Last night I forgot all about watching the season finale of a show that I have followed weekly for months. I couldn't believe it! "Now what?" "There has to be a way to see it right?" The good news is here. I found a way to see it and also a way to see episodes of other shows that I missed along the way. http://tv.blinkx.com/
If you go to this site, you can do a search for your show. With a little bit of luck, you can watch your favorite show right on your computer screen. I found the episode that I missed last night and I just spent an hour in pure self-indulgence...watching my show, eating my lunch, and drinking an iced cold soda. They have past episodes of Glee, American Idol, Cops, Hot in Cleveland, Saturday Night Live, the Real Houswives shows, and lots more. A word of caution though. They also have a movie search engine. I tried this a few times and it only brought me to web sites that wanted to sell me something. The TV shows are free. Movies cost money and I haven't found any legitimate site that is willing to let you watch them for free.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Keeping Track of Your Own Medical Records
I am guilty of it and just about everyone that I know is guilty of it. Where are your medical records? Mine are at the offices of several different doctors, at the medical labs, at the hospital, at the X-Ray center, and probably at a few more places that I can't remember. These days, doctors want you to not only bring in a list of your medications, but the actual bottles. I remember the last time that I went to a doctor and I had to do this. I sat in the waiting room feeling like all of the patients were silently comparing just how ill we all were by glancing over at the number of bottles in each other's plastic baggies.
Google once again has come out with something that I think is very worthwhile. It's a way to organize your medical records and the program is all set up for you and free to use.
http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html
You can go in and start out by listing all of your medications and dosages. Then you can list the names of your doctors, their addresses, and their telephone numbers. (This is more organized than I am already.) From there you can upload your blood test results and any other lab or any other test results that you have had done. Google has already partnered with some of the major testing facilities and they are trying to gain more partners as I type this. In my opinion, this is something that has been needed for a long time. By filling out a few forms, we will eventually be able to get the testing facilities and the hospitals to e-mail our results directly to our Google Health page, therefore building a log of our own medical history. Why is it that doctors have always guarded our medical records as if they are top secret? Isn't it time that we take charge of our own health and start looking at doctors as paid professionals? When is the last time that you hired an auto mechanic and he told you that you couldn't look at the results of his findings? He would tell you what he found, but you couldn't read the diagnostic results from his fancy auto mechanic's machine. Now that I think about it, maybe that happens quite frequently. But when it comes to health, and your own health, isn't it about time that we are the owners of our own records? With the Google Health Program, once you have it compiled, you can simply refer to it yourself, or should you see a new doctor, you can forward him a copy. It will include your insurance information, medications, allergies, medical conditions, test results, hospital visits, etc.
The medical profession openly talks about mistakes. I have personally experienced them and just about everyone that I know can tell you a story about their own medical mishap or someone else that suffered the consequences of a medical error. If nothing else, should something happen to you, a family member or a friend can pull up your information immediately if you give them access, or if you think ahead of time, you can send them updated files. Like many things in life, it takes time. It is just one more chore to do. But, is it better to do it now and make sure that it is accurate, or wait and have the emergency room staff try to figure everything out once you are there at their mercy? I am going to start filling mine out right now.
Google once again has come out with something that I think is very worthwhile. It's a way to organize your medical records and the program is all set up for you and free to use.
http://www.google.com/intl/en-US/health/about/index.html
You can go in and start out by listing all of your medications and dosages. Then you can list the names of your doctors, their addresses, and their telephone numbers. (This is more organized than I am already.) From there you can upload your blood test results and any other lab or any other test results that you have had done. Google has already partnered with some of the major testing facilities and they are trying to gain more partners as I type this. In my opinion, this is something that has been needed for a long time. By filling out a few forms, we will eventually be able to get the testing facilities and the hospitals to e-mail our results directly to our Google Health page, therefore building a log of our own medical history. Why is it that doctors have always guarded our medical records as if they are top secret? Isn't it time that we take charge of our own health and start looking at doctors as paid professionals? When is the last time that you hired an auto mechanic and he told you that you couldn't look at the results of his findings? He would tell you what he found, but you couldn't read the diagnostic results from his fancy auto mechanic's machine. Now that I think about it, maybe that happens quite frequently. But when it comes to health, and your own health, isn't it about time that we are the owners of our own records? With the Google Health Program, once you have it compiled, you can simply refer to it yourself, or should you see a new doctor, you can forward him a copy. It will include your insurance information, medications, allergies, medical conditions, test results, hospital visits, etc.
The medical profession openly talks about mistakes. I have personally experienced them and just about everyone that I know can tell you a story about their own medical mishap or someone else that suffered the consequences of a medical error. If nothing else, should something happen to you, a family member or a friend can pull up your information immediately if you give them access, or if you think ahead of time, you can send them updated files. Like many things in life, it takes time. It is just one more chore to do. But, is it better to do it now and make sure that it is accurate, or wait and have the emergency room staff try to figure everything out once you are there at their mercy? I am going to start filling mine out right now.
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