[Johncancook]

As far as I'm concerned, good riddance to the "good" doctor. At my last visit his sage advice was for me to stop all artificially sweetened soft drinks and my problems would go away. However, he didn't bother to talk to me first or even ask if I drank artificially sweetened drinks. His nurse was in the room at the time and looked at the doctor as though he were crazy. I'm not sure of his mental state, but let's just say at that point he ceased being my doctor.

His advice to me was based on a conversation he had with friends - who had a friend - that was in terrible physical condition. Their friend's physician, according to the story, gave him the advice to stop artificially sweetened soft drinks. Sure enough, within a week all of the friends maladys had disappeared and he was the picture of good health. Dr Schwartz took this anecdotal information to heart and passed the recommendation on to me as a time-tested panacea.

Schwartz completely ignored the reason I came to see him in the first place. And, unfortunately for me, two days later I was admitted to Leesburg Region Medical Center where I spent the next 23 days. This is a true story.