27th March 2012
Is there ANY competent doctor in the world? I’d like to meet him.
Please note, at the outset, that I’m the firmest believer in critical thinking and science (including medical science, without any doubt). However, I also know that doctors are NOT scientists, merely dispensers of knowledge that sits on the shelves of libraries, knowledge discovered by scientists through hard work and discovery, each discovery often costing many lifetimes of scientific brainpower, each discovery approaching the truth, but almost never reaching it.
I would have had nothing against doctors HAD they not insisted on using coercive powers of the state to pad their pockets. But I know them through and through by now, as people ONLY working for money, not above twisting the arms of taxpayers and governments to benefit themselves.
In my entire life I've not come across a A SINGLE COMPETENT DOCTOR (by competent I mean a doctor who knows what he/she is talking about; who knows his/her discipline thoroughly, and who is able to humbly explain the limits of his/her discipline).
Today, in my refrigerator is sitting $600 worth of medicine purchased from USA through the Australian government through special prescription. It is taking up a third of the volume of my fridge. A great nuisance. The question before me is: should I take this medicine?
The medicine, called Restasis, is approved by FDA, but works only in 15 per cent of the cases. “In a clinical trial involving 1,200 people, Restasis increased tear production in 15 percent of patients, compared with 5 percent of patients in the placebo group”. Now, this is not a trivial medicine. “Allergan's Restasis earned $620 million in 2010”. Assuming an average user spent $300 per year, this yields 2 million users. A lot of people are getting VERY RICH from something that barely works.
How did I get this medicine, and why am I not taking it?
Here’s the brief story. I’m going to take names this time, to make this story totally real. Many of these things are documented in more detail either on this blog or at http://eyestrain.sabhlokcity.com/. I don't want to give people like Dr Yadu Singh the chance to say that I've been exceptionally unlucky to get doctors who don't know their subject. I CHALLENGE THE ENTIRE WORLD this time. Is there ANY competent doctor? I'd like to hear of (or from) one such doctor.
My eye pain symptoms (which started in October 2010) are so bad I can't describe them without writing an essay. Let me summarise them. Imagine someone (a) sqeezing your eyeballs, (b) grating them with a grater, (c) rubbing them with a sand paper, (d) burning them with a scalding iron, then you can get a sense of the peak pain that I’ve been having. On top of that, if you imagine nausea that makes standing up virtually impossible on many occasions, and a headache and splitting soreness that doesn’t go away whether you are awake or asleep – that’s more like what I’ve experienced on many days over the past 15 months.
There's nothing like this kind of MADDENING pain and irritation to focus your mind. Everything becomes irrelevant. This becomes the dominant thing in your life. You are ALWAYS conscious of SEVERE pain. Anyway, after struggling with the symptoms (and reading up a lot of relevant medical literature – by now I've read a truly massive amount of medical literature on the subject) ) I went to a doctor.
Dr. Sam Assad, MBBS.
Dr Assad is a very nice person, and has been my personal general practitioner (GP) for years, now. But he totally failed to diagnose the problem. He suggested I apply metsal, a hot burn/cream meant for athletic sprains. He thought I had some tense eyelid muscles.
SUMMARY: WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time, and medicine at my expense
I had occasion to see Sam Assad again on this matter (I think thrice).
Dr. Feng Yang, MBBS
Another nice doctor (GP) whom I visit periodically from work (he works in the city). Dr. Feng Yang thought I might have dry eyes and prescribed LidCare, an eyelid cleaning liquid. His recommendations did NOT work.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time, and medicine at my expense
Dr. John Manolopolous, MD
Referred by Dr Feng Yang at my request (to give me a specialist recommendation in case his prescription did not work). I made two visits to John. He diagnosed general inflammation. Prescribed a steroid, Flarex (which seemed to work a little bit for a while) but then said it can’t be taken for long, so he recommended non-prescription drops. They did not work at all.
On my second visit to him I asked whether I needed Restasis, and he specifically said "No", particularly because it uses material that is used in chemotherapy.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time (relatively big money for his consultation charges), and medicines – that did not work – at my expense.
