Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Voluntarily signing over your privacy

Yesterday I got in the mail a questionnaire from my doctor's hospital group. I knew beforehand I wasn't gonna send it in, just a vibe you get but I read it anyway. First few questions the gist was how are your doctor's visits, did you call him up within the past 3 months with a medical concern, did he discuss your blood results in a prompt fashion and overall how is he doing on a scale of 1 to 10. I fairly like my doctor who's a young guy, a budding professional and I didn't want to get him in trouble. I WISH there was a section on colonoscopies though and I would editorialize when you wiki it there are at least 3 or 4 other major and valid screening tests for colorectal and yet when you go to the doctor they act like there's only one procedure (the worst one). Anyway towards the end another question asked how would you rate your overall physical health? That's hard to say, I engage in the proper John Tesh-recommended behaviors and habits during the first half of the day and in the latter half I tend to have a cigar and later on some brandy, half ascetic and half hedonist I guess you could say. The question after that how would you rate your mental and emotional health? Dunno, why don't you leave me alone? I've had alot of philosophical and spiritual suffering in my life but I never thought of it in terms of mental health just the human condition. I mean what a useless question anyway, most folks are gonna go with the correct answer of at least good and nobody's gonna admit they're nuts at least on paper. The whole thing smacked of bureaucratic Big Brotherism, overly prying like a mental colonoscopy. Then I pretty much tore it up and chucked it in the garbage. Nosy nosy nosy:)

42 comments:

  1. Colonoscopy Survey? I found one that 1500 folks took prior. Here is what your peers answered:
    What is your age? 49-80
    Have you had a previous colonoscopy? No 95%
    Do you think you need one? No 26%
    Too busy to have one? No 93.3%
    Had a different kind? Yes 6.7%
    Can't take time off? Yes 7.3%
    Afraid it will hurt? Yes 15%
    Too embarrassed? Yes 16.8%
    Don't like the prep? Yes 14.5%
    I'm not at risk? Yes 11.7%
    Can't afford? Yes 8.9%
    Recommended by your Dr.? No 41.9%
    Knew a person with bad experience Yes 9%
    Had a personal bad experience Yes 2.2%
    Don't have a ride home? Yes 5%
    I don't want one- 12.29%
    So, there you have it. You are probably on the Nolan Colonoscopy Chart someplace.

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    1. I look at it this way. I blame the medical profession for lack of interest in colorectal screening so long as they keep pushing the one least desirable procedure. Talk about ALL the testing methods so to get the most patients into the screening pool.

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  2. I just read through the term paper of a Virology student at a small Midwest college written 4 years ago. That individual is now in Med School at Mayo Clinic. His topic
    was Ebola, with several pages on its molecular biology, its disruption (in fact use of)
    the normal human immune response, particularly the Ig globulins and interferons. His concluding paragraph is disturbing:
    "Meanwhile, the immune system is going haywire (Fig 21). Interferons are not being made because VP35 interferes with nearly every step in the process [2]. White blood cells are trapped inside the circulatory system because sGP limits their movement [49]. Macrophages and monocytes are releasing a cocktail of proinflammatory cytokines that destroy the vascular endothelium, but also activate the coagulation cascade. This puts your body in a paradoxical state in which you can die of hypovolemic shock from massive hemorrhage, or from catastrophic thrombosis, the formation of blood clots around the body." While the stock market plunges, shares in companies that make hazmat suits are soaring. Worse than a colonoscopy, IMO.

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    1. Is all the nonstop Ebola coverage warranted though? You can make the case it's somewhat warranted but the media always overdoes things (remember CNN's 24/7 missing Malaysian Airlines flight coverage?) Clearly Ebola has eclipsed ISIS in important news coverage but something tells me we're gonna be hearing more about this for the next few months especially since everyone seems to be f/ing up bigtime. The more we say it has to be contained the less the authorities are able to contain it.

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    2. I have to add there's even an Ebola costume coming out for Halloween.

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    3. You got your Ebola App and "ISIL is “gaming Twitter” in part through an app that supporters can download to their phones for free.". Throw in a
      Colonoscopy App and some of the typical paranormal apps and you are going to need a much larger data cloud. (sorry, Z-Man, you've been triple hyperlinked again!)


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    4. What's weird about colonoscopists is you'd think they'd be the ones fighting for an easier way. The Old Hershey Highway ya gotta be careful ya know? I will be looking at that link though.

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    5. Yeah so basically the app tells you how to starve yourself for a day or two prior to the procedure. The procedure is highly invasive, the prep work is highly inconvenient and I doubt alot of bosses would go along with giving you some personal days off if they knew the real reason. The medical establishment has an ossified position on the issue and that doesn't serve anyone but hey God bless the app!

