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330 points wglb | 3 comments | | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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eagerpace ◴[] No.41841031[source]
I am not a doctor and this is not advice. This is a standard medical test I have completely given up on any doctor to perform accurately. I do it myself at home once or twice a month. I do it with the same device, in the same chair, at the same desk, the same time of day, after I’ve ate and drank the same thing. Yes, I still let everyone take it because it’s typically a precondition of receiving care but my readings at home are completely different and give me a more accurate data point that actually makes me feel good about the progress I’ve been making on my health.

I’m actively looking for more healthcare I can do this way. I trust my data and it all coming together on the safety of my personal device. We don’t need doctors with extremely limited datasets to do this and try to find obscure correlations for us.

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AStonesThrow ◴[] No.41841311[source]
> typically a precondition of receiving care

I've achieved exciting results by flatly refusing vitals checks at each and every medical appointment. Especially psychiatrists. The PCPs always gamely admire my self-reported histories and graphs, commenting how nicely the trend line goes down, and then completely dismiss the results in their clinical notes.

However, I did lock horns with a particular chiropractor. I filled out the "pre-existing conditions" form with candor and honesty. I permitted a BP check. (His method was 100% manual sphygmomanometer.)

Then he informed me that he wouldn't touch me until my BP was controlled and normal. Yes, a chiropractor, not a cardiac surgeon. Geez.

In the past, I've tried to avoid submitting to blood draws and labs, because those are 100% fishing expeditions, and not actually attempting to diagnose a complaint or symptoms. (They love to misdiagnose hypothyroid or diabetes so they can begin destroying your endocrines.)

Unfortunately, clinics do these orders on a schedule, so if you avoid labs for a while, the orders simply pile up until they contrive to get them all done. I couldn't win. Still putting off colonoscopy: 2.5 years late, and counting!

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1. rscho ◴[] No.41842520[source]
But why go to these practitioners if you don't trust them ? Nobody should be forcing you. Is it because you want access to treatment solely on your own terms ?
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2. AStonesThrow ◴[] No.41843867[source]
Nobody is "forced" to get health care in the United States, [except once you're unconscious, insane, or incarcerated, and the ambulance arrives] but what are the penalties if we don't? A PCP is the only one who can route me to a specialist if I really needed one. If I broke my leg again, or had some other emergency, it'd be nice to have a followup with someone who already has us on file, rather than trying to get past all the gatekeepers for an initial visit.

Every insurance company will urge their customers to establish and visit the PCP on the regular. Every social services agency simply assumes... demands... that citizens have a relationship with medicine and that we dutifully visit the doctor to keep up on health issues. It's outright heresy and treason to say that you won't participate at all.

A physician is the only one who can keep records relating to disability cases. A physician is the only one who can write me a note if I'm unable to work. Eventually you'll need to release medical records to a third party in order to access benefits or qualify for something, so those records had better pre-exist! A physician is the only one who can diagnose or treat any disease, so what else would we do if we got truly sick?

John 6:68

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3. rscho ◴[] No.41845008[source]
I understand what you say, and there is some truth to it. However it's also justified that society asks something in return for societal benefits. That's pretty much the foundings of insurance. The extent to which that should go is debatable, of course.