The head doctor
Here's a post that's still on a healthcare-type topic, but at least it won't gross you out.
Every six weeks I go to the neurologist about my headaches. If you've never been to a neurologist I should explain what that's like. You'd expect them to be some of the freakier, more intimidating medical specialists, but it's actually just the opposite. They usually wear street clothes, sit behind a big, official-looking desk, and have relatively few medical-type items around, so you feel like you're getting your taxes done or hiring an architect. Maybe interviewing for an especially stringent day care program is more accurate, since they invariably have a lot of stimulating decorations.
This guy, whose name is Dr. Ho, has pen-and-ink streetscapes of Chicago all over his office. In the waiting room is one of those 24-by-36 posters of the Earth from space that was probably popular around 1980, plus a picture of the brain with the caption, "Technology has yet to improve upon . . . the world's fastest supercomputer." Every time I walk in there I want to laugh at these ridiculous posters. But I make an effort to be inconspicuous, because I feel like such a complete imposter surrounded by the people who must have a million more horrible afflictions than mine. Neurology is an incredibly bleak field, I think. All of the diseases are incurable and most are degenerative.
Every appointment, he asks a bunch of questions about the drugs I take. (Luckily he never bothers to ask if I'm still not drinking, because I gave up on that back in February.) Then we do a round of drunk driving-type tests in order to prove I haven't recently caught one of the degenerative diseases. This most recent time he asked me, "Do you have a stiff neck with this headache? A fever?" I'd had enough and said, "Look, there is no way I've had spinal meningitis for
six months."
After we've ruled out a sudden case of meningitis, MS, Alzheimer's, or whatever other horrid disease he has in mind, he invariably expresses puzzlement and amazement that none of the things he's recommended have worked. I do not find this encouraging, especially once I hear his next recommendation, which is always . . . higher doses of the same stuff he's been prescribing me all along.
As you can see, I should probably try seeing someone else. I was going to try acupuncture, but my insurance doesn't cover it, and equally important, last month a large placebo-controlled study came out in JAMA showing it was no better than placebo. Interestingly, the placebo group did very well - a lot better than the people who got nothing else. Apparently having pins stuck into you randomly is just as effective as having a trained professional do it correctly, and more effective than nothing.
