Re: The joy of FORTRAN

On 14/03/2025 11:13, c186282 wrote:

On 3/14/25 6:46 AM, The Natural Philosopher wrote:

On 14/03/2025 04:47, c186282 wrote:

Seems like most modern meds have a HUGE list of
   horrible side-effects ... like yer dick rotting
   off from Jardiance infections. Maybe the old
   docs "two aspirin" advice wasn't far off ......
   all my old relatives who stuck to that lived
   the best and longest, and Granny never ate veggies
   for 99 years (inherited her taste buds) - she was
   just northern euro boiled beef & taters and a beer
   or two, sharp to the end .......
>

Unfortunately I know the difference between not taking the meds and taking them - side effects and all.
>
I've worked with my 'doc' to maximise benefit and minimise the side effects, so that its not a just a  question of prolonging a miserable existence, alone.
>
But its 8 pills a day, plus vitamin D in the winter and antihistamines in the summer and a steroid inhaler twice a day.
>
And that only stops things getting worse.
>

   In a couple months I have to break-in a new doc.
   Don't know what the previous put in his notes.
   I've gotta re-explain/justify staying as clear
   of "modern med" as possible ... and I do have
   stories about relatives who rotted and died from
   getting on their bandwagon. Gotta be NICE about
   it however. INTENTIONALLY didn't get corp health
   insurance because of this. If you don't have a
   bottomless well they'll suddenly find reasons why
   you don't NEED all those zillion test$/procedures/meds.

>
In the UK its a different scenario. People are getting lawyered up and if the GP *doesn't* send you on all those tests and you *do* end up with some unspotted cancer, they are in the shit.
>
They have a prescribed methodology.
>
As my practice chief said "in this case we normally do this immediately, then send you off for those tests, and continue treatment on the basis of what those test shows, or pass you over to the appropriate hospital department if something bad shows up".
>
I think there isn't an orifice in my body they haven't shoved a camera down - or worse - up... My whole body has been scanned. Apart from my brain arms and legs.  I get blood tests around 4 times a year at the moment at the behest of various departments that are 'on my case'.
>
I appreciate all this, because unlike so many of my friends, I am  still alive.
>
Not in great health, but alive.

     Super bummer dude !
    But not everybody is in yer position - most seem
   seriously OVER-medicated, OVER-tested, OVER-charged.

It's really very, very hard to get the balance right. A lot of what is prescribed is prophylactic. Taking it statistically improves your chances of survival, but its a very blunt instrument, is statistics.
Take Statins. I hated them and couldn't tolerate them and had 4 heart operations before they gave me something I could tolerate - a self administered jab of something very expensive  every fortnight, that is trivially easy. My heart arteries haven't clogged up since, so it seems to work.
You just have to roll the dice between stuff that leads to a totally miserable existence - beta blockers for example make you an impotent wet rag of a human with no get up and go.  But you wont die of an overstressed heart. And stuff whose side effects are tolerable. Like nitroglycerin in its various medical forms. Gives you a headache a bit but stops you having a heart attack.
I have over the last ten years reduced what I take to stuff that helps and doesn't make me feel shit, The latest one was a blood thinner that covered me in bruises, made my nose bleed and was generally shite. I am now 15% more likely to have a stroke, but wounds now heal.
You need to quietly take control from the doctors and understand their motivations and modify what they give you to get what you want. A long life as a tranked up bumbling mentally confused idiot is not it.
In the end it is your decision and if you explain why - quality of life - you don't want to take stuff and you do accept the risks, well that's OK
They are beholden to you to explain what the drugs do, and their side effects too.
So doctors should not dictate to you, but you are a fool if you don't listen.
--
Karl Marx said religion is the opium of the people.
But Marxism is the crack cocaine.