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The Other Half

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Re: The Other Half

#251

Post by Mahn »

ars wrote: post #237
komali2 wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding insurance, I wonder if you would have gone in if you were Keith, who at 35 is working sales at a department store. He might not even have been insured.

Want to disrupt the heart attack market? Make a small home machine that can take an EKG and tell you if everything is fine, or if you should go get checked. Adjust it to give some false positives, but no false negatives. Make it cost around $50, and make sure it's fully reusable (i.e. you can borrow one from a friend for a quick check). If machine learning is not up to the task, then send the EKG to a doctor, I belie…

This is already a thing apparently (I never tried it so I cannot vouch for it's accuracy/reliability):

https://www.amazon.com/AliveCor-Kardia-Mobile-Android-device...

Re: The Other Half

#252

Post by taneq »

As the article started out describing spending an exorbitant amount of money to achieve a bunch of non-essential goals (not counting being with his father, of course) I was expecting "the other half" to refer to a friend or acquaintance without "means" dying in an alley due to lack of funds for medical treatment.

Re: The Other Half

#253

Post by shawn-furyan »

matt4077 wrote: post #137
Dangeranger wrote: post #48

This story and the comments make me curious as to how many hard charging project leaders have, or would, work through a heart attack. These words stuck out to me: > I was fucking annoyed – I felt like I was just super tired and needed some energy, and energy drinks and caffeine weren’t doing the trick. He then went on to keynote a conference and live for what seems like at least two more days without seeking medical…

I'm not completely sold on the relationship of stress and heart disease. I spend some time working in politics, and almost all principals worked 18h-days with less than 5h of sleep during the week. Yet life expectancy is higher than average. There are obviously ots of competing factors at work: they have plenty of opportunities to eat healthy, and the discipline that makes them get up at 5am also makes them go for a…

This is what is called a non-representative sample. To say the least...

Sheesh.

Re: The Other Half

#254

Post by komali2 »

ptaipale wrote: post #188
eatbitseveryday wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's the sad shit the US is in. I am sorry :(

On the other hand, here at the great socialist Nordics, if I go to the public health care and say I want a check-up, they'll laugh me out. I won't even meet a doctor. And I guess they are right. They say our public health care system is excellent.

What if you went in saying you had chest pain? And what do you do for annual checkups?

Re: The Other Half

#255

Post by komali2 »

gpawl wrote: post #244
komali2 wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://www.ghc.org/healthAndWellness/?item=%2Fcommon%2Fheal... TLDR: It's probably not a heart attack if you can pinpoint the pain, if the pain gets worse on a deep breath, the pain is related to movement of your shoulder or arm, or if it only lasts a few second. You should call a doctor if the pain is mild but consistent and is untreatable by pain killers, and remains regardless of if you're resting or not. You sho…

What do you do if you've had symptoms for weeks/months? Until you've been diagnosed with a heart attack, the word "mild" does mean much. People over the age of 35-40 have many chronic mild pains

If you've had symptoms for a few hours that are untreatable by medication (like I said), then you call your doctor. Your doctor will tell you whether or not to come in. If it's chronic old-person pain, your doctor will find that out, and tell you next steps.

If you've had symptoms for weeks/months, well, I guess that's probably not a heart attack, good job? Still should have gone in within the first day.

Re: The Other Half

#256

Post by ars »

Mahn wrote: post #251
ars wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Want to disrupt the heart attack market? Make a small home machine that can take an EKG and tell you if everything is fine, or if you should go get checked. Adjust it to give some false positives, but no false negatives. Make it cost around $50, and make sure it's fully reusable (i.e. you can borrow one from a friend for a quick check). If machine learning is not up to the task, then send the EKG to a doctor, I belie…

This is already a thing apparently (I never tried it so I cannot vouch for it's accuracy/reliability): https://www.amazon.com/AliveCor-Kardia-Mobile-Android-device...

That only checks for atrial fibrillation, not heart attack.

