My Best Side

In order to stay in touch with the narcissistic self-centered Face Book / My Space crowd I am posting the pictures of my colonoscopy. It is just a natural progression from my previous pictures of my cracked abscessed tooth and bloody retina. Perhaps this selfless act will spur others of my generation to partake of the only screening test that has been proven to affect outcome: the one-eyed black snake. "Here's looking at you, kid".

I read this article in Macleans magazine. For those of you less traveled, Macleans is like the Newsweek of Canada. It seems that that beacon of socialized medicine has a problem. Canada has a doctor shortage. What a surprise! Can that be the future for the U.S.? Universal health insurance but no doctors.

Part of the problem is that 53% of the medical school graduates are now women. In a normal career a female physician will work an average of ten years less, see 10 % less patients in a day and work 10 hours less a week. This problem came to light in the U.S. a few years ago when the general surgery residencies started graduating greater numbers of women surgeons. The existing shortage was aggravated by the decreased time that these woman were devoting to surgery. I think that today's male doctor also refuses to follow his predecessors into a life of 80 hour work weeks plus call for fifty years.. Between socialized medicine and and punitive taxation I don't think doctors are going to answer the phone after five p.m. If you have a credit card you will still be able to find a plumber. Now there is talk of Medicare covering dentistry. Try to find a dentist in the U.K. The last one left for Canada six months ago. My advice to you is to take care of your health. However, don't take too good care of yourself; less you end up in a nursing home dying of nothing.