Yes I still Smoke Cigarettes and I am addicted to the smoking habit - support and chat thread.

[alisa1970]

That's what they did with me. Here's your Rx, here's your meter, test 2x a day. You have diabetes. Come back in 30 days. There is a big poster on the doctors exam room door. If you are diabetic have the dr check your feet. Not once in 5 years did my doctor ask to look at my feet.

That's almost Orwellian.

 

[priorities]

{{{{hugs}}} to you all friends... {{{Lori}}}* xoxooxxo

and yes, some ice cream..................

 

[ShariR]

Two days is great! The early days are the hardest, at least they were in my case. And if you successfully quit before, you tend to compare this time with your memory of last time. You can't count on your memories. If that was the case, no woman would ever have a second child! Each effort is different.

Again. You are doing great. Congratulations and keep it up.

Oh, and thank you. I am quite proud of my 30 days.

Wow. I go to work for a 6 hour shift and I miss a party and 3 pages of chit chat. Good job on the 30 days Shari. That is really great. I didn't smoke today so that makes 2 days for me. I went 9 months in 2010 but then I fell off the wagon. Ah well, water under the bridge. I'm back and that's what counts.

 

[ShariR]

That's almost Orwellian.

I know. It is scary and pathetic. I did ask him to look at my feet once after about a couple of years. When I got my bill there was an extra charge on it related to a diabetes checkup. Bast**d. He did not touch them or anything. Just looked down at them.

 

[ShariR]

Hi, Priorities! Thanks for stopping in.

OOOhhhh! ICE CREAM

What a perfect middle of the night treat.

{{{{hugs}}} to you all friends... {{{Lori}}}* xoxooxxo

and yes, some ice cream..................

 

[alisa1970]

I know. It is scary and pathetic. I did ask him to look at my feet once after about a couple of years. When I got my bill there was an extra charge on it related to a diabetes checkup. Bast**d. He did not touch them or anything. Just looked down at them.

Wow. That's a doctor who really doesn't care anymore.

 

[aikanae1]

Doctors have been creating their medical records "post appointment" for many years now. They make notations that transcripitionists type up after the fact. These can be oral notes of stuff jotted down on a piece of paper in your chart. Now with everything going on computer, they are punching in cpt codes and codes for all kinds of stuff, no hand written notes. You are charged for a copy of your medical records by law. State law determines how much per page the doctor's office or facility can charge you for a copy of your records. You can not, by law, be denied a copy of your medical records, you just have to pay for them. This is true in every state. The main exception is when they are old records. There are also laws that define how long a facility has to retain records. Each doctor's office has it's own timeframe, always under the statute. The other factor is time. It used to be that if they had to go off site to obtain records it took longer. Now with the computer records they are as likely to hand you a DVD in a format you can not read. I got a couple of MRIs on DVD that I could not look at because they failed to download the proper software to read the data.

Also, the former doctor is supposed to forward your records to you new doctor. It may take a written request, but they have to do that legally, for no charge to you. Or supply your new doctor with the names of the doctors you have seen and they can get the records from him. That usually works because drs will play better with each other. I would tend to cancel an appt and refuse to pay if the drs office failed to get my prior medical records, although that depends greatly on the situation.

The doctors say they "don't need medical records". It pisses me off no end. I'm usually like a volcano with a cork in it by the time I deal with records - to the point that feels fruitless since I never see the same doctor twice. The last records I got said nothing. No mention of referrals - even for a mammogram. I figured out where I went last from an old calendar and discovered they were comparing them with ... (get this) nothing. Not even my CT's were compared with anything. ... am I wasting my time then? You betcha I was boiling. I signed out a mammogram and never returned it. One CT is on disc for comparison now. The place were insurance sent me to doesn't read disc's. HUH? I went out of network again. That's BS.

I won 2 appeals. Since then, "medical care" has been non-existant or crap at best. They've pulled every dirty trick possible. It's one of the reasons I moved. Anyway, the saga continues here too, just a different flavor.

