back from the doctor
Aug. 28th, 2005 01:12 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
guslJust got back from doctor.
I wrote my history on this problem chronologically, filling half a page, and took it with me. Service was quick: I waited only about 10 minutes. I was seen by a doctor at about 11:15am, when the blockage was much better, something like 80%L / 50%R (about the same as now). When I woke up, it had been something like 50%L/0%R.
I told him that 2 hours before I could hardly breathe (1/4 capacity), and was afraid of going back to sleep.
His response: "You won't die from it. You can breathe through your mouth."
Making no attempt to determine what was causing my blockage, he promptly gave me xylometazoline hydrochloride nose drops. It turns out that this stuff is only meant for colds, which I show no signs of having.
Then I was told that if I wanted to see an ENT doctor, then I would have to go the normal route, through my huisarts (GP). I will do this ASAP.
----
To fuel one's skepticism of doctors, Robin Hanson's "Fear of Death & Muddled Thinking: It Is So Much Worse than You Think" is brilliant. Hanson defends the idea that most medical care is a luxury, and is interested in phenomena of self-deception (and normal deception too).
----
Survey:
(1) when was the last time you visited a doctor?
(2a) when was the last time a doctor was useful to you? how many visits ago was that?
Now consult the oracle of counterfactuals, and ask him "what if I hadn't gone to the doctor that time?"
and answer
(2b) when was the last time a doctor was useful to you? how many visits ago was that?
what kind of help did you get?
* education/prevention
* told you what you had
* got a prescription that made the difference (did you already know what you needed?)
* surgery
* other?
I wrote my history on this problem chronologically, filling half a page, and took it with me. Service was quick: I waited only about 10 minutes. I was seen by a doctor at about 11:15am, when the blockage was much better, something like 80%L / 50%R (about the same as now). When I woke up, it had been something like 50%L/0%R.
I told him that 2 hours before I could hardly breathe (1/4 capacity), and was afraid of going back to sleep.
His response: "You won't die from it. You can breathe through your mouth."
Making no attempt to determine what was causing my blockage, he promptly gave me xylometazoline hydrochloride nose drops. It turns out that this stuff is only meant for colds, which I show no signs of having.
Then I was told that if I wanted to see an ENT doctor, then I would have to go the normal route, through my huisarts (GP). I will do this ASAP.
----
To fuel one's skepticism of doctors, Robin Hanson's "Fear of Death & Muddled Thinking: It Is So Much Worse than You Think" is brilliant. Hanson defends the idea that most medical care is a luxury, and is interested in phenomena of self-deception (and normal deception too).
----
Survey:
(1) when was the last time you visited a doctor?
(2a) when was the last time a doctor was useful to you? how many visits ago was that?
Now consult the oracle of counterfactuals, and ask him "what if I hadn't gone to the doctor that time?"
and answer
(2b) when was the last time a doctor was useful to you? how many visits ago was that?
what kind of help did you get?
* education/prevention
* told you what you had
* got a prescription that made the difference (did you already know what you needed?)
* surgery
* other?
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(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-29 11:29 am (UTC)He probably did his research in Western countries then.
and that it's truly puzzling why people are living longer.
Anti-biotics and vaccinations are probably among the biggest factors there. People used to die from things like TBC and pneumonia which, are relatively easy to treat nowadays, and Diphteria, Tetanus, Polio and all those other things kids get vaccinated against.
(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-29 11:34 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2005-08-29 05:15 pm (UTC)If we knock off 20 (to pick a random number) items that once killed people, this could show a huge increase in lifespan (or free people to live longer).
But if one considers that there was a time in history where a nasty cough was cured with…"more whiskey" then that trip to the doctor became really important.