Andy's blog

The wildflowers this year have been the best in years; whole hillsides are purple with lupine, great swathes of orange poppies and golden mustard glow in every direction. Gorgeous!

My grandmother used to tell me I'd catch more flies with honey than I would with vinegar, that I'd have better success accomplishing my ends by being positive.

Several years ago I suffered from reflex sympathetic dystrophy, a painful and uncommon sympathetic nervous system disorder that can be disabling. It was still possible to find references to it on the net that called it a psychiatric disorder, although by that time it had been generally recognized as a physical disorder with an accepted course of treatment.

When I was growing up, doctors were god-like beings who were never questioned. Their word was law. When my father’s doctor told him he was dying in a very callous way and was impatient with Dad's questions, I finally burst out, “Have mercy, you’re telling him he’s dying!” The doctor bridled indignantly and suggested we find another oncologist. I was obliged to apologize to him to get him to agree to continue treating my father.

I've always paid extra for PPO insurance so I could choose my doctors, rather than being forced to go to someone who takes my insurance or running the gauntlet of authorizations that HMOs require. But even the most rigid of insurance plans allows for some choice of who you go to. Those market forces help keep providers on their toes. We require an exceptionally high standard of probity from our healthcare providers, because of how much depends on it.

A lot of blogs and internet sites offer the opportunity to rant, blow off steam or revenge yourself against those who've done you wrong. The prospect of a disgruntled employee or unbalanced patient having a forum for their venom makes doctors and other caregivers nervous about a rating and review website like CareSeek's.

I've received more than my share of medical care, and I used to have a theory that I radiated some kind of field that lowered physicians' IQs when I got too close, similar to the way some people make watches run fast or slow. My alternate theory was that as medical care attempted to approach me, I emitted a ray that distorted and damaged it, so that by the time it reached me it was a destructive force. For a number of years I was involved with a series of perfectly intelligent,