​

 

[ShariR]

Yes. He is the doctor that fired me back in March. I think he let his practice get too big. When I started seeing him 9 years ago there were only 3 doctors and he was young, probably not out of med school too long. In the past 2 years they are up to 10 doctors and it is like herding cattle. You are lucky to get 5 minutes of his time and if you go in and ask 3 questions they want you to make a second appointment. That was said to me on two different occasions, once by his nurse and the last time by the doctor himself. They are just churning the patients thru for the money, and when I would look at the bill, they had a $3.00 charge on it for "smoking cessation" something or other. He asked me if I still smoked and I said less than a pack and he said you should quit. That was it. It is really bad.

 

[aikanae1]

This is where we split on the issue. I see national medicare no differently than I see HMO's...except that it's even more removed from the patient than even HMO's. The whole birth of health insurance as we know it now came about before most of us were even alive. If employers weren't given incentives to avoid paying workers more by providing health care, I think we would not be in the situation we are in now. I don't believe the government has any business making any "laws" about health care.

No matter what happens, I think that the health care industry in America will soon look like those in 2nd world countries, and that is truly a shame because we, the patients/people, will be hurt the worst by it.

Your right, we disagree. Patients with Medicare HMO's are less satisfied and patients with Medicare traditional are the most satisfied. Medicare traditional has higher rates of satisfaction than private insurance, plus it costs 30% less than Medicare HMO (the supplimental they talk about ending for the last 10 years or more). Medicare traditional medical neccessity standards are developed by a panel of doctors in an open process that anyone can look up on line and read the transcripts (if you really want to) but references and citations are available. All that is behind closed doors, including utilization, with HMO's, Medicare or not. All Medicare traditional does is centralize payment processing. One forum, one address, one set of medical necessity standards, open and applied fairly to all. Doctors make the decisions.

Medical necessity standards have to exist in any system of care and do already. A doctor can't prescribe chemo for a hang nail to get more money. They can't get paid for removing your left foot when you went in for surgery on your liver. That sort of thing. It's better to have them in the open, discussed and challenged by their peers than behind closed doors of an institution whose legal obligation is first to their investors. As long as it's a corporation, patents are second and that's the law.

Centralizing payment processing would reduce overhead by at least 30% and probably more now. Currently doctors have to field hundreds of different standards and forumlaries. Estimates are it takes a minimum of 7 full time billing agents per doctor. It's nearly impossible for a doctor to go into single doctor private practice now. With centralized processing, they could. Canada experienced an explosion of private practice doctors and it's nearly triple the rate the US has per person. They also have centralized payment system.

It's not the same as socialized medicine like NHS (UK) where doctors work directly for the government. I don't know what people in the US were doing to miss the Olympics opening that celebrated the NHS system, but everytime I hear mention of it, the phrase includes how proud they are of it.

One of the biggest beefs in Canada is that they are afraid of regulations that might lead to an "american system" of healthcare. That's echoed the world over. NO ONE WANTS OUR SYSTEM. Medicare has been successful. One added benefit would be a central pool of anonymized data enabling researchers to pool effective outcomes from treatments. Currently getting a well rounded pool of data is expensive and time consuming that is often full of statistical errors or bias leading to faulty results.

I usually begin any type of medical research by pooling information from large reviews from universal healthcare systems since they are more interested in long term results being the most cost effective. That's not true in the US. Their reviews begin with exhaustive methodology of why which studies were chosen or not. Over the past ten years I've seen results in other countries conflict the US standards for the first time AND up to 3/4ths of US studies tossed out as unuseable due to conflicts of interest. The US isn't even close to running for "best medical care". We aren't even in the top third anymore. It hasn't always been like that. It's shameful.

More people die from inadequate or lack of medical care than anything else in the US. Insurance could be seen as another form of terrorism - so yea, I think it's a duty of government to protect us, only it's not in some other country.

​

 

[daleron]

Good Morning

 

[ShariR]

Good morning Dale.

Remember a while back I posted that picture of Ocelot's of a Bobo? Well, she got one and wrote the most entertaining blog about it. Good reading and you will laugh. Here's the link:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/the-ocelot/4192-bobo-affair-chapter-1-had-blue.html

I hope you all enjoy it. I did.

