The High Cost of Medical Care

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I was sitting in the orthopedic doctor’s office a few weeks back when I went to get the pain and clicking in my knee checked out. As with just about every doctor’s office, the wait between checking in and finally being seen into an exam room was about 40 minutes so I spent the time looking at the well worn magazines strewn about the waiting room. The article about travel in Peru was not really keeping me entertained so I turned my attention to the conversation going on between the receptionist and the other folks at the front desk.

They were talking about how their “coffee boy” was going to be in any time now and they hoped that he would bring their favorite drinks. Within a few minutes, a well dressed, good looking gentleman holding one of those cardboard drink carriers from Dunkin Donuts came up to the desk and he was greeted happily by all the office workers. He made another trip back out and returned with a second set of drinks. Everyone thanked him saying they were impressed that he remembered what to bring and that he was their favorite sales rep. They all shot the shit for a while and the pharmaceutical rep asked about “the numbers”. I’m guessing he was referring to the number of prescriptions the doctor was giving out for whatever medications were sold or manufactured by his employer.

At one point, the receptionist said with a laugh, “he’s giving those out like candy”.

The conversation went on for a while (with what I think was a bit of flirtatious banter) and then Mr. Salesman asked what day next week would be best for him to bring in lunch. They gave him a day and spent a while telling him their food preferences. Everyone chatted about their favorite catering places and how some were better than others. Mr. Salesman indicated that he always uses the same caterers because he knows they do a good job.

Soon he was out the door and on his way to visit the next doctor’s office and a week or so later, I was waiting to get an MRI on my knee. To my surprise, I caught the end of a similar conversation between the receptionist at the MRI place and a woman who must have been a medical salesperson. Another question about what day would be best to have lunch brought in….

I can picture these discussions going on hundreds of times a day in medical offices all over New Jersey, and thousands of times all over the country. How much money is spent by these pharmaceutical and medical supply companies on these kinds of things? The amount must be staggering.

Hot Zone

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My last post ended with the ominous rumblings of my innards that turned out to be the beginning of a day or so of battling the stomach virus that ravaged us all over the course of a week. The night of the post found me running to the bathroom, shivering in bed and throwing up a couple of times. This is not a big deal for some people, but in the eleven years that I’ve known Robyn, she has never seen me this sick. That’s a good thing – I’m not complaining! I was laid up for most of the next day, but was feeling much better by evening. Chloe was not feeling well, but she handled it well. On Thursday, it was Gabriel’s turn. He’s so pitiful when he doesn’t feel well. Seems his way of dealing was sleeping as much as he could and moping around the house asking to be hugged.

 

By Monday, over a week since Robyn first got sick, we were all feeling much better. This was our introduction to the “whole house” illnesses that come about when four people are living under one roof. I’m sure there will be many more instances over the next 18 years!

A First

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The last few days have been rather exciting around the old homestead. This past weekend was supposed to be the weekend that we potty trained Chloe. Now that Gabriel is pretty much trained (#2s are still sometimes a challenge) Chloe has been showing more interest and we’ve been talking it up to her for the last couple of weeks. She seemed excited to learn, but we’re not sure if she gets it or not because each trip to the bathroom in the second half of the day on Saturday resulted in major meltdowns. It was so heartbreaking that we kind of slacked on Saturday evening and let her wear pull-ups with plan to continue potty training on Sunday.

Robyn apparently caught the nasty stomach bug that just about everyone we know has already gotten so she was not at her best on most of Sunday and all of Monday. I stayed “home” from work to take care of the kids yesterday. This morning, she thought she was feeling better but as the day progressed she was not so sure and Chloe began complaining that her tummy hurt around noon. Things were quickly going downhill and turning into a household epidemic!

After the kids’ naps I took them outside to play thinking that the fresh air would do Chloe some good while Robyn was getting ready to go to work. Chloe was very happy to be outside – at least until I spotted her leaning over and losing her lunch in our yard. This was probably the first time one of the kids vomited from a stomach issue like this. We’ve somehow managed to avoid these things for more than two years. The amazing thing is that she was fine right after she threw up. Sure, she sat down for a few minutes to catch her breath, but she was back up and playin in no time. Kids are so resilient. Gabriel just loving screaming “Chloe threw up! Yucky!” as he ran around the yard.

I’m pretty sure that we’ll be awakened during the night to more vomiting and as I write this my own stomach is making some rather ominous noises….

Vision of the Future

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Here’s a neat little video from Microsoft that focuses on their vision of technology in 2019. There’s a lot of bright colors and pretty, interactive display technology and ubiquitous gadgets.

<a href=”http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared” mce_href=”http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&showPlaylist=true&from=shared” target=”_new” title=”Future Vision Montage”>Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

I really like the “digital wallet” concept. With all the individual pieces of plastic that we carry around all the time in the form of ID cards (ID, driver’s license, medical insurance, etc) and credit/debit cards it would be great to have a single “device” the size of just one card or just a little bigger that would hold all of this data. For me, the security concerns are the top priority, but if I lose my wallet today, I am losing all that plain-text data anyway. The digital device could use both encryption and passwords or some other form of access control to restrict usage of my lost digital wallet. Okay, I’ve decided – I want one! Who’s going to develop this?

Let me know what you think!

Can’t Hold It

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It seems my life is ruled by urination lately. Potty training two toddlers is an interesting experience that is really keeping us busy around the house. The good news is that Gabriel is really taking to it. The bad news is that we’re in and out of the bathroom 25+ times a day and the little guy has figured out that he can use “I have to make a peepee” as a way to get us to react to his every whim. Our plan was to get both kids using the potty at the same time, but Chloe really wasn’t getting it those first few days, so we decided that we’d get the G-Man trained and then get her using it in a few weeks. This has really cut down on the stress (although you’d never know it) and the mess.

Therefore, it’s fitting that the following took place just the other day. My bank recently made a big change to their online banking site and after the upgrade, I was no longer able to access the bill payment functions of their application. I jumped on their live chat application to see if I could get this fixed. The agent was helpful and really brightened my day as you can see below:

Funny Chat

Moon Buggy

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This is a prototype of the next “moon buggy” that NASA is developing:

How cool is that thing? It’s a little retro looking, but I think there are some great features.

Although GW really kicked off the new return to the Moon initiative I don’t think that he was really too keen on diverting a little money from the wars we’re fighting to get these new projects up and running. There have already been several schedule slips in the development of the new rocket technologies that will be used to get us to the Moon. I hope our next President will expand the funding of these things. I get so excited when I see that there [i]is[/i] work being done on these projects!

Don’s Reading List (14)

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  • Childhood’s End by Arthur C. Clarke – I’ve heard that this is one of his best.
  • Nine Stories by J.D. Salinger – This was recommended by a sort-of martial arts acquaintance as an interesting and sort of mind-expanding read. I’m not exactly sure what the connection between this book and
  • Revolution in the Valley by Andy Hertzfeld – A really fun look at the creation of the Apple Macintosh by those who actually participated.
  • 1776 by David McCullough – I understand why this book was on the best seller list for so long. McCullogh writes in a simple, straightforward style that engages the reader and makes history fun and interesting. There is a lot that I don’t know about the Revolutionary War and the founding of our country so this was a good look at that first year of the revolution. I wish I could find another, equally interesting history of the rest of the war!
  • Touching History by Lynn Spencer – Perhaps a little too detailed is how I would review this one. This is the story of what happened in the air on the morning of September 11th, 2001 from the perspective of the FAA, DoT, National Guard and many of the pilots who were in the air that day. It’s really well documented and shows just how unprepared the US air defenses and air transportation systems were for an event of this type.