Biking and Health Care Ranting

I biked about 2 hours yesterday in the cold raw morning. I hate feeling cold so I didn't enjoy it much, but it took the edge off and made me feel better for the rest of the day. Biking doesn't seem to bother the hip. In the evening between work calls, I did an hour of gentle stretching involving my whole body. It felt very good.

This morning was 1 hour on the bike trainer. It is pouring rain out and cold. I am simply unwilling to take the bike out in this. I'm sure there are a few crazies out there biking this morning, but I can't even imagine. The wind chill would probably kill me. The bike trainer is even worse than the treadmill. Like the treadmill, it is boring. But in addition to the boredome, it is hard work! Why do my quads burn more on the trainer? Sometime this evening I will get my core work in.

I have an appointment with my Osteopath in a few hours. He has been my personal doctor for many years and we know each other well. He has a "let's wait and see" attitude about most things. We see eye to eye on this. Being in the health care profession I have seen many cases where more harm than good is done in treating problems that could have gone without treatment. Americans have a sense of entitlement to good health. We, as a rule, feel like good health is owed to us and not something we have to work to maintain. (I know the people who read this blog are an acception to this mind set, but it is the way most Americans seem to feel). If we are sick or hurt, we rarely take responsibility for it and we expect someone to fix it for us. We want pills, injections, surgeries, x-rays, MRIs, Scopes, and therapy. It is somehow owed to us. We often DEMAND it and if we don't get it from the first doctor we see, we want a second and third and forth opinion until we do get it. Don't we love our antibiotics! But I'll leave that for another day when I feel like ranting.

My physician, God love him, practices by the motto, "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." I hear that a lot from him and I agree completely most of the time. I am just afraid he is going to look at my hip and butt and say that today. If he does, I am going to grab him by his shirt collar and shake him while yelling in his face "IT IS BROKE, SO FIX IT!" I'm an American, I'm entitled.