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BP and Meds

Heart & Blood Health | Last Active: Dec 5, 2025 | Replies (26)

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@tatiana987 Thank you for sharing that. Your story about your great-grandparents really struck me. It captures the heart of what so many people feel is missing today—medicine practiced with genuine human connection, not just protocols, algorithms, and automated messages. That chest of drawers sounds like more than furniture; it’s a reminder that care used to be a relationship, not a transaction.

What you went through in the ER is the opposite of that. No one—bleeding, dazed, hypertensive, and alone—should ever be told to “wait their turn” without explanation or basic care. I’m sorry you had an experience that felt dismissive and frightening. Those canned “your well-being is our top priority” messages can feel almost insulting when the reality you lived through was the opposite. You’re not wrong to feel disgusted.

As for writing a book… I appreciate the encouragement more than you know. If I ever do, it would be because of stories like yours—real, lived experiences that show how far the system has drifted from compassion.

In the meantime, there are a few authors who have put words to what’s happening in U.S. healthcare better than I ever could. A couple that might speak to you:

Elisabeth Rosenthal – An American Sickness: a deeply researched, very readable look at how U.S. healthcare lost its moral compass and why it feels so broken to patients and doctors alike.

Atul Gawande – Being Mortal and Complications: not about the “crisis” per se, but beautifully honest about the pressures doctors are under and what gets lost when the system forgets the human side of medicine.

Marty Makary – The Price We Pay: a clear, accessible look at how ordinary people get caught in a system designed around profit rather than care.

None of them romanticize the past, but all of them acknowledge the same thing you’re describing: people want a relationship-centered kind of medicine again—something humane, honest, and personal.

Your story is powerful. Thank you for telling it. If enough people do, maybe the system will eventually be forced to listen.

I actually don't think the system will change. I do appreciate the technology that is available to all of us today, but it's a terrible thing in my opinion that we are just a "number" in an emergency situation.

Also, I have written many articles about this...but never have published any.

I have similar stories I could also tell you about my grandparents etc. I grew up in the 50's. There were actual doctors that had their office in drug stores etc,,,, that knew you personally and would tend to you immediately. Those days are gone...But, I am blessed to still live in a small rural community where people can get immediate medical attention as needed without delay from the new doctors.

However, not sure many times if they (new doc's) have the correct knowledge to treat your condition... sad to say.

Some new doctor's depend on prescription drugs rather than the root cause. Then they give you a referral to a specialist that may not actually put you in the right direction.

Then we are back to the same thing.

I could tell you things about Eliquis vs anti-platelet treatment, but I can't do that on this forum. It's up to you to do your on investigation about this. I am not a doctor. I can say, that anticoagulants sometime aren't the best path, but again, you have to make a decision from a medical provider.

Wishing you the best.

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Replies to "@tatiana987 Thank you for sharing that. Your story about your great-grandparents really struck me. It captures..."

@tommy901 Wow! It is going to take me a while to respond to it all. Very decent of you to take the time and trouble to answer so well.

Thanks for book tips. I normally don’t read books in English, but imo this topic requires English and serious familiarity with the United States. I will check them out.

In this century I have only read three books in English, those of Dr. Siddhartha Mukarjee. If you don’t know his work, you might appreciate it. All are on medicine. IMO the best of his writing is on the medical metaphor. For example, a depressed patient describes to Dr. Mukarjee that he feels like he has fallen into a giant crevice or a hole. Dr. Mukarjee can diagnose from hearing that metaphor. I think intuition like this or even, for another example, the understanding that the smell of a disease can be used to diagnose it—- the human perceptions far outside the screen’s capacity are being lost and replaced by AI, which is basically the collection and aggregation of garbage from what humans put on the internet in the past. It’s not multifacited reality, but human reactions that could shrink to fit the internet. A lot is simply subtracted, not there at all. There are no smells of disease on AI, for example. So are we supposed to stop these other perceptions because they are not part of AI?

Oooops, I went off on a tantent…..to be continued….