Posted on 06/13/2021 10:54:00 AM PDT by wastedyears
So here's my thing. I want to find a doctor I could have a long conversation with, who will do some deep, comprehensive testing to find out what's wrong with me (35, male, falling apart). I ask the nurse practitioner I see for a big, comprehensive blood test to see if there are any other problems with me. She asks "what do you want tested." I say I don't know, because I'm not a medical professional and don't know where to start. It's like a circular conversation. Then she tells me to exercise when I have no energy, and tells me she knows it's like a catch-22. Lady, if I had the energy, it wouldn't be a problem.
I found out about Forward via a YouTube ad when trying to watch a video on my tablet. The premise of it is wonderful, and it really seems like the logical evolution in office visits and diagnostic testing. Biometric scanner, huge TV in the exam room, in-house blood testing so you get the results back in less than 20 minutes (so they say). They also say the first visit is an hour long to get a strong baseline for how you and your body are.
The strange thing is it's subscription-based; they don't take health insurance. For what you could potentially gain in a health sense, it's a fantastic deal.
I then went to their 'About Us' link. What did I find? Some of the people involved with the organization:
Ram Shriram - first Google investor, Alphabet board
Patrick Pichette - former Google CFO
Eric Schmidt - former Google CEO
Jessica Powell - former Google VP communications
All of us on here know Google cannot be trusted. The cost of the membership certainly isn't enough to cover just the cost of the doctor's compensation, nevermind their equipment.
This is my hangup with it. I want another professional opinion, but I don't want my medical information sold to the highest bidder. These people think nothing of personal information; what do they care about violating HIPAA laws? New information comes out regularly that some really heinous s**t goes on with the elite. China harvests organs. Children are used as currency and blackmail.
Do I bite the bullet, register and go for a visit?
Remembering Obama and his use of the term “Forward” I was suspicious before you told us anything.
Wouldn’t touch it with a 10 foot pole.
FDA warns Google-backed 23andMe to halt sales of genetic ...https://www.reuters.com ›
us-23andme-fda-warning › f...
Nov 25, 2013 — The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has warned 23andMe, a company ... 23andMe, which was founded in 2006 by Anne Wojcicki, sells a $99 DNA test that the ...
The company said its relationship with the FDA is “extremely ... out there,” said Joseph McInerney, executive vice president of the ASHG.
A nurse practitioner is nice but NOT a doctor. Some are very good and even better than a doc but they are few and far between. NPs are mostly technicians and not clinical diagnosticians. They know what to do about specific things but are not into deep diagnosis.
Used to be one could go to a place like Scott and White Clinic in Temple, Texas, the Mayo Clinic of the South I called it. That was a one stop and efficient shop to find out what ales you and treat it. Not sure now.
Medicine has mostly become the province of dealing with low hanging fruit as quickly as possible. The too hard things just take too much time and they try to push them somewhere else.
Maybe what you need is a concierge type GP gate keeper? The problem with gate keepers and the referrals to specialists is that unless the gate keeper actually knows someone who will work with you on your problem you will fall into the endless hunt and peck process until you hit on the right person and specialty that can actually do something for you or you run out of time and die.
Good luck. That is what finding really good medical care in this country is all about, good luck.
Just noticed you are in NY. Depending on what part, if you want to have a long conversation with a doc that is interested in helping you, you are screwed.
Move somewhere else.
What you are looking for is a direct primary care provider. They do not accept insurance and therefore cut out all the overhead involved with insurance. They also cut out the obscene markup for diagnostic tests that traditional providers slather on.
https://duckduckgo.com/?q=direct+primary+care&t=brave&ia=web
Better call Saul—I'd have lawyer look at it if you are concerned. I suppose your main concern might be that a life insurance company might deny coverage based on your information. And we all don't want random individuals to be able to Google our health information. I am not a lawyer so I will make no attempt to interpret that gobbledygook.Protected Health Information
GoForward is not a “covered entity” under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, Public Law 104-191, and its related regulations and amendments from time to time (collectively, “HIPAA”), however, the Medical Group (as defined in our Terms of Use) may be a “covered entity” and, solely in its role providing administrative services to the Medical Group, GoForward may be a “business associate” of the Medical Group.Therefore, the Medical Group and, solely in its role as a business associate, GoForward, may be subject to certain provisions of HIPAA with respect to “protected health information,” as defined under HIPAA, that you provide to the Medical Group. PHI does not include information that has been de-identified in accordance with HIPAA (“De-Identified Health Information”), and does not include information that you submit to GoForward for purposes other than supporting and facilitating your relationship with the Medical Group or Providers.
Too bad you are not a Veteran.
If you were starting with a good VA health center, and identified your issue with your first primary care doctor on your first visit with them, there’s a good likelihood they’d start with an order to the labs to do a full blood analysis, even if just to get a base line on all the important factors to start with. From that many possible negative readings could show up and begin pointing to possibilities.
