Pulmonary Consultants

I received a form letter from Fransican last week. It stated that Pulmonary Consultants
were now a part of their group. I don’t know if there has been a change in Doctors.

These pulmonologists saved a good friend of mine in the ICU at St Joe’s.

Well, this is my first one-​star review of a business. The reason that this place deserves one star is because I basically burned a lot of money on a bunch of tests and consultations and received no improvement in my health whatsoever. Ultimately this is the pinnacle of why I believe the Health Industry in general is massively messed up.
Now, in all fairness, I’m not the normal customer this place sees. I didn’t in fact have a problem per-​se. I had a fitness test done (over at Exercise Science Center for $ 35 (keep that in mind)) which indicated that I was much lower than expected in lung capacity which could be a big deal in sports performance. I came over here and during my first visit the did a bunch of tests about 2 hours long and basically confirmed that yes, my lung capacity was below normal.
But after this point everything went downhill. Here is a sample conversation:
Lung Assistant: «here, take these inhalers… this emergency inhaler you’ll want to carry at all times and is for when you are very short on breath like during a hard workout».
Me: «I don’t need an emergency inhaler. I do bike rides at 90% of my max heart rate for 30 minutes straight and haven’t ever felt short of breath.»
Lung Assistant: «no take this, you WILL need it»
Me: «No, I won’t, I haven’t yet»
And I never have used that emergency inhaler, I didn’t even carry it with me.
A few days later the doc calls me up and here is what he says:
Lung Doc: «we looked at the X-​Rays of your lungs and your heart looks abnormally big»
Me: «is this even within the scope of your work diagnosing my heart?»
Lung Doc: «blah blah blah, yes, go get an ultrasound»
I end up shelling out more money for the ultrasound and eventually see a cardiac specialist. Here is what he says:
Heart Doc: «why the hell are you here?»
Me: «haha! you tell me!!»
Heart Doc: «it appears that you have ‘athlete’s heart’ «
Me: «NO SHIT???»
Heart Doc: «but to be sure we want to have you come in again and spend more money»
Me: «NO!»
Eventually I go in for a second visit with the lung doc and do the lung tests all over again and NOTHING has changed despite me taking a preventive inhaler for about a month.
Lung Doc: «well, it appears that the preventive inhaler did nothing»
Me: «so, what do we do now?»
Lung Doc: «there is nothing I can do, you still have a lung disease but there is nothing I can do about it»
All told, I wasted about $ 1,000 in this whole ordeal and received essentially nothing in return. I keep thinking how many bike parts I could’ve bought with that money that would’ve enhanced my performance more than going to see this doc which did absolutely nothing.
And overall this just builds upon my perception of the medical industry as being a bunch of reactionaries with no comprehension or motivation to enhance the health of the people they see. All doctors see must be people with problems and frequently people who aren’t trying to enhance their bodies — let alone enhance their sports performance as I am — but are just seeing someone so the pain will go away. Maybe this doc did all he could, but he still thinks I have a disease which he has been unable to provide a solution for.