Why do you have to just steal my hearts like that?
And since we’re all thinking it now:
Not all heros wear shoes.
18 Likes
I consider most doctors to be “stateless” rules engines – they know almost nothing about me personally, and may or may not have glanced at my chart. (I’ve never paid a doctor for enough time to read volumes 3 or 4, let alone go all the way back to its beginnings.) They evaluate symptoms and match diagnoses from “most likely” to “least likely”. That doesn’t make them bad – it’s just the process.
But you have to realize that’s only the starting point. The doctor is looking at me to confirm or challenge their analysis, as I’m the one who knows my history. We enter a discussion and any minutely competent doctor will listen and adjust.
In most cases this mutual process works well, and I find the answers satisfactory. I consent to the prescribed treatment, and get better.
Where this failed me once was a situation where I had lost a lot of blood. I didn’t realize how much it had impaired my thinking, and being very confused and disoriented I simply accepted everything the doctor said, which was mostly incorrect. Fortunately my wonderful spouse showed up afterwards and had an honest discussion with the doctor and nurse, and straightened things right out.
So if you are uncomfortable challenging the doctor, or speaking up, get yourself an advocate. Ask a spouse, friend, relative, trusted co-worker, anyone who you can trust, to go with you and speak up when you can’t. My spouse is the best advocate I’ve ever seen for anyone in hospital, and is more often than not mistaken for a nurse by the attending nurses. A good advocate can make a world of difference in your care.
16 Likes
My favorite quote I learned in law school:
“The law, in its majestic equality, forbids rich and poor alike to sleep under bridges, to beg in the streets, and to steal their bread.”
― Anatole France
18 Likes
Wow. Not where I was expecting that story to go. So happy you have that kind of support for what sound like ongoing issues. 
5 Likes
Oh it’s not an issue for me personally, I have no problem finding the subset of doctors actually willing to work with a patient who advocates for themselves and knows what they’re talking about. That doesn’t make it any less frustrating when you get one that, for example, insists on starting from square one and doesn’t listen when you try to tell them the history of a problem you’ve been dealing with for decades…
5 Likes
Do not, however, get RFK Jr as your advocate. He will certainly challenge the doctor, but it is unlikely to be to your benefit.
9 Likes
The only reason this clown (along with his pal the Congressional coal mine owner in W. Virginia) is aloud to call himself a Dem is the needed votes. And he votes with the GOP half the time. Dude, go hang out with the GOP crazies like MTG. Then, people won’t look at you with that, “WTF are you talking about?!?!” look on their face every time you open your piehole.
I don’t believe RFK2 is an elected official 
8 Likes
“their” bread 
2 Likes
added by the translator.
“La loi, dans un grand souci d’égalité, interdit aux riches comme aux pauvres de coucher sous les ponts, de mendier dans les rues et de voler du pain.”
8 Likes
It’s been really annoying hearing the Republican talking heads on CNN spouting lines like “lol stupid Democrats, we Republicans always knew he was nuts, how’s it feel to realize this now”. As if it’s any surprise to anybody who has been paying any attention the past 15 or so years. His antics and shitty takes aren’t news. They are just getting more amplification from corporate media because it drives outrage which drives ratings.
5 Likes
What happened to this guy? It seems like just a year ago his biggest concern was getting heating oil for poor people and suddenly there’s a hidden cabal controlling everything.
2 Likes
He went over the edge in 2005 when he embraced the Wakefield woo claiming a link between vaccines and autism. That’s a known gateway for crunchy progressive wellness and environmental types to walk through into deeper right-wing conspiracism.
He’s not quite there yet, but RFK Jr.'s logical final political destination will be eco-fascism.
10 Likes
It’s “their” in the sense of stealing the bread they eat. Or…“I get my bread at ShopRite. Where do you get yours?” “Oh, I steal my bread.”
7 Likes
You know that’s not how it works, right? Becoming a member of the Democratic or Republican Party is not by application and approval. Typically, it’s done by checking a box when you register to vote. There’s no gate and no gatekeeper. Qualifying to get your name on a ballot for a primary does have some requirements, but it still isn’t a thing where the party leadership gets to evaluate your worthiness and strike your name from the ballot if they find you lacking. It’s an objective qualification. Meet the requirements, pay the fee, you’re on the ballot. The Democratic Party leadership does not have the authority to prevent this guy from calling himself a Democrat or from running for office as a Democrat. That’s just not how it works.
5 Likes
The man may talk all day about his suspicions and people may even listen to him, but my guess is that 99% of them including him would go to a hospital to see a doctor in a medical emergency.
Lest we forget, it wasn’t that long ago when some people actively chose to either check out of a hospital, in denial, to die of COVID at home (tw: sad as AF, contains death details):
… or chose to deny they are dying because of COVID infection in the hospital, with their last breath, on their deathbeds:
… It’s bizarre to watch an individual chastise the nurses and doctors about Covid being fake as they sit on the floor gasping for air while a cytokine storm roars in their lungs. The time between each word is drawn out while they are trying to draw in as many breaths as they can. “Would you like the oxygen back on, sir?” a nurse will inquire after another failed escape. They accept our help back to their room. Regain their breath with help from the oxygen. And then the escape plotting starts all over again. Another patient who was on a ventilator kept telling us Covid wasn’t real after they regained consciousness. …
10 Likes
You’re correct, but from the point of view of party discipline (especially looked at from the other advanced liberal democracies) it’s kind of a stupid system. The Third-Way DNC (and to a lesser extent the tatters of the RNC moneyCons and neoCons) put themselves in the position of having to entertain (and quietly undermine) the candidacies of politicians with positions they hate (e.g. Sanders’ progressive policies) or which are sheer lunacy (RFK Jr’s conspiracism). A big tent doesn’t have to be a circus tent, but the duopoly system has left both parties with no other choice.
7 Likes
i remember back when his biggest concern was getting NYS to clean up the Hudson River.
3 Likes
That’s the sad part. If he’d had a different family name he’d likely have continued to build on that distinguished legacy of reality-based environmentalism. Instead RFK JR will be remembered at best as a bigoted anti-vaxxer conspiracist who acted as a Useful Idiot for both the MAGAts and for Putin.
5 Likes
Our two-party system is absolutely a big problem. I’m just pushing back against the idea that the Democrat Party leadership can just kick RFK, Jr. out of the party. They can’t. Party expulsion doesn’t exist in the US.
6 Likes
