Re: Happy Valentines Day to all and a happy birthday to........

Just because you have a high risk of something doesn't mean
you'll get it. It means that out of you and 99 other similar
patients, some will and the rest won't. You, being a scientist,
should know that.

I am keenly aware of that. But I have some symptoms which have them
looking. It's not my statistical likelyhood alone but that's an important
factor. Perhaps I made it sound like that was the case. I'm sorry to
worry you so.

You should get yourself a bp meter. You may find that
actually you _don't_ have high bp (although, from what
I know of you, I'd bet a bucket of nachos you do. ;-)

Nachos. Yum. We went out for Mexican just last Sunday evening.

I feel perfectly fine having my bp taken, but the
measurements show I get "white coat" syndrome,
"pretty girl taking my bp" syndrome and "walking
3/4 miles from the car park to the clinic" syndrome.

Well I may or may not get the pretty girl, but I do go through the roof
trying to find parking at the hospital. I find the automated BP machine
at one clinic reads substantially higher than the manual mercury test
with stethoscope. Sometimes 30 points higher. Either way, at best, I'm 10
points above the setpoint maximum for someone with my circumstances.

If you were in the slightest danger, you would know.
The needles, monitors and travels around the hospital
on a trolley, would give the game away.

I know. They once forced me to lie down. I wanted to go visit a friend
who worked at the hospital whilst waiting to see a doctor running late. I
asked what the big deal was. They said they were afraid I was about to
stroke out. That was along time ago though. I have to admit I was not in
very good shape that particular day.

Ask her if she's ever heard of the phrases "self-fulfilling
prophecy" and "serious professional misconduct."

Ha! Actually, it's taken me years to get her to become less professional
amd more human when treating me. I like her style now. I called her a
liar to her face last time and she laughed as she knew I had her number
on whatever foolish thing she had just said to me.

Doctors are not fortune-tellers: they cannot predict your
future. A doctor is supposed to make you feel better,
and help you to get better. It's highly unethical to persuade
you - without very good cause - that your heart could
explode at any second!

I'm a special case. I ignore so much of their professional advice, I've
left them little else but to get dramatic.

The trouble with doctor's advice is that they don't put values
on it, so you don't know which bits are most important.

The system doesn't allow them to get to know the patient, their values,
their circumstances (there's a lot about a person that doesn't show up in
a medical history). It's all well and good for them to say 'exercise for
an hour a day' when you don't have an hour a day. Or 'eat more fruit'
when you're allergic to it. Or my favourite "lose some weight' when
weight gain is a side effect of the meds they prescribe.

It's up to us to accommodate their advice the best way we can. I do try
to make the best of it all. But it must appear to them I'm a hopeless
case. Their priorities and mine are not very similar.

Johnny-case-study
.

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