What you should do if you think you have H1N1.
First, calm the fuck down.
After that, calm the fuck further down.
H1N1 is the flu. The flu is unpleasant. Most healthy people will not die from H1N1, but you wont hear about those people on the news. You'll hear about the ones that die.
Here is a flu survival plan:
1) Get vaccinated. If you didn't get the seasonal flu vaccine you're already failing yourself. If you haven't gotten the H1N1 vaccine, go stand in line and get it. Had H1N1 hit a little earlier, it might have made it into the seasonal flu vaccine. Don't be any more afraid of this vaccine than the regular flu vaccine
2) If you do get the flu or have flu like symptoms (FEVER, chills, cough, nasal congestion, sore throat, body aches) remain calm. If you have no medical conditions such as diabetes, asthma, cancer, kidney problems, liver problems, pregnant, etc (Hypertension DOES NOT count) then you have nothing to worry about. If you do have any chronic health problems, if you're under the age of 2 (shame on your parents for letting you read my blog) or over the age of 65 you should go see you're doctor, the sooner the better. Otherwise, move on to step 3.
3) buy the following medications: Naproxen or ibuprofen, acetaminophen, claritin D (loratidine/psuedoephedrine), and mucinex. Take them as directed. Stay in your house, don't go to work, don't go play with young children or pregnant women. THE MAJORITY of the people that get the flu will not need specialized medical care.
4) DISCLAIMER. If at any time you suffer from severe shortness of breath, altered mental status, seizure, prolonged headache and neck stiffness, become unable to eat or drink due to nausea or vomiting or have any other concerns that you feel are urgent, you should see a doctor. Do not use this blog as your only guide for seeking medical attention. Please see http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/sick.htm for more information on when you should seek medical care.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
Obama's Healthcare plan.
Ok, give me half a second. The American healthcare system is broken. Obama's solution: use tax money to buy more people into the broken system. WHAT THE FUCK.
And since I'm bitching. I saw a clip where Obama said, more or less, "we need to start paying doctors to treat diabetes. Right now they would rather cut off a leg and make 30, 40, even 50 thousand dollars to cut off a leg."
HOLY SHIT. Can I sue Obama for malpractice? First, doctors do get paid to treat diabetes and we do it pretty well. The problem is not with doctors aggressively treating diabetes, its with diabetic patients being compliant with the prescribed treatment. Oh, the actually payment to the surgeon (HILARIOUS because surgeons cut people, they don't really treat diabetes) for cutting off a leg is 700 to about 1100 bucks which includes the post operative care.
So how do we fix healthcare?
1) Get rid of insurance. As long as the "it only costs me $20" mentality exists healthcare costs will be insane. People must be unblinded to the cost of the care they receive. Unfortunately, our society is leaning more and more towards a mentality where we should get what we want and someone else can pay for it. Another problem with insurance. They take the biggest chunk of the healthcare profits and they provide he least actual service. Free up about 20% more profits to distribute to hospitals, doctors, and nurses and you will drop the amount of money those entities charge (in theory, never underestimate human greed). Also, insurance companies consume a large amount of dollars in their operating costs. Get rid of all those corporate executives all the way down to the people working in the cubicle and you free up another large amount of money. Remember: health insurance providers make money. That means we are flushing money somewhere when we pay those premiums.
2) We must, as a country, redefine our expectations of medicine and its ability to make us immortal. When an 85 year old has a massive stroke, there is no reason to spend 3 million dollars in ICU care to extend their life by months. Exactly where we draw the line will take a lot of discussion, but it has to happen somewhere.
3) There must be some motivation for people to stay healthy. The majority of the people reading this blog are probably disgusting fat fucks. You probably eat like shit. Some of you drink, some of you smoke. And why not? There is no motivation in this country to stay healthy. I wont say how we impose the penalty errr motivation, but I think personal responsibility for ones health has to come to call at some point.
4) Encourage saving. WE MUST as a society get over the idea that we will pay for everything with money we will make in the future. This goes for everything. People making 60k a year purchasing 500k houses is insanity. The same goes for medical care. People should be encouraged to "self insure" or save money that can only be used for healthcare. Tax incentives, whatever. But we need to find a way.
5) Tort reform. Fat chance. Obama has all but said he has no interest in tort reform. Imagine that, a lawyer not wanting to regulate lawyers...
These are just starting places. Doctors need to change too. No more appeasing patients requests for expensive medicines, lab tests, and imaging unless they are absolutely indicated. Drug companies shouldn't be allowed to advertise to the public. There is no need and it adds to he cost of the drug. SO MANY PLACES TO TRIM THE FAT and all we hear about is public options.
Obama is failing this country. I don't care if you like the guy or not. Don't settle. Don't allow people to vote for a bill that is long to the point that no one really understands whats in it. We must reign our politicians in and make them answer to us, their bosses.
And since I'm bitching. I saw a clip where Obama said, more or less, "we need to start paying doctors to treat diabetes. Right now they would rather cut off a leg and make 30, 40, even 50 thousand dollars to cut off a leg."
