Saturday, January 31, 2009

even more

when you hear hoofbeats, look for horses (or, common things occur commonly)(this is a standard medical saying). meaning: if you didn't already figure it out, it's ain't some weird thing usually. it's more common for common illnesses to present in a weird way than for a weird illness to present at all (or to mimic a common illness). reader's digest is not a medical textbook, nor is the internet - but wikipedia has most medical textbooks on it!
the shortest route is not always the best route, because it can bypass some of the most precious lessons in life. (ravi zacharias)
some people seem to need to define their lives by their hardships, whether they be illnesses or other types, death in the family, financial hardship. look in the bible at aaron and nadab and abihu. sometimes you need to work through things, not live for them.
the lessons learned the hard way, the long way, are often the best, but man, that's not how they feel when you're going through them. think of this for your kids.
when my children get the 'i wants' and 'i needs' it's time for them (and me) to 'serve, serve, serve'(my lovely bride)
God gives where He finds empty hands - (St. Augustine)
sometimes you are the answer to the prayer you pray. (steve brown)
we think that helplessness is a liability - and it may be if you're a soldier or a policeman or a teacher - but in spiritual matters, just the opposite is true. (steve brown)

ok, i know these were random. each could have had a whole blog to itself, and who knows? maybe they will someday, but right now, hopefully this will do.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

more radical thoughts

well, not necessarily more radical, but more thoughts. some are mine, some belong to others. i'll try to differentiate if you can't tell.
Nothing good happens after 10 pm. (many people, me, my wife, my parents, your parents...) well, it's true to this day. 
Just because you can doesn't mean you should. (again, many people, including all of the above) if people took this to heart life would be less hectic and more peaceful. especially after 10 pm.
God makes complex things simple and man turns around and makes simple things complex.  ok, this one's on me. as i'm continually faced with our tendency to make things harder and more complicated than they need to be. my friend Greg says "Christians shouldn't be into the details, because the devil is in the details."
First come up with a drug, and if necessary, we'll invent a disease.  ok, this is me again, but i had help. all the big pharmaceutical companies are doing this, whether they admit it or not. there are many 'diseases' and 'disorders' out there today that didn't exist before. a variation on this would be 'come up with a test and we'll come up with something to call the results if they're positive'.
35 miles or $35 will weed out most unnecessary doctor visits. ok, this is mine, too. not that i mind seeing lots of kids who aren't too sick, just that availability has become almost detrimental to some people. for instance: we are closed today due to weather, and this is a lose-lose situation - if open, we would have had people risk their lives on bad roads to bring in kids who don't need to be seen, and since we're closed we aren't serving our patients well.
It is easier to die for Jesus than to live for Him. a paraphrase of Oswald Chambers.
It is what it is...unless it isn't. Greg Poland. this can serve for many things and situations. when people want a definitive answer on some medical question that has not definitive answer, this works well.
Don't do the test if the result isn't going to change what you would do. me again. the healthcare consumer wants tests. they want them because they think the result is the answer to their problem, and some even think the test is the answer to their problem. i can't tell you how many times i've heard people say 'after that cat scan, i haven't had any more headaches' or variations on that theme. suggests a psychosomatic etiology to me, but hey...
It's amazing how many people survived before there were all these medicines and tests! me again. just in 25 years of finishing med school, the increase in the amount of knowledge and the numbers of tests and treatments is phenomenal. but simple things are still simple and common things still happen commonly. 

i'll come up with some more later. i just hadn't posted in a while.