Some of the worst things are the things we’ve become so used to that we’ve forgotten they’re among the worst things. The TSA comes to mind. Here’s another: Having to appeal to a White Coat to get medicine when you’re sick. That is to say, prescription medicine – which means most of the medicine that actually works, such as pain killers and inflammatory suppressors such as Prednisone. We are told we must get that prescription before we’re allowed to get the meds we need but which it requires a White Coat’s formal approval to confirm that we need. Which of course entails paying a White Coat, in addition to the supplication.
Think about that for a minute.
We are still (for now) allowed to fix our own cars; we do not have to obtain a prescription to be allowed to buy motor oil. But when we need fixing . . . .
But cars are not people!
This is certainly true. It is also certainly true that we are in the same position as our cars in that we are denied control over how we’re fixed, in both cases because of ownership. Our cars are owned by us – so we get to do what we think best with them, as far as fixing them. We are owned by the White Hats – implicitly, at least – whose government enforced monopoly on fixing tells us how we’ll be allowed to fix ourselves.
Some of you already know I have been having a bout of gout, which is less fun than a week in bed with Hillary Clinton. I do not need a White Coat to diagnose what I have. It is enough to look at my right foot, which is now a big foot. (If I could walk I would go outside and walk around barefoot in the woods for a bit to leave some “evidence” of the great shaggy Man Ape for my neighbor to discover.)
My gout is like a lot of things that go awry with the human body in that it does not require “MD” after your surname to diagnose what’s wrong. Just a working brain and the ability to do a little research online. Just the same as figuring out how to fix your car; one need not be a credentialed technician to competently perform a needed repair. This is not to impugn anyone who has studied auto mechanics and acquired a credential. The point is that auto mechanics do not assert a government-backed monopoly – a guild – on fixing cars. Even in what’s left of the free market (which isn’t much) in this country, it is still not a crime to put a sign up that says – Joe’s Garage – and perform repairs on other people’s cars.
But it is to assure a government-sicced Hut Hut Hut! to put out a sign offering to help fix people even if you actually do fix them. Even if no one has ever complained they were gypped and – this really gets to the bone – no one has ever said they were harmed by your fixing.
Why the difference?
Because the White Coats have a government-backed monopoly (the only true kind of monopoly because absent government force there is always the possibility of competition and that means there isn’t a monopoly). You have to go hat in hand (and wallet open, of course) to see a White Coat to get medicine you already know you need and would like to just be able to get without the degrading and expensive rigmarole of having to beg leave of a White Coat. You are required by law to do this – assuming you want to be allowed to get what you need (in my case, a drug to deal with elevated uric acid levels, which cause the extremely painful settling out of glass-shard-like crystals inside joints, usually in the foot as well as effective pain killers to tamp down the extreme pain that lasts for a week or more).
That means going to an office that is likely to be a lot like going to the DMV, where you are likely going to be treated like the number you are by a coterie of indifferently unpleasant fraus who will hand you sheafs of forms to fill out that are laden with none-of-their-business questions you must answer else be denied audience with the White Coat. Whom you will not see for some time, probably. Eventually, your number/name will be called and you will be herded into the inner sanctum, shown to a room by another indifferent/unpleasant frau and told to wait (again) for what probably won’t even be the White Coat, in the sense that whoever eventually comes to see you does not have an “MD” after his her or her surname. Instead, you will likely be seen by what is styled a physician’s assistant, who is kind of like the guy who is not a patched-in member of the Hell’s Angels but allowed to ride with them. Of course you – or your insurance company – will be charged full price for having seen the “doctor.”
This person will do the exam and then – at last! – you are allowed to pick up what you already knew you needed at the pharmacy.
It’s cloying.
It is highway robbery, too. White Coats do not provide the “services” you don’t want but are required to pay for cheap, which is of course the point. If you had the option of being able to just go down to the pharmacy and maybe ask the free advice of the pharmacist (or not) and just buy what you need then the White Coats would be obliged to be cheaper as regards their services. Understandably, this competition is the last thing wanted by the White Coat Monopoly. It is the point of the monopoly. So they get the government to give them a monopoly – using the infantilizing argument that we are idiot children who might hurt ourselves were it not for the intercessory safeguard of the White Coats.
People wonder why the cost of fixing themselves is so high. They ought perhaps to give this some thought.
To be clear: I am not denouncing White Coats as such. It is not easy to get that “MD” after one’s surname nor is it cheap. But that does not mean they ought to have the right to make us pay for it, leveraging our pain and suffering and via the force of government. Let those who want to see the doctor see him. By all means. But it’s dirty pool to require people to see him as part of the price of easing their own pain.
