my hearing. I went to the doctor several times and was told I had an ear infection, but nothing I was given seemed to clear it up. Finally, I went to the emergency room. They gave me a cat scan. Still, nothing was found. I felt like I was losing my mind because I knew something was wrong with me and these dodos were missing it, even though they had all these tools at their disposal to find it! I know something is wrong here, find it and tell me what the hell it is! Thankfully, the symptoms have seemed to alleviate due to a daily dose of allergy medicine. Still, it was a real pain in the ass that they could not diagnose a simple issue like that.

The issues with my ear, along with the trouble they had with trying to find out what was wrong with my father-in-law, really made me distrusting of doctors and them doing the job right the first time.

Over the summer, I went in to the doctor to get some issues I have been having with headaches, neck, and back pain looked at. At first, things seemed to be going a lot smoother in this process. At my initial visit, they checked my neck and felt that I WAS having issues! Hallelujah! They knew I wasn't

making things up. I was put on a drug for migraines (that doesn't work), given a prescription for muscle relaxers (that don't work), and was told to get X-rays done. When the results for the X-rays came back, I was told I have degenerative disc disease, a condition that may eventually leave me disabled.

The prescription? Physical therapy.

Now, after going to physical therapy for over a month now, I quite enjoy it. Yet, I am not seeing the benefits of it as of the time of this writing. It's been great to exercise as Lord knows I could use it, but I still have pain, and on some days afterwards I feel like I can barely move. Some of the exercises seem so pointless for what my condition is. Finally, we are doing weights, so it seems like we are cooking with gas at last, but some of the other exercises they have me do seem so useless for what I have wrong with me.

The pain in my neck has been bad the past few days, and my anxiety has ran riot due to these issues and not being able to see my therapist. I want to see my doctor to get a stronger anti-depressant (cause I want to be happy all the time) and also to ask them why they only did a physical therapy prescription for my neck and not my lower back, which is also troubling me and I think the X-rays would have told the doctor that. Why am I only being half-treated? Instead, it seems like they want me to have a physical instead. I was in a depressed and foul mood yesterday when I called my doctor to cancel the appointment for the physical, telling them what I wanted to be treated for and I would rather they treat me for those issues than just give me my "50,000 mile check-up". I was not happy. I dislike physicals because of the tedium and finger wagging the doc gives you if one of your levels is too high, but I will get it done because what choice do I have? I'd rather live in pain and still experience things than die.

Now, we are in the year 2018, right? Isn't there some form of back surgery I can get where I know I will make a full recovery? Surely, we have the technology at this stage in our development. If we can invent a telephone you can watch Netflix on, surely we have the ability to do a spinal operation which will allow someone with DDD to recover and live a full and comfortable life. It would also do wonders for people who are parapalegics or quadriplegics.

 

Yet, we do not have that. Why is that? Are we holding back? Is it insurance plans? Is it cost?

 

Apologies if I sound "political" here (OK TIME OUT! Why the fuck do we see all issues through a political lens? Can't we just look at issues without sticking a "liberal" or "conservative" label next to them? A good idea is a good idea, don't shit on it just because the person who brought it up votes

differently than you. Now, back to my message) but why is the medical profession so driven by money on both the physician side and the insurance side?

Why do we put a price on people's wellness and quality of life? Be it astronomical medical bills (after I saw what it costs to take someone to the hospital in an ambulance I nearly shit myself) or idiotic insurance plans, both sides do their best to make just getting sick and dying your most cost effective option. Maybe the health system should not be a for profit system. As great as free enterprise is, when it comes to people's health, it should be people before pennies. It should not cost half a million dollars for a routine operation or even a life saving one.

Anyway, sue me, but we're talking about the lives and quality of life of PEOPLE. Fuck money. Not everything has to make money.

Maybe I am spoiled by how Dr. Bones McCoy saw "modern medicine" in Star Trek IV: The Journey Home. Yes, it is only a movie, but you wonder why our medical technology has not moved as fast as it should move, and why certain operations are not possible even in the 21st century.

The way I see it is this: I am sick or hurt. You are a doctor. You went to medical school so you should know what to do. Fix me. Heal me. That's it. Don't give me the runaround or send me to ten different places. Heal me. That is all I want. Don't charge me astronomical fees for an aspirin, a shot, or an ambulance ride. Just heal me. Don't tell me 8 different ideas on what might be wrong with me. Give me the right answer the first time.

Just heal me.