[a present from mom - i think she has me pegged;-P]

Sitting here in the family room with the sunlight streaming in through the large window warming my feet. Mom's on the futon taking a nap in front of me and Dad is behind me working away on my property taxes. (Poor Dad) It's nice to be home After many years, a sudden selfish thought crossed my mind - I wished this never had to change - my family dynamic - my parents, my brothers and I. It will someday though, but til then, I will love the now. Interesting how the older I get, the less changes I want - lol.

A few days ago, my brother Jon sent me an email of a comic he saw on www.xkcd.com - and while I'm not going to share it because it has an odd sense of humor in it which he knew I would appreciate because of my objective scientificness (totally not a word but I don't know how else to explain it), I realized how my brothers and I somewhat all share the same kind of sarcastic nerdy humor - and thus - despite our differences in ages and gender - it's nice to know that we really are related and that we can share something in common. Sometimes I worry that people think that by our humor we are intelluctually arrogant - but the truth is that we're just a really nerdy bunch of siblings of who laughs at really nerdy things ~

all credit goes to www.xkcd.com

The silent killer.

During our pharmacology lecture, our professor showed us the following graph that followed the blood pressure of a well-known man in history - that can only be published 50 yrs after his death:

Can you guess who? He ultimately died from a stroke at the end and looking back now, it's not hard to figure out why. Yet - they couldn't really do much for him then because they were afraid that if they lowered the blood pressure, there wouldn't be enough blood flow, which would also lead to death. It's amazing how mistaken knowledge and beliefs can greatly alter outcome. 

Believe it or not, treatment for hypertension medically has only been in existance for the last 50 years or so - which I found interesting. Mankind has been in existance for so long - and yet, it's only recently - within the last century -  that medicine has advanced so quickly. I am thankful that God has elucidated so much wisdom to those in medical research. The problem now isn't that we don't know what to do about hypertension - but more of the fact that treatment of such a problem causes more symptoms than non-treatment and thus resulting in a psychological influence to lean toward non-compliance. *sigh*

Reminds me of my conversations with Dad awhile back that went something like this:
"Si - I now have HYPOTENSION and a persistant COUGH!"
"I know - but they will all cause a little bit of hypotension, a little bit is okay just don't let it go too low, but we can get rid of the cough by trying something else - there are alot of other things to try...."
"I decided to stop taking them because I felt fine."
"Dad! It'll come back - hypertension drugs is not one of those that you can just stop when you feel okay"
*poor Dad*

The fine tuning of the drug regiment for each person is the approach that we're taught because there is no magic cure all. Yet it requires the patient to come back to the doctor's office often - and who truely likes that? Does having to come back for another appointment make it seem to the patient that us doctors don't know what we're doing? Or simply - maybe the fact is just that we're not God, and thus, we didn't design bodies to behave in different ways, and thus we're just as equally unlikely to predict outcomes. We can only start with the most tried and true method and start down the list. Some things are straightforward - like gallstones - and others are just complicated.

I'm starting to realize that just as much as doctors are respected, we are just as equally, if not more, feared. Everyone thinks its great to be a doctor, but no likes seeing a doctor. The paradox. Non-compliance has been circling in my head - and I feel like I'm catching a glimpse of the uphill battles ahead I'll have to have with my future patients. Is this why God is and has been preparing me to not be timid? Hmmm...how to be strong and yet gentle at the same time....things to learn....