To doctor or noctor…

Today I went to the doc. I’ve been avoiding the doctors office of late. Trying to avoid places where masks are required and sick people gather. But I decided that today was necessary.

I've been having the pains in my feets. For about 2 weeks every day around midday my

feet begin to ache. And by evening time they burn and ache and get worse.

I had been hoping it was just the new job. Being on my feet a TON more and climbing into attics. Putting off a doc visit in hopes that my feet would “acclimate” to their new daily routine. Alas this did not happen and in fact it seemed to get worse.

So I set my pride aside and made the appointment. Wearing my mask and making my best “happy to be a sheeple” eyes as not to alert anyone to my actual refusal to assimilate attitude.

I arrived 30 minutes early and signed in. The nurse called me up and explained that this doctor doesn’t like to see other providers patients. Yikes. Luckily after 5 minutes of no communication they somehow convinced the doctor to see me. I was relieved to say the least.

A very nice young lady named Brittany took me back and did the usual weight, blood pressure and temp stuffs. She then gathered info about my current reason for coming in. Spent about 5 minutes going over it with her. About midday my feet begin to ache and hurt. By the time I get home they are full fledged burning and hurting. By morning they’re back to aching but I can walk etc. She noted my metformin med and said it could be diabetic neuropathy. Then off she went and said the doc would be in shortly and she had me take my shoes and socks off.

About 3 minutes later the doc came in. Very nice guy. We spent 10 minutes or so talking about my issues and he looked at my feet and squeezed them etc. He said it is likely what the nurse lady said.

And then it happened. The 6 words any fat diabetic asthmatic man dreads hearing….

”Have you had your COVID vaccine?”

Wait what?

Yup. For no apparent reason, nor any symptomatic based motivation this dude proceeds to lecture me on why I should get it. As a medical professional he proceeded to provide ZERO scientific or medical reasons why I should. How did he try to convince me you ask? Fear. And admittedly made up numbers.

“As a diabetic obese man, if you get this, your chances of being ventilated are very high.”

What the ever loving frick?!?!

Then he said words that made me question whether he was even a real doctor.

“Officially this has killed 4.54 million. But some places don’t report like the western countries do. So unofficially it’s likely more like 10 or 15 million that have died! That is more than any illness has killed in human history.”

Credibility out the window. Let’s just examine this for a moment. He admits he is guessing what the real “unofficial” count is. Which, as a doctor, is ludicrous. He also claims that 15 million deaths exceeds anything in the past…

FALSE.

Black Death

Plague has been responsible for widespread pandemics with high mortality. It was known as the "Black Death" during the fourteenth century, causing an estimated 50 million deaths, approximately half of them in Asia and Africa and the other half in Europe, where a quarter of the population succumbed.

Spanish flu -

The 1918 influenza pandemic was the most severe pandemic in recent history. It was caused by an H1N1 virus with genes of avian origin. Although there is not universal consensus regarding where the virus originated, it spread worldwide during 1918-1919. In the United States, it was first identified in military personnel in spring 1918. It is estimated that about 500 million people or one-third of the world’s population became infected with this virus. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States.

Reference: https://www.cdc.gov/flu/pandemic-resources/1918-pandemic-h1n1.html

But at least tacobell gets it…