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Friday, July 22, 2011

Waiting at the Doctor's Office...

We live in a world where reserving a rental car doesn't mean your going to get a rental car exactly when you want it. Where having an airplane ticket doesn't mean your going to be on an airplane (or the intended flight) when you want to be. And we live in a world where having a doctor's appointment at 1:00 doesn't mean your going to have a doctor's appointment at 1:00.

The average wait time in a doctor's office in the nation is right around 24 minutes. That means that some people get right in, and some people end up waiting for an hour or more.

Many doctor's today are triple booking their appointments, so that appointment that you have at 1:00 could very likely be shared with 2 other people. Try getting to the doctor's 10 minutes earlier, and beat the other two. It could end up saving you a half hour or more.


It's kind of funny how it works at a doctor's office. When you first arrive, you spend the first part of waiting in waiting room #1. After a long period of time spent reading 4 year old parenting magazines, you are sent to waiting room #2 and left in a holding pattern.

Exam Room

This second room is the room with the roll of paper out on the exam table that never seems to be changed. In this second room, you get the illusion that you are close to meeting with the doctor. You can hear him walking by outside, talking with the nurse or other patients. The tension builds, but alas, you continue to wait. Should you pull out your phone and play around? "Would it be rude to the doctor if I was on my phone when he walks in?" you ask yourself... You continue to wait.

Finally at about 1:45, the doctor comes in and you put your phone away quickly. If many of you are waiting for very long periods of time like this at your doctor's office, you should consider shopping around and finding a doctor that doesn't triple book his appointments, because not all doctor's do. I understand why some of them triple book, some family doctor's are not making bank like we think they do. The specialists and surgeons are usually the one's taking on the burden of all that money. You may be limited by your insurance as to who you can go see, but it's much worse not having any insurance.

If it's really bad, write a letter to your doctor and tell them about your frustration. It's been done before, and it has caused doctor's to change the way they make appointments. Or you could be a smart scheduler, make your appointment the first one in the morning, or the first one after lunch.

So, next time your at the doctor's office, bring something to do in waiting room #1, and don't get your hopes up too much in waiting room #2.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

What Happens In Vegas...

My wife and I are expecting our first baby (a girl) in October, so we started planning a trip to Las Vegas a couple months ago as our last big trip before the baby comes. We just got back! Here were some of our favorite places we visited:







These last two pictures were at Hoover Dam, we took a tour there and it was awesome! Vegas was great fun, but we were definitely ready to get away from the strip. One thing that surprised us was how many parents brought their little kids (about age 5 or 6) to the strip with them. They would bring them late at night too! The strip is no place for kids!

This brings me to what my next post will be about. I came across a really great article titled "9 things you shouldn't say to your child." I would like to highlight the article to all the parents out there that take their kids to the strip, especially late at night. It's actually really interesting, so check back for it:)



Sunday, July 10, 2011

Apparently We're All high...



When we reach into a refrigerator, and we take that pint of ice cream, there are a lot more things happening than we think. A new study has found a similarity between two very interesting things. Eating fat and smoking marijuana.
The next time you indulge in a juicy steak or a hot fudge sundae, consider this: The high you get from eating all that fat may be related to the one you might feel if you smoked marijuana.

The same mechanism that gives pot smokers the "munchies" -- that is, a nearly irresistible desire to eat -- appears to help explain why people like fat so much, according to a new study.

At issue in the study are chemicals in the brain known as endocannabinoids, which scientists think are crucial to regulating things such as mood, anxiety and appetite, explained Piomelli, director of the UCI Center for Drug Discovery & Development. Fat appears to activate the chemicals, as does marijuana.


It makes sense that appetite and pot-smoking would be connected, Piomelli added. After all, besides helping people relax and feel less anxious in many cases, marijuana can trigger the "munchies" -- a desire to consume food, especially junk food.

They found that only fat appeared to turn on the endocannabinoid system by a signal that traveled to the brain and then to the intestines via a certain nerve bundle called the vagus, and that happened early in the process of digestion.


In English Please!!!

Basically, The fat hits the tongue, the cannabinoids kick in and the craving for more fat follows. It is basically nature's way of making sure that animals eat enough fat when it is available, so that they have the energy they need to survive as a species. The problem comes in modern life, when the animals known as humans often have plenty to eat. Believe it or not, before the invention of the refrigerator, fats were hard to find. In modern life, fat is EVERYWHERE!!!

The findings of this study make perfect sense to me and I think we all know what this study is talking about. We've all had that bowl of ice cream in front of us, and we've all had that second bowl in front of us, and some of us....I'll just stop there :)

So what's going to happen now?

This study provides more support for finding ways to manipulate hunger -- particularly our desire to eat more than we need. The problem, he said, is that drugs designed to do just that have made people irritable, depressed and anxious. That's why they're no longer being developed. The challenge is finding a drug that affects the endocannabinoid system but doesn't enter the brain and cause the psychological side effects.

For people who might benefit from this type of medication, hopefully it will become available in the future, and hopefully doctors keep prescriptions to it on a tight leash so it's not abused.

For those who would truly qualify for such a drug, imagine being able to block this mechanism so that when you reach for your pint of ice cream, you have one or two spoonfuls and that would be fine.

Until then...self-control everyone!

Here are some great blogs that I really enjoy reading!!! Check them out: