Many Doctor's Are Drug Pushers

I think that the biggest drug pushers in our societies are doctors. No offense to anyone, but that's what I think and that's what I've come to realize through personal experience. Maybe I'm wrong, but if I am, it's only because doctors keep (and have all my life been) prescribing various drugs to me.


These drugs have sometimes led me to some very bad reactions and side effects. They've put me in the hospital. Many times the cure was worse than the disease.

In many cases, these drugs have been poison. They have really screwed me up.


Here's today's example: Recently, I have had a cough and I feel like I have indigestion. I've felt this way for the last three days. I guess coughing and indigestion is not uncommon for a drinking man who likes to go out with friends and enjoy life and good food....


The cough is a strange one. I had the same cough when I was a cigarette smoker. But I quit cigarettes cold almost three years ago. So you can't say my current cough is because of cigarettes. 


The weirdest part is that I only have the cough when I am taking a nap in the daytime, and when I sleep face up. Really. 


Really, I only have a cough when I am sleeping on the sofa face up.


I don't cough if I sleep on my side or if I am awake. Weird, eh?


I decided to go to the doctor (well, actually my wife insisted that I go). Who knows? Maybe I have a tumor or an ulcer or some other nasty growing in my tubes or lungs. 


One can only hope.


Even so, I hate going to the doctor when I have a specific ailment. Here's why:


In Japan, because of the way the medical insurance system is designed, doctors get paid to see you and they get more money for dispensing drugs. The more drugs they dispense, the more money they make. Sounds like a scam (and it is) but it's still a heck of a lot better than the USA! I can go to the doctor and get a check up in Japan and medicine and be out the door for about $40 (USD). 


Today, I had an X-ray, four blood tests, a heart check, and a typical doctor's check up that ran about $70. Tomorrow I will pick up the medicine that he prescribed and that will set me back another $40 so, all in all, it still blows the USA out of the water.


Did I mention that Japanese people live, on average, at least 4 years longer than Americans do (8 years for women) even though America spends much more money on health care than any western nation in the entire world.)


But darned if I don't hate the fact that the Japanese doctor wants to give me 5 different medicines for what ails me every time I go there.


He wants to give me a medicine that stops the coughing; In order to make sure the coughing medicine doesn't screw up my stomach, he wants to give me medicine for that; He also wants to prescribe a medicine to make sure that the medicine he already prescribed to stop the coughing and to protect my stomach, doesn't cause side-effects.


I've dealt with this before. One time, when I was a (legal) druggie (and before raw food) I was taking a drug that my doctor prescribed for stress. That drugs side effect caused me ( and many others) to cough uncontrollably and lose conciousness. No kidding. 


I passed out several times waking up with my head resting on my computer keyboard and myself dribbling and drooling uncontrollably. What fun that was!


Yes, that drug worked well: When I am out cold and collapsed on the floor, I had very little stress.


I'm not making this up. This kind of bad side effects from drugs that doctors prescribed for me goes on and on. 


After I "graduated" from rehab, I was prescribed Lithium. That was hell on wheels! Whenever I took Lithium it was like Mike Tyson punched me in the stomach! Nevertheless, the doctor insisted that I take that drug until I put my foot down and said, "No more!" I do not take Lithium at all and will not. 


I don't care what the doctor says. 


I wrote about this sort of nonsense before in Gout Sufferers of the World Unite!

The doctor told me that the medicine he was prescribing for me was the standard gout medicine. (Hey! I am not a doctor!) He also told me that this medicine was powerful stuff and that my body had to get used to it first so I wasn't supposed to take full dosages, but to build up to a full dosage over a two-week period.

I was to take the pills and cut them into quarters and take one quarter every day for eight days. Then, after that, cut the pills in half and then take another half every day for another eight days. Once I did that, I was to start taking one full pill every day after that. Simple. Right? Sure, but things didn't work out so well.

On December 12th, I started taking the quarter pills and increasing the dosage as the doctor prescribed. Finally, after doing this religiously every day, on December 30th, I was up to a full dosage; one pill a day in the mornings.

For New Year's we were invited by my wife parent's to stay at their house in the country. So, coincidentally, we were at their home from the 28^th of December. Things were going fine, but by the evening of the 30th, my right knee started to hurt. I thought nothing of it and went to bed. The next morning I took my medicine, as usual, and, once again, by the evening I noticed that my right knee was really starting to hurt a lot.

