No Medical Records Found Letter: Fill & Download for Free

I was referred to a colorectal surgeon by my doctor because I had a large skin tag on my anus. TMI, I know, but basically I had developed a little tail that was driving me crazy. The appointment should have been a shot for pain, a snip of scissors, a stitch, and done. I was expecting a $300 bill afterwards.This surgeon asked questions for 30 minutes. At the end, he told me that I needed a colonoscopy and that he wouldn't take care of the skin tag until the colonoscopy was done. What do I know? I have a friend who had colon cancer. This is scary stuff.In case you don't know, a colonoscopy is awful. You have to clean out your guts, which means drinking this awful liquid that makes you want to throw up, then having the worst diarrhea in the world for a day. You get driven to your appointment clenching your butt just hoping that you don't make a mess in the car. Then they sedate you and put a camera up your butt. This is super uncomfortable, to put it mildly.Anyway, colonoscopy done. It was completely normal. I get home and figure out that the surgeon didn't take off the skin tag while I was there! I don't hear back from the office, so I finally call. The doctor wants me to make a second appointment to get the skin tag taken off. In the meantime, I get a bill for $4000 for the colonoscopy!I'm pissed. I write letters, I make calls. I'm told that I can't speak to the regular billing department for the surgeon's office, only to his wife who works there. I'm not allowed to have my medical records. There's nothing I can do. I've spent $4000 on an unnecessary procedure instead of the $300 I'd expected to pay for a little cosmetic snip, and I still had the skin tag I'd gone to the office for in the first place.I found out later that he'd put in my medical records that I was having dark red, coffee ground-like blood in my stool. This is totally untrue. I'd told him that the skin tag sometimes bled bright red blood, which is why I wanted it gone. I still don't know why he falsified my medical records to give me an unnecessary colonoscopy; I can only guess that I was far more profitable that way.

Not insisting on something being documented in my medical record and keeping my mouth shut about medical issues.If you say, “My back hurts”, you’ll be greeted with, “Yeah, mine and everybody else’s.” Because it wasn’t in my medical record I seem to have spontaneously contracted scoliosis in my neck and back. Same for my flat feet and the pain it causes. It’s not service-connected because it wasn’t documented. Prior to joining I didn’t have scoliosis or flat feet but when I had a disability exam done the VA found I had both. I was an infantryman for six years, but I guess anything could have caused those issues. (What’s worse is the VA knows that this is the reality and what happens with infantrymen in regards to their records. This isn’t just me, it’s widespread.)Being a dumb boot and jumping off the back of 7-tons when I got to the field. I stopped doing this after a little under a year but the damage has not stopped. Don’t do it, kids. Take the ladder or slide out on your ass, it’s not worth it. (This is/was not always a willful decision, when someone orders you off the 7-ton, you get off the 7-ton. Boots are expected to get off quickly.)Letting my higher-ups know how much “knowledge” I had.Shit isn’t worth it. If you’re “smart”, you’re going to be f**ked over at every turn. New course coming up? Send Ski. This is a new technology, send Ski. We need a new company clerk, nominate Ski. (I got out of that one by playing really dumb and some self-sabotage, I’m a damn infantryman, I don’t belong at a desk.) We need someone to fly drones, Ski? The platoon needs a TSE Marine, send Ski. Ski will know how to operate a radio. Ski will know how to use a Thor. Ski will know how to drive a bus. Oh, we can make Ski an ammo/hazmat driver. Ski will be good at using cameras and listening devices. Ski will know…I’ve got two dozen+ random certifications and none of that did anything for me but make me have to do more shit. All I got out of it was a Certificate of Commendation (which is a fancy way of saying “Letter of Appreciation”). I had to do all the bullshit no one else wanted to, myself included. Just remember, “When you help someone, they’ll remember you the next time they need help.” I was made into a total cynic and am still recovering from that mentality. Seriously, to any active-duty higher-ups reading this: Spread the load. This manner of doing things is not healthy and I know that it is not unique to me.There are a few others but they are more personal in nature, are pretty boring or I’ve covered them in other answers more in-depth.

