Medical technology - is society doomed?

   #21  

vreihen

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The chemistry class I took a year early in 10th grade ('73-'74) was the last one where students were taught the use of slide rules. I'm reasonably confident Art is familiar with them as well.

Familiar with what? The calculators used to send man to the moon? ;)

88F756F0-2863-4A3D-BF20-1A178FC0F04F_zpseuxomx3f.jpg


For PetrolDave's amusement, I actually took it to a licensing test that I took last fall where it allowed calculators or slide rules. Got a perfect score...and some smiles from the old curmudgeons proctoring the exam when they actually saw me use it.....
 
   #22  

Flaps10

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Hell yes. I work with people who not only can't read a vernier caliper, their brain short circuits with a set of dial calipers. How F-ing hard is that?

They're the same people who flip out when they see a beam torque wrench, and insist that a $19 harbor freight clicker type is more accurate.

I never once saw a person forget to turn a beam torque wrench back to zero before putting it away.
 
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NZDubNurd

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Hell yes. I work with people who not only can't read a vernier caliper, their brain short circuits with a set of dial calipers. How F-ing hard is that?

They're the same people who flip out when they see a beam torque wrench, and insist that a $19 harbor freight clicker type is more accurate.

I never once saw a person forget to turn a beam torque wrench back to zero before putting it away.

The world is full of them:

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That's a $200K kit, and those straps on the right are holding a roll-stand with a $12K monitor on the top, in the back of our VW T5 which is taking it 2.5 hours North today including through a gorge which (last count) had 135 corners in 13 kilometres (8 miles). I'm sure the blue packing strap will take the weight... but I bet it doesn't stay in one place! I specced the van with all the factory tie-down fittings I could get... and we still get this!

I'm not sure how this guy survived past infancy, let alone making 50! This stuff is a CONSTANT struggle with this guy - I'd rather get my kids to do it.
 
   #25  

vreihen

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Speaking of medical technology and incompetence, I just came home from my primary care doctor's office. My doctor pitched a fit over the ER doctor's interpretation of my CT scan, and said that I should have been held there until another test was done because the CT scan showed a potential problem that anyone should have been able to spot! Long story short, I'm going back for a stat ultrasound tonight, and was told to expect to be admitted for surgery if the results are what my doctor suspects..... :(
 
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NZDubNurd

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This stuff is a CONSTANT struggle with this guy - I'd rather get my kids to do it.

Actually, now I think about it more, I think I might limit this guys scope of work. He seems to be adept (though s l o w) at removing "public hair"* from the wheels of the equipment!



* It's a public hospital, so the hair either belongs to staff or the public :thumbs:.
 
   #28  

vreihen

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Long story short, I'm going back for a stat ultrasound tonight, and was told to expect to be admitted for surgery if the results are what my doctor suspects..... :(

It came back negative, so it's back to the diagnostic dice.

The ultrasound operator was actually competent and had a sense of humor. When I walked into the room with my wife a few steps behind, he told me to take off my shirt and lay on the bed. I jokingly said that my wife was going to have a problem with that, because she doesn't like sharing me with other men. :D As he was starting the test, I asked if he could snap some 5 x 7 glossies of my heart, so that I could show my co-workers that I have one. As he was moving the probe around my stomach, I grabbed my wife's hand and asked if it was going to be a boy or a girl. :) He said twins, one of each! A little bit later in the test, he joked that it may be triplets. He kept probing around beyond what he was supposed to scan, looking for what was wrong when my doctor's suspicion apparently came up negative. At the end of the test, he told me that hospital policy prevents him from discussing the results of the tests with me, but I could overhear everything that he told my doctor on the phone (couldn't find anything abnormal) before sending me home.....
 
   #30  

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My girlfriend went to the doctor last november because she'd had a cold that left her run down for several weeks (and I didn't get it).

blah, blah, they gave her an ultrasound. You're right, the tech won't say crap.

You'll know though because if the tech takes over an hour and takes 300 slides it isn't because they love their job so much. And when the doctor calls you personally the next day and says "can you come in right away?" it's further confirmation that it's not a normal outcome.

It was a tumor the size of an orange and it looked to be attached to her pancreas or liver. The CT scan didn't tell the surgeon enough more information, so they went in. On that day I was pretty sure she'd be dead by now. The tumor was attached to her liver so it turned out to be pretty easy to remove, and lab test showed it to not be cancerous.

She just went in two days ago to have another orange size knob removed from an ovary. Here's a 46 year old who has never smoked and hardly ever drinks.

It's frightening what goes on under the hood, even when you live right.
 
   #31  

vreihen

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blah, blah, they gave her an ultrasound. You're right, the tech won't say crap.