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  3. CDC Director Frieden seems like a nice guy. Nothing personal but the man should resign.

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    1. Yeah, I saw that on FoxNews. Which pissed me off more than usual, having
      a daughter that teaches Virology to pre-med students, and having read a couple of texts, I can assure you this is difficult stuff, starting with the molecular biology and Megan Kelly, Bill O'Reilly and Laura Ingram are classic dunces, scaring the crap out of they sycophantic dupes that believe them. If and when they actually understand what the hell they are talking about, then they can recommend firing the CDC director. No doubt replacing him with Antonin Scalia. Thank you GOP for cutting NIH and
      CDC funding the last 10 years. Hey, did I mention FoxNooze pisses me off?

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    2. Kudos to Greta van Susteren:
      "O’Reilly spent a great deal of time last night calling Frieden a “propagandist” who needs to go immediately. Van Susteren said, “I disagree totally with him, I think Dr. Frieden has done a good job, and you know, I want him to continue to lead this.”
      Her guest, Dr. Anthony Fauci, agreed, saying people need to realize how difficult a situation this is. Van Susteren ended things by saying, “I think Bill O’Reilly’s dead wrong on this one.” Probably, Greta..he is dead wrong about everything else.

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    3. Where I fall down on this is that Infected Nurse #2 had a 99.5 degree fever and asked the CDC if it's ok to fly commercially to which they said yeah go ahead since her temp. didn't reach their critical level for Ebola(101.something). Now not only does the CDC want to talk to all those passengers on that flight with her but there's also another flight she was on and they want to talk to them too. OK so that's a major bungle and heads should roll. Did Dr. Frieden personally know all this took place? I really don't know, maybe he didn't but he runs the agency and the buck usually stops with the head honcho. For me it's simple.

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    4. See BB you always have to spin it politically just like Ingraham, O'Reilly have to spin it politically but for me it's as simple as the Peter Principle. People really need to read this book again as its relevancy never runs out. For me it has nothing to do with Frieden being a propagandist or whatever else the Right throws up, it's simply that he's the latest example of the Peter Principle in action and if he saw that he'd realize he's not right for that job or career position. Doesn't make him a bad person. That's it with me and I honestly thought you'd agree with me here. I don't hate the guy, no political axe to grind here and I daresay you'd change your mind if letting that nurse on that plane caused a major outbreak. He's running the place ok and maybe not everyone is on the same page which is typical of many workplaces these days.

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  4. As I understand it, the CDC only has the power to recommend and advise: when it
    comes to enforcing, I imagine DHS gets involved. And yes, everything gets turned into political these days. My defense of Dr. Frieden is professional, having managed an initiating explosives production department. Inevitably, explosions could and did
    occur, and I figured I would be replaced. But then came the question of 'by who?'.
    Some highly technical mgt positions require both tech and mgt. skills, some combinations of which are rare. Not like you can through a lawyer in, ya know?
    But I have become politicized this year: after watching O'Reilly, I stopped into the
    local Dem HQ to hand over some cash, telling them I was matching each Koch
    million with a dollar. Like my bumper sticker says, "I miss Ike-Hell, I even miss
    Harry"

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  5. Now we have an Ebola Czar? I guess that puts one person in charge of the mess,
    perhaps be helpful. Meanwhile the stock market plunges and the talking $$ heads
    blame Ebola. No idea of that rationale. Epidemic-wise, Ebola in a number of varieties has been known in West Africa since the early 70s. Since it prefers simians
    to humans and given the low population densities in the jungle, the virus, while endemic, was not widely spread. Broke out here and there and disappeared. For
    a virus 'species' to be successful, like the cold or flu, it is usually mild: hence much
    opportunity for it to spread around and make more viruses. The more potent and
    lethal viruses , by killing their host reduce the success of
    transmitting, especially if they are not like the common airborne variety. IMO, the
    crux of the current 'epidemic' involves high population density + modern transportation. We recall the airline steward that had aids back when that started.
    Back to my new book: 'Demon Seed-The Plantagenet Dynasty'.

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    1. You should be the new czar.

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    2. I'm already a Czar: of my model railroad!

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    3. What's up with cruise ships lately?

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    4. You mention books, when there's nothing on tv at night I like to hunker down with a good road atlas. I take a trip in my head, it's relaxing. Oh there's the Sparta Cemetery.

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  6. I've caught a few of the 'man in the wilderness' shows...even on staid old National
    Geographic. What is the draw of wandering through the woods, the snow, the mountains, half naked with a bow and arrow? These guys never heard of Burger King? BTW, some of the deep forests of northern NY look like a place where a
    Yonkers guy could give it a try.

