Physicians And Hospitals Rating System

This morning on CNN, Dr. Gupta, did a story on rating doctors and hospitals. I think this is a great idea. In the past, I have always used BCBS since that is our insurance carrier or word of mouth. Even living in such a large area as DFW, it is still hard to find the doctor for you and your needs. We don’t have a shortage by any means but, with BCBS anyway, you don’t get a lot of good information about the doctors.

I found several doctor rating websites and these are the ones that I have checked out; Health Grades, Physician Reports and RateMDs.com. All three of these are free. This is what I found on each site:

Health Grades – When you do a search on a doctor, you wind up with a report that shows;

• Introduction – Patient/Medical Philosophy, Personal Facts, Website (if any), If the physician provides access to a nurse
• Experience/Training – Specialties, Medical School, Internship, Residency, Fellowship and if they participate in Clinical Trials
• Disciplinary Actions – It will show a report if any as far back as 5 years ago, through the Office of Inspector General and 50 state medical boards.
• Patient Experience – Here you can rate your doctor and/or see what others have rated and the national average.
• Affiliated Hospitals

Physician Reports – Once you search you doctor the reports go back to the Health Grades reports. This one was a waist of time.

RateMDs.com – On this one I did not find a lot of the doctors that I was looking for. However, you have the ability to add a doctor and rate them. I did find one doctor that I took my child to one time and I would not take my pet rock to this guy, I did rate him and voice my opinions.

There are many of services like this out on the internet, these are just the ones that I have gone to. By far my first choice would be Health Grades and then RateMDs.com. With doctors these days being so specialized, this is a good way to find a doctor for your needs, especially if you have multiple health issues. There are a lot of good and knowledgeable doctors out there but, not are all created equal.

Please, let me know what you find and links that you use.

The Battle Over Evil Migraine’s

This past weekend I have been battling a migraine since Saturday. I have been getting migraines off and on for the past 15 years and very rarely do I ever get the ocular ones. But, this weekend I had a killer ocular migraine. I have taken prescription medications for them in the past but, now with all of my other medical problems that isn’t really an option.

I have been racking my brain (what little was working) to figure out what the trigger was this time. I could not thing of anything. Until I found this on the internet; “Changes in weather or altitude.” Well, being Texas…the weather is crazy it was cold enough to wear a coat on Friday, 80 on Saturday and mid 70’s yesterday. I guess that must be what triggered it? Even my nurse, Odie (pictured) is hot. He has been taking care of me all weekend and has not left my side. He has always been a good dog but, started being my nurse when I first started feeling bad years ago.

Here is a list of what Odie and I tried to get rid of my migraine, these are the ones that usually work. Excedrin Migraine, Excedrin Back and Body, resting in a quiet room, cold compress on neck and forehead, scalp massage, pressure on temples. All of these with no luck as it is now Monday and I am still dealing with it.

We would like to ask if you have migraines or other terrible headaches, what works for you? Please post them here.

Texas Snowman And Entrecard Shop

Today in tribute to the crazy weather that we have down here in Texas, I wanted to share something that we saw in a truck stop on our latest trip. There is a saying in Texas, "if you don't like the weather...wait five minutes." This is definitely true this week, yesterday I had a jacket on and today...I am wearing shorts. Who knows what tomorrow may bring? Maybe, a "Texas Snowman"?

I also want to say thanks to Saphrym for making me a new Entrecard widget. You can also find him in the Entrecard Shop, he has several services to offer; Blog Review and Entrecard Ad Design. His services are very reasonably priced 500ec and 250ec. There are also other really great Entrecard blogger's on the Entrecrd Shop.

Kicking The Smoking Habit

As I posted earlier in the week (New Year’s Resolution), I found a great new stop smoking blog. Quit Smoking Together with Kelly. I have tried to quit before with out much luck but, I decided to give this a try. Kelly and I exchanged several emails and she asked me to co-author this new blog with her. I posted my first post there last night Mandy’s (aka txmedicalfreak) Introduction so, most of my smoking related post you can find on Quit Smoking Together. There is another co-author there too Ghosty and his introduction on addiction was spot on, it is a must read for smokers and non-smokers alike here is a link to his post Quitting An Addiction.

I am hoping that this new smoking blog will help me finally quit. I have been using something similar to keep track of my weight and blood sugar. The site I use is Everyday Health. It has a lot of handy gadgets; Glucose Tracker, Weight Tracker, Healthy Weight Calculator and a Heart Attack Calculator and several more. Click here for the complete list.

I found with this site that it helped me see my sugar, sodium and protein intake. Before I found this I really had no idea what how much sodium I was really eating on a daily basis and it wasn’t from the salt that I was putting on my food it was in the foods that I was using. I am limited to 2000 mg per day due to kidney problems. I don’t have diabetes but my PCOS has made my blood sugar off, the Medformin has seemed to help with that along with the PCOS.

I think that Quit Smoking Together will help me (and many others) to finally quit smoking and get great support.

Answer To A Question About My “MIT Reverses Autism In Mice” Post

Here is the question, “Is it possible to be slightly autistic? I always thought autism is a severe problem, nothing mild about it.”

To answer your question, yes and no…you either have autism or you don’t but, it depends where on the “spectrum” you fall. There are several Autism Spectrum disorders, the definitions’ were taken from the Autism Society:

Classic Autism – The presence of markedly abnormal or impaired development in social interaction and communication and a markedly restricted repertoire of activity and interest. AKA: Early Infantile Autism, Childhood Autism, or Kanner's Autism.

Asperger Syndrome – Children with Asperger's Disorder frequently like to collect categories of things, such as rocks or bottle caps. They may be proficient in knowing categories of information, such as baseball statistics or Latin names of flowers. While they may have good rote memory skills, they have difficulty with abstract concepts.

PDD NOS (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) – Severe and pervasive impairment in the development of reciprocal social interaction or verbal and nonverbal communication skills; stereotyped behaviors, interests, and activities; and the criteria for Autistic Disorder are not met because of late age onset, atypical and/or sub threshold symptomotology are present.

Other Syndromes & Disorders that fall on the spectrum – Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Cornelia DeLange Syndrome, Turette’s Syndrome, Fragile X Syndrome, William’s Syndrome, Down Syndrome, Tuberous Sclerosis, Landau-Kleffner Syndrome, Sensory Impairments, Defining Symptomatology, Disorders of Metabolism/Infections.

Here are some good Autism information links:

Autism Speaks FAQ

Wrong Planet

Autism Society of America: What is Autism?

Rock Autism (This is my autistic son’s favorite; music is just one of his obsessions’…he was crushed when he found out that Elvis was dead. We still have not told him that Freddie Mercury of Queen is dead)