I can't get over how doctors today have come to be so wealthy. At what cost? Our health care system is based on medical insurance premiums and high deductibles. No wonder medicare is collapsing. We can't live in the past, but hey we should learn from it.
Not so long ago, when I was a child I remember my mom taking me to a run down office (have you ever walked in those designer offices nowadays) where Dr. Montalvo saw almost all people who lived in the small town I came to live in as a preteen. He basically was the all in one doctor (if that's possible). Which meant he was the pediatrician, the gyn-ob, the hematologist, the dermatologist, the hepatologist, the gastroenterologist, etc., etc. He would identify a problem and just solve it, if he would want to call a specialist there was some serious s^&%$t going on with you. Back in the day, specialists were for serious business.
Let's see if this sounds familiar to you.. you're in a medical appointment with a cardiologist for high blood pressure and all of a sudden you remember that your glucose meter has been telling you that your levels are high, you ask him or her about it. You can't believe your ears when you listen, "You need to see your internist about that." Gee, haven't all specialists been internists first. Were they brainwashed when they finished their cardiology fellowship? Another one I detest is, "Sorry, but that's not my specialty." When I come across this baloney I sure would like to be seeing my all in one doctor again.
Another thing that tics me off is that, nowadays doctors seem to be interviewing you in front of a computer and don't even bother to touch where it hurts. What happened with the healing hands of a doctor?
My all in one doctor would even get your hemoglobin or urinalysis done on the spot because he would do it there. He would quickly tell my mom, what was wrong with me and would go on to prescribe whatever I needed to get better. Usually it would be a prescription my mom could go and buy in the only pharmacy in town, at more than a reasonable price, and if she was short on money they would even give her the meds on a thirty-day credit note. Which was basically an entry on a ledger, which she would go and pay when my dad gave her the money to cover the debt.
In the pharmacy she wouldn't be able to buy anything that weren't medicines, no paper towels, no toilette paper, no cosmetics, no hair products, no toys, no pampers, no food, no pictures or picture frames, no magazines and the list could go on and on and on. Getting the picture here!
I'm thankful for all our medical advances believe me. I should be, my husband received a liver transplant eighteen years ago. I myself struggle with an autoimmune disease every day, but sometimes and just sometimes when I'm sitting there for hours and hours waiting, I would like to travel back in time and just be seen by my all in one doctor who relied on touch and gut to know exactly what was wrong with me.
