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Regarding an abundance of "excellent physicians" - Maybe in your neck of the woods but in NYC most PCPs are terrible and money grubbers. You are a number. Specialists? There are countless excellent SPECIALISTS certainly in all disciplines in the NY tri-state area. But PCPs - NOPE....
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What? You're really saying in arguably the most important city in the world you can't find a good PCP????
Again, you're saying in New York City you can't find a decent general physician?
I loved my doctor when I lived in LA....
But my Knoxville doctor I switched to upon moving back is a whole new level of greatness.
I don't see him often but he is absolutely amazing, funny, and he NEVER rushes you. I had a health scare that turned out to be nothing a few years back and he sat and talked to me for 45 minutes when I was uneasy. I never even heard of that. Most docs want you in and out as fast as possible-- who cares what they're gonna tell you.. He kept persisting, "Do you have any more questions, etc. What else can I do for you?" Blown away by him.
The specialists here in Knoxville are great too, at least the ones I've experienced or heard about.
Quality of Life as opposed to Quantity of Life. I will go with the former and thought long and hard about this when I turned 50. Middle age is the time when the push begins for more and more testing and doctor visits. I decided then NO. Why bother going to a doctor for this or that test to find out what is wrong with you when you have no intention of doing anything about it?
What is the Quality of Life for that 90 year old you talked about? Medicine can treat my husband's heart condition, but cannot do anything for his Parkinson's. His Quality of Life is rapidly declining do to that. He is having a lot of trouble walking and climbing stairs. Can no longer do what he so once enjoyed doing; playing golf, hunting, fishing. Maybe this is the subject for Caregiving thread. He gets very depressed and angry over this and the fact that what he (6'1" 225 lbs) once helped me (5'1" 100 lbs) with, I now have to help him with. He has flat out told me he resents the fact that I can still do things he can't, don't take all these pills, or go to all these doctors. Do you know what it is like for me picking him up off the floor? We are the same age.
Actuarial tables? lol Husband and I had a discussion about living into our 90's. We both said NO to that. Me personally, I would rather die in my own bed or on my kitchen floor, than in a hospital bed hooked up to all sorts of machines. To quote my Mom in her Living Will, "I do not wish to become a science experiment for doctors to see how long they can keep me alive". Mom was in her early 70's. I was in my 50's then. My view is the same as her's.
Quality of Life at any age is what the person makes of it within their limitations. I'm exiting middle age and get a few routine checks every year; there is no campaign to keep me testing and making unnecessary doctor visits. I thought long and hard about my life well before I turned fifty and I said an emphatic NO! No, I would not let any sickness take me down and I would fight them all with the best science available. Somehow I have never felt like a science experiment.
My parents died at 89 and 93; neither was hooked up to any machines and both were happy to be alive until they weren't. Your choice is your choice, I have too much still to do, even if I don't yet know what it is. What you don't have is the right to tell a young man that he should simply ignore the wonders of modern medicine and avoid doctors.
How many people really want to die on their kitchen floor rather than discover they have an easily treated condition which will make a difference of decades in their longevity?
Quality of Life at any age is what the person makes of it within their limitations. I'm exiting middle age and get a few routine checks every year; there is no campaign to keep me testing and making unnecessary doctor visits. I thought long and hard about my life well before I turned fifty and I said an emphatic NO! No, I would not let any sickness take me down and I would fight them all with the best science available. Somehow I have never felt like a science experiment.
My parents died at 89 and 93; neither was hooked up to any machines and both were happy to be alive until they weren't. Your choice is your choice, I have too much still to do, even if I don't yet know what it is. What you don't have is the right to tell a young man that he should simply ignore the wonders of modern medicine and avoid doctors.
How many people really want to die on their kitchen floor rather than discover they have an easily treated condition which will make a difference of decades in their longevity?
if you go the doctor be prepared for a laundry list of testing and the fact that the doctor will 100% find something "wrong" with you.
That's what annual checkups do. They are to bring people into the medical industry for profit. Via more testing, prescription drugs or surgery. And followup after followup after followup visit.
Be prepared for that.
I just started reading this thread and this is the best advice given so far.
OP, don't follow the herd to the doctor "just because". Go if and when you feel a need to. Relax and enjoy your life.
I would advise getting a blood pressure monitor from a pharmacy and check it yourself. If you have no family history of any major diseases, if no one in your immediate family has had problems with diabetes, or early onset heart disease or cancer and if most everyone in your family lives to a ripe old age, I would just skip the trip to the doctor for a physical.
