America is a country of pills. Just watch television for even an hour and you will see many ads for new medications. After being told that a certain new pill might keep you from wetting the bed, but can also have the side effects of making you go blind, permanently crippling all of your fingers, and rendering you unable to walk again, the final sentence of the ad is always: “Ask your doctor if “cheap generic viagra review” is right for you! Right! I think I’ll call the clinic right now to inquire! “Not.”

Not? Yes, “not.” Whenever I call “my” clinic, the phone is customarily answered with, “I’m with another patient. Can you hold?” Usually, thinking that it would be seen as an act of aggression to just hang up, I dutifully wait on the line, wondering 1) why they think I need to hear the same message about diabetes no less than fifteen times, or 2) why they think that I might be remotely interested in the number of foreign-trained physicians that have been added to the staff, and their difficult-to-remember names.

Then, there are the “questionable” treatments. I wonder just how long cavemen did live, without the intervention of anti-cholesterol medicine, hormone replacement therapy, thyroid treatment pills, and all the rest of the pills that some of us take on a daily basis.

There is no end to the number of pills that are prescribed, and they are usually the newest, and the most expensive. Every time I see anyone in the medical field, yet another pill is prescribed. During one of the last jolly jaunts to see a “healer,” I had to suffer through the silly man telling me that I am overweight. Yes, any woman who tops 200 lbs. is definitely a little chubby. Pardon me, I meant to say, “Rubenesque.” The term “morbidly obese” was never applied directly to me … until now. I guess he subscribes to the theory of the “She’s Too Fat For Me” Polka. “Hey!”

I had the delusion that I was somewhat “cute” before I was subjected to tubes being shoved up my nose and down my throat, to discover “nothing.” I recoiled at the suggestion that I should come back again in six weeks to repeat the procedure, either because 1) I am totally crazy, after all, or 2) his son wants a new Porsche … bad, or 3) his wife is waiting for that vacation to Aruba. Then he prescribed an expensive pill, but admonished me to see two other doctors before taking any of them because with a pre-existing heart condition, this pill might have detrimental side effects, as in possibly causing my demise (??). The fat woman held onto her wallet … tight!

I bet that cavemen did not live as long as we do, given the woolly mammoth’s predisposition toward eating humans. Sorry. I’m kidding! I really don’t know what that beast ate, nor if men even inhabited the same time zone.

All I can safely say is that many of the “medical interventions” to which I, or other people I know, have been subjected, were detrimental either mentally or physically, and often involved some kind of legal chemical use.

For example, someone I know had developed a problem with gout after his physician told him to drink one glass of red wine per day, and to take an aspirin to lower his cholesterol and thin his blood. Come to find out, both of those items can cause the painful form of arthritis that usually shows up in the extremities (toes are often the target area where the pain and swelling occurs). Since giving up the use of both wine and aspirin, he has since been gout-free.

Another woman was prescribed cholesterol medication. She developed knee pain. Within two days of going off the pills, she was completely pain-free, but reports being left with lingering knee damage.

Don’t let “them” fool you! Medicine is a guessing game and not an exact science. The doctors try this and try that, usually by way of a pill, and if the treatment doesn’t cause the end of your life, then your life cheap generic viagra review.

Sounds like I’m disenchanted with doctors, pills, and their chances for failure. Actually, for the most part, doctors are doing the best they can, with all of their human and staffing limitations. They actually do some good, at times. Other times, they do harm. Their inaccessibility (forget house calls!), their hurried schedules, and the fact that they jump to conclusions, on first sight, do nothing to enhance the patient/doctor relationship.

All of this drug use in America really scares me. Might it not be better for all of us to take more responsibility toward our own health? To become more informed is the first step. The man with the gout solved his problem by reading about his condition online. Doctors can’t know everything. The health care system in this country needs fixing, but maybe the issue is not how to make it “more affordable.” Perhaps we need to make health care virtually cheap generic viagra review, by living healthier lives.

Patricia Cummings

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