Month: April 2020

I wish I had thought of it!  I didn’t but will shout it out here anyway.

HEY, ANTI-VAXERS WHO THINK THE WORLD WOULD BE BETTER OFF WITHOUT VACCINES.  NOW YOU KNOW WHAT THE WORLD LOOKS LIKE MISSING JUST ONE CRUCIAL VACCINE. 

ARE YOU HAPPY NOW? 

Seriously, it’s time to rethink your stance on vaccines.  Yes, vaccines are not perfect; and, yes, vaccines on occasion may cause unexpected problems but they don’t kill thousands of people and disrupt life as we know it.

Just saying!

Yesterday, I published “Truth.”  Today, I question if truth really exists.  EVERYONE THINKS THEY KNOW THE TRUTH; BUT, IF EVERYONE’S TRUTH IS DIFFERENT, CAN TRUTH REALLY EXIST?

Are you following me?  At 5 am, being bored out of my wits, I started channel surfing looking for the truth.  I failed miserably.  These days, the truth seems to depend on which news journalist you are currently listening to.

If you listen to FOX, my article yesterday was BS. The doc being interviewed talked about using medication off label.  I’ve done that many times in my career and, after listening to her, I would have to agree that using hydroxychloroquine in the face of Covid-19 makes sense.  To further make their point, FOX interviewed a woman who claims that hydroxychloroquine saved her life.  Again, I have no reason to doubt her statement.

Switch to CNN and you get a different story.  They are on the attack, interviewing one expert after another indicting President Trump for everything that is wrong in the world.  Their doctors tow the official line requiring firm and irrefutable evidence that hydroxychloroquine works and is safe.  (After putting forth the company line, they all admit that the use of hydroxy is up to the doctor and his/her patient.)

Switch, again to MSNBC and you get a less vigorous attack dog.  So, who is telling the truth?  I don’t know.  When it comes to hydroxychloroquine there is one truth I know.  By recommending this medicine on TV, Trump has lumped it in with the toilet paper dilemma. People will search the world to buy up as much as they can.  Hoarding medication, food, masks, gloves and toilet paper has left us in deeper shit with nothing to wipe up the mess!

There is one more truth I’ve discovered.  Half of my readership disappeared yesterday.  The world is sick and highly polarized.  Half of my readership disappeared yesterday as they felt I was attacking Trump.  I was.  When I quoted Trump saying “I’m not a doctor” it was the truth.  Please, leave the doctoring to my colleagues.

I’m not a politician.  If you’ll leave the doctoring to my colleagues, I’ll leave politics to you!

I have maintained an apolitical stance on purpose.  The purpose of this blog is and has been to teach my readers how to become Wellthy.  The blog also serves to keep me sane in my retirement by allowing me to share my 40 years of medical knowledge with my former patients and new readers.

Today, I’m going to break with my apolitical rules and defend President Trump.  Trump is often criticized for exaggerating, lying, being vengeful and a host of other outlandish traits.  I’m not judging him nor agreeing or disagreeing with anyone so don’t bother attacking me.  I just want to defend ONE thing Trump said yesterday.

President Trump clearly stated, “I am not a doctor.”  That statement is 100% correct and truthful. The President has NO MEDICAL KNOWLEDGE AND SHOULD NOT USE HIS BULLY PULPIT TO RECOMMEND ANY MEDICAL TREATMENT.  Last night, Trump was practicing medicine without a license.

Hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin, like all medications, come with an assortment of unknown benefits and risk. I am glad I no longer have a practice.  If I did, my patients would be calling for prescriptions, based on Trumps recommendation, for both medications. 

I would spend time listing the possible and probable side effects of hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin.  Despite the unknown benefits and the known side effects, my patients would demand I roll the dice and give them what they want.

What my patients want is peace of mind. They are scared out of their wits as am I.  Snake oil fueled by the internet and our President is not the answer.  I have had patients on both of these medications for years and have grown to respect both their ability to help specific patients and their ability to do great harm.

For sure, if you were on death’s bed, I’d have you on everything and anything that had one iota of a chance to save you.  But to say a medicine is safe because it has been used for years is foolhardy.  To say that using hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin won’t kill you is foolhardy.

To rightly proclaim, “I am not a doctor” and then recommend a medical treatment despite what your own, hand selected medical authorities have to say, simply makes you a fool.

