Squeeze Chute Medicine

Our current crop of physicians could learn a lot from watching a bunch of cowboys work a herd during the spring or fall evaluation of the herd.  Basically, you round them up, get them in pens, and run then through the squeeze chute. 

Cattlemen love their herds, it's what they do.  Cattle are a source of profit (theoretically) and a good cowboy wants the herd healthry, so twice a year you doctor on them..  A dose of wormer, threat them for ticks, and evaluate each of the cattle in the herd. 

It's group medicine, ad while you're looking for problems, you insure the health of the herd. 

It's not brutal, it's gentle as possible, but it's efficient.  If you see a problem, yo cut that one out for further evaluation.

When you have several hundred cattle to treat in a day, you don't have time for niceties.  You want to get the herd back on pasture as soon as you can.  This reduces stress on the herd.

Modern human medicine is getting to be a lot like squeeze chute medicine, without the care and concern that the cowboys give the herd.  I just spent three hours in a thoroughly modern medical clinic and never saw a doctor. 

The crew fell behind, putting the herd in stress.  I watched them, twice, lose patients, much like a cowboy losing a cow that he already had in the pen. As we process through the chute, falling further and further behind schedule, they finally put a bunch of is in a final pen, where the main topic of conversation was how far behind everyone was falling.  And, the crew still wanted to make small talk.

It got so bad that when one of the crew would ask me how I was feeling, I told them, "Hungry, thirsty, and angry."

My advise to modern medicine.  If you're treating a herd, act like you're treating a herd.  Be efficient.  You don't have time for niceties when you're already late.  Modern cowboys know how many cattle they can work in a day.  If a modern medical clinic can only handle 50 patients a day, don't schedule 51, 

I understand that if a physician has an emergency, we might be late.  But, today I had no expectation of seeing a physician.  So, there is no excuse for anyone being late. 

If modern medicine is going to show contempt for me by being late for appointments, don't be surprised when I reflect that contempt.

Prager U on Health Care

Prager University puts out a range o videos on a rage of topics.  This one on health care.  It's worth a watch.

Staying Alive

Yeah, the BeeGees song.  Turns out, it has the proper tempo for CPR.

The Arizona Daily Star reports that 21-year-old Cross Scott found a woman locked in her car this month and broke in, finding she wasn't breathing.
He doesn't have any emergency training but thought of the show where Steve Carell's character does CPR to the tune of the Bee Gees' song "Stayin' Alive." The song has the correct tempo for chest compressions. Within a minute, the woman was breathing, and she was taken to a hospital and later released.

 Good Job, Scott!  I didn't know that the song has the right tempo, but it's something that is easy to remember.



100 beats per minute, that's the key.

The Numbers

These days, we seem to live by our numbers.  In my case, the health numbers.  Blood numbers, A1C, triglycerides, those sort of numbers.

This past March, we had a mandatory health fair at work.  They drew blood, and I"m not convinced that their equipment was calibrated properly.  My numbers were all out of whack.    They, of course, shared them with my primary care critter, who went berserk. 

Belle got wind of it, and I had to change the way I eat.  No more white stuff, basically.  I haven't eaten a biscuit in four months, and the last baked potato I ate was in Amarillo, three weeks ago.  No fast food, although I am eating a  lot of Special K, and Raisin Bran.

Went to the doc today.  Early this morning, I peed in his cup, and his vampire took some blood.  I went back late this afternoon.  The numbers are in, and they're good.  My AiC is down three points, my triglycerides are fantastic, and my bad cholesterol almost doesn't exist.  I've lost about 20 lbs, and my blood pressure is excellent.  Everything, medically, is hunky-dory.

Doc, and I, not having anything else to discuss, spent the remainder of the appointment talking about bass fishing, school  shootings, and Achmed the terrorist.  Blood numbers I know nothing about, but those other things I have some expertise. 

Belle is pleased, and in the final analysis, that's all that matters.

New Blood Pressure Guidelines

According to the UPI, the blood pressure guidelines are about to change, and as many as one-third of US adults may need medication under the new regime.

The American College of Cardiology and American Heart Association redefined high blood pressure at 130/80 in November, down from the previous level of 140/90, based on new evidence supporting a lower threshold.

My gal, who has been a registered nurse for many years, firmly believes that this sort of thing is a cabal of doctors and pharmaceutical companies simply to sell pills.  She maintains that the numbers she saw when she began nursing were much higher than they are today, and those numbers, generally across the board, caused no real problems.  But, she says, as ad doctors became pill-pushers and pharmaceutical companies learned how very profitable that lower numbers could be, the numbers started dropping so that doctors could sell more pills.

I'm sure that all this can be explained by good science, but just exactly how long do they expect us to live, anyway?

New Hope

New hope for people with age-related blindness.

The device, called the Argus II, is just one of a growing number of bold new approaches to treating blindness, offering hope to the millions of mostly older Americans in danger of losing their sight from macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and other eye diseases. 

As Insty might say; Faster, please.