We are not idiot children – even if some of us are. I don’t give a damn whether the guy down the street “abuses” drugs; more finely, I am not that man’s parent and I resent being treated as if were an idiot or a child on account of what that man does. Or might do.
A free man is a man whose right to decide for himself is respected, even if other men disagree with his decision – because it is not for them to say.
Medicine will become a respectable profession again when it returns to being a service people are free to chose to avail themselves of – or not. When it is not required to have an “MD” after your surname to be free to treat people who are not forced to see you and when you can freely buy the medicine you need without having to first beg the leave of someone who does have “MD” after his surname.
. . .
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My favorite white coat appeal to authority commercial on the tube was the Pond’s Skin Institute – to sell some crap white hand cream the company shows researchers at the Pond’s Institute hurriedly walking back and forth in white coats, thick black glasses, and clipboards with data.
The idea is that their hand cream was scientifically designed. My wife – who knows about such things – says their moisterizing hand cream actually dries out your skin – so you have to dose again and again – it is a big scam. Pond’s is a horrible hand cream, dries out the skin as it dries – thus the marketing ad which appeals to authority – because people are conditioned to trust authority in a white smock.
BTW, about high prices… I need a colonsocopy and the cash price around where I live is $5,000 at a clinic, and if I have it done at the hospital it’s $15,000.
The always get you in the end.
Hi Eric:
I feel your pain as I suffer from gout occasionally also. Your best bet is Indomethecin but that’s a prescription. My solution is lots of Ibuprofen (Advil), around 1600 mg a day works for me. Since you eat healthy and go to the gym I’m curious what caused your gout? I get gout from hot dogs and other processed meats. The first time I got it was when I was driving a 4 speed manual tranny; I practically screamed whenever I pushed the clutch in.
Morning, Landru!
Thanks for the sympathy (and suggestions). I don’t get it, either. I’m maybe 20 pounds heavy but not obese and I exercise six days a week (until last week). I think for me the causal factor is probably too much sugar and too much processed/junk food – which I have a weakness for. I’m cutting both down severely because I’m done with this gout business. I’ve felt like a cripple since last Sunday and I don’t like it. If I can fix it, I will.
Hi Eric:
From what I read years ago it seems to be in the preservatives like sodium nitrates. I’m hooked on diet soda and potato chips; with daily exercise I’m not much of a wide body (looking like a typical broad shouldered mid western farmer type) but when I eat processed meat the gout flares up a few days later even if it took a week to go through a package of hot dogs.
Yup!
No mo’ of that fort me. I suppose it’s good I got religion on food. I know I’ll feel better and be healthier – and that lasts longer than the couple of minutes’ enjoyment that comes from the food-crack that makes us sick!
Oof, I feel your pain, I’ve had high uric acid for many years and a few gout attacks before I figured out what it was.
Don’t believe this “disease of kings” thing. It’s genetic, you must be descended from north Europeans or Slavs, where it’s pervasive. Uric acid works a little like vitamin-C and the theory is that people from areas where vitamin C wasn’t easily available developed this way of coping. Sickle cell anemia is a benefit in places with malaria, for example.
Anyhow, start taking vitamin C daily, it makes your body produce less uric acid, but it’s probably not enough. You need white coat permission for the next two things. Allopurinol will lower uric acid in your blood and will prevent any more attacks, but you need to take it forever. It’s a very old safe drug. If you take vitamin-C, you don’t need as much of it. For acute attacks, colchicine works wonders.
You’re suffering because uric acid has built up in your joints for months or years, and finally hit a level where your body attacks it. If you take allopurinol, that uric acid will slowly dissipate, but that dissipation will cause more attacks until it’s gone, then you’ll get no more.
And yes, fasting helps, less sugar helps, but just a tiny bit.
Eric, don’t eat for 2 or 3 days, just drink water. Autophogy. Worked for our ancestors, works for us. No $ in it, so you never fuckin hear about it. You’ll be surprised by how good you feel. Th folks above are correct, soak in the sun, walk barefoot in the grass. Doctors are just over credentialed dumbfucks. In jeworld, very fucking thing is about $.
Roger that, Celtic – thanks!
I may try fasting; that’s a hard one for me! I have however totally stopped eating crap food and drink a lot more water. Yesterday, I was almost walking sort of normally again. Then it got bad again. I popped Ibuprofin last night and this morning and it’s better again. I am going to keep on popping them, I guess – even though I know they are bad new sin their own way. But I’ve got to get this gout under control. I can’t do anything around the house and that’s a problem.
You’re in for several gout attacks, as the uric acid leaves your joints. It totally stinks. It triggers attacks on the way in, and then, on the way out.