Please, President Trump, stop being foolish.  Stop sending people to their doctors requesting medications that may or may not help them.  Instead, recommend that people follow the guidelines, stay at home and let the virus die out by denying it any place to go.  Your scientist and medical experts will find the truth about hydroxychloroquine and azithromycin in short order.  Let them prescribe medications when appropriate.To learn about vaccine development, listen to Zdogg’s interview with Dr Offit. Again, this interview is highly technical but interesting and informative.  For sure, after listening to 10 minutes, you’ll understand how complex vaccine development is and you’ll turn off the interview

And I thought having to retire was bad!  I didn’t know the half of it!  I’ve been sad, mad and a little bit crazy.  I’ve written about the emotional roller-coaster I’m on and I’d really like to get off. Unfortunately, I can’t and the rise and fall of the coaster continues to get steeper and more perilous.

Writing has kept me sane, but writing is getting more difficult.  My last article dredged up some of my humor.  It felt good to write a humorous article, especially since one of my readers mentioned that my articles made her cry. 

I awoke at 4 a.m. as usual.  I don’t want to be late getting to my family room.  Brewed coffee and sat down to catch up on my reading.  I’m so busy doing nothing that I get behind on my studies.  This am I read a great article entitled “THE NEXT PANDEMIC WILL BE IN MENTAL HEALTH,” by Dr Najma Hamdani on KevinMD.

Dr Hamdani’s message is worth reading.  We are all on this roller-coaster and, those of us who stay home, will eventually get off together.  Let’s hope sanity prevails and the ride ends in a happier place.

Meanwhile, I’ll dream of being well enough to give telemedicine a trial.  Time to divorce Fridge, and get this weigh off and train for the day I can return to my beloved profession.  Maybe miracles do exist.

Renee. Get the handcuffs.  I know what you’re thinking, but that’s not it.  Get your mind out of the gutter and into the kitchen.  No, we aren’t getting kinky in the kitchen.

Actually, I’m getting kinky in the kitchen.  I’m having a love affair with the refrigerator.  I’ve got it filled with all kinds of delicious food. I loaded it with things I would never buy.  Afterall, if we are going to be stuck at home for a long while, we might as well eat.

Fridge loves me.  She calls to me constantly.  “Oh Stewart, I’m waiting for you.” She longs for TV commercials, knowing that I’ll come to her and empty her of her contents.  My new favorite is Hawaiian rolls covered in cream cheese and smeared with olive bruschetta.  

Nightly, I go to her and she spews her contents into my pots and pans as I cook masterful, unhealthy, calorie and fat ladened dinners. I’m the author of a healthy lifestyle book, yet I can’t get my act together.  I’m on the “I’m bored, I don’t give a crap” wagon.  It would be a great diet to write a book about.  I think I’ll call it “Eat Yourself to Death “or “Fridge Loves Me and I Love Her.”

Seriously, I have two choices.  The first is to buy new clothes.  MTailor can measure me from home and ship me new pants (it’s pretty cool).  I already bought suspenders.  I’ll also need a forklift to get around.  The second choice is to have Renee handcuff me to the bed.

Choice number 2 wins!  Renee, get the handcuffs.  And while you’re at it. Let’s figure out how, cuffed to the bed, I can burn calories.  

For 34 years I was privileged to take care of some of the most incredible individuals in the country.  As Trump would say, my patients were the greatest, the most creative, smartest people, like no one has ever seen.  In this case, he would be right.

We are in deep poop.  Our healthcare professionals go to work every day knowing that today is the day they may contract a fatal disease.  Despite knowing that, they go anyway.

They come home at the end of the day knowing that they may inadvertently kill their family by passing on this hidden enemy.  At the end of the day, some change in the garage before entering their house.  Some don’t come home.  All live in fear.

Make no mistake. We are at war.  Our soldiers are, for the most part, unarmed.  We, sitting at home, are the partisans.  It’s time for us to band together and fight back as best we can.

If you were in manufacturing, figure out how to retool and make face mask.  Invent protective gear for our troops.  If you can sew, make masks.  If you are in the business world, figure out how you can procure the gear the government and local hospitals can’t.  Use your God given talents to save lives.  

If you can’t figure out how to help, then be content to stay home.  Staying away from others will stifle this virus.  If the economy has not crippled you, send a meal to the emergency room.  Ordering from local restaurants will help keep them in business and I can tell you from experience, having food in the breakroom reenergizes the hospital staff.

Recognize that your neighbors may be in trouble.  If you have a paycheck coming in on a regular basis and they don’t, see if you can help them.  This is going to be a long battle.  Viruses have a tendency to come back on a yearly basis.  If we band together, we have a better chance of surviving this then if we turn inwards and become hoarders, competing for toilet paper and sanitizers.

Support your local hospitals and neighbors anyway you can.  There will be a vaccine, it just takes time.  So, get off the couch and figure out how you can help.