You'll know though because if the tech takes over an hour and takes 300 slides it isn't because they love their job so much. And when the doctor calls you personally the next day and says "can you come in right away?" it's further confirmation that it's not a normal outcome.

He told me that hospital policy prevented him from discussing the results of the test with me. Hospital policy said nothing about him talk to himself during the procedure, ;) which is how I knew that he was going off-script to look around at other things when what he was asked to scan was normal after about 50 snapshots.

My primary care doctor told me to handcuff myself to the table, and refuse to leave until the tech called the doctor in my presence so that they wouldn't send me home if there was something wrong. I have a *very* good professional rapport with my primary care doctor, and I like having the only doctor in the area who failed bedside manners in med school rather than sugar-coating things and keeping me in the dark. There are benefits to dealing with single-doctor practices versus organized (no pun intended) medical conglomerates, and the only pitfall is that I have to do tests at the hospital and not in-house at some conglomerate's testing labs.....
 
   #32  

vreihen

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While visiting my doctor yesterday for the umpteenth time this month, they decided that I had a fluid retention problem and wanted to rush me by ambulance back to the clowns at the ER for an upper CT scan. They made me sign a waiver before allowing me to drive myself to the ER, thinking it would scare me but I sign waivers before driving at every competition event. ;)

Our half of the county is served by two hospitals, forced into an un-holy matrimony by government regulators. One is a small town hospital, and the other one is inner city about 6 miles away. The combined entity decided to essentially shut down the small town hospital, except for their ER. Last month, they started making noise about shutting down the ER next month as well. State politicians are fighting this, so it's definitely a popcorn situation. :popcorn:

Anyway, after verifying that the small town hospital had the needed test equipment, I convinced my doctor to send me there and not to the corner of Gang and Ghetto. Basically, the place looks like it has been gutted of any useful equipment for use at the other location. They are literally tripping over pedestal carts with vitals recorders in the city. The one working unit left at the small town ER was older, and appeared to have a dead battery because they had to plug it into the wall after a few minutes. Plenty of manual blood pressure thingies around on the walls. Despite the end-of-life equipment, the tech was actually able to get a temperature and blood pressure from me on the first try! The only EKG machine they had was a portable unit, and it had clips that wouldn't seat properly on the stickers due to worn springs or something. The operator had to hold one lead down as he pulled the strip.

Their donut of death was more like a donut of discomfort, and I thought that I saw a $20 yard sale sticker on it. :D Once the tubes warmed up and the operator put the phone handset into the acoustic coupler modem, I'm sure that it took nice 320 x 200 images. I may go back and offer them $15 to buy it, just so that I can have my own donut of death.

All things considered, I would *still* choose to go to the small town hospital. Despite a skeleton crew and equipment that nobody wants, they know how to use it unlike the mindless minions over at the city hospital.

Long story short, I'm still not sleeping and feel like crap, so it's off to my cardiologist and I'll probably wind up being admitted to the city hospital..... :(
 
   #34  

Jack@European_Parts

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Art is in the ER tonight and being medicated to sleepy times.

At least he laughed when I spoke with him tonight briefly, because I told him Uwe "liked" his post aforementioned.

Let us join in the "Collective Borg" and focus our concentrated efforts within our mind ultimate powers, the ones ancients suppressed within our cortex........ and make Art get better + some sleep.:thumbs:
 
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Jack@European_Parts

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I knew Art would have technology withdrawal...........:p
 
   #37  

vreihen

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He seems to be reading the forum this morning....

During one of the limited upright time that they will allow me.

Probably in until Tuesday, nurse said my chair time is up. Believe me, I've got plenty of funny stories about spending 31 hours in the ER waiting for a hospital room to become vacant.....
 
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   #38  

vreihen

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In 12 hours yesterday, I pissed out the equivalent of an original VR6's displacement. Gotta love Vitamin Pee. :D

After 31 hours sweating in the ER due to bad air conditioning system balancing, I was sent upstairs to a room with a broken AC unit. Complained every hour the next morning until 2:00 PM (Friday), after which time I figured that the AC techs would be gone for the weekend in a few hours. Long story short, I grabbed the head nurse and used their own lingo to describe my unhappiness. I told her that this "Code Gray" situation (broken equipment) was about to go "Code White" (angry patient in need of restraint). Ten minutes later, the AC tech showed up, pushed the buttons, and said that the unit was dead and needed to be replaced. They moved me to another room right away, and needless to say it is COLD in here...so cold in fact that nurses from other floors of the hospital are stopping by because they heard rumors that there was a patient who was keeping his room cold and was willing to share. Two nights ago, my room was the proxy nurse station for about an hour..... :)
 
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