Dr. Maged Atalla, MD, Opthalmic and Oculoplastic Surgeon
Referred by Dr Sam Assad (after nothing above worked, and based on my own possible hypothesis). Said I had some inflammation but the medicines prescribed by John Manolopolous were WRONG. He gave me Acular. Recommended omega capsules. None of this worked. I did not bother to go back to him.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time (this was big money), and medicine at my expense.
Dr. ?? at the Royal Eye and Ear Hospital Emergency
Don’t know this doctor’s name, but he was so careless he signed a prescription medicine on the back of a slip of a writing pad, and the pharmacy refused to honour that prescription. I had to go back to the hospital next day when another doctor finally gave a proper prescription. I was told I possibly have blephritis. Gave me Patanol. That did not work, either.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time, and medicine at my expense.
Dr Dan Lee, MBBS
Said I don’t have blepharitis. Ordered tests to identify any allergic response, and gave medicines (e.g. Telfast, Rani, Flarex, and Patanol). Result: No improvement.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time, tests, etc., Medicine at my expense.
Dr Laurie Sullivan, MD, renowned eye specialist
Said I have minor mebomian gland dysfunction. Gave me a scrub/ hot compress for the eye. No improvement.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time (this was big money), and medicine at my expense.
Associate Professor Mark Roth, Melbourne University
Conducted tear osmolarity test and said I have moderate mebomian gland dysfunction. Ordered “computer glasses” at good cost. Ordered Restasis. Have only taken for four days. Paid over $1K. Started restasis in early February, but it increased pain so severely that I decided to show doctor/s in India first.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time (this was big money), and medicine at my expense.
Dr Anthony Hall, MD and Associate Professor at Melbourne University
Declared that there’s NOTHING WRONG WITH my eyes. Said pain could arise from sinusitis. Conducted CT scan, no significant sinusitis detected. Some medicines taken.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Taxpayer of Australia (including me) for the doctor’s time (this was big money), and medicine at my expense. CT scan put me back a few hundred dollars.
Dr M. K. Gupta, MS (eye specialist) (Gurgaon)
When restasis was aggravating the burning, I decided to show a few Indian doctors while I was in India. Dr. Gupta I saw twice. He said I have mild meibominitis. He said clerarly, however, that for my kind of problem restasis should NOT be taken. He gave a few antibiotics and prescribed hot compress. No result.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Cost to me.
Dr. J.S. Chilana, MS (eye specialist) (Delhi)
Showed him but his view was that I have nothing wrong with the eyes. Recommended omega capsules.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Cost to me
(Dr.) Yogesh Mittal BAMS (Ayurveda) (Delhi)
He had no instruments to test the eyes, but recommended aloe vera juice and triphla capsules. In my view, after experimentation (and consistent with my other experiments with aloe vera), this seems to have been pivotal in slightly reducing the symptoms. I am literally guzzling down aloe vera juice these days.
SUMMARY: INCOMPLETE/WRONG DIAGNOSIS. WRONG MEDICINE.
Cost: Cost to me
In addition, I've been consulting, over email, with a eye specialist friend from Guwahati. Won't give his name since he has not had the opportunity to diagnose me.
What's my point?
I have been left to my own resources in terms of taking restasis. Two doctors say I should take it (one of them includes my Guwahati doctor friend), two say I shouldn't. The FDA says it works in 15 per cent of the cases. It costs $600 ($100 [per month], needs to be taken for one's entire life, and hurts like hell.
So if the patient must finally decide, why give doctors such huge monopoly powers?
Second, and more importantly in my case, is there ANY competent doctor in this world? I've been forced to read and experiment myself. And to get antibiotics from India (btw, these didn't work either). Ultimately, it is clear that I'm ENTIRELY on my own on this matter.
If so, what's the point of the TOTALLY UNACCOUNTABLE medical profession that TAKES THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS FROM TAXPAYERS AND PATIENTS and provides NOTHING in return?
And then has the temerity and impudence to attack "alternative" medicine.
The whole thing is a hoax. So little do we know about the human body. Why pretend to know more than you actually know?