Dr. Thompson's Blog

The Republican Lies about the Affordable Health Care Act

I am appalled that Republicans like Senator Ted Cruz, who professs to be a Christian, want to deny thirty million people health care. How can anyone who says he or she is a Christian spout the lies I have been hearing? The Health Care Act will do some wonderful things. Having cared for many  children and adults with disabilities over the years, as their physician, I  have had to fight to get medical coverage for them. Often I would spend hours first seeing the patient and then making the necessary telephone calls, dictating letters, and reports.  Little of this time was paid for, so in order to survive we received grants in the Center I founded. Now doctors will be able to care for these  patients and receive payment.  

With the Health Care Act, coverage cannot be denied for pre-esisting conditions. In addition, there can not be caps on the amount of money spent on a patient's medical care. Patients will now  have a way to appeal an insurance claim that is denied, young people can stay on their parents' insurance until age 26, and insurance companies can not cancel a policy, just because the cost of the medical care is so high.

The F.D.A will be allowed to approve more generic drugs which will bring down the cost of many drugs. The drug companies make outrageous sums of money, so this is something that has been long needed. I hope Americans are too smart to be taken in by the Republican lies and will embrace the Health Care Act.

 

American Medical Care Seems to be Getting Worse and Worse

I  have had four people tell me this week about the  bad medical care they have been getting. Three had good insurance and the fourth was a Kaiser patient. One was a parent with two children, both with special needs. She had already changed doctors twice and was planning to change again. The pediatricans didn't take histories, do physical examinations or seem to know anything about the family They had not referred her to the state program for kids with special needs, which could have helped her financially.

One of the others was told she had a lymphoma and the woman said the doctor read to her about treatment out of a ten-year-old book. Hopefully, I can help her find better medical care. The third was a man who had just lost his mother and in visiting her in the hospital apparently picked up a bad staph infection. After seeing three different specialists, the problem was not solved. A resistant staph takes special care and I hope my advice will solve his problem.

The fourth was a surgeon who seemed only interested  in operating and was not treating the whole patient.  He is what I would call a technician, not a doctor. I hope the woman gets a second opinion from the doctor I suggested. I think medical schools are turning out mostly technicians, not real doctors. I hope something changes, but patients will have to demand better care.

Problems with Vegetarian Diets in Children and Adults

I had a telephone call the other day from a sixty-year-old woman who asked my thoughts about why she had had a fracture of her leg and a hip replacement. Now she has a new crack in the bone of her leg. I knew she was a vegetarian and in asking her about her diet, I found she was eating little protein and calcium. Even with the three problems with her bones, her doctor had not asked about her diet or done a test for osteopenia or osteoporosis, calcium, or Vitamin D.  She was not drinking milk or taking any calcium supplement. I must admit that I was not surprised the doctors were providing such inadequate care. Even surgeons should know that diet and calcium intake can make a difference. The woman is not  overweight and gets exercise when she is not bedridden with her hip and leg problems. The orthopedic surgeon she was seeing was technically good, but certainly wasn't looking at the whole patient.

I realize few medical schools teach anything about nutrition. I have been told by medical students and house staff that I am the only doctor they have ever heard ask about diet.  Even gastroenterologists, in my expereince, don't ask about food intake, which always amazes me.

Children on a vegetarian diet can get into real trouble with malnutrition. De. Henry Legere in his book, Raising Healthy Eaters, notes that a child must eat anywhere from three to seven times as much non-meat protein to get the amount of protein in a single serving of meat or cheese. Two cups of beans would equal two slices of cheese. Amazing! Also, a child has to eat much larger quantities of everything to get what is needed for growth and development.

 

Medical Risks of Getting Tattoos

Many teens and others think tattoos are "cool", while countless others regard them as "tacky". My concern is the medical problems which can occur with tattoos. Some of these are serious and can even be life-threatening. A good article in the new American Academy of Pediatrics Newsletter by Shayne Starr points out that "some teens tattoo themselves with a homemade gun or sewing needle" which seems painful to me. She also notes that tattoos can cause allergic reactions from the dyes causing "itching, swelling, and pain at the tattoo site-even years  later."

Bumps (granulomas) or keloids can also form and are hard to treat effectively. However, the biggest concern is the possibility of HIV/AIDS infection, if dirty needles are used. Hepatitis C, tetanus, Hepatitis B, and other infections can also occur. Tattoos can be removed by doctors with lasers, but this can be expensive and take considerable time, if the tattoos are large.  Many professionals have had to have their tattoos removed when applying for jobs in companies that do not allow them.

One of my medical school classmates is retired and volunteers in a clinic where tattoos are removed.  They have a long waiting list of people who are desperate to have their tattoos removed. So it is best to think twice if you or your children decide to get tattoos.

Concerns about the Selection of Medical Students

A doctor and I were discussing today's medical students and our concern that they are being chosen for their grades, not for their compassion, ability to relate to those of all colors, creeds, and economic levels. I told the doctor about my favorite professor when I was a student at the Stanford Medical School when it was in San Francisco and not Palo Alto. Dr. Reichert was a neurosurgoen  who make the remark one day that he would rather admit B college students to medical s school since they seemed to have more compassion than the brilliant, often priviliged, straight A students.  He also said "I can train anyone to be a "technician", but it takes a special  person to be a real doctor." How often I have seen this to be true. Brilliant medical students can make great researches and some do have the ability to relate well to patients if their parents have not allowed them to coast by because of their high I.Q's.  

Our other concern was that medical students are not being taught the "art of medicine", but just expected to  learn a lot of facts they will forget as soon as they start to practice. Undergraduate courses can also  be wasted years with lots of facts.  I think of my wasted undergraduate years with five chemistry courses,  physics,  statistics,  and German  with no  litleratrue, art, or music. I greatly regret all that wasted time, but it was what I needed to have to apply to medical school. I don't remember or have  ever used any of what I learned in those courses.