Re: The Other Half

#257

Post by bane »

Wow, this is timely, I'm going to stay with my Dad while he goes in for heart surgery on Monday. It's kind of terrifying since he's had no heart problems his entire life until very recently, and unless he was taking his pulse for another issue wouldn't have even known it as he's had no other symptoms or any sort of discomfort.

I also used to work with an older guy who had known heart problems and a defibrillator. He worked on a piece of equipment that required him to lean over a big moving dangerous piece of mechanical moving death trap. One day we noticed him leaning in in a weird way, jolting and then getting back into the correct position as if nothing had happened, it happened three times during a week. We talked to him and he just insisted he was tired. But the shift boss took him off the equipment and told him to go see his doctor. They checked his defibrillator and it had gone off something like a half-dozen times in that week. His heart had stopped and he would have died a couple different ways if he hadn't had that thing in his chest. He never even knew anything was happening except feeling lethargic. But he wasn't passing out, he was dying.

Jason Scott on the other hand had lots of discomfort, but didn't realize it was his heart at all. The signs of heart trouble are so many and this just reminds me of how unclear they can be. We're a lot better off with a Jason Scott than without, so I'm delighted to hear that they caught the trouble and sorted it out with what sounds to be a miracle of modern science.

Re: The Other Half

#258

Post by fencepost »

DanBC wrote: post #233
fencepost wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why would anyone see a doctor unless they had a health problem? (Or wanted health advice?) Because "sedentary middle-aged American eating a typical American diet" (possibly including "fat" as well) might as well be considered a preexisting condition all by itself, and a simple checkup may catch something that can be addressed before it becomes a hospital visit. Most notable as things to watch out for are high blood…

Your last paragraph - about men not seeing a doctor when they are in pain - doesn't seem to fit the context of people seeing a doctor when they have no symptoms. And how many of those women needed surgery? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3679744/

Based on my reading of that, a very significant majority.

From a quick read before I dash out the door, it looks like at most ~21% had surgery based on indefinite or vague symptoms. I'd say that there's a good chance that many or most of those cases should have received at the least other treatment before surgery and that some physicians started resorting to surgery too soon once that surgery became easier, cheaper and safer.

That still leaves the other 79%.

Re: The Other Half

#259

Post by pkaye »

chrisper wrote: post #211
elorant wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a kidney disease while in puberty, specifically nephritis. Since then, I take a blood test every six months. It's a great habit because it can catch a lot of problems, for example diabetes, cholesterol levels, etc. Urinary tests are also very good because they can detect stones in your kidneys.

Isn't that rather expensive?

A standard set of the most common 25 or so blood tests costs total $50 in the US. You can get it ordered online and go to a local lab to get it tested. They will post the results online and note if anything is out of range.

Re: The Other Half

#260

Post by icantdrive55 »

ryandrake wrote: post #62
smacktoward wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or even if you're not experiencing any pain -- if you haven't been to the doctor in a long time... go to the doctor. Get a routine checkup! It can save your life. I almost learned this the hard way a few years ago. I was in my late 30s, and handled going to the doctor the way I always had since reaching adulthood -- which is to say, I didn't bother with it unless I was feeling out of sorts. Routine doctor visits seem…

I probably haven't been to a doctor for years and years. Like most Americans I have pretty shitty health insurance, and it's mostly about avoiding unnecessary expenses. I don't have any burning desire to pay a doctor, a blood test lab, and all the other various administrative leeches, just for them to all tell me everything's good. If something happens and I get seriously ill, I accept that I'll be paying through the…

It's too bad, as Americans we are forced to think like this. We obviously have some serious problems in this great country.

That said, check your blood pressure periodically.

I too think like you do, but try to eat well, and exercise. I do need to make a doctors appointment, but it's all out of pocket, and it's a crap shoot on price.

I once was given a $800 bill for a blood. I told them I have insurance. My bill went down to $10 copay.

Out of curiosity, I called my insurance company.

They told me the bill they got was for $100. I told them the bill was for $800?

"That's what they charge the guy with no insurance. Through collective bargaining we only pay $100, and you pay 10 bucks."

Crazy? (I now have a headache. I usually stay away from any posts that are health related.)

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