Ali’s family says no, that he did not experience the cognitive loss that CTE brings. Nor did he show any public or private signs of dementia, as poor victims of it like Jerry Quarry did.Nor is there any medical evidence that Ali suffered anything more than Parkinson’s. (which was certainly bad enough)Of course you will get Ali haters who will make up quotes and claims, and babble otherwise, but there is no medical or empirical evidence that Ali suffered from CTE, and the medical evidence and his family’s accounts of his behavior and cognition are not consistent with CTE (pugilistic dementia).CREDIT PICTURE MICHAEL J. FOX FOUNDATIONBoxing and Parkinson’sWhile there is a link between head trauma and Parkinson’s in that research shows it can exacerbate symptoms, it is not definitive that such trauma is in any way causative.So far, some studies have concluded that repeated head trauma is a risk factor for Parkinson’s. But Dr. Michael Okun, medical director for the National Parkinson Foundation, says on the record that “there is still a big gap in our knowledge. Researchers have found that people hit in the head repeatedly are more likely to develop Parkinson’s, so there is something to it. But to assign causation is still too premature.”Parkinson’s disease is a neurodegenerative disorder in which cells in a portion of the brain lose coordination, and tremble. It is the second-most-common neurodegenerative disease, after Alzheimer’s, afflicting approximately 1% of the population older than 60 in developed countries.People like never was claim Ali suffered Parkinson’s disease because of his boxing, though I was not aware he was a neurologist or a medical researcher. (I know he wasn’t a boxing coach or a boxer!)Ali’s family claims Ali’s Parkinson’s was due to the exposure to pesticides during his childhood. But the truth is that we may never know what caused his Parkinson’s, or that of the vast majority of those diagnosed.Did Boxing Cause Muhammad Ali’s Parkinson’s? Did Pesticides?The science in the real, as opposed to never-was-world, is not certain on causation for Parkinson’s. That does not stop haters, of course, from claiming they know what scientists and medical researchers do not.In the real world, two stubborn facts remain: Neurologists cannot definitively say whether Ali’s Parkinson symptoms were in any way a result of his boxing career, and no diagnosis of pugilistic dementia or CTE was ever made of Ali. Period.There has also not been any link between Parkinson’s and dementia or CTE.The only certainty is that Ali fought far too long, and boxing made his Parkinson’s worse.When did Ali begin to show signs of Parkinson’sAli had been unable to pass a physical against Holmes in his second to last fight, and he was also unable to pass a physical for his last fight against Trevor Berbick.Dr. Pacheco joined Ali’s camp in 1962 and stayed with Ali for 15 years as his friend, confident, cornerman, and fight physician, until the Shavers fight convinced him that Ali should retire, and the two ended a long friendship.Dr. Pacheco had become increasingly upset and distraught over the beatings Ali was taking later in his career, especially in the so-called Thrilla in Manila in October 1975, when he retained his title in a furious battle with Joe Frazier. Over the next two years, he tried several times to broach retirement with the champ, but Ali had come to love not just being champion, but his role as American icon, and he would not consider leaving.The end for Dr. Pacheco as a member of Ali’s camp came after Ali took a terrible beating in his 1977 win over Earnie Shavers in 1977, which would be 5th last of his career.Dr. Pacheco formally sent letters as Ali’s physician to Ali and Dundee telling them that medically Ali should retire. The doctor never received a response.“When Ali wouldn’t quit the exciting world of boxing, I did,” Dr. Pacheco said in his book “Muhammad Ali: A View From the Corner” (1992), “If a national treasure like Ali could not be saved, at least I didn’t have to be part of his undoing.”The fight Doctor was right. Ali needed to retire after Manila, and after Shavers, it was medically urgent that he go.Ali had gone from what Dr. Pacheco said was “the perfect body” to shuffling, and slurring his words.He was also, although he did not know it, ill with the beginnings of Parkinson’s.It is vital to note, however, as Dr. Pacheco did in “Muhammad Ali: A View From the Corner”: that Ali never lost his intelligence, or his wit. There were no signs of pugilistic dementia, then or later. “He was fine mentally,” the fight Doctor said, “but he wouldn’t see what was happening physically…”No one ever diagnosed Ali with CTE, and no medical records support such a claimBut there was never any sign of CTE. Ali’s wife, brother and family say that his cognition was clear to the end, and certainly he was aware and alert at his public appearances, in contrast to CTE sufferers such as Jerry Quarry.No physician, not one, ever, examined Ali and found symptoms of CTE.Jonathan Eig, who painstakingly retraced the damage Ali suffered in fights in Ali: A Life, also chronicled that Ali, who was essentially immobile at the end of his life, loved to skype with his grandchildren, and was alert and lucid. Not only was he still oriented in place and time, he loved going over his old fights on You-tube when he was not visiting with his grandchildren! He was suffering so signs whatsoever of CTE which is another term for pugilistic dementia.CREDITAli: A Life by Jonathan EigDid Boxing Cause Muhammad Ali’s Parkinson’s? Did Pesticides?Muhammad Ali: A View From the Corner by Doctor Ferdie PachecoMuhammad Ali: His Life & Times by Thomas Hauser