On the other hand, if you do have a family history of some serious disease, I think you should go even if you have no syptoms and think you have a healthy life style.
If you were in your fifties, I think I would say Go, but 40 is still pretty young — too young to worry about anything serious without symtpoms or a family history. For example 40 is still too young to worry about prostate cancer or other cancers. Sure, you could have them, but it’s really pretty unlikely and testing might just wind up complicating your life more than it would help you.
Do go and get the blood pressure cuff though ... or get it tested in some public spot. (They offer blood pressure testing at our local supermarket.)
Also, I totally agree with the quote in the above post. Spot on!
[ETA: I see you’ve already had your blood pressure checked and got a little surprise. Still I would check it a few more times before rushing into see a doctor. Maybe that one reading was an anomaly.]
Last edited by Jill_Schramm; 11-20-2019 at 05:02 AM..
“Annual physical” is a normal reason to go into the doctor. You don’t need to have a complaint. It is just to check to make sure everything is fine. The doctor usually listens to your heart, lungs, checks your blood pressure, and then will order labs like a lipid panel and probably a few other tests since you haven’t had any for a while. You can still have issues like high BP and cholesterol, especially at age 40. Both have somewhat of a genetic component, so if you have a family history of heart disease, it is worth getting checked.
Agreed. An annual physical, blood pressure check, maybe an EKG, and CBC/CMP/Cholesterol blood work.
OP, this would establish a baseline. If all is good, awesome. If something is irregular, better to know now than wait until there might be major symptoms.
Quality of Life at any age is what the person makes of it within their limitations. I'm exiting middle age and get a few routine checks every year; there is no campaign to keep me testing and making unnecessary doctor visits. I thought long and hard about my life well before I turned fifty and I said an emphatic NO! No, I would not let any sickness take me down and I would fight them all with the best science available. Somehow I have never felt like a science experiment.
My parents died at 89 and 93; neither was hooked up to any machines and both were happy to be alive until they weren't. Your choice is your choice, I have too much still to do, even if I don't yet know what it is. What you don't have is the right to tell a young man that he should simply ignore the wonders of modern medicine and avoid doctors.
How many people really want to die on their kitchen floor rather than discover they have an easily treated condition which will make a difference of decades in their longevity?
I wonder how many here are old enough to remember when everyone had a right to express their opinion?
We all thought the days of building bomb shelters in the early 60s were scary times. Why did we even build the missiles and warheads? To deter totalitarian aggression and loss of our precious individual freedom. To deter takeover by the mindset we that see multiplying around us today, every day.
Yes, the early 60s were scary times, but all those missiles proved to be for naught. Because missiles do nothing to deter a totalitarian takeover campaign waged at the lowest retail level.
So today we're 3/4ths of the way toward what we feared 60 years ago. How did it happen? The surrender of one mind at a time.
Get an Omron monitor and take it at home. If I relied on Doctor's readings I would be on unnecessary BP meds which have nasty side effects in some people. Plus many have been revealed to have above the limit of cancer causing carcinogens. My reading in the office can be 200/150 which is obviously inaccurate and impossible. Their machines and techniques are just flat out wrong.
or you have white coat syndrome. When the tech at my doctor took it my BP systolic number was very high. 15 minutes later after I relaxed and spoke with the doctor for a while she took it again and it was 130.
I just started reading this thread and this is the best advice given so far.
OP, don't follow the herd to the doctor "just because". Go if and when you feel a need to. Relax and enjoy your life.
A lot depends on the doctor. Some are what I call “rapid interventionists”. High blood pressure reading? Meds. High cholesterol? Meds.
The kind of doctors and dentists I prefer to see are more conservative. They’ll make a note, suggest diet or exercise changes if something isn’t what they like to see and don’t rush to prescribe anything.
But getting the basic metrics is never a bad idea for a 40 year old male. Then if there are no problems he can go again at 45 and 50...
A lot depends on the doctor. Some are what I call “rapid interventionists”. High blood pressure reading? Meds. High cholesterol? Meds.
The kind of doctors and dentists I prefer to see are more conservative. They’ll make a note, suggest diet or exercise changes if something isn’t what they like to see and don’t rush to prescribe anything.
But getting the basic metrics is never a bad idea for a 40 year old male. Then if there are no problems he can go again at 45 and 50...
Had you already forgotten about the "rapid interventionists"? There are countless stories of people dead days or weeks after allowing completely unnecessary invasive interventions. Strange as it may seem, some people don't have the will or the strength to fight the system and retain control of their lives.
The value of getting the "basic metrics" is way overrated.
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