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Diagnosis Mystery
Lesson of the week: Never assume that people doing a job have been educated or trained for the position they hold. This is a particularly frightening proposition in medicine. The hospital registration...
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Pressing the Reset Button for Optimal Health
As we close out January 2013, I'm proud to say I've kept off those 30 pounds I lost in 2012 . I'm devastated to say losing weight wasn't the answer I expected it to be. I'm thinner but not healthier....
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Choosing the Right Doctor
How do you decide if a doctor (or other healthcare practitioner) is right for you? Back in the fall, we received notice we'd need to find new doctors. My post, " Twinkies and Insurance Companies ,"...
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Coping with Sick Kids
We've been passing mild sickness back and forth for about a month now. It's caused some minor inconveniences but nothing significant -- until the last few days. Our youngest daughter took a turn for...
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The Most Important Step in Making a Decision
Do you know the five steps to making a decision? A month ago, I didn't even know there were five steps to making a decision. Thanks to homeschooling my fifth-grader, I'm now educated. Sadly, I realize...
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A Post Mortem on Valentine's Day
I've never liked Valentine's Day. When I was a kid in school, I feared not receiving any cards from classmates. In retrospect, an irrational fear -- but even today, thinking about it makes my stomach...
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Healthcare or Sick Care?
I know a family whose six children have never had to see a doctor for an illness. They've had a few stitches and broken bones among them, but never a "sick" visit. A growing body of evidence suggests...
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The High Cost of Healthcare: Your Life
I ran across an article in Time magazine about the costs of healthcare, " Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills are Killing Us . " I'll admit I haven't read it all yet. Since it's not healthy for your blood...
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When Listening Isn't Hearing
Have you ever tried to get your point across in multiple different ways -- only to leave the conversation knowing the other person didn't "hear" you? Do you find yourself more frustrated when that...
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What Did I Say?
A common refrain in our home is, "Can you tell me what I just said?" I'm often surprised when people answer in the affirmative, given the multimedia lovefest taking place under our roof. We use verbal...
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Hospitals Getting Fined but Who Really Pays?
A recent article in the Washington Post boasts a national reduction in hospital readmissions of Medicare patients within 30 days of discharge. According to the article, Jonathan Blum, a top official at...
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I Know Better
Last week I promised a statistical discussion about an article that appeared in The Washington Post . Before you get all down on statistics, let me make a confession. It wasn't until I reached the end...
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Do You Take the Doctor's Advice?
I heard an interesting statistic on the radio: After the long wait for their children to be seen by a pediatrician, only one-third of parents heed the doctor's advice. That means for every 99...
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Pharmaceuticals: Healing or Hype?
Last November my daughter experienced her first migraine-free month -- at the hands of gabapentin. The GI effects were worse than the headaches, so she stopped taking the medication. The headaches...
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Course Correcting
If someone had told me on November 13, 2007, that I was signing up for 66 consecutive months of blogging, I would have said, "There's no way!" But, 284 posts later, here we are. One post at a time,...
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