health warning

[BruceH]

Good info! Hope your father recovers quickly!

[Coffinhunter]

All else falls into perspective at times like these. My thoughts and prayers go to you and your family.

[woodsman]

thanks for the info and the warning

[jb92563]

Yes, they are doctors not gods and may have passed their training courses by the narrowest of margins and perhaps don't keep up with the latest knowledge.

I refer to them as Witch doctors because with many you stand as much chance of successful outcomes as you do with the Voodoo educated variety.

I have seen 2 messed up surgeries with close folks in the last year.

One is dead after a routine surgery and the other lost full use of a thumb due to a crappy tendon repair.

I hope your fathers condition improves and I can relate that you must be furious for the lack of care and attention to detail by your former physician.

Unfortunately with the Obama Medical plan your Physicians will be further overwhelmed by the patient load and you can expect even less care and diligence than ever in the future

Rant complete!

Solution: Start a DIY thread for ailments and surgeries and we can help ourselves

Funny true story: While shopping for a new doctor many years ago, I did ask one prospects receptionist what the Doc's grade point average was. She smirked and pointed to his diploma on the wall.

[Perfectlap]

^The interesting thing is that many of his current problems are IMO certainly due in part to his private insurance that blocked visits to specialists at every turn for years. Either the doctors or group were incentivized to keep refilling the same prostrate medications year after year for his benign enlargement without ever ordering a full examination by an actual urologist. Meanwhile the window of opportunity to have minimally invasive procedures quickly slammed shut. Once he hit 65 and had Medicare the new doctors were like "WTF?? You should have been here ages ago! Now we have to subject you to the same risky procedure that prostrate cancer patients have to endure" Basically Medicare is cleaning up what private insurance encouraged its physicians to actively neglect. So pick your poison. For profit neglect and stalling or the socialist stuff.
But no matter who you go with as far as doctors check their peer rankings and get the absolute highest rated surgeon/specialist you can get even if you have to pay extra. In my father's case I have to wonder if that would have been possible under his previous private HMO. In speaking to one of the registered nurses at a top Florida hospital she admitted to me that despite working for a well funded hospital she did not have hospital coverage.

[Porsche Chick]

While we are talking about men's health issues;

If you haven't been keeping up with health news, it's been discovered that the PSA exam is a bunch of nonsense. It's accuracy rating is ridiculously low, to the point of being useless. It should also be noted that Some prostate cancers are so slow-growing that removal is unnecessary. Prostate surgery can result in incontinence and other damage, so get a second opinion. Don't let anyone talk you into surgery based on the PSA results.

Perfect; I'm sorry to hear about your dad's troubles. It's a reminder that we all have to be skeptical about every treatment, or lack thereof.

The info you've given everyone about Alzheimer's versus vascular disease is truly valuable.

Please provide a link to the USNews & World report rankings.