Wait, your name is Lydia, too!?

On the first day of class this term, my geology teacher called my name and I answered as nonchalantly as usual. I was never expecting to be interrupted by a second hand going up in the air, that of the girl next to me. As I slammed my hand down in confusion over this interruption, my teacher informed me,
"Lydia, there is another Lydia in this class."
"No way!" I thought to myself, "I never meet other Lydias!"
On the few occasions when I have met someone with the same name, they have always shared the same excitement as me, I expected the same from this girl, who even looks a bit like me (freckles, light skin, thin).
"Wow! This is weird!" I exclaimed to her, "How do you spell it?"
She gave me a weird look, rolled her eyes and said, "L-Y-D-I-A. How ELSE would you spell it?"
I proceeded to tell her that I have had my name spelled all kinds of weird ways, including "Lideah," "Lydea," and the more common version, "Lidia."
This version of my name just smirked at her friend and didn't seem interested.
My sisters always joke that people with the same name often share characteristics. All three of us know never to date a guy named Josh, he's going to be full of himself. And Steve, well he's going to be a manipulative a**hole. It's just the law of the universe.
Meeting this bitchy, eye-rolling version of "Lydia" was a little much for me. I wonder if she's a reflection of me in some way, and all the previous Lydia's I have met were a reflection of a much happier, better me.
Bull-shit. I was totally nice to her, some girls are just bitches.

P.S. Maybe I will give the next Josh I meet a chance, too.

Dr. Google?

I love Google. If I can’t spell a word, I Google it. If I need to settle a late-night argument about the biological difference between dwarves and midgets, I Google it. Video game walk-throughs? Google. News? Google. The options are endless for the every-day Internets user. But what about doctors caring for patients? Is using Google appropriate then? I hardly think so.
Recently I took my seriously ill husband in to the Benton County Health Department, located in Corvallis, where he was being seen for Grave’s Disease and hyperthyroidism. After three months of treatment I expected the doctor who had seen us each at each visit to have some knowledge of my husband’s disease and treatment options. I expected the doctor to be familiar with my husband’s symptoms and even (gosh!) the medication he had been prescribed at this very clinic. I was wrong. Instead this doctor stared blankly at my husband, turned to his computer, and before our very eyes, he Googled my husband’s disease.


After three serious minutes of clicking on random links and staring for perhaps thirty seconds at a page from WebMD.com, our doctor was a verified specialist in Graves. Or so he thought. He told us my husband’s symptoms weren’t an issue (his skin was yellow and he was bleeding from his ears…) and to get some counseling to deal with stress. He then went on to say he couldn’t find any substantive information and dealing with this disease was “above his pay grade.” Or maybe he just realized his own incompetence and that Google, as useful as it is, was not going to help him be a good doctor.
When my husband was diagnosed I too used Google to find information on his disease. I spent countless hours late at night reading any information I could find. Medical reports and journals, WebMD, entire books published by endocrinologists about Grave’s Disease. The amount of information found on Google was overwhelming, and would take even the fastest reader more than three minutes of searching to come up with consistent and accurate information. Anyone with a writing class on campus knows you can’t believe everything you read on the Internets, it is what our teachers tell us on day one. So why was this doctor I was paying $300 a visit using Google, and seemingly nothing else, to find information?
As patients we need to demand more of our doctors. We need to demand the best care possible, and that includes having informed doctors who are prepared to disseminate, organize, and find the facts in the information we, the patients, find on Google. Everyday people can use Google to find information, but doctors need to be held to higher standards. These people make decisions that can affect our health, and our lives, and must be prepared when we seek their help and advice. Google doesn’t cut it.
Next time you make a visit to your doctor’s office, take a look at what he or she is doing on their computer. Be prepared to question the source of their information, and the extent of their knowledge. I checked with an endocrinologist in Portland, and it turned out everything the doctor at the Corvallis Health Department had told us was wrong, and down-right dangerous. So don’t leave your health and the health of your loved ones in the hands of Google, I am glad I didn’t.

P.S. Cartoon courtesy of Clagnuts Cartoon Blog
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