A physician who treated me last year:
*Had me weigh in at the start of each appointment, and made no notice of the fact that sometimes I wore a six-pound pair of boots, sometimes not; never asked me about them and never made allowance for them when recording my weight.
*Gave me a prescription intended to keep me from waking up in the middle of the night. “Take one every evening at ten,” he directed. I did; not only did the medication have no effect on my waking up in the middle of the night, I started getting drowsy at 2 pm the following day!
*Urged me to lose weight by eating differently at breakfast. Said I should eat things like gefilte fish (I know what it is.) I can’t even look at fish in the morning!
*Took a blood sample the last time I was there; shortly after I left his office and went home I felt sick. I felt miserable all night–got no sleep–and slept during the next day. I think he didn’t clean his needle!
Post here some blunder or inane advice your doctor gave you.
Just a hunch, but I’m thinking your problems with the blood thing had a lot to do with you… rather cavalier attitude towards such advances of modern medicine as brought up in threads about religious reasons for rejecting some forms of medical treatment.
You already had it in your mind that it was a bad idea, and you made yourself sick.
The mind is a crazy thing…
Yer pal,
Satan - Commissioner, The Teeming Minions
*I HAVE BEEN SMOKE-FREE FOR:
Five months, two weeks, four days, 20 hours, 26 minutes and 40 seconds.
6874 cigarettes not smoked, saving $859.26.
Extra life with Drain Bead: 3 weeks, 2 days, 20 hours, 50 minutes.
*“I’m a big Genesis fan.”-David B. (Amen, brother!) **
*Took a blood sample the last time I was there; shortly after I left his office and went home I felt sick. I felt miserable all night–got no sleep–and slept during the next day. I think he didn’t clean his needle!
Post here some blunder or inane advice your doctor gave you. **
[/QUOTE]
Umm, Don’t your Doctors use disposable needles? I think that most every hospital does. If he cleans needles, maybe you need a new Doctor(s).
Disposable needles have been the standard nation-wide for decades. If you got sick right after having your blood drawn, it was simply a coincidence, and you would have gotten sick anyway.
Or, Satan is right, and you psyched yourself into feeling bad.
Exactly, what is gefilte fish?
trying to be patient…
I hope that was meant as a joke. People run around like Chicken Little as it is NOW regarding disease transmission, there’s no need to imply that physicians re-use needles. It is simply untrue, and could be really alarming to people who don’t know better.
Regarding sleep medicine- doctors don’t know exactly how a drug is going to affect you. They have no way of knowing until you put it in your body. Maybe you should call Cleo the Jamacian tarot reader for your next problem. She could probobly help you out. Otherwise, you should try a few different meds until you find the one that’s right for you. (like everyone else does) Blaming the doctor for how a drug does or does not work is just silly.
I think if you had a doctor you weren’t happy with, you were foolish to keep going back. I’m confused. Why would anyone do that?
Zette
It’s a combination of whitefish, egg, matzo crumbs, sometimes peppers, and other things (not sure).
It’s formed into oblong blobs (can’t think of a better word) and is rather tasty. You might be able to find them around passover in the supermarket’s seasonal section, or in the ethnic section of the supermarket. You’ll find them in clear jars, in gelled broth. Don’t eat the broth, it’s just too gunky looking at room temperature.
Yummy stuff.
Ingredients:
[ul]
[li]7 to 7 1/2 pounds whole carp, whitefish, and pike, filleted and ground*[/li][li]4 quarts cold water or to just cover[/li][li]3 teaspoons salt or to taste[/li][li]3 onions, peeled[/li][li]4 medium carrots, peeled[/li][li]2 tablespoons sugar or to taste[/li][li]1 small parsnip, chopped (optional)[/li][li]3 to 4 large eggs[/li][li]Freshly ground pepper to taste 1/2 cup cold water (approximately)[/li][li]1/3 cup matzoth meal (approximately)[/li][/ul]
*Ask your fishmonger to grind the fish. Ask him to reserve the tails, fins, heads, and bones. Be sure he gives you the bones and trimmings. The more whitefish you add, the softer your gefilte fish will be.
