Oh What Fun It Is...Not

Warning: Not in a festive mood. Rant to follow.

With today's technology advances, I cannot figure out why the health/medical/pharmaceutical communities use what I consider archaic, preset standards.

With infants and children, medications are administered based on the size of a child-predominantly by weight. It is reasonable. I wonder if one day a better method could be utilized based on personalized absorption & metabolism rates.

What I don't understand is the broad, generalized administration of drugs to adults. Whether one is 5 foot and 90 pounds, or 6 foot 3 and 350 pounds, he gets the exact same dosage of medicine. This is not reasonable, in my humble opinion.

I went to the cardiologist for a treadmill stress test. It is a pre-programmed workout, designed to register how your heart responds to the level of activity. Why must I, at 5 foot 2, have to walk the same pace as the gentleman who is 6 foot 7? Someone can't design the speed of the treadmill based on the length of your legs and stride? The test was ended early. I could not walk that fast. For me, that pace required a slow jog, but that wasn't allowed. I could have continued, but I needed to keep a very firm grip on the bar to keep from falling. They complained that I could not hold on so tightly or it interfered with the test. Slow it down just a tad and get a better analysis of how my heart reacts to a workout designed for my size. Sheesh!

What about pulmonary function? Once again, my lung function is based on "standards." The spirometer measures my breathing at 80%-in the normal range for someone my age, height, sex, etc. But why don't they take into consideration whether or not a person has learned to breathe very deeply? Musicians who play wind instruments or singers have learned how to increase their lung capacity to improve their abilities to produce music.

I began playing an instrument in 4th grade. During my 4th year of playing, I was taught the difference between what I thought was a deep breath and what was a true filling up of the lungs. The difference is great. So when I'm asked to take a deep breath a blow, in order to determine my lung function, do I suck in like a typical person, or do I expand to my truest ability? Some of you probably think my ideas ridiculous, but I take this very seriously. So I score 80%, but when given medication to reduce inflammation, my score goes up to 115%. This is more accurate, because it shows my personal lung capacity and the improvement with needed medication. I can feel when I cannot fill my lungs. I don't want someone telling me "you're fine, lung function is excellent" when it may be based on a standard, but not for me. Ugh!

So my question now is, do I really need the full dosing in preparation for a colonoscopy? Do I need more? Less? But, as I've found in every other situation, there are no variables. Every single man and woman gets the exact same instructions regardless of their body type or size, or how slow of fast their digestive system functions.

I think new standards need to be devised.