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Bridge to Nowhere

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Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#21

Post by singleshot_ »

More or less, if you enter a hospital, you need a medical case manager. The case manager should be an equal or superior specialty to the treating physician. The case manager should have a medical power of attorney to make decisions concerning your care (not so much to make decisions, but to be allowed into the decision making process to advise you, and then to regulate the execution of the treating physician).

In short if your doctor is not employed by you, you should be taking precautions accordingly.

This is an absolutely daft situation, but it is where we find ourselves.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#23

Post by DaiPlusPlus »

o11c wrote: post #17
DaiPlusPlus wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The term "paperclip maximizer" is a reference to a thought-experiment explained in this 2014 interview with Nick Bostrom: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/artificial-intelligence-oxfor... > Suppose we have an AI whose only goal is to make as many paper clips as possible. The AI will realize quickly that it would be much better if there were no humans because humans might decide to switch it off. Because if humans do so…

That's not the origin, it was said in 2003 at least: https://nickbostrom.com/ethics/ai

Ah, thanks. That's odd - my Google search results didn't have anything predating 2014. Weird.

I've updated my post with the correction.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#24

Post by aabajian »

Neurosurgeons are extremely smart, hardworking, and (usually) amicable physicians. They are also in short supply and can determine whether an entire health system makes or loses money.

Neurosurgery is the hardest residency, and the hardest physician career. However, this difficulty is in-part due to the bravado of the neurosurgeons themselves. During neurosurgery residency, you have to learn to be a brain and spine surgeon, undertake two years of research, learn how to do endovascular interventions, and (of course) manage all of the pre-/post- operative care including clinic. It is not uncommon for a single PGY-2 neurosurgery resident to follow 100+ inpatients. Suffice to say neurosurgeons are overburdened, yet they themselves have fought against reducing training hours.

Patients can generally expect to spend less than 30 minutes speaking to their surgeon before/after their surgery.

For those unaware, you can become a spine surgeon via either the neurosurgery or orthopedic surgery routes. Just my simple opinion, but I think spine surgery should be its own residency. Brains should be left to the neurosurgeons and extremities to the orthopedists.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#25

Post by emmelaich »

Twixes wrote: post #19

What a harrowing account. Ended up reading all posts in the author's glioblastoma series, starting with the first one from May 2023. Devastating topic, excellent writing. I can only wish strength

Agree, great writing. I particularly liked 'George' -- https://depth-first.com/articles/2023/08/19/george/

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#27

Post by m463 »

justin_oaks wrote: post #6
gus_massa wrote: post #2

> But more than this I would come to learn that that I'd fallen into a trap of my own making. I'd blame the medical doctor. In similar cases, they use misleading remarks and partial information to guide the patient in the path they prefer.

It seems like the doctor has fallen victim to the politician's fallacy [0], summarized well on Wikipedia as 1. We must do something. 2. This is something. 3. Therefore, we must do this. People seem to feel like there's merit in "trying something, anything" even if by trying something you may actively make the problem worse. We need to accept that we only have limited control. Bad things happen. 0. https://en.wikipedi…

He also says they said they talked about things, but he might not remember.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#29

Post by m463 »

I've known two people with glioblastoma (both deceased now).

It is incredibly hard to come up-to-speed on a newly diagnosed (or newly undiagnosed) medical situation.

But I think many many people will encounter it and be unprepared. They may encounter it early when a friend or family member faces the situation.

Unfortunately a lot of learning happens after the fact.

For example, just finding out if someone has glioblastoma can leave you physically or mentally debilitated. One of the people I knew had a biopsy, but that caused them to be bedridden without control of one side of their body.

So in relation to preparation, I think people should prepare. Reading articles like this one (or his other articles) can be uncomfortable, but well spent.

Re: Bridge to Nowhere

#30

Post by sqeaky »

system7rocks wrote: post #8

Sometimes, this is the gift of having a trained chaplain, pastor, or advocate with you who has navigated these moments before. I’ve been in these moments with people in my church, and I don’t think it is always about the doctors or healthcare providers withholding info. Sometimes, you are the tenth person they have seen in a short period of time, so they are trying to communicate as best as they can, as efficiently a…

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