My visit came up clean (except for the leperosy, the yaws, the lues, the great pox, the necrotising fasciitis, the...no, really, it came up clean). I'm as healthy as can be expected from someone my age who's overweight and out of shape.

I can't do anything about the age except add to it, but I can lose weight and get back into some sort of decent physical conditioning. Yes, I do take some medicines, mostly for allergies.

(Funny, I never had allergies when I smoked, but the doctor said that I shouldn't start again just because of the allergies.)

The first rule of medicine is "First, do no harm." Being human and therefore fallible physicians are going to miss diagnoses. The second rule in medicine is, or should be, "Only the pathologist can make a certain diagnosis most of the time."

Homeless, how you were treated also depends upon when you were treated. I was once given chloromycetin
for pneumonia; it certainly wouldn't happen today! My wife was given whole-body x-rays for treatment of poison ivy; ten years later she developed thyroid cancer -- again, such treatment wouldn't be given today.

Would I use a woman doctor? You betcha! Most of my life has been spent in the care of women doctors, and I too have found them to be caring and responsive, and better listeners, than most men.

Perhaps that is changing, though, and I hope so. The fella I saw yesterday listened and seemed to care, even taking additional time when I remembered a question I had after he left the room.