Letting Your Fears In

[House of Mustard]

I had to go in for wrist surgery a few years ago.  I was lying on the gurney, talking to the anesthesiologist while he was getting me set up.  He put the IV in my hand and I started getting all woozy.   I said "Wow, this stuff works really fast."  The doc responded confusedly, "I haven't hooked you up to anything yet."  Then I passed out.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

ehhh, not eating meat isn't a biggie for me. Becca was cool, and had a beautiful singing voice. Besides at least they knew what sex they wanted to persue from week to week.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

I've almost passed out twice, and to be honest i'd rather pass out than hover at the edge. I freak out the Red Cross workers because I go completely whitish grey and my pupils dialate like crazy....

After a snack and some soda im back, but my stomachs upset all day... weird hunh.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

I don't fear needles. But I am uncomfortable around them. My jaw clenches and my muscles tighten up. I just don't like them.

My anesthesia experiences:

When I had my wisdom teeth removed, I got the shot, and didn't think anything was happening. Then, when the nurse came in to ask how it was going I was about to ask for more. "How you doing?" she asks. And that's when I saw the walls fly away from me. "I'm all right." i say. The next thing I remember is waking up and being told to get my butt out  of the chair. The next thing I remember after that is waking up and being told to get my butt out of the chair... again.

Then when I had my hernia corrected. I didn't sleep this time. The docs were listening to classic rock, and I was singing along and everything. Then I cried when it was over and kept asking if everything went ok.

I prefer the sleeping, I look like less of a nard.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Lucky bastard, I had a navy dentist take my wisdom teeth...

I went in and he said, well I can only give you a local... so he hits me, and I dont feel any different. THen he turns to me and says Im going to have Dr. So and so do this, because he never has. Im sure my eyes bugged out like crazy and I gave him the hell no look, I think I even said Hell no you won't. He just chuckled and told me that I either got my teeth out that day or I could wait another six months. Since they were beginning to get impacted I let them do it.  So this guy grabs some sort of clamp and begins wrenching teeth out of my mouth in the most painful way I can imagine... And Im screaming and they stop and look at me and then they realize they only gave me half the local that they were supposed to...

Man that hurt...

Funny part is when I was a kid (no lie) my mom used ot pull my loose teeth with a pair of needle nose pliers....


I dont like needle nose pliers to this day...

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

<Over Generalization>
Military doctors universally suck. They're terrible. Ask me some time about how I got diagnosed for the hernia (a story that will not go on the message board)

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Yeah I have to disagree, the majority of military doctor's Ive had are pretty good.

Its getting to see them thats the hard part.... think of the worst HMO you can and then triple how bad you think it could be to get to see the doctor.

For instance...
In bootcamp repeated marching with boots that were a little too big for me caused me to develop a stress fracture in my foot. Rather than have someone X-ray it and maybe do something about it I got advil.  Whats funny to me was that I could barely stand. After that I hid my problem untill the end so I could graduate with my company.

[Entsuropi]

They are bound to, since they will be paid less than normal doctors.

I have two other dislikes/fears. One is of needles; i hate the sensation of them being stuck in. I dont fear them, i guess, i just hate the feeling.  They stuck 4 of them in me on monday

The other one is wierd. Whenever two metal things like forks or scissors jam together i hate it. Maybe its just the feel of them scraping. But i have no big problem with sharpening stuff by scraping them; only if they jam together. Wierd, and kinda a bad thing for a possible military career.

And i dislike mess. But have no intristic problem with blood. I had an ingrown toenail for 6 months, and that meant blood, not much of it, but my socks always had blood over the toe. The annoying thing is that since i got it dealt with on monday, its bleeding even more - my first bandage soaked right through.

[Entsuropi]

Jeffe, try the NHS. It took a month to get a GP appointment, and a month and a half at least to get the surgery appointment. Annoying as all hell. If you want it done fast, then private is your only answer, which costs loads.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

We have the same problem here unless you have buckets of cash... but at least everyone gets treatment under your system.... woe be it to the uninsured here if they get sick...
They either live with it or die.  Very few free clinics.

[The Holy Saint, Grand High Poobah, Master of Monkeys, Ehlers]

feh, military doctors DO suck.

General care is EASY. I went for routine checks and "i don't feel well, look at this" all the time when I was military. But no matter what, the doctor was a tard. Military doctors are the worst.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Ive had a lot of good care w/ military doctors too...

[House of Mustard]

I've worked for the last four years for the Physician's Division with an HMO that shall remain nameless (the largest Health Care group in the Mountain West), and of the 893 doctors that I personally work with, I can think of very few of them who are very good.  Of course, some are excellent in their medical knowledge, but most of them are pretty lousy at patient follow-up care.  On the other hand, the ones that are good at follow-up care are often pretty crappy medically.

[Mad Dr Jeffe]

Still it beats having someone saw an arm off or applying leaches or bloodletting doesn't it.

[JP Dogberry]

Back to the needles, I get to have one today. The australian government is providing all year 12 students with a free meningacocal (sp?) vaccine, since we're the biggest group to get the disease. No, I'm not afraid, just irritated by the fact that I'm going to be stabbed. Those things hurt a bit.