I find it amusing when my in-laws come to town. They show up with two HUGE zip-lock baggies full of meds. They're around 70, now, & fully in the clutches of the currently
evil American medical system. I have never asked what all they're taking, but I know they take BP meds & my father in law is diabetic (type II). The mother in law has had both knees replaced. They are staunch Rep's, &, imho,
sheep to anything a conservative authority figure says, esp if he's a Dr.
Their daughter, my wife, is just as bad. She watched every med commercial on tv, was convinced she had "chronic depression" (which doesn't even exist, btw), & began taking a series of anti-depressants until they could "find the right one for her." I've told you about how well that went - she was on various pills for over 9 years, although "clinical depression" is something that lasts no more than a single year (something ELSE "they" don't tell you in their zeal to sell their meds, & the Dr's don't pay attention as long as the patient doesn't complain). This resulted in nearly 1/2 of my marriage to this "junky" being a living hell, the worst part of which being when she was weaned off the meds. Now, she takes BP meds, diabetes meds, hormones, DAMN - I just looked at
her huge zip-lock pill baggy & I see 9 (yes, that's NINE, not a typo) different prescriptions that I suspect she takes on a daily basis. She is completely wrapped up in her health, or the lack thereof. Most of our conversations spin around her aches, pains, muscle twitches, the pain in her feet, & the like. She has no idea how to live or to enjoy life, as far as I can tell. I find myself pulling away further on a daily basis cuz it's so hard to listen to all the complaints & concerns, & I have no clue how to address this problem, other than kidnapping her & taking her away from all the tv's & doctors & other BS in he world & FORCING her to live. (I don't think that's a legal thing to do.)
Her Dr told me in her presence that she (the doc) is not responsible for side affects of any given med. I then asked her who was responsible for medicating my wife for 9 years for a condition that doesn't exist. She had no answer for that one. Of course, in her wisdom, my wife still sees the same doc, after that fiasco, & takes up to 9 frikken pills a day, & is still miserably unhealthy, to listen to her talk.
My mother died from leukemia at age 43. She had seen 4 doctors over 6 weeks until she got the correct diagnosis, & was nearly dead on her feet (quite literally, with a red cell count of TWO, which I am told is IMPOSSIBLE, but I was there when they said it, after the test) before it was discovered. The chemo killed her in 6 weeks.
My father died from COPD & the flu at the age of 59. At the time, I called his death a suicide. I still do. He lived on beer, cigs, & pizza for the last 8 or 10 years of his life. (It pisses me off that my son was stripped of his grandfather's wisdom, & I find it difficult to forgive him for his choices. Then again, seeing how he lived, perhaps it's better that Ian was spared such "wisdom," eh?)
I have never been in favor of seeing Dr's with any regularity. I go when I feel like I'm dying, & that's about it. I know that my BP fluctuates quite a bit, & that's prolly due to my smoking habits & genetics, & it has yet to make me ill in any way. I get bronchitis twice a year, again, from the smoking. I get pneumonia about every 4-5 years, over the last 15 years, but even that doesn't keep me down for too long. I have always had these damned ear aches about 2-3 times a year, & they are extremely painful when they occur, but no doc I have ever seen has been interested enough to fix the source of the problem, so I've given up on them. I figger I'll live until I don't anymore, but I will NOT be a slave to the American pharmaceutical companies.
The only fear I have about socialized medicine is that they will make such slavery mandatory. If & when that happens, I fully expect to be either jailed or heavily fined, or both, for non-compliance. F*ck 'em all & feed 'em beans, is my motto!
So, NO, I won't be getting the vaccine.
Sorry it took me so long to say so.
