Random Thoughts

So I'm sitting here at 11:01 on a Sunday, avoiding working on some Power Points for a new class this spring. I have blood and steel on my mind. Don't get me wrong, I love creating the best visuals and collecting the most up-to-date information. I just finished my 23rd one for this class, and I still have a boatload to go.

Is it necessary to think you have made a difference in the world to love your life, to not fear death?

Doctors are so single-minded in their quest for ultra rapid diagnosis and prescription, that they often miss the obvious. Like the patient who has sad eyes or one who won't look them in the eye. research tells us that as much as 90% of all patients seen in a general practice office have some psychosocial basis or strong component of this in their presentation. So there!

You do realize, don't you, that dentists are simply highly skilled technicians. They very rarely use all the biochemistry, anatomy, and pharmacology that they learned about in dental school. And the quality of their work varies significantly, just like the rest of us. Did you know that many dentists still use the old film X-ray method, despite the precision, low x-ray dose, and non-polluting digital system that's been available since the 90's? Makes you wonder.

I suppose I could say similar things about doctors. I went to the first two years of medical school. Oh, I didn't matriculate, mind you. I have no grades to proudly display, no certificate of attendance. I was given permission to take all the courses when I was an Educational Consultant to the school of medicine.

In general practice offices, the overwhelming majority of things that people complain about will vanish on their own, without any treatment what so ever. That's how the great imposters would stay undetected for so long. I think we have some imposters with actual medical licenses. The real truth about general medical practice? If you know what ails a patient, give him either an antibiotic or an antianxity Rx, and if you don't know ails them, send him to a specialist. I'm serious.

I have caught several physicians not knowing basic stuff, missing sure fire diagnostic clues, and prescribing the wrong medication or the most expensive medication when a much cheaper one would do. But then I am a very superb diagnostician, and think I know more than I actually do about most things.

Why am I so anti-medicine this morning? Because I am reminding myself that I need to draw some blood again, must take shots all day long, and I have always done so and will always do so for my entire life, or I will die, and die very quickly. And because medicine has no offerings for existential angst, for a broken heart, or for a disconnected soul. "What's wrong with this guy," I hear you muttering.

I used to fantasize, and sometimes still do when I watch a zombie movie, that in a post-apocalyptic world I would be so self-sufficient I would be able to save others and be very happy. I would be armed to the teeth and kill zombies by the thousands. Never was anything so untrue. Without the occasional slice of pizza, I would soon perish.

I am up for tenure this year, and I will be on the block in May to decide on this five year process. Am I concerned? No, not substantially. But history has taught me in the most painful of ways that chickens should be kept in the coop so as not to be inadvertently counted.

Now I feel better. My dysthymic rant has saved me again, at least for a few hours. Back to the Power Points.