Those of us with high uric acid cope with it until we’re in 40’s-50’s, and then, our kidneys aren’t as good at removing it, and we get attacks. High uric acid damages kidneys, so you need to get it under control, lest you need dialysis in your old years.
Hi OL,
Thanks for the good news! I’m hoping my decision to radically change my diet and drop 20 pounds fixes things…
It didn’t for me, I hope it does for you. When I went full keto (not meat heavy, though), it dropped a little bit.
You will get more attacks as you lose weight, because weight loss causes more purines to build up in your blood which gets turned into uric acid. Have some medicines on hand, but your levels will be lower after the weight loss, for sure, and regular exercise also keeps the levels lower.
In my case, my doctor said I had the highest levels he’s seen in his entire life, and for me, at least, there’s no option but to keep fit and healthy and take the drugs. My liver makes the damn stuff, no matter what I eat, with diet making a minor difference, but only about 10%.
Hey Eric.
On Substack, I follow someone called Midwest Doctor. He’s been talking a lot about DMSO lately. No idea if it would help with gaut, but it might be worthwhile going through some of his posts on the stuff.
Hi Logan,
Thanks! I’m almost over this, I hope. Got a littler stabby pain in my left foot now. I’m done drinking. Just not worth it.
When some of us speak of legalizing all drugs, too many people jump straight to visions of a drug addicted, dystopian society, thinking that as soon as the legislation was signed, everyone would be in line to buy their heroin and push-off to a permanent vacation.
They don’t, for some reason, think about being suddenly free to procure the medicine of their choice without some glorified gate-keeper extracting their toll. One reason I like being a chemist is that with a little determination, I can have whatever drug I see fit, laws be damned.
‘Say my name!’ BaDnOn demands.
‘H-H-H-Heisenberg!’ I stammer.
Anyone have natural suggestions for kidney stones? Looks like I’ve got one for the first time and I don’t want to get surgery to take care of it. Meanwhile I have an herbal “stone breaker” tincture and also Biden’s alba for a natural antibiotic. Plus urgent care gave me something called “flow max” to relax my tubing and make it easier to pass. Y’all have had lots of good advice on the gout so I thought I would ask about this. Thanks!
Yes indeed! Apple cider vinegar, use Braggs it’s available at Safeway
Debate back and forth on effectiveness but it’s a low cost trial and worth a shot.
Try drinking water with natural lemon juice from real lemons (not the pasteurized junk in the bottle at the grocery store). It’s supposed to break up the stones and make them easier to pass.
SJ, Its not a bad idea to pass it through a tiny strainer and have the stone/s tested. I believe there are four or five different kinds. Different types are caused by different things. Just fyi for future prevention. I went to the emergency room for stones 2O years ago, haven’t had much of a problem since. In my case stress was a huge factor.
Hi SJ,
Lots of water. As others have suggested apple cider vinegar and lemons also work. I recommend drinking dandelion root tea. Dandelion clears out the urinary tract. Note: Expect to pee all day. One cup of tea is all you should need.
Name one fucking affliction the white coats and big pharma have cured. I’ll wait, for a reply. There is no money in cures, there is a lot of money in treating symptoms. You should head to commie Nova Scotia for take a fucking number
and wait deathcare .
Ps Don’t take the meds Eric you will be side effected out.
Eric, I know how to knock down gout. Always self-diagnosed. A friend/doctor told me to throw NSAIDS at it. Always almost gone the next morning. Take a double dose of two kinds that don’t match, three times a day. So that is probably two days, not long enough to destroy your kidneys.
STFU
The eight hour w(cure). Please take a long walk on a short pier Steve.
Indomethecin is the go to NSAID for gout, key is hit it quick don’t wait just like migraines the longer you wait the worse it gets and longer to treat.
Like I mentioned to Eric earlier always have a bottle on hand, especially when traveling. Cherry juice helps but didn’t do much for me. I had an ankle attack went on for nearly a month two rounds of prednisone to finally kill it. After that debacle it was on to preventative meds. Allopurinol made me sick so Uloric for me, 3 years no major attack. Sorry Mr. Liver. Uloric had a “black box” FDA warning for sudden heart failure but Sparkey still rockin. I actually do study for my yearly blood test, no booze for about 5 weeks prior lots of water and supplements – liver numbers right down the middle last two years. Get that fatty liver reined in before the yearly checkup!
Daughter freaked out when I mentioned she may be a good match for a living liver tissue donor – “Hey kid they only need about a third, grows back in no time!”
Here’s another crazy piece of info: The so called vitamin D supplement is the exact same active ingredient in rat poison. The exact same molecule, cholecalciferol. It’s also mandated in milk and included in other foods as a supplement such as breakfast cereals. “Natural” vitamin D has never been isolated in the wild. Read the labels, eat organic as much a possible, avoid highly processed foods as much as possible and do intermittent fasting, that’s how I keep my weight down. They’re trying to kill us, but we don’t have to help them do it.
