WAITING FOR GOT-IT : A SAD TALE OF CONTEMPORARY MEDICINE

Come back in a month to check your blood pressure and we’ll renew your medicines. Come back in three months to check your eye pressures and we’ll give you more refills. Come back in six months and we’ll do a repeat PAP. We’ll take a picture sample of your blood at your next visit. Come back in a year to see how much you have deteriorated.  We want to keep an eye on you. Schedule your routine colonoscopy. Make sure you have a yearly mammogram. Let’s do a baseline EKG so we can compare it when you have your heart attack. 


This is not health care, it’s not even sick care. Surveillance is what this is! “Waiting for Got It”. Just wait and see. We’ll launch a series of attacks on “the” disease as soon as it rears its ugly head. Until then, we must do surveillance. It’s accepted conventional treatment. We feed the beast, until we can see it, that’s what we do.  


We have many drugs to use on you, make sure you come back for them. This is state of the art.  When the time comes we can crack your chest open. We can show you how to keep an eye on your sugars. We’ll teach you how to follow your blood pressures yourself so you never forget it. Your disease cannot be reversed. Don’t go using unproven methods, they will trip our plans.  If you don’t use our medicines you will have a heart attack. If you don’t use our eye drops you will go blind. 


If so called doctors ask you to do special things like exercises, or cook, or look into lights, or spend time with yourself, or they point to energy meridians, or listen to you, regard them suspect. Remember, unless they are members of our association we don’t endorse them. Here is a prescription for an MRI, make an appointment with the counselor for your depression, and be sure you stop at the ATM machine before you pick up your prescriptions.


A note of caution, don’t believe that you can recover your health by changing your lifestyle. You should certainly not expect me to guide and support you with that. Medicines are your best bet. Besides, who is ever able to truly change their lifestyle? I haven’t. Why should I believe you can?



Ana M. Negrón MD     9/09

www.greensonabudget.org