 

[daleron]

Good morning Dale.

Remember a while back I posted that picture of Ocelot's of a Bobo? Well, she got one and wrote the most entertaining blog about it. Good reading and you will laugh. Here's the link:

http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/blogs/the-ocelot/4192-bobo-affair-chapter-1-had-blue.html

I hope you all enjoy it. I did.

I know, I read about it in both "I Gotta Stay Away From..." & some of her Blog
I see you survived your wild night

 

[ShariR]

Yes I did. Had a good time. Didn't finish the second White Russian though. Switched to tea. Did end up getting some sleep but am going to need more. It's funny though. The three days leading up to yesterday, all I could think about was having a cigarette. I didn't but it was always there. It's gone now. I am past it. Glad for it too.

 

[ShariR]

When you want to tone down or sweeten one of your juices what do you use? I was thinking MBV whipped cream or their sweet cream. Don't know anyone else who has those flavors. Other choices? I have some fruity and coffee juices that may be better with an addition. I don't have caramel either. I think cotton candy or marshmallow may be too sweet. Any thoughts?

No menthol, mints or cool type stuff. I have had several variations of those and do not care for them.

 

[Notorious2again]

Wow. This place went 43 pages over the weekend! I should come hang out with you guys.

Good morning everyone.

 

[loxmythe]

Tpa cotton candy is just EM so it's great as a sweetener.

 

[Notorious2again]

Tpa cotton candy is just EM so it's great as a sweetener.

I convinced my wife to let me DIY . I'm doing research this week on methods, initial equipment needs, nics, bases, etc. Any places you would recommend checking out, or should I just stick to perusing the DIY sub-forum here?

 

[loxmythe]

Goodprophets is where I buy most of my stuff - can't beat the free shipping. I always wait for a sale then load up. TPA is good too for bulk flavors you use a lot of and flavor molecules - but shipping can be high and when goodprophets has a sale he's right in line with them. Pure vapes has Flavor Art flavors pretty reasonable.

 

[Erised]

I think that's what's wrong with food allergies is that it's not treatable with a Rx - so it's off their radar and deemed "not treatable". I betcha if I look at the history, treatment went out of vogue because a slew of industry (pharma) demonized treating it because they weren't able to find a pharmacetical solution. The same goes for anything without a Rx treatment.

I have already eliminated carbs as far as refined flour, sugar, potatoes, pasta (addicted too), starches just out of whatever. It hits my blood sugar. I discovered that in my 20's. An orange julius makes me a stumbling, giddy drunk. I was probably a good canidate for diabetes and so far, I've avoided it. That was my wake up call on nutrition. My brother has diabetes, along with a couple of other family members. My brother was started on Rx immediatley. No nutrition counseling. That about drove me nuts to keep my mouth shut.

​

As someone else with major food allergies I can really emphasize with this!

As a baby/child I was allergic to all fruits and the majority of vegetables. I eventually outgrew many of them.

At 18 I developed an ulcer that was so wicked I had to spend over a year on an "elimination" diet, starting with just trying to keep dry toast down. The end result being that many foods I'd adjusted to had to be dropped off of my can-eat list.

Recognizing that my eating habits were not the healthiest due to all this, I decided to go vegetarian. There was a lot of hype at the time over how wonderful vegetarian diets are, and how switching seemed to cure every ill. Yeah, for me, not so much -- in fact, I ended up at my Dr's sick as a dog- anemic, and him yelling at me.

Needless to say I now worry even more about how horrible my diet is, especially since every year I seem to lose more and more foods to allergies again that I thought I'd grown tolerant to.

 

[Notorious2again]

Goodprophets is where I buy most of my stuff - can't beat the free shipping. I always wait for a sale then load up. TPA is good too for bulk flavors you use a lot of and flavor molecules - but shipping can be high and when goodprophets has a sale he's right in line with them. Pure vapes has Flavor Art flavors pretty reasonable.

Looks like goodprophets has a sale right now. TPA flavoring, 30ml for 4.99.

Thanks lox. I need all the help I can get!