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Re: Medical stuff... 

By: capt_nemo in POPE 5 | Recommend this post (2)
Sat, 14 Dec 19 7:40 AM | 23 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Pope 5 		Msg. 46800 of 62138
(This msg. is a reply to 46796 by Decomposed)
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I hope you get out by X mas DE,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,




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Realist - Everybody in America is soft, and hates conflict. The cure for this, both in politics and social life, is the same -- hardihood. Give them raw truth.


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The above is a reply to the following message:
Medical stuff...
By: Decomposed in POPE 5
Sat, 14 Dec 19 7:11 AM 		Msg. 46796 of 62138

Today I went to the urologist's office. They took an X-ray and the nurse there proclaimed me to be "kidney stone free." That's good. I don't know when I passed the stone, but there were times when I wasn't using the catcher. A 4 mm stone is big, though. Most folks have been surprised that I didn't know it had come out.

Now they've got me peeing in a bucket for 24 hours (starting Sunday morning). Hope they don't look at me funny when I'm carting that around at church.

On the 10th, I met with my surgeon. He made a brief pitch for a "cow tissue valve" (which requires no blood thinner) but I wasn't biting. He then declined to give me the latest and greatest valve (twenty years old and FDA approved) that I'd found on the internet and that I'd requested. He offered to find me a different surgeon if I wanted to go that route. I didn't want to change surgeons, so I settled on the 40-year-old "St. Jude synthetic" valve that, unfortunately, will put me on a full regimen of coumadin (warfarin) for the rest of my life. Some of you may be familiar with warfarin. It's rat poison.

I'm not totally comfortable with my surgeon's motivations. Refusing to install a functionally superior valve that reduces the coumadin dose by half makes no sense. He said he just wasn't comfortable installing a different valve. But then he used coumadin as a reason why I should go with the tissue valve that could last as little as five years! (5 to 20 years, with 12 being the average.)

The thing is, I know about the deals some surgeons cut with insurance companies. Synthetic valves cost about $30,000. Cow valves are virtually FREE. So, all that an insurance company has to do in order to save itself beaucoup bucks is to tell various heart surgeons that they will give them $5,000 for every cow valve they implant. Without it looking too much like a bribe, IT'S A BRIBE.

I'm not saying that this is what my surgeon is doing, but it's what SOME surgeons do.

On the 9th, I met with my new permanent cardiologist. He likes my surgeon and my hospital. He didn't think there'd be any problem getting the valve I wanted. Oh well.

Today I cancelled my January 3rd dermatology appointment. Two weeks after open-heart surgery, I don't think moles will be my biggest concern.

I'm done with doctors. For a whole week. Friday's the day. Surgery is expected to take four hours. They'll watch me for another four before trying to wake me up. Then I'll be in the hospital for (probably) six days. If all goes per the plan, they may evict me on Christmas. Sheesh. Even baby Jesus was given a roof for Christmas.

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