My quest for low inflammation hit a speed bump recently.
Usually patients uplift me.
But…
How would you have reacted if a patient asked you to write a prescription for aspirin?
You might answer as I did: aspirin is available over the counter, and at very low cost.
…“But if you write a prescription the government will pay for it.”
Would the fact that this profoundly obese patient smoked 1 1/2-packs of cigarettes each day have affected you? Would their iPhone have tweaked you?
Would you have looked up how much a year’s worth of generic aspirin costs—about the same as just one pack of cigarettes?
And…
Stop. Be nice.
I can’t fix everything.
Move on.
Say no to inflammation.
Stick with treating AF; it’s a lot easier than health care policy, by a long shot.
JMM
2 replies on “Doctoring isn’t always blissful”
John,
I got into with a young guy and his family because they refused to believe that this man,with no other risk factors , that smoking could heave contributed to his MI. It had to be from the stress of his job. I smell disability around the corner. Needless to say, he will be seeing someone else in the future.
Ahh yes, this ludicrous tale reminds me of a time when I went to the ER for a broken ankle, they saw my unfortunate EKG readings (which I always had) and began to run every test in the book…then after about 6 hours and one $135 aspirin (which I had a whole bottle with me, as well as 5 other cardiac meds), after an echo and a scheduling for an ablation, they said “Don’t worry, you are not having a heart attack!” Ugh. By then the ankle was as big as a house and still not x-rayed… Sometimes common sense just goes out the window. I am still making payments on that darn aspirin tablet.