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    1. There's an old classic book called "How to Shit in the Woods" for those bored with indoor plumbing. Seinfeld never understood the lure of camping, I mean you have an apartment and a bed why would you go sleep in the woods?

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  7. They still got 'cronuts' back your way? Haven't seen any out here in the boonies yet.
    On the subject of boonies, how come that weird Pennsylvania cop sniper is still on the loose? Poconos can't be that wild, can they?

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    1. I was thinking about this yesterday how you don't hear about cronuts anymore. I haven't even seen them at Stew Leonard's.

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    2. I don't know what it is about cold cases BB like here in Yonkers quite recently someone killed about 25 cats and hung 'em in bags in trees. Much press at the time, billboards promising generous rewards and now nuthin'. So nobody knows anything?

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  8. Ran into a guy while I was out for early breakfast and paper this morning. He was proud of his daughter, who had just finished Marine sniper school. Whatever happened to teeny girls just hanging out at the mall, snapping their gum?

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    1. Sean Hannity would be proud to have such a daughter.

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  9. Quick Review Of Blogville Department-
    I started commenting on a lady military professor's blog out of DC in 2006 and began exploring around that year. From 2006-2012 my 'profile' had 2904 visits.
    Then google insisted I needed a @gmail acct. Since then I've had only 237 visits.
    But that seems quit a bit for a mere non-controversial commenter. We note that
    I first commented here in late 2009, apparently after a firefight with some Patrick M among your commenters. My perception is that Beth was among your first commenters, followed by SoapboxGod..with Saty & Lista flavoring the mix in the following couple of years. Dave Miller and Shaw Kewanee showed up rarely: the first
    quit blogging last year, the second is still active, although they comment frequently elsewhere. Tao discontinued his blog and only shows up rarely in the 'sphere'.
    As of late, your commentership has declined and I have no idea why that should be.
    But I'm thinking a lot of the folk turned to other media; twitter, facebook, etc where they spend their 'on air' time. Have you ever analyzed your subject matter in terms
    of most hits/comments? Meanwhile the strictly political blogs have become weapons in a senseless flame war, where the opposition is usually banished and
    the remaining folk are sycophantic followers. I'm thinking that the old advice for
    blog owners to go around commenting on other blogs brings in new blood..you tried that route? Here endeth the gospel, and my thoughts on the matter.

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    1. No you're absolutely right on the last part about commenting on others' blogs but as I see it the returning of the favor at my blog is very short-lived so I question that strategy. For whatever reasons I do miss Lista's contributions here. Subject matter - I try to be eclectic but most rightie bloggers seem utterly fixated on the Obama sucks theme.

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    2. Of course the paranoid part of me feels maybe some don't mess around here for their own personal reasons like maybe I'm not through-and-through conservative enough in their eyes. On a more realistic and practical level I think blogging is going out of style in favor of FB and Twitter as you say. I tend to find FB insufferably trivial in general and so I'm kinda running against that zeitgeist. In short I'm a dinosaur and not a day goes by when I don't think about retiring.

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  10. The thing about the Law is that it is oblivious to what is right or wrong, moral or immoral. To wit: Florida's Stand Your Ground law.
    The woman may spend the next 60 years in jail for firing a warning shot at her ex
    husband who was trying to kill her in her own kitchen. While that Zimmerman creep
    is walking around free?

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    1. The old saying the Law is an ass.

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    2. IMO, because it is run by lawyers.

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    3. Joe Sobran once said the more laws you make then everybody becomes a criminal. I still don't get the Dinesh D'Souza case.

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  11. Thanks guys for remembering me... I still read here regularly and do occasionally comment but I've got about 900 other writing obligations between ministry, travel and food.

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    1. Dave you remind me of Taylor Swift, I've never understood all the criticism directed your way. All we can do is shake it off.

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  12. I've heard it is because I have supposedly use disgusting language in attacking people personally over at Shaw's blog.

    I am certainly guilty of being from the left, apparently enough to anger some, but when challenged, no one has produced and shred of the type of language, or comments, I am accused of using...

    But as you know, sometimes facts get in the way of a good narrative...

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  13. My impression of your politics is that you're not hardcore liberal but you always try to split the difference.

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    1. 'Softcore Liberal"? Sounds sort of like 'half pregnant', ya know?

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    2. Take his position on travel bans. He's a nuanced guy.

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  14. BB... I'm a soft core liberal? My in the flesh friends are ROTLF...

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  15. You're not in the Shaw mold is all we're saying.

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