Dudleys Diary

the way some people do. They are a lot like lawyers. I would just as soon stay away from them but there are times when you really need one. I have been going to doctors my whole life and you would think just one of the sum bitches might have had enough sense and training to diagnose me at a young age of having Muscular Dystrophy. But that is not the way things worked out. As it was, I was over forty years of age before I was diagnosed. I had to go to a neurologist before I found out what was wrong with me. Let me tell you it is one hell of a revelation to find out at forty something years of age that you have been suffering from Muscular Dystrophy your whole life and that you have been one of "Jerry's Kids" all along. When I questioned the neurologist about this his response was that I just never went to the right kind of doctor, ie a neurologist to get the proper diagnosis. I guess they don't teach neurology in medical school to all of the regular pediatricians, family doctors and orthopedics I saw over the years. If they did, I guess all of the doctors I ever saw must have slept through the class on neurology or perhaps they skipped that class entirely. Back in 1999, I got real sick and started coughing and could not stop. When I would lay down in bed I would start to cough and could not sleep. I went to my family doctor a couple of times. He said I had bronchitis and listened to my heart and lungs with his stethoscope. He gave me some pills and sent me home. I kept working to the point of collapse. My wife finally went back with me to the doctor a third time and demanded that he take a chest x-ray or do something to find out what the hell was wrong with me. The doctor responded that I had bronchitis and that it was unnecessary but that if it would make her feel better he would do a chest x-ray but that his x-ray technician was off and I would have to come back the next day. I went back the next day without my wife and had the x-ray done. The doctor came out with his "hat in his hand" and told me my diaphragm was herniated and my left lung was collapsed and that I would have to go into the hospital ASAP for surgery to correct this. To top it off, a few minutes later, I heard him outside the door talking to one of his doctor buddies and he was bragging to his friend about what a brilliant diagnostician he was for diagnosing my condition! Years earlier when we lived in Tyler, my wife had unexplained pain and went to a doctor for a diagnosis. The doctor sent her for a bunch of tests which he did not even bother to open the reports and he prescribed her a medication I had never heard of. I was familiar with most medication routinely prescribed by doctors so I went to the office and looked up the medication in my PDR, Physicians Desk Reference and read that the medicine was a strong tranquilizer that had been used successfully by the United States Military to tame wild monkeys. I kid you not. That lazy incompetent bastard had my wife pegged as a head case and his plan was to try to turn her into a zombie. When I told her what the doctor was giving her, she got so irate she needed to take one of those "monkey tamers" for sure. I later took her down to Scott and White Hospital in Temple and they properly diagnosed her condition. In all fairness I must say there are some really good competent doctors out there. Just be forewarned, there are a bunch of quacks in the bunch as well. Be selective when choosing a doctor. Your health and life may depend on it.