I always take a list of important milestones, dates and data to doctor's appointments so I have it at hand to help us both. A friend's daughter works in orthopedics at the regional behemoth (UVA Health Systems), and they have Patient Throughput metrics that are monitored more closely than an Amazon Order Picker's performance. The little guys are subject to the same pressures. These guys grab your summary to get themselves back up to speed as they run to your exam room. They no more remember us than we recall what we had for breakfast on a given day 3 years ago, although it sucks that a doctor so close to you in the community who diagnosed your cancer forgot all about it. That's an overt statement. My prior GP overcame the volume issue the last several years of his practice by going to a retainer program. You pay a monthly fee to be his doctor. Part of the deal is that the doctor contractually limits himself to a maximum number of patients he'll carry, and he augments his income from the monthly fees. My doctor limited himself to 900 patients max. When he rolled out the program, he had 600 of us sign up. He had been carrying 2,400 patients. That's a big difference. At some point doctors get so overwhelmed that the decline in performance becomes exponential...but they gotta financially survive. I sometimes wonder how they drag themselves in to work every day.
Aspirin is one of those things that somewhat baffles the doctors. It is an NSAID, but doesn't seem to have the same side effects as the others. It is (if I remember) an "indiscriminate" Cyclooxygenase inhibitor and a prostaglandin inhibitor, which is why it reduces platelet adhesion better than the other NSAIDS. That is usually why it is recommended in small doses by many doctors. All the details are fading on me as I age, but whenever you take aspirin, it permanently changes the platelet function, but since you are continually making new platelets, the new ones are not affected. Platelets function mostly in arteries, so aspirin reduces the changes of clots forming in the coronary arteries.
Well, it's the 13th of June (my 73rd birthday: big deal) and I've been doing good-to-great. I have gained back some of the weight I lost (about 10 pounds), but at the same time, my BP went up. So, I messaged my VA doctor and asked him about going back on Losartan at night. He said I could, and part of my BP has come down nicely. However, he doesn't want me to go back on Hydrochlorothiazide. And now, I'm cutting one of my Metformin in half and taking in the AM with my Glipizide. A few weeks ago, I stopped taking 1,000mg of Metformin in AM, but my blood glucose was being too high. As the doctor told me in the hospital, "too much Metformin can cause Lactic Acidosis in the kidneys". Next Tuesday I get a blood lab done at the VA, so my VA doctor can see how I'm doing (BP) and if I need another medication to bring it down more. For now, no appointment with him. I've been eating decently and, thank the Lord, still have my taste-buds and appetite!
Two, of a list, of Side Affects: Very loose stools and kidney disease with reduction of GFR (kidney functions).
Happy Birthday Cody....... Too many historical things happening to leave now. I hope we all make it to at least 100.
Weird, but...........my wife asked me to announce my birthday of Facebook yesterday (like she wrote it), so I did. I didn't get a single "Happy Birthday" from any of my high school classmates that are on Facebook and some were on yesterday. All I can think of to say is "oh well".
That's not good, they say we're never truly dead until our names are no longer spoken. It's a funny thing about friends, especially those that were with us so very long ago. Everyone goes there separate way in life and we lose that closeness we all once had. I noticed that with a few friends I finally made contact with from 50 years ago. They were not at all happy to hear from me after such a long time and all had completed the task of raising families and getting old. None of our old good times were remembered. I think individuals are not all the same and some of us do still care about our old friends. For a while I thought well maybe they never liked me as much as I thought they did, but then I understood it wasn't really that at all. It is simply time moving on and we've reached that time in our lives that we can visually see time in motion. Soon all my friends or myself from the old Army days will all be gone and even those that achieved high ranks act like we are all still young . I had two pilots and leaders that were Lieutenants and Captains and they both retired full colonels but that closeness never left them when they speak to us personally. Of course one is dead now but another stays in touch and he is still young in mind. My home town is empty now and there are no friends left. The neighborhoods still look pretty much like they once did when I was 6 years old but I would be hard pressed to find any of those guys living. I keep up with the orbits and I have yet to find any left. There are several Brothers who all moved to Corpus Christi and one that I talked with several years ago since that time had part of his tongue removed due to cancer. A year ago he was still alive when I talked to his older brother who is my age. They are the only friends I have remaining that I know of. I live a simple life now and no traveling to be done. It is important to stay busy even if it is only simple little hobbies. I like a lot of people have seen enough and I am happy to still be living and I have a lot of furry friends who depend on me