patrick.net

If he really wanted to fuck him, he could have had it broadcasting CNN with 15 minute interludes of heavy metal.

Another excerpt:

"During that time, I saw my doctor for an unrelated reason.... But this time, as my doctor was about to leave, I asked: “Would you mind? I feel like there’s something in my ear. Can you take a look?”
***
My doctor looked in my ear with an otoscope. I could tell that before she even looked, she was expecting to find nothing. So she looked, and found nothing. She said, “Some dry ear wax, but nothing else.”
***
The insect crawled out of my ear on a Friday night. I called the triage line at my doctor’s office and was told it was unnecessary to go to the emergency room or Urgent Care, that I could wait until Monday for an appointment.

On Monday morning, I walked into the office of the doctor who’d deemed my ear empty with my jar in hand, bug inside. She did not apologize for missing it. She did not admit to dismissing me. On my chart, in fact, there was no mention that she’d ever looked in my ear or any note of the ear ringing I had complained about.

My doctor looked inside my ear with a light and said, “Yep, your ear is infected. There are scratches deep in the canal, as if something was trying to get out.” I didn’t have the energy to point out that I’d been right. I just wanted to see an expert, to ensure my hearing wouldn’t be damaged, and that the infection could be cured.

She prescribed me antibiotic ear-drops. I asked for an ENT referral, as I still felt an itchy, crawling sensation accompanying some residual ringing and buzzing. She said that wasn’t necessary and left the room-as usual-without saying goodbye.

I felt powerless. Throughout this process, so many people had told me: “Just get a new doctor!” But after trying eight doctors in the two years since moving to California from Boston, I felt I was choosing the best of the bad. With the state-issued health insurance I received from teaching at a state university, my choices were limited.
***
We’ve since moved from California to Massachusetts, where I have a much better doctor now."

The author attributes her misadventure to being a woman, because doctors "routinely" misattribute women's symptoms "to anxiety." Much evidence supports that view, but another lesson from the story rates further attention.

California has had "tort reform" since the 1970s, and mandatory medical insurance since 2014. Since then, doctors' incentives align all one way: generate more billing by seeing more patients, writing more prescriptions, and doing more procedures, but don't worry about rushing to a wrong answer, because there is little or no accountability. Friends (including especially doctors) who move from the northeast to California find the doctors here are almost always seriously worse than elsewhere. California has among the highest medical costs in the world, but frankly terrible doctors who continue misdiagnosing and injuring patients year after year. Although "tort reform" is usually a Republican slogan, California's version was enacted by Democrats: Governor Jerry Brown signed MICRA, and President Obama signed Obamneycare. Both major parties get their money from the same sources, so the "debate" resembles a parody of a beer commercial ("tastes great, less filling"): more money, less accountability. As a result, everyone overpays, and patients suffer needlessly and die prematurely.