Post by Deleted on Nov 4, 2019 22:11:53 GMT -5
My experience with doctors is the pharmaceutical companies are paying them to push the drugs. I got surgery to fix my acid reflux and stopped going to the gastro quack who'd have me go back every 4-5 months, ask how I was doing and if I needed refills. He's just milking the insurance!!!
Although our primary doctor is retiring winding down and retiring soon. He's not pushing anything. He just wants to fade away gracefully. He just moved into a new building that's 2 blocks from his house!!
Since I go to the VA, my experience with doctors may be a bit different. I am very pleased with our VA Medical Center. If I call to get an appointment with my doctor, I usually get it for the next day, where my wife with her civilian doctor may have to wait a week or two. My doctor seems to really know what he is doing and doesn't throw drugs at a problem unless it is truly warranted. When I went through the treatment cycle for hepatitis C, my doctor said that you are never "cured" and that I could never give blood. I have to be checked periodically to see if it becomes active again. I see the civilian ads for the same treatment, and they claim that the patient is permanently cured - yet another true wonder drug. I believe the VA with all their research before giving patients various medicines. Where civilians rushed to market with the new shingles vaccine, the VA waited until the proper testing was completed to their satisfaction. To me, it is worth the extra wait. I consider myself fortunate in that regard.
In my work with engineering in the medical electronics field, the FDA testing and certification cycle for invasive equipment seems to be around 9 or 10 years. I don't know if chemicals have that rigorous testing, but would assume so. I don't understand how so many of these wonder drugs being pushed on TV can have such awful side effects, yet are apparently perfectly acceptable. A drug is introduced and touted as the greatest thing since sliced bread, and then a year or so later, the lawyers are lining up to sue the makers because there is trouble in the barnyard. I think consumers are just pawns in a game where all the other players make money, and lots of it. I believe the VA does what it can to protect us from that whole scammy environment, though apparently not all VA Medical Centers are of the same level of quality that ours is.
Tony