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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Re: ENT
Date: 2005-08-29 07:05 pm (UTC)Re: ENT
Date: 2005-08-29 07:28 pm (UTC)Now it makes more sense that you reminded me of
Perhaps you're a very slight & socially successful "I", which makes you look like an "E".
Re: ENT
Date: 2005-08-29 09:52 pm (UTC)~Perhaps you're a very slight & socially successful "I", which makes you look like an "E".~
Again, I'd agree with this...being around other introverts. However, put me in with the extroverts and I'm cowering in a corner ;)
Re: ENT
Date: 2005-08-29 10:05 pm (UTC)Maybe it's that I don't meet that many interesting women, so when I do, it's natural for me to lump them together. :-) You can't have many boxes when the sample is small.
(Btw, I think this was made a big mistake socially: no good can come out of telling people that they remind you of somebody else!)