I go to visit my cardiologist this morning. I’m excited because the last time I saw him, I was 35 lbs. heavier. When I mention this, he ignores me. But he’s an odd bird, so I repeat myself, thinking he might have missed it.
He just sniffs and says, “Hummm.” My cardiologist believes in medicine, only Western medicine.
He jiggered my prescriptions around the last time I saw him, as he has done on all my bi-annual visits for the last four or five years. Together we look at my recent lipid numbers, which have sank dramatically. He wants to take credit for this, pointing to the new “mix” of medicines he prescribed.
I laugh in his face.
“Diet and exercise,” I say. “That’s what’s got us those new low numbers.”
“Two words,” he says, “Arthur Ashe.”
Arthur Ashe? I vaguely remember him being into tennis, but I’m not a big tennis fan, so what do I know. “Didn’t he die of AIDS?” I ask.
“But he got the AIDS from a blood transfusion!”
I am looking at my cardiologist like he has lost his mind. What does death from blood transfusion have to do with diet and exercise?
“He only needed the blood transfusion because he needed a bypass.”
It’s an 8:30 am appointment and I haven’t had all my coffee, but I still don’t see the connection. Sensing my confusion, the doctor offers more.
“You’re not in better shape than Arthur Ashe.” He says this with a dismissive wave of his hand.
“But isn’t Ashe dead?” I ask.
Most studies extol the virtues of diet and exercise. I am shocked at my cardiologist’s myopic approach to treating heart disease.
What a hard-on.
Present Tense 
Tim,
From my experience, and I have quite a bit as an ex-CCU nurse, cardiologists are the second biggest assholes in all of medicine. The first, you ask? Why, Cardiac surgeons!
Keep up with the diet and exercise and realize that some of your problem is probably genetic and you can’t do anything about that–Arthur Ashe couldn’t–but you can help yourself with good diet, exercise, and weight control.
As to your doctor, don’t expect any improvemnet.
Geez!!! Diest and exerciseis what it’s all about. I used to be faithful. When I retire . . .
So much for free will! But congratulations on the loss / low numbers.
So much for free will indeed. Thanks guys. Looks like I may be in the market for a new cardiologist, although to hear Sarah tell it, the landscape is the same all over.