It has uses for both human medicine and as a rodenticide. So does warfarin – a drug used as blood thinner to prevent blood clots and strokes.
If you look into the history of drugs even going back to the use of plants to effect cures it is a well known principle that it is the dosage that makes the difference between the properties being poisonous versus beneficial.
Even sunlight itself can be beneficial in mocerate doses or it can burn and even kill you.
The beneficial effects of sunshine cant be overstated. Half an hour a day, no shirt, no shoes, no sunblock 5 days a week is all you need. You’ll know your doing it right when you start to get a nice golden brown tan. If I’m out for a boat day at the river, its long sleeve shirt, shoes, and a boonie cap. I feel asleep at the AZ hot springs once and got cooked into a crispy critter. My feet being burnt was the worst part. Never again.
I agree with regards to sunshine, Norm. Just getting out when the sun is out is the best. It is just that there is not much of it up here come Decembre and January. I have seen people use those light boxes to combat the extended darkness, with either the white or blue lights. Am not sure how beneficial they are. They could be a life saver, or could be causing cancer, I do not know which.
If RS and I walk outside without a shirt we are going to be arrested.
Actually, I am wrong about that. Apparently, it is only illegal in Tennessee and Indiana… learn something new everyday.
Well, in no state should it be illegal for women to be shirtless, RG. That’s just un-American. Equal rights and all, you know.
One thing I love about being remote and off-grid: I could walk outside wearing nothing my boots anytime I want and no one will be doing anything about it.
Shirts and shoes aren’t required at my joint. You two are welcome any time.
The Commanders motto:
“Wherever you may be
Let the breasticles
Wander free!”
One benefit marrying a Seattle girl from the ‘70s – hates bras and isn’t skin shy. Small resorts at Palm Springs for the win.
Eric I am sorry you are suffering with this pain and frustration. I knew however, your pen would do this subject justice. My husband recently had trouble refilling the blood pressure prescription he’s had for many years. His doctor had retired and we never got a new primary mostly because finding one has become really difficult in our area and he had resorted to getting refills from the urgent care. They finally refused to refill and he ended up getting it thru a Teledoc virtual doctor.
There are not enough doctors in the Sacramento area, despite having several hospitals. Many of the good ones have retired and the ones that are currently practicing are either not taking new patients or there is a wait of weeks or months to get an appointment and then once you do you end up being seem by a PA. If there is a medical issue requiring a specialist, the primary needs to refer you and that process takes many months. We have been helping a relative through this process.
We recently visited urgent care in LA. It was like the difference between night and day in quality of care. Our in laws who live there have great doctors. Not that we would move there but our relative with the medical issue is considering moving hack for that reason.
I really wish normal not rich people had the option to private pay more and get concierge medical services so in the event you did need care you could at least be seen.
Thanks, RS!
I’ve had a front-row seat in a way to what’s happened to medicine in that as I kid I saw my grandfather – an allergist – practice out of the first floor of the family brownstone in Allentown, PA. Just him and his nurse. He knew and took time with his patients. My dad was also a doctor and by the time I was no longer a kid, the hospital where he worked had been taken over by a health cartel (HMO) and become bureaucratized and mercenary, as you have described. It is now downright Byzantine, far more mercenary and feels like the DMV. Avoiding it to the extent possible is the best medicine.
And how. I respect doctors and nurses-my own mother was a nurse for 30 years. But she avoided exercise and suffered ill health later in life due partly due to lack of fitness. I admire trainers even more because their work actually helps people stay healthy. I have worked out all my life and know the benefits of lifting weights running and biking. There are no drugs that do not have side effects. After all these years I firmly believe if you don’t push your body hard every day to keep your endurance and strength up, no drug will bring back your vitality.
If I pay a man to do a job, and he does not do it or does it poorly, I don’t pay him.
If a M.D. does a poor job, i must go back and keep paying or pay another to get it it right.
There is no recourse unless said M.D. gets it so bad no one can deny injury was done to me. If he just sucks, then you spent money for nothing.
Maybe they shouldn’t get paid until they successfully treat your condition.
Maybe they should be paid by you the patient (customer)? In my opinion the thing that has destroyed medicine is the “other people pay” “insurance”, “gov Co”, “employer”, he who pays the piper calls the tune.
If we went back to the patient (customer) model pays, costs would go down significantly.
OH, I can hear the screams, you are heartless, it’s a “right’, “everyone is entitled to medical care, etc, ad infinitum. Makes me sick.
