“You know, Lloyd, just when I think you couldn't possibly be any dumber, you go and do something like this... and totally redeem yourself!”

Last week I talked about smart people. I talked about how we should listen to smart people because, well, they’re smart. This week we need to go to the opposite end of the spectrum. We need to talk about dumb people.

Somebody who was obviously not dumb was my Memaw. To me, she was a very wise person. Academically, maybe she wasn’t the smartest but to me, wisdom carries much more weight in the day. Memaw had a bad heart. She was born with a bad heart and back in the 30s, 40s, 50s there were not many breakthroughs in medicine for cardiovascular disease. She had her first triple bypass surgery in the late 70s. She was one of the first in the state of Michigan. It did help her heart, but she still had a lot of mild heart attacks. That was one of the reasons why I lived with her besides my own dysfunctional family background. It was also one of the reasons why I slept in the same bed with her. She would have a heart attack in the middle of the night and she knew she was having a heart attack because she had so many of them. She knew the symptoms really well and one of the symptoms for her was the pain in her arm. So we would quickly get dressed, I would grab the Ziploc bag that contained all her medicines (remember this is before computers), and we would fly to the emergency room. One of the few times that I wasn’t with her was in March 1987. She went to church that Sunday morning and never came home.

Because of her lifelong heart condition, she was always seeing doctors. She would have a regular physician she would see every year. She would have, of course, her cardiologist that she would see quite frequently. Then she would see doctors in the emergency room or when she was in the hospital. She relied on doctors and I think that they did the best that they could for her. I think she thought the same way. She would follow their advice: she quit smoking, she lost a little weight, and she would exercise. She would try to do everything that they told her to do, including taking her medicine religiously. I feel because she followed their advice so well, she lived a lot longer than she expected. She was 68 when she died.

So I had a friend text the other day after reading my blog about smart people. She wanted to talk about some dumb people that she knew. She began her story with the wellness check ups that they did at her work once a year for free for the employees. It involved taking your blood and then running a series of tests to see how you were healthwise. Her coworker did the blood test and it came back that he had diabetes or at least he had an elevated A1c. The advice was for him to go see his primary physician for correct diagnosis and treatment plan.

After the wellness check bloodwork results, her coworker went a couple days later to his primary physician. The doctor took additional tests, including a fasting glucose test and determined that yes, indeed, her coworker had Type 2 Diabetes. In fact, it was so severe that it looked like his treatment plan would be insulin. If you know anything about diabetes, there’s usually different types of levels. Basic level would be taking a pill like Metformin all the way to shots that could include the GLP-1s like Mounjaro.  For those that have high-level diabetes, that means their body is not producing the insulin that they need and so they would need insulin shots. This is pretty severe and serious. Without these insulin shots you could literally die from diabetes. If you manage your diabetes with diet, exercise, and maybe will help with some medication, then you greatly reduce your risk of harmful side effects, including death.

After getting the diagnosis and treatment plan, my friend’s coworker said no thank you.  Yup--he “rejected” the diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes and the treatment plan of insulin shots.  See, he believed that doctors prescribed medication because they were in bed with the pharmaceutical companies. Now, I do believe that there is some cooperation between the two because I think there has to be.  Doctors need to know what medication is out there and of course, pharmaceutical companies want doctors to prescribe their medicine. But I also think that doctors know there are so many different types of medication and they will prescribe the one that is best for their patients. It is illegal for doctors to get a kickback from pharmaceutical companies for prescribing their medication.  

My friend’s coworker did not believe in listening to doctors. He believed that if they prescribed any medication it was because they were getting some type of kickback.  Now this is wrong on so many levels so we’re gonna take this bit by bit to try to understand this dumb person.

First, I have a couple questions. My first question is if he didn’t believe in doctors, didn’t believe in medication, didn’t believe in the diseases, didn't believe in the whole medical community at all, then WHY participate in the wellness check bloodwork in the first place? Why be involved? It was voluntary--he didn’t have to do it. If he wasn’t going to believe in the results anyway, then why do it? 

Following that line of reasoning, after he did the bloodwork, he must’ve already had a primary physician because he went to that physician a few days after he got the results from the bloodwork. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are--you cannot get in to see a doctor within a few days if you don’t already have an established doctor. So he already has a doctor, but he doesn’t believe in the medical community? Then, he went to see the doctor a couple days later after he got the results. He must’ve believed in the results in some way, right, or why follow up with his primary physician? Or am I way off based on this?

He took the time to have the blood work done. He got the results, then took the time to make an appointment with the doctor.  Then took the time and effort to go in to see the doctor.  Then went through all the additional tests that the doctor prescribed.  Then went back to get the test results, diagnosis, and the treatment plan. He does all of that, then he says no thank you because he thinks it is a conspiracy theory?

Does he say “no thank you” because he doesn’t wanna give himself injections of insulin? Does he say “no thank you” because he feels that there’s a better way of treatment? Does he say “no thank you” because of the cost? Nope, none of these. He says “no thank you” because he thinks his doctor is lying to him.

This is a dumb person.

I’m not saying that you should never question people of authority. I think that you do need to follow your gut. I think that you do need to have some common sense and I think that you need to do what is right for you. But I do not believe that you should make major decisions about your health based on bullshit, conspiracy theories. That drives me nuts. I also don’t believe that you should make decisions not based on facts.

My mom had a sister Joyce. My Aunt Joyce lived out in California and she looked after me when I was 4 years old and my mom would go to work.  My Aunt Joyce had a lot of money.  She bought a lot of land in southern California back in the 1940s and 1950s. Then she started selling it back in the 1980s and she made millions. 

She was a very heavy set woman and she had Type 2 Diabetes. Type 2 Diabetes runs very strongly in my family. But hers was very severe and she had to take insulin shots. Her husband, my Uncle Ed, was a rancher and they had to pay for their own health insurance. Because of that, they didn’t have health insurance. She felt it was a waste of money. And she had to pay for her insulin shots. Again, she felt it was a waste of money. She was a multimillionaire and she refused to pay for the medicine to keep her alive.

Eventually, she lost her toes and then her whole foot because diabetes causes poor circulation in the extremities. She eventually went blind (from diabetes) and died (from diabetes) when she was in her 50s. She was still a multimillionaire, but that didn’t do her any good in a coffin.

Another dumb person.

So what’s the moral of the story? I think that the medical community sometimes gets a very bad rap. Are there some bad apples in medicine? Absolutely, just like in every other occupation. But you need to find that doctor you trust, and has the same philosophy about health as you do. Once you find that doctor, you have to trust them, you have to listen to them and then make a conscious, SMART decision.

Don’t be a dumb person. Don’t be someone who falls for the gimmicks like my friend’s coworker, who thinks his doctor is in cahoots with the pharmaceutical companies. Deal only with proven facts.  And if you don’t trust your doctor, then find another one that you do trust.

Listen to smart people and learn the lessons that dumb people don’t learn. Actually, just stay away from dumb people.

Have a happy and safe 4th of July!

Blog Website: https://www.lifelessonsfrommemaw.com/  

Email: LifeLessonsFromMemaw@gmail.com