The next morning was "Happy New Year!" We all got up and did the traditional Japanese New Year things that people here do; go to the shrine, eat rice cakes, visit family and relatives… Of course, I took my medicine again.

But darned if my right knee wasn't really hurting really badly that New Year's morning. It felt as if I had twisted my knee doing some sports but I hadn't done anything for the last few days except get out of bed. By 5 pm that night, my right knee was killing me. It had suddenly swollen up like a grapefruit and I just couldn't take the pain anymore so off to the emergency room at the local hospital I went.

It just so happens that, when I got to the hospital, there was a doctor who was a specialist on gout on duty and he attended to me. He said that what happened to me was a fairly common reaction of some people to the gout medicine I was taking. He used a syringe to pull about 200 milliliters of liquid out of my knee and gave me a bunch of painkillers. He also told me to stop taking the medicine and go back to my regular doctor and tell him what happened.

What a miserable New Year's Day that was!


Well, a few days later, I did go back to my doctor. He told me that he wanted me to take the same medicine, but only this time, he was going to give me another medicine to prevent the side effects of the first medicine! 


.....That's when I decided that there had to be a better way.....

That's when I went on a raw food diet. Today I am about 70% raw food. I feel like I am 17 years old now.

No joke. I want to and need to become 99% raw and am aiming for that goal.

At today's meeting with the doctor he told me that he needed to put a camera down my throat to see my tubes to discern exactly what is wrong. I don't have a problem with that at all. I do have a problem, though, with the 4 medicines that he was going to prescribe to me.

Look. I am the patient. He is the doctor, I have rights. So do you. Don't allow yourself to be railroaded into taking a bunch of drugs you don't want. 

I told my doctor that I wasn't interested in taking this drug cocktail that he was prescribing. He backed down.

Now, I will take the one minimum drug he wants me to take before swallowing the camera. That's OK. I can live with that.

I am not a doctor but this is my body. I refuse to take drugs just because my doctor thinks that's what is best.

I've had bad side-effects and even been in the emergency room because of these drugs. I won't do that anymore.

I am the patient and I am the customer. I pay the money. So are you. Never forget that.

If my doctor cannot convince me that these drugs are the best I can do, then I don't want them. Blindly following a doctor's advice is just plain stupid. Don't do it. It's your life and your body. If your doctor cannot explain why you need a certain regime or drug, then don't take it. 

I don't.

I suggest that you do the same. 

Cardinal Sin of Bloggers: Not Blogging Due to Death

I have committed the cardinal sin of bloggers. After more than one year of consistent blogging and never missing a day, even once, I have missed one. I have, in fact, missed several.


I was brought up in Los Angeles and always dreamed of being a Hollywood star. I went to university and studied television and was one of the very few lucky ones to actually get a job in that business and to make a good living.


Why I mention that is because, in show business, we have a saying, "The only way you'd ever miss a live broadcast or performance is a death in the family.... And that death had better be yours!"


In the early nineties, I was the host of the most popular late night music and talk radio show in Tokyo. One day, I received a call from my wife. She was sobbing. She told me that my mother had died earlier that day in a car accident. 


The world stopped. I didn't know what to say. I still don't.


Nevertheless, the show must go on. I went to my program that night and I did an excellent show. No one knew how sad I was. And I did that for every night from then on too...


That's what the difference is between a professional and an amateur.


I guess I am not a professional blogger yet. I have missed three or four days of blogging.


On Saturday morning I received a call that my father was being removed from life support and, if it didn't kill him, he would be sent home on hospice. I was asked to come to America immediately. My wife was sobbing when she told me this news. 


I didn't want to come to the USA, but my wife convinced me that, just this one last time, I must.


My father and the kind lady he has been staying with for over 15 years are very old. They are both past 80. They have no Internet connection. I was expecting that a dear old friend of mine would be here. She lives close by and has an Internet connection. I was counting on using her connection to blog everyday.


I couldn't. She had gone off to Mexico. There's no way for me to access the Internet here. 


Do you realize how difficult it is to find any sort of information without an Internet? I opened the Yellow Pages and searched. I couldn't find anything. 