You are correct, Ugg. No one has the guts to tell an elderly woman, “give me $1,000 for ten minutes of my time”. Well, maybe some…the ones that run the Medical Industrial Complex.
I trust Granny Clampett over the likes of Fauci, et. al. At least she has a good heart and is trying to cure your ailments.
Couldn’t agree more ugg. Way too many dollahdollahbills spent on medical industrial complex BS. Its a racket almost without equal. Most people being kept alive with extraordinary means, or expensive drugs they didn’t pay for, cant even tell you why they should be alive, even after seventy, eighty, ninety years all they want out of life is MOAR. Many only get up from their TVs to go see their Quack Dr. and refill their copious collection of poison pills.
We should prefer quality over quantity. Find something that burns inside. Climb Mt Everest or Machu Picchu, Scuba dive the blue hole off Belize, Enduro across South America or the Appalachia trail, Write a book, start a non-profit, find something useful to do in your town, or, for your kids. This sitting around, trying to hide from JB Bludworth is disgusting. Just waiting to die is not living. I know oldsters irl who cant seem to grasp this simple concept.
Oliver Anthony said it well, ‘God if you’re five foot three, and you’re three hundred pounds, taxes ought not to pay, for your bags of fudge rounds. Lord… Its a damn shame.’
Sorry you’re having such a problem Eric. Its a painful mo-fo for sure. The first time I had it felt like the bottoms of my feet had been wailed on with a lead pipe. It was literally hobbling in nature.
Lots of suggestions from everyone to make it go/stay away. I drink a small glass of room temp, pure water every morn before coffee. Lemon or lime juice, with a decent sizes pinch of sea salt. Sounds counter intuitive when dealing with too much uric acid but I haven’t had a flare in a couple years. Theres also a link, IMO between your blood type and food. Started looking into this a few years ago. Certain blood types do better with certain foods, definitely something to it, YMMV on that. Thats the hardest part for me is avoiding crap foods. And when I don’t eat right and walk or ride my bike, I usually start feeling like country fried shit.
A little off topic, about a month ago I stated doing tai chi. Nothing fancy, about ten minutes every morning, barefoot in the grass. Its great because so many of the moves are little more than simple exercises where you add focus on your breathing. Lot of the movements sound kind of silly, but I just picked seven or eight, which I spend a minute or two on until I’ve done ten minutes worth, barely even breaking a sweat. Seems to be improving my balance. And don’t forget, sunshine man, make sure you’re getting enough of it while you still can.
Thank, Norman!
It is brutal – hobbling, as you say. In the space of 24 hours I went from being able to run five miles easily to barely being able to make it from the bedroom to the bathroom without crutches. The only upside is it’s a motivator. I let myself get 20-25 pounds heavy, which I have never been in my life. I had made me feel like country fried shit but my weakness for tasty but bad-for-me food always won out. No more of that. And the upside of that is less money bled on crap food. That’s not a small thing these days, either.
Wish I could still run, my knees wont have it. Walking is about it. Hard to believe I used to airborne shuffle 5-1O miles at a time. Good luck with cutting out the bad food. Thats a tough one. Even if I go a week or more with almost no bad stuff, its a serious struggle to overcome the urge for some nasty Ice cream, cookies, or chips, or a Whopper, or chicken sandwich from BK. Beginning to think they’ve subtly laced the food supply with trace amounts of crack.
I used to be able to run like a road runner, Norman. It does suck getting old, but I get out and walk, even at -20 below in the Winter, because I always feel better afterwards. Also, seeing all the hefty co-workers gives me motivation, along with losing 40 pounds (and keeping it off) years ago with just walking every day. I do not want to end up like that. Your comment on the additives to ice cream and cookies reminds me of the tobacco industry. And how they put additives in the cigarettes to make it more addictive. Cannot help but wonder if the fast food and junk food industry do not do the same thing?
Hey Shadow,
We get tons of roadrunners around here. Part of me misses running, but I’d just be ruining my knees worse than they are. 2O years crawling around under sinks, plus a torn ACL in the Army I’m lucky I can still walk without pain. I see guys my age still doing plumbing and remember how grateful I am that I was able to retire from Plumbing before I turned 5O.
This time of year we walk right before the sun goes down as my old dog doesn’t want to finish the 1 mile course in 1OO+ degrees. Walking in the ice and snow is hardcore. Your window in the winter gets pretty tiny. Don’t remember how far north you are, but when I was in Fairbanks in February it was only light from about 1OAM-2PM. Plus I needed those rubber cleats to not bust my ass on the ice. I think I’d need a peloton to survive winter up there.
