Flutterby™! : The medicine against which all others are measured

The medicine against which all others are measured

2016-12-02 16:15:35.096745+00 by Dan Lyke 6 comments

Tara Parker-Pope writing in The New York Times: Believing in Treatments That Don’t Work. On cough syrup, antibiotics for ear infections, beta-blockers for heart attack victims, back surgery, arthroscopic surgery for osteoarthritis of the knee, and other procedures that fare no better than placebo.

comments in ascending chronological order (reverse):

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-03 12:32:52.599182+00 by: DaveP

My experience with getting scoped for arthritis was that it made things worse. But it was useful for helping select the doctor who would eventually replace my knees, so...

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-03 19:01:37.217309+00 by: Jack William Bell

I've had two herniated disks since 1984. As a result I have some nerve damage and chronic pain. Multiple doctors have advised me to undergo one operation or another and EVERY SINGLE TIME I actually talked to a surgeon about it the odds of complete success were only about 1 in 5. Twenty freaking percent.

The real kicker? The odds of of the surgery making things worse instead of better or doing nothing are about the same as the odds of success.

And yet whenever I complain about the pain I have to listen to people say, "You should just get an operation, it worked for Uncle Ted."

Yeah, right. Fuck you very much.

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-03 19:37:16.995632+00 by: TheSHAD0W

Jack, gotta love medical catch-22s.

All I can do is advise you do crunches every day; tighter abdominal muscles take some of the load off your back.

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-03 20:06:13.61602+00 by: Jack William Bell

No crunches. Hernia.

I've learned a whole lot of pain management strategies though.

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-04 02:22:36.976343+00 by: TheSHAD0W

-_-

Now, the hernia, that's fixable...

#Comment Re: The medicine against which all others are measured made: 2016-12-05 11:00:12.737752+00 by: DaveP

I had back surgery, too. That one got me five years relief from sciatica after getting a herniated disc trimmed, but it's been back lately. Not sure if that's because the knee problems have induced back problems or what, but this getting old thing is for the birds. Twenty year old me should've taken better care...

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