Yesterday, a FB friend asked for testimonies concerning holistic medicine.
My doctor is an advocate and practitioner of healthy lifestyle choices as both preventive and curative, which matches my philosophy if not my habits. I don't know if that makes him holistic or not, but it means I will go see him if I'm on the brink of death because I don't think he'll push me over. OK, maybe 24 hours after the brink of death. I mean, I might get better on my own. Why not? I got sick on my own. No point rushing it.
I don't trust doctors in general. I consider the majority of them to be pill-pushing shills of the drug companies, much like the FDA. How else can you explain 60 second commercials for new pills where 40 seconds are warnings about all the horrible things the pills can do to your major organs, immune systems and anyone "who has been to certain regions where certain fungal infections are common?" What on earth does that even mean? These commercials are then followed by the ambulance chasing lawyer commercials asking if "you or a loved one have suffered" any of the list of symptoms, including death, while taking any of these medications because "you may be entitled to a large cash settlement" so contact them right away.
Yes, I watch too much cable TV.
I don't think doctors mean to be pill-pushing shills. It seems to be a matter of training. "You're already 200 lbs overweight, pre-diabetic and don't listen to me anyway, so here's a pill covered by insurance that masks most of your symptoms. Let's see if that helps. Of course, your liver might stop working and you could go blind, but at least you can keep eating pork ribs." So we take Tums instead of avoiding the BBQ with the fiery peppers in it. Maybe your body doesn't like fiery peppers. Maybe that acid reflux is an honest reaction to a stupid action and if you stop the stupid action, the symptoms will stop.
Obviously, this isn't every doctor or every patient. I'm using sarcasm because I'm feeling better.
This vertigo thing has me thinking I do need to see a specialist. I should make sure it's the congestion holdover from a cold that I think it is and not a tumor or alien implant or brain-eating pre-zombie virus I might hope for. My current method of slow-and-steady treatment producing slow-and-steady improvement seems to confirm it's congestion. I'm on day two of no morning wobbliness or nausea. That means it took six days to feel improvement on a condition that probably took six days to reach its apex of discomfort. I'm OK with those numbers.
I am blessed to have a relatively healthy life so far. If family history is an indicator, breast and colon cancer may be in my future, as well as hip and knee replacements, but I'm doing what I can to prevent those. TV has convinced me a major step is to avoid taking or using anything approved by the FDA in the last fifteen years.
For those of my friends currently experiencing serious health issues, I am truly sorry and I am praying for relief for you and wisdom for your doctors. On the one hand, we live in an age where actual cures exist. On the other hand, finding them may be as deadly as the disease.
Happy Wednesday, dear readers. Thank God for the health you have and pray for someone who suffers more than you do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If it makes you feel better, I know a few people who have suffered vertigo lately after a cold. Seems to be "something going around." If you're better now, I'd bet that's all it is. Sorry, no zombie apocalypse. :(
ReplyDeleteAlso, I agree. I trust very few docs. They seem too eager to give pills or perform "procedures." I also got a staph infection in a biopsy site from following the doc's instructions on how to care for it. By doing the opposite (as per the instructions of a holistic friend) I cured the staph in a matter of days.
I also know someone who had very high cholesterol. She had no weight to lose (the epitome of petite), so the doc prescribed meds. She said, "You can just rip that up. I'm not taking it. I'll find a way to do this naturally." So the doc prescribed...flax seed. Yes, some of them DO know the holistic ways, but wait for the patient to insist on them. Ah, the American way.
Katherine Coble said on FB: Ok, Blogger, you jerk of a platform, I'll comment here instead...
ReplyDeleteI have repeatedly, much to the irritation of my cadre of doctors, refused to take any drug with fewer than 20 years on the open market. Too many of the new ones (especially if the end in "ab") are about monkeying with genetics that are not fully understood.
When I first went to my Rheumatologist he gave me Lyrica®, and I took it because I didn't want "non-compliant" in my chart. After three weeks I began having horrible anxiety attacks. I called the nurse and said "I'm having anxiety att--". She interrupted emphatically with "STOP TAKING THE LYRICA® IMMEDIATELY." I thought I should be tapering or something but was like "? Okaaay. Sure."
Turns out that just the day before the FDA had issued a bulletin saying that Lyrica® was the precipitating factor in multiple suicides and was shown to cause suicidal ideation in some people.
That was the one, only and last time I took a first- generation medication.
I've been dealing with Auto-Immune disease for awhile now (twenty five years) and every one of these drugs touted as a miracle treatment for them has now come out with news of serious adversity.
Even the classic drugs--methotrexate especially--are caustic poisons and torment.
But I need them. And so I suck it up.
And now I'm in the situation where they have caused another health issue and so I'm unhappy.
All that being said: increase your B vitamin intake for a few days and blow a hairdryer on the lowest warm setting into your ear for 10 minutes twice a day. That will clear out the lingering congestion pressing on your inner ear and solve the vertigo problem.
I hate taking medicine, and I'm generally healthy (and prefer holistic solutions and prevention over cure... America is not about health care, but disease maintenance, but that's another rant). But I'm relatively certain that it's necessary in this case, as the first antibiotic only killed the weak and sickly bacteria and left me feeling worse (and I've been feeling crappy since the end of August), but after only one dose of this new one, I feel a little better. It might be coincidence, but probably not. I'm thankful to have medicine, but the potential side effects really do kind of freak me out.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to be added to your prayers!
You're added, m'dear.
ReplyDelete