I am in the Fairbanks/North Star Borough, and it does indeed get cold in the Winter, albeit, not as bad as it used to be. I think the last -70 below spell was Winter of ’97. But we have had some -60 below spells here-and-there, just to remind us that it can still happen. I would rather walk outside (and have) at -40 and -50 below, as I can add clothes in layers. Not much one can do to “dress” for the heat, and never mind humidity. The ice has been fun due to freezing rain the last few Winters so the cleats are a must. Give me several feet of snow any day over the freezing rain, as that rain is nasty in Decembre, and just seems wrong. Like having a cold or getting sick in the Summer…
Or you could take advantage of the latest craze in the medial industry: Telemedicine! Get on a zoom call with Rajesh (who’s working out of his unfinished apartment) and try to explain your symptoms. Then ask him to repeat everything 20 times because he’s using the laptop’s built-in mic in a room without any acoustical treatment. He’ll probably get you the ‘scrips you need but you’d better check the label to make sure.
The Pure Food & Drug Act of 1906 set up this permission slip system. Until that’s done away with we suffer the indignity of begging for treatment.
It was the opening salvo in The Great War On Drugs. To quote Dr. Phil, “How’s that workin’ fer ya’?”
Morning, Mark!
Yup. Isn’t it incredible that so many people don’t find it off-putting that they’re not allowed to decide for themselves how to address their own health problems? That they’re not furious about denial of necessary medicine unless they bend knee to the White Coat Mafia?
PS: I think the gout is dissipating. I slept decently last night and this morning I can almost walk again (mein Fuhrer!)
We’ll keep you in our prayers. The pain of gout is even worse than shingles. The ground cayenne/plain hand lotion mix is a godsend. 1/8 tsp per oz. of lotion.
Thanks, Mark – and everyone!
Today is much better. I may be over the worst…
Fuck Em! Come to Mexico. You don’t have to put up with that shit. Go to a pharmacy with a doctor next door, and for free, he will diagnose you and write a prescription. You walk out and over to the pharmacy and get what he wrote down for a whole lot less than you would pay in the States. As a plus, if you drive through Sonora on the Autopista (the only border State with which I’m familiar), you can drive 100MPH with no problem and the other drivers keep right except to pass (with the exception of the occational driving illiterate Gringo or Canadian).
I’d love to, Doug!
Unfortunately, it’s a long drive from VA to Mexico!
I wish it was closer as well, Doug. I knew of someone who had to go to Mexico to get un-jabbed blood because that is not an option in the States. Same with dental work. I have known people to hook up with U.S doctors in Mexico to get dental care done for a fraction of the price. For it is simply unreal up here what is charged.
Eric – always carry, at a minimum, indomethicin to fight the gout pain / inflammation in case you get hit with it while traveling, start it at the first tingle don’t wait it out. I’ve been lucky to have cooperative docs recently and these days I never leave home without it. I also had a paper Rx for prednisone good for a year for a quick fill if needed for a bad attack. I’m on Uloric long term to keep the uric acid under control and no bad flare up’s for 3 years now. Yea, chained to big pharma but no booze and a modified diet wasn’t enough to keep it under control.
My worst attack was visiting daughter and family in Alabama about 14 years ago. She fixed a fancy beef dish with super rich gravy. Yep, next morning ankle on fire no meds, flight home to WA in four hours no medication with me. That was a long day flying home. I was in a wheel chair to get through a transfer in Atlanta.
Thanks for the advice, Sparkey!
I’m hoping getting right with food and getting back to around 200 again – will stave off the need for pills.
Anyone that’s had a gout attack can verify it’s debilitating. One more thing to consider is a simple walker, no crutches. The two wheels up front two posts rear works great, you can stop when needed without rolling around. Allows the affected foot to stay off the ground while you get around the house. The four wheelers are for walking with both feet active not good for one lame foot.
I’ve been criticizing the prescription system for decades.
If I had my way…
there would be a two-tier system for prescriptions.
1. Prescriptions obtained through a medical professional would be afforded protections against side effects and adverse reactions preserving the ability to sue for damages.
2. Prescriptions obtained without utilizing a medical professional would be available for purchase over-the-counter but would not offer protections against side effects and adverse reactions.
This two-tier system would satisfy just about everyone except for the DEA and other government types…
I have been fortunate to have doctors who prescribed medications for future gout outbreaks without having to make an appointment or requiring an additional doctors office visit.
The letters MD after the name doesn’t always mean you are seeing an MD anymore.
Some states will allow an MBBS, a Masters degree holder, use the initials MD under certain circumstances.
Most MBBS graduates are from overseas, but schools are being established here in the US.
The whole COVID fiasco exposed the American “Health care system” as downright corrupt. It seems that too many doctors have become little more than drug/ vaccine pushers for children AND adults. For example, do children REALLY need an HPV vaccine once they’re born? In too many hospitals, that’s one of the first things given to children after they’re born.