Method:
[list=1]
[li]Place the reserved bones, skin, and fish heads in a wide, very large saucepan with a cover. Add the water and 2 teaspoons of the salt and bring to a boil. Remove the foam that accumulates.[/li][li]Slice 1 onion in rounds and add along with 3 of the carrots. Add the sugar and bring to a boil. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes while the fish mixture is being prepared.[/li][li]Place the ground fish in a bowl. In a food processor finely chop the remaining onions, the remaining carrot, and the parsnip; or mince them by hand. Add the chopped vegetables to the ground fish.[/li][li]Add the eggs, one at a time, the remaining teaspoon of salt, pepper, and the cold water, and mix thoroughly. Stir in enough matzoth meal to make a light, soft mixture into oval shapes, about 3 inches long. Take the last fish head and stuff the cavity with the ground fish mixture.[/li][li]Remove from the saucepan the onions, skins, head, and bones and return the stock to a simmer. Gently place the fish patties in the simmering fish stock. Cover loosely and simmer for 20 to 30 minutes. Taste the liquid while the fish is cooking and add seasoning to taste. Shake the pot periodically so the fish patties won’t stick. When gefilte fish is cooked, remove from the water and allow to cool for at least 15 minutes.[/li][li]Using a slotted spoon carefully remove the gefilte fish and arrange on a platter. Strain some of the stock over the fish, saving the rest in a bowl.[/li][li]Slice the cooked carrots into rounds cut on a diagonal about 1/4 inch thick. Place a carrot round on top of each gefilte fish patty. Put the fish head in the center and decorate the eyes with carrots. Chill until ready to serve. Serve with a sprig of parsley and horseradish.[/li][/list=1]
A few clarifications:
*I knew nothing about disposable needles. OK, so maybe it was a disposable needle and hadn’t been used on anyone else before the doctor took a blood sample. It’s still possible that the needle had been improperly sterilized during or after manufacture…
*I don’t consider this the proper forum to resuscitate issues dealing with religion and blood. Anyone among the Teeming Millions who still wants to take this topic up with me should e-mail me at montgomerydou55@hotmail.com and I will respond to you about it in that manner.
*As a matter of fact, I did not go to that doctor again. I had an upcoming appointment with him, but I called a few days ahead to cancel that appointment–and I never set another one. If push comes to shove I will go to another physician for treatment.
Since the time of the previous postings in this thread I was able to contact a physician–the psychiatrist with whom I had had sessions from 1974 to 1993. On one hand, this psychiatrist–who had phoned the doctor I disagreed with, before any of the stuff I mentioned in the OP occurred–agreed with that doctor about general objectives such as my weight, sleeplessness, and so on, but on the other hand she disagreed with him sharply about gefilte fish, heavy boots, and prescriptions for keeping me from waking up in the middle of the night. In other words, she concurred with his objectives but not his procedures. (She does not use medications, except for some she may prescribe, and did not take up the needles and their possible connection with my getting sick when I had left his office.) So I am vindicated against the doctor I mentioned in the OP, to some extent.
Well, that’s still a matter of opinion. The doctor is not likely looking for a six pound difference in weight. Actually, the weight is not usually taken as a factor in evaluation, but so that if medications that are prescribed by weight are given, the info is already in the chart. And few meds need to be so precise that the six pounds would make a difference in dosage. Besides, if they were to take everything that might make your weight bogus into consideration, you would have to…well, go to the doctor fasting and naked.
But even so, since people don’t usually get weighed at the docs naked and still fasting, the smart docs know that variations of as much as 10 pounds could be attributed to what has been eaten/drunk and any weight of clothing, shoes, hormonal water retention, etc.
And medical equipment that is new and unused has not gone through a “sterilizing” process as it is manufactured in a sterile environment under sterile conditions. Furthermore, even if you were to have picked something up off that needle, it is extremely unlikely you would have been ill within a few hours, anyway.
As far as the gefilte fish - physicians receive no training in dietetics, so neither physican was qualified to speak authoritatively about your diet. If you have a question about yourr myopia, you don’t see your phsycian, you see an optometrist as they have the training and equipment to evaluate your eyesight. Similarly, if you have a question about diet, you need to see a dietitian. I know that doesn’t stop nearly all physicians from dispensing diet advice anyway; I’m just pointing out that one physician poo-pooing another’s dietary advice does not necessarily vindicate anyone.