Do the President and NASA Have ADD?

In a previous blog, I described how I diagnosed a patient with a pituitary adenoma. I haven’t seen him since; he’s been tossed around to an endocrinologist, a neuroophthalmologist, and a neurosurgeon, and then finally sent to the esteemed Moffitt cancer center for another evaluation. I think he’s doing well. No one has suggested he undergo surgery on an emergency basis, and he can probably be treated medically.

I made another neat diagnosis this week, one of the quickest I’ve made in my career. A 43-year-old male came in to review his labs:

Me: Well, let’s see, your CBC is norm…

Him: What’s my cholesterol?

Me: Later. CBC is normal. Blood sugar is slightly elev…

Him: Hey, I’m having a crown problem and can’t reach my dentist. Can you give me penicillin?

Me: Well, yes I can, and how long have you had ADD?

Him: Ever since childhood.

I finished up going over his labs, gave him a prescription for the penicillin, and said we’d talk about the ADD problem at the next visit...

On a somewhat related note, apparently President Obama is not pushing his “Let’s take a vacation to Mars program” as hard as he has in the past. Some of the Apollo astronauts attempted to convince him not to drop NASA’s current program, and focus a bit more on the International Space Station. There have been dozens of useful inventions developed from our space program, including my Ove Glove. Just exactly what would we gain from a three-year trip to Mars? Wouldn’t you just love to fax the President a prior authorization and inform him that generic trips to outer space and maybe the moon again, which take only days, would be much preferred over untested human trips to Mars? And there might even be some $$$ savings...