PHYSICIANS

Once upon a time becoming a physician was an honorable profession, in the days when they did so for their love of humanity. I know that people are tired of hearing, back in the old days! But back in the old days young men and women who decided to become doctors, did so due to having seen so much suffering, from family members and other people who had no help and they really cared about people.
Many of these came from the country or the ones I know about, as this is where I was. Raised on farms and they worked their way to make it through medical school, with the help of family and friends. When they made it, they came back to the country where people needed them. Lived in homes of the people, where they were close. They traveled by horse and buggy to people’s homes and when the buggy wasn’t able to travel down or up the paths, they unhooked the horse and rode it. Specialist’s, yes they could do everything. Pay, maybe, if people had any, they paid with money otherwise they paid with what they had. Butter, eggs, chickens, canned goods, dried foods, cured meat such as hams, dried beef and anything eatable, or they waited until the crops came in or the various hides and animals were sold. They were glad to get the food they could at least eat. They took it back to where they were staying, the lady of the house cooked it and they shared. The lady of the house also did their laundry and the family got free medical care for their rent and services. They didn’t have time to grow their own food and was glad to get it. No telephones—If you needed a doctor, you got on your horse and went after him, day or night he came back with you and he didn’t ask if it was an emergency. That was a DOCTOR. I could go on for days and I’m sure many other people could about the things these wonderful doctors did. Sure they lost some patients, some were impossible to save, but most didn’t die from infections caused by the doctor.

I note that we have physicians now in congress!! They left the honorable profession to go to one that is no longer honorable. I wonder why. They weren’t any good at it, didn’t want to go through the hard work or they didn’t make enough money? So they go to a profession that has become nothing but a bunch of crooks, driven by avarice and greed. They didn’t have the intestinal fortitude to continue doing the profession they had chosen. The jingle of Midas took over. They lost their love of humanity if they ever had it.

There are many wonderful doctors I have known. A relative of mine, born on the Sipsey river in Alabama. Worked on the farm and in sawmills, became a doctor and worked until he was very old, helped start a hospital. He was proud of his life. Others I have know, the one who brought me and my brothers and sisters into this world, he came whenever he was needed. He started in the horse and buggy days. Then, he and we got cars. He still came. In 1929, my younger brother got sick. Daddy got in the car (a T-model) and went after him he came in his car (a new one). When he got there and checked him out, he said he had diphtheria and we needed to take him in to the hospital, about 20 miles away. So off they go, Daddy drove his car, Mother and Dr. Hall sat in the back seat. Things got bad Dr. Hall said I am going to have to open him up. With very little light, with my Mother holding him, he took the fountain pen from his pocket, pulled the ink tube out, slung the ink out, cut his throat and put the ink tube in so that my brother could breathe. Drove on into the hospital checked everything out. They stayed at the hospital until the next morning, then, he drove everybody back to the farm. Never any infection! The only after affects and it still shows today 80 years later is an ink stain around the scar. Now that’s what I call a real DOCTOR. Everyone he ever treated and cared for loved him, even named their kids after him.

There are still some like him out there, but what happened to the rest? I had a great one in Dallas. He had been in the navy. Always, so kind and considerate, listened and discussed then treated you. You could always call him. You could call and say, I need to come by to see you on their way home from work even though I didn’t have an appointment, but it will be late, he always said, I will wait for you. If something came up on Saturday he would meet you at the office. In all the years I never once had him ask if I had insurance. Nowadays the first thing they ask is, when you call for an appointment is, do you have insurance and what kind? Some will not take cash. They want insurance, so they can pad the bill. I adopted a totally handicapped child and sometimes don’t think I could have made it through all the things without his advice and help. He practiced until dementia set in. When I moved away I drove 92 miles to go see him and I could call if I needed to ask him something or advice. Now you can hardly get someone to take a handicapped child as a new patient, though he is now 44 and we are on Medicare and Medicaid, no one else would insure him, unless you had a few million. Dentist, do not take Medicare or Medicaid, or at least I have never found one. Medicaid doesn’t cover dental if you are over 19, even though mentally your only 6 months old. Medicare doesn’t do dental at all. Some company insurance (which we had as long as we worked) would cover a handicapped child after 19, with a special letter from the doctor, which ours always wrote. When you can no longer work and be covered, you are up a creek without a paddle. As Medicare and Medicaid covers the bare minimum.

I guess the insurance companies consider my son with a pre-existing condition. No, that’s the way god sent him into this world and I accept him unconditionally. I have had all the corrective surgery that could be done on him. He is deaf, blind, mute and non-ambulatory and I take care of him like a baby and have for the 42 years that I have had him 24/7. Basically I have kept him well. I appreciate the wonderful doctors that I have had. Some I wouldn’t give 2 cents for.
Our politicians aren’t worth 2 cents. The politicians that will not work with this President to help him get better medical care for all of us who cannot afford the care we furnish them, their day will come. Plus they will have to meet their maker, as they really aren’t immortal, and he will ask, have you done the best by all my people that you could? Then he will weed the chaff from the wheat. Which way will he turn you up or down?