I’m a pure ginger but I didn’t have any problem getting knocked out or waking up on the three colonoscopy/endoscopies so far.
Fucking insurance company paid for full sedation on the endoscopy, but then refused on the combo endoscopy/colonoscopy, saying I should just get the sleepy sedation. Motherfucker like I want to be awake for a tube down my throat?
Also trying to get the claims person to admit that it makes no sense to cover full sedation for endoscopy only, but refuse for the colonoscopy/endoscopy combo, was like nailing jello to a wall.
Once when I was just sleepy sedation for something else, it took a shitload of Demerol to get me high enough to not feel anything. That was some fun stuff. I was doing a lot more drugs back then so my tolerance was probably a lot higher.
Hmm thats actually kind of interesting. It is awful but I just assumed that there were way worse things regularly done in the er. The last few times I needed one I’ve asked for them to hunt down a pediatric tube. The smaller diameter made it ever so slightly less unbearable, especially when it stays in for several days. But yea, can definitely comfirm that your patients aren’t making their complaints up. I’d be extremely happy if I never need another ng tube placed for the rest of my life.
Same reason I prefer female doctors. Smaller fingers for the prostate exam.
I literally got something called proctalgia fugax from one doctor’s big-ass hairy knuckles. Woke up in the middle of the night feeling like a ball-peen hammer was trying to shove it’s way out of my taint. Horrible pain.
I had it off and on for years. But the first time was the night after Dr. McBoney Knuckles. Pretty sure that’s not a coincidence. He wasn’t exactly gentle either.
I guess now that I’m on the colonoscopy plan I don’t have to do the prostate exam anymore? Or did they stop doing them?
Oh this isn’t something I’m just asking my patients, there’s actual research on this. People rate ng tubes worse than central lines, lumbar punctures, being put on a breathing machine, reduction, etc
I believe general practitioners have stopped or greatly reduced the number of prostate exams (DRE’s) they are doing. Mine stopped doing them and I didn’t know why (wasn’t complaining though) and then I asked a doctor friend of mine and he said their guidance is to not do them as a matter of routine anymore, though I don’t really remember wny.
The first (and only) time I had a prostate exam was 6-7 years ago. My best friend was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer and later died from it. I had my annual exam shortly after my friend’s diagnosis and told my doctor about it, just in the sort of “here’s what’s going on in my life” conversation.
Had my physical and was standing up, about to get ready to go, when the doctor said, “Ok, pull down your pants and put your elbows on the exam table.”
wut
He said, “Because of what you told me about your friend, I think it’s a good idea to check your prostate.”
So it happened. I called my friend later scolded him for causing me to get a finger up my ass.
occasionally I would get a weird stinging feeling in my prostate, and also sometimes would struggle to start urination, and then have been getting up at night to go to the bathroom a lot
so a few months ago my doctor ordered a blood test, turns out my levels or whatever could not possibly be more normal
what I realized is that I wasn’t drinking any water all day and would be extremely dehydrated and then would drink tons of fluids right before going to sleep
super smart guy here taking great care of myself
Also after smoking weed almost every day for the past 20 years I finally took a break at the beginning of the year and haven’t smoked in 6 months
finally went and saw a doctor for the first time in like 10 years, and was expecting them to tell me I was near death from neglecting my health, turns out besides some slightly elevated cholesterol levels I’m basically your avg healthy 40 year old guy, was absolutely shocked
When 22-year-old Cole Schmidtknecht tried to get a refill on the inhaler prescribed by his doctor to prevent asthma attacks, the medication that had formerly cost him less than $70 at his Appleton, Wisconsin, pharmacy was now priced at more than $500, according to Cole’s father, Bil Schmidtknecht.
Stunned, Cole left the store with a medication designed to stop asthma attacks once they start, but without the Advair Diskus inhaler he needed to prevent attacks from happening in the first place.
Five days after his pharmacy visit last year, Cole had a severe asthma attack, stopped breathing and collapsed. He never regained consciousness and died. Doctors attributed his death to asthma.
A part of the insurance system that many Americans don’t know about was responsible for the spike in Cole’s inhaler price. Pharmacy benefit managers, or PBMs, are the middlemen that control behind the scenes which drugs will be on an insurance company’s list of covered medications (called its formulary).
They add or subtract medications through a process that emphasizes profits for the pharmacy benefit manager by way of “rebates” from drug makers, said Gerard Anderson, a professor of health policy and management at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health.
That way, patients don’t learn how PBMs make their decisions about drugs and why a medication that had been on the formulary no longer is.
Often no one, from the patients to the drug companies to the insurers, is aware of the details of the decisions the PBMs are making.
This shit is beyond infuriating. God forbid Congress do one useful thing and legislate these parasites out of business.
Yesterday I picked a prescription for Omeprazole, which by no means should be expensive since it’s been around forever, and you can buy weaker versions OTC. Turns out it was $200 for a 2-month supply. Furthermore, the pharmacist couldn’t tell me if that was just my deductible kicking in, or my insurance not covering the full price. She guessed it was the deductible.
If it was the insurance not covering the full price, then I’d look for a coupon. But if it was the deductible kicking in, then a coupon is bad for some reason. Such a wonderful opaque system.