Not only that, some “doctors” and organizations (e.g. American Academy of Pediatrics) purportedly looking out for children’s health are STILL pushing COVID jabs for children as young as 6 months of age and COVID booster jabs for adults.
Society is a special kind of sick when it believes that a newborn needs a “vaccine” for a sexually transmitted disease. I mean WTF??? And no one questions? No push back? IF these needle pushing MD’s think vaccines are so great, they should be held down and given all 79 doses (and who knows how many more now?) of what they believe school aged children should receive by age 18. After all, they are “safe and effective”…
Hi Shadow,
I’ve heard stories of new parents requesting to a hospital that their newborns NOT get an HPV vaccine right after they’re born, but hospitals ignored their requests and gave newborns such vaccines anyway. I think the whole COVID vaccine mania and the overreach that many governments engaged in, along with the fact that countless numbers of Americans who’ve taken the jab have suffered injury or death, have resulted in people not just questioning COVID vaccines but other vaccines as well. Look at all the “Public Health experts” on corporate media who are effectively acting like Chicken Littles about the record number of vaccine exemption requests and “low vaccination uptake” among children.
I have heard that as well, John. If it were me, I would never allow my child out of the room alone, and would have someone I trusted accompanying my newborn baby everywhere, because I know crap like this happens all the time. The COVID jab was a blessing in disguise, for sure. For sadly, it took something of this magnitude to wake the sheeple up to the realization that the whole system of jabs is a fraud.
What’s astounding is the fact that many hospitals were even giving newborn babies a vaccine for HPV, a sexually transmitted disease IIRC. I’m surprised hospitals weren’t also giving newborn baby girls the Gardasil jab, though, IIRC, there were efforts in California to MANDATE that particular vaccine for high school students.
Well, do not give them any ideas, John, and am sure that is coming. Up until COVID, the Gardasil shot was the most dangerous (other than flu). Guess Big Pharma said, “here, hold my beer”…..
Here’s the segment shared by someone else’s Rumble page on Facebook building a data center in a small Georgia town and effectively leaving residents with little to NO water…..
https://rumble.com/v6vv8jt-mark-zuckerberg-builds-massive-data-center-in-georgiathe-jimmy-dore-show.html?e9s=src_v1_s%2Csrc_v1_s_o
‘when you can freely buy the medicine you need’ — eric
Sadly, one week from today, the door is shutting on cheap prescription meds from overseas — thanks to Emperor Orange. Search ‘de minimis exception’ and you’ll find dozens of articles.
As of August 29 at 12:01 a.m., small packages from overseas will face lump sum duties of $80 to $200. Nobody knows how this is going to work, so some couriers such as DHL have simply suspended service to the US until this self-imposed mess is resolved.
On Tuesday I received my final order from buy-pharma.md, which offers a wide variety of prescription meds. The company is based in China, and ships from Mumbai, India. Over the years, I’ve placed probably 15-20 orders with them. All were duly received.
Through no fault of theirs, it would not be a good idea to order from them now. Sure, they will mail it out from Mumbai the next day. But when it reaches the US, it might be delayed for weeks in Customs. And if it’s ever released, you could get stuck with a $200 duty. Or Customs might just inspect and destroy it, as a prohibited import.
Thanks, Donnie! Unlike us, you get free health care. Think of the little people for a change, you stinking fake populist.
Here’s a story about life without the ‘de minimis’ exception. A friend in Buenos Aires, Argentina — R*** — asked me to send him a $20 laptop charger, which he couldn’t find locally.
When the FedEx package arrived, it was seized at Ezeiza airport. R*** was summoned to the Customs office at Ezeiza, 20 miles outside the city. He was made to pay a $100 multa [fine], because Argentina discourages the import of electronic products that aren’t processed in their make-work ‘screwdriver assembly’ plants in Ushuaia.
Ultimately that $20 charger cost R*** over $200 in FedEx fees, fines, airport parking and road tolls, plus half a day of his time. This is life in the Third World, where the Latin obsession with chickenshit duties impedes commerce, wastes time and keeps people poor.
Now, this is life in the United States too, behind Caudillo Trump’s iron curtain. Do you reckon Customs searches Air Force One when Trump returns from his golf outings in Scotland? Why no … no, I reckon not! It’s good to be king.
Thanks for posting this info, Jim –
I imagine it also means it’s going to cost more to get pet meds from overseas to get around the cost of veterinary care here. Trump’s indifference to the costs he’s imposing on people who are struggling to pay their basic bills is of the Marie Antoinette variety and I expect the consequences (for us) will inevitably be similar.