I also hate to say it but many cancers can have the first sign as nothing specific, just a constant lack of energy (fatigue) - as they begin to tax the body generally without showing other specific symptoms right away. There are some health outfits I think that do broad screening (via blood tests that look for certain raised protein levels - in the blood stream - known to be raised sometimes due to a cancer) for a number of cancers.
No.
You need to work with a doctor. So nurse won’t recommend anyone, no big deal. Research and find a family doctor in your locality. Read the different descriptions and pick the one you think may be best. Make an appointment as new patient. Tell them you want a complete physical with any blood and urine tests for someone your age. Before your physical, go to one of those traveling mobile units that test yo for potential stroke, HBP, etc etc. Take the results with you to your appointment. Keep track of your own diet (including any vitamins, drugs, alcohol you are taking), family history, sleep, work and exercise for the 3 weeks before your physical. Take all that info with you. After your doctor gets done examining you and your records, tell him all these symptoms you think you are having and when you have them.
The doctor should make an assessment and you go from there. It may take a while for you/Dr to figure this out - especially if it can’t be observed or measured easily/repeatable.
Good luck.
Don’t go for this Google thing, it sounds very suspect to me.
I can tell you that after years of not going to the doctor I finally decided to use my insurance plan to choose a primary care physician (I had an HMO). He ordered some comprehensive blood tests which revealed my diabetes, of which I was unaware of course, and a couple other less serious problems.
The diabetes is controlled with medication, diet, and some exercise, and I am happy I have a doctor who cares about me and my health.
A colonoscopy at age 45 is also a good idea, and if it’s normal, every ten years after that. Those are basically free now under screening guidelines.
Make sure you have decent insurance. Best of good health to you!
I know nothing about Go Forward. Perhaps other posters here have some experience with it. In general, when symptoms are vague, somewhat general and seeminly not dangerous at the moment, start small and be specific. Ask for a referral to a Nutritionist, assuming that your low energy could be due to a mineral deficiency. That Nutritionist will likely order a work up of your blood. Do you have a proper balance of red and white blood cells? Are you iron deficient?
They may even ask about your sleeping habits.
Do you snore a lot or stop breathing here and there during your deep sleep? That may indicate Apnea.
A lot of men in my family have thick necks: collar sizes 17 or bigger. Many of these folks have obtructions to the involuntary breathing we rely on to keep working at all times. Same goes if one is overweight. For some, not all.
Do you eat a lot late into the evening? i.e. after 7pm?
Maybe your stomach is not yet done breaking all that food down. This can give you a restless stomach, that keeps you from a deep, undisturbed sleep.
For me, I wouldn’t go near these people. I would find an Internist, get my thyroid checked, take a good one-a-day vitamin taking two a day for a couple of weeks, then one a day. I would use B-12/folic acid patches (e-bay), pills don’t do the job. I would be checked for parasites and heavy metal. I would eat red meat, severely limit alcohol/drug intake. Stress can really do a number on overall health; extra B and C vitamins can help with that. Other Freepers will have suggestions also.
I would not trust that organization, I’m sorry to say.
Unless you are an elite, they don’t care if you live or die.
I do believe their are answers for you, likely among internal medicine. Hard to find the gifted ones but they exist. Prayers up that you find one very soon!
Find yourself a good in person MD, Internal medicine. Get a full physical and ask questions.
Unless you know specific diagnosis, online anything is generally worthless unless educating yourself on the diagnosis. As you have no dx, I’d suggest steering clear. Sounds like a con.
If the membership cost is less than the cost of the service, then you are the product.
This entity is being financed by big data to harvest health and genetic data for some other purpose they expect to deliver big $$$ at a later date.
The fact that they are not up front about it is nefarious and reprehensible.
If they were fully transparent about the big data investors were willing to “invest” in covering the costs of diagnostics in exchange for health data, they would still get tons of takers.
” (35, male, falling apart)?”
whatever you do, focus exclusively on getting well, and forget about everything else, including medical privacy, which is total fiction anyway.
first, see if you can find a GOOD integrative physician who specializes in hard-to-diagnose conditions; usually these kinds of docs are cash-only and don’t take insurance, though if you DO have insurance, standard sorts of tests should be covered ...
unfortunately, a large number of conditions could be causing your massive energy loss ... among those are chronic lyme disease (from tick bite), hypothyroidism (an auto-immune disease), pernicious anemia (another autoimmune disease that prevents B12 from being absorbed), and obstructive sleep apnea ... some of those have a genetic component and you should look to family history of medical conditions ... also, i highly recommend a comprehensive genetic profiling at ancestry.com, with the profile subsequently uploaded into https://promethease.com/ which will gen up a custom set of html pages that you can download to your PC and explore from several perspectives ... that could give you some clues as to what might be wrong, and the cost is minimal
btw, other things that can cause low energy are heart problems, pulmonary embolism, and several drugs, including beta blockers ...
finally, it’s likely to take a large dose of perseverance on your part to find out what’s wrong, something that’s particularly hard to do when your energy is so low ...
Any advice to this guy, Doc?
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