That's OK. From what I understand, the Yellow Pages are now notorious for being useless. 


As I said, my dad and the lady he lives with are over eighty. They have no Internet. They do, though, have the TV on constantly. The TV is like a window into the past. There's so much absolutely crap on TV it is nearly unbearable. A house with no Internet and just TV is like living in the 1960's - and no, it's not retro and it's not cool. It is driving me mad. I have to get out of here.


I will write about how there are still pockets of resistance to the Internet in the world today and how these pockets are filled with handicapped, poor or retired people; and how TV is trying, but failing, to survive on this audience in a few days when I get back to Japan, but, for now, I must hurry and return to their house as I am needed there. 


The following is excerpts from a message I wrote my partner in business about the situation here. Perhaps you can read this and, by understanding the above, see why I haven't posted on my blog. This is not an excuse, just I want everyone to know this as I reckon most people might go through a similar experience... Hopefully not soon.

Dear Rick (not his real name):

It is Thursday 9/1. I have driven what seems like 10+ minutes to a Barnes & Noble store to use a computer (I think this is the only place around here). So I wanted to catch up as much as I can. 

This situation where my dad is staying is terrible. The lady my dad has been living with for 15 + years and my brothers do not talk to each other directly so everything is royally messed.... Probably much my own fault. 

My dad can't do anything by himself. He can't stand up, sit down, walk, take off his clothes. Unbutton his shirt? Can't do it.......He can't urinate by himself so he is wearing a device called a catheter (sp?) and can't really go anywhere. 

There's a million and one things wrong and things he can't do.... Things that he could do just a year ago or so. It is amazing how fast they deteriorate. When I arrived and walked in the door, he looked like he was already dead like one of those near death people you see in those old films of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Every night he coughs uncontrollably and cannot sleep well. When he is awake, he hiccups all the time. After he eats, only soft food of course, he feels like throwing up. For 2 of the 4 nights I have been here I expected him to die any moment. And would not have been the least bit surprised if he did.

Every second word out of his mouth is "I'm dying!" I thought about calling an ambulance twice but then found out that when someone signs up for hospice, they cannot call an ambulance nor go to the hospital anymore.

I can't describe how bad this is. Thank god my older brother is there handling this situation with a calm and cool head otherwise this would be a complete disaster.

I thought the lady my dad has been staying with all these years was having a nervous breakdown last night because she got extremely angry at me for simply passing on a message from the nurse. "WTF!? I'm just telling her what the nurse asked me too and she's yelling at me?" She continued to berate me and talk down to me, complaining about the nurses and help that's coming to the house and my brothers and how poorly may dad treats her, how people talk down to her (maybe that's why she did that to me?) etc. etc., on and on....

She complained about the nurses and how she doesn't want them or other strangers in her house, but I cannot see how she can handle this situation by herself. 

On the one hand, she says that she can't handle the situation. On the other hand she says she can (she has for 6 months!)... She is under tremendous stress.

When she began to get angry at me, at first I was offended, then I soon realized that this women is close to having a breakdown so I thought it best that I shut up and let her talk. (I also realized that she had already started drinking so I shouldn't comment or ask too many questions). Then she started smoking cigarettes and continued drinking much more....(I had never seen her smoke before!)... 

Then, after 4 hours of drinking and smoking she was visibly drunk (never seen her drunk before either). She then switched between anger and sobbing and crying and spilling her heart out to me. She went on about how when she was a nurse long ago but she didn't have enough empathy for people and didn't care for her husband enough... Her husband died of cancer many years ago... She wished she could have done more...

This went on for a few more hours until she seemed to get tired.

Finally, I realized the true gravity of this situation. They say that when someone in a family gets a serious illness, like, say, cancer, everyone in that household gets cancer. Well, I think it must be true.

My dad is extremely sick and near death... But everyone is this household is extremely sick. At least my father knows he is sick. The lady he is staying with doesn't realize the extent of her illness.

I have to leave here soon or this will make me sick too. Anyhow, I'm leaving on Sunday. It will be good to be back in Japan.

Mike

I will blog again, at least by Sept. 6, when I get back to the 21st century and away from this time machine into the past that I have slipped into.

In the meantime, please don't forget to hug your kids and hug your parents.