In a note of irony, Eric, even if you DO get the privilege of seeing the PA instead of the MD, and the PA writes a prescription, that prescription still has to be approved by the MD he or she is working under. More delays can ensue if the doctor is busy, And then again, U.S. medicine was never there to cure anyone of anything. Just create life long patients.
Morning, Shadow!
Yup. I grew up around doctors so I got an early education, so to speak, about medicine and by 8th grade knew I wanted nothing to do with it.
The sad thing is, Eric, I worked around the old timer nurses and doctors who-back in the day-really did want to help patients get better, so that they did not have to come back again. Even some of the old timers (now retired, and are not missing the profession) near the end of their careers started wondering what in the world was going on when the bureaucracy took over. One complained that she was saddled to a stupid computer and endless regulations, and said it took time away from taking care of her patients. Not only has Big Pharma taken over, but the ability of the nurse or MD who may actually give a damned, has no time anymore for the little things that always helped the patient during their time of need. Such people get weeded out, and makes way for the ones who will do as they are told, no questions asked.
That’s a good summary, Shadow –
“Going big” ruins everything, doesn’t it?
The bane of my existence most of my life was eye doctors. I wore contacts from about age 16 up until 5 years ago. Every single f’ing year I’d have to go get my new rx for lenses and suffer through their ridiculous tests and exams. Annual glaucoma tests for a 20 year old, for example. Dilation, expensive diagnostics designed for people with real problems. And then they’d make me redo the “better or worse” slides test each time, which was, of course, inexact, so they’d say I need a new power. And then they’d try to get me on different brands depending on which med supplier bribed them that month, I assume. Sometimes they’d imply they wanted to “take me off them” because of some mild ridge on my eyeball or something, but in the end, they’d relent if I agree to come back for a “follow up” in six months.
What a total crock of shit!
Why in hell can’t I just go in, let them take a quick look and say, “Yes, everything is fine. No pain, no infections, no changes in vision. Just rewrite a scrip for what I am already using.
I don’t even care if you charge my insurance company for the full visit. Just stop assaulting me.”
I actually got cataract surgery at age 52 via a doc with questionable ethics as far as insurance goes, i.e. it is highly unlikely I needed cataract surgery at this age, but he had me look in a lighted tube and say I couldn’t see and voila! … covered by insurance. I paid out of pocket for corrective lenses and will never need cheaters for close vision, but it is possible my long vision could deteriorate some. But the best thing? I do not have to go do that damn yearly eye exam (why is 1 year – 365 days – the magic number anyway?). I will go if I notice an issue, but I don’t need to beg to re-up my contacts ever again. And I can actually enjoy good vision while I’m relatively young and will not deal with cataracts that some docs won’t fix until you’re 90.
The one-year expiration of glasses and contact lens subscriptions was imposed by a fedgov ‘law’ in 1995. Optometrists and ophthalmologists were overjoyed — free money!
But young Jim was not bloody amused. For awhile, he just copied and forged his prescription with a fresh date, and faxed it in. Over time, ‘compliance’ waned, since the mighty feds do not actually have contact lens police. Now lens vendors just add a note, ‘prescription on file,’ even though it’s not.
As for glasses, Chinese vendor Zenni Optical lets you type in your own prescription. Just received a new $60 pair of titanium-framed prescription glasses this past spring. But probably that’s all over, with the ‘de minimis’ Customs exception ending. The cost of being an Americlown is rising drastically!
When you’re driving down the highway at night
And you’re feelin’ that Wild Turkey’s bite
Don’t give Johnny Walker a ride
‘Cause Jack Black is right by your side
You might get taken to the jailhouse and find
You’ve been arrested for driving while blind
— ZZ Top, Arrested for Driving While Blind
Zenni for me also. Sorry doc, your in house eyeglasses too rich for me. They quoted $395 for a pair of Maui Jim Rx sunglasses I actually laughed and the retail eyeglass chick got insulted. My newest pair aviator style nice solid frames, polarized Rx sunglasses $68.00 delivered, thanks Zenni !! I’m a stickler for eyeglass frame comfort these are great.
Eyebuydirect is also a good source for glasses, been using them for years. Type in your prescription and pick out your frames online and get them in the mail ina week or so.
That’s awful, Amy!
I have been lucky – so far – to not have needed the White Coats. Even now, I am managing this gout business on my own. A guy at the gym I’m friends with is a doctor and he says I ought to go get a workup as I have not had one in decades. I tell him no – I’ll just live my life in a reasonable manner and hopefully that will serve. I cannot abide arbitrariness and insolent bureaucracy – these are the rules – so I choose to opt out.
I suffered with the gout a number of years back. Wife went out and bought a quart-sized bottle of cherry juice & I had some of that for a number of days. Cured it & dodged the white-coated crooks!