"When many cures are offered for a disease, it means the disease is not curable" -Anton Chekhov
''Once you tell people there's a cure for something, the more likely they are to pressure doctors to prescribe it.'' -Robert Ehrlich, drug advertising executive.
"Opinions are like sphincters, everyone has one." - Chris Rangel
Now It's My Turn: Newsweek is celebrating the thirtieth year of its "My Turn" column that provides a voice for the ordinary Joe. I'm all for giving ordinary people a platform for their views, but for some reason I'm more often annoyed by that column than by anything else in the magazine. The selected voices, of course, are invariably ordinary Joes who share Newsweek's particular bias. You aren't going to find a paen to George Bush by the common man in that column. You will, however, find an atheist whining about God Bless America, or an elderly woman taking offence at an innocent remark made by her doctor. She goes on and on about all the wonderful things she has done in the past, as if that negates the frailty of her body at what must surely be close to eighty years of age.(She mentions her role in World War II.) Her physician is right to try all conservative means possible to treat her arthritits. Knee surgery puts a huge stress on the body, and one that the very elderly don't always come through successfully. In fact, they often don't do well with it at all. It doesn't matter how good she feels now, or how active she has been in the past. The risk is still the same just based on the time she's spent on this earth and the inevitable toll the passage of time takes on all our bodies. And why should she be insulted by his assuming she wants to go on a cruise? Is a cruise beneath her dignity? Get real, lady. Cut your doctor a break. He's trying to help you enjoy your remaining years while doing you the least possible harm. posted by Sydney on
6/06/2002 08:39:00 AM
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