HOLY SHIT. Can I sue Obama for malpractice? First, doctors do get paid to treat diabetes and we do it pretty well. The problem is not with doctors aggressively treating diabetes, its with diabetic patients being compliant with the prescribed treatment. Oh, the actually payment to the surgeon (HILARIOUS because surgeons cut people, they don't really treat diabetes) for cutting off a leg is 700 to about 1100 bucks which includes the post operative care.
So how do we fix healthcare?
1) Get rid of insurance. As long as the "it only costs me $20" mentality exists healthcare costs will be insane. People must be unblinded to the cost of the care they receive. Unfortunately, our society is leaning more and more towards a mentality where we should get what we want and someone else can pay for it. Another problem with insurance. They take the biggest chunk of the healthcare profits and they provide he least actual service. Free up about 20% more profits to distribute to hospitals, doctors, and nurses and you will drop the amount of money those entities charge (in theory, never underestimate human greed). Also, insurance companies consume a large amount of dollars in their operating costs. Get rid of all those corporate executives all the way down to the people working in the cubicle and you free up another large amount of money. Remember: health insurance providers make money. That means we are flushing money somewhere when we pay those premiums.
2) We must, as a country, redefine our expectations of medicine and its ability to make us immortal. When an 85 year old has a massive stroke, there is no reason to spend 3 million dollars in ICU care to extend their life by months. Exactly where we draw the line will take a lot of discussion, but it has to happen somewhere.
3) There must be some motivation for people to stay healthy. The majority of the people reading this blog are probably disgusting fat fucks. You probably eat like shit. Some of you drink, some of you smoke. And why not? There is no motivation in this country to stay healthy. I wont say how we impose the penalty errr motivation, but I think personal responsibility for ones health has to come to call at some point.
4) Encourage saving. WE MUST as a society get over the idea that we will pay for everything with money we will make in the future. This goes for everything. People making 60k a year purchasing 500k houses is insanity. The same goes for medical care. People should be encouraged to "self insure" or save money that can only be used for healthcare. Tax incentives, whatever. But we need to find a way.
5) Tort reform. Fat chance. Obama has all but said he has no interest in tort reform. Imagine that, a lawyer not wanting to regulate lawyers...
These are just starting places. Doctors need to change too. No more appeasing patients requests for expensive medicines, lab tests, and imaging unless they are absolutely indicated. Drug companies shouldn't be allowed to advertise to the public. There is no need and it adds to he cost of the drug. SO MANY PLACES TO TRIM THE FAT and all we hear about is public options.
Obama is failing this country. I don't care if you like the guy or not. Don't settle. Don't allow people to vote for a bill that is long to the point that no one really understands whats in it. We must reign our politicians in and make them answer to us, their bosses.
Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Does anyone read this shit?
Sometimes I make these posts and I wonder who the fuck is reading this shit, and of the people that do read it, how the fuck did they find it.
Anyway, lemme tell you a little about life. Its fucked up.
Lemme tell you a little about life two weeks ago. It was even more fucked up.
In medicine people refer to call schedules like the way you would write a prescription. For example, 1 tab P.O. q6hr = 1 tab by mouth every six hours. Its Latin and stuff. Anyway, people say, "Yeah, I'm q4." which would mean you're on call every 4th day. Example. On call Monday, your next call day would be Thursday.
The most hardcore thing you can legally do in a residency these days is be "q2." That means you would be on call Monday, post call Tuesday (which means all you can do is sleep) and then on call again Wednesday. Or, put differently, you can accumulate 60 our of 72 hours awake and at work.
The point of this is I had 5 calls in 12 days. So, 5 q2 calls AND IT FUCKING SUCKED. So for all you bitches that can't stop bitching about the cost of health care and the greed of doctors I have one question: How many 80 hour weeks have you worked in your life? Ok two questions. How many weeks have you worked over 100 hours and made barely over minimum wage for it while sitting on six figure debt that the interest is running on.
The end.
Anyway, lemme tell you a little about life. Its fucked up.
Lemme tell you a little about life two weeks ago. It was even more fucked up.
In medicine people refer to call schedules like the way you would write a prescription. For example, 1 tab P.O. q6hr = 1 tab by mouth every six hours. Its Latin and stuff. Anyway, people say, "Yeah, I'm q4." which would mean you're on call every 4th day. Example. On call Monday, your next call day would be Thursday.
The most hardcore thing you can legally do in a residency these days is be "q2." That means you would be on call Monday, post call Tuesday (which means all you can do is sleep) and then on call again Wednesday. Or, put differently, you can accumulate 60 our of 72 hours awake and at work.
The point of this is I had 5 calls in 12 days. So, 5 q2 calls AND IT FUCKING SUCKED. So for all you bitches that can't stop bitching about the cost of health care and the greed of doctors I have one question: How many 80 hour weeks have you worked in your life? Ok two questions. How many weeks have you worked over 100 hours and made barely over minimum wage for it while sitting on six figure debt that the interest is running on.
The end.
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