Going to the doctor was an experience I've gotten used to since being forced into retirement by several things adversely affecting my health. But despite the numerous visits, I'm still amazed that a diagnosis can be given, the doctor certain of her work, and yet nothing is done to cure any of the problems so carefully tracked and identified. Instead, as usual, I left the office with a new prescription for some drug that will work at relieving the pain - leaving the problem to continue its diabolical attack on my nervous system.
I see magazine articles, television shows on Discovery, and the Science channel, and have read about the most amazing medical procedures done to either save a life or better the standard of someone's life. Quality of life seems to be a big, serious deal when the doctor and his patient get on television, or are the cover story in Time or The Week. However, when the patient is just some old man living in the Ozark Mountains, it seems those miracles of science and medicine are only to be seen on the television and read about. For instance, my doctor told me what was wrong, then said there was nothing to be done about it. "Maybe at the Mayo clinic they might be able to either cure or dramatically slow the disease, but there's nothing I can do for it here. I could give you a referral to the clinic, it's in northwest Missouri." I'd already been in contact with the Mayo clinic and they didn't see what they could do to help me, the disease is not curable, and though it can be slowed, it can, (and does, apparently all too often), return with a revenge, destroying nerve tissue and causing horrible pain in the process.
So...where are the cool machines and Mensa-strength doctors? I could use a few about now, the doctors I've seen are idiots by comparison to those on the television curing death within hours of its acknowledgment. Where is this shining, antiseptic hospital with the pretty nurses, each boasting a Ph.D. in Cognitive Thinking, Miracle Making, High-Holy Healing, and perhaps...Medicine. The doctors on these shows have more framed parchments than the dictionary has words. Their sense of empowerment is absolute - they reign supreme in the wards, operating suites, and break rooms in every hospital in which they deign to appear. It would be great if just once I could see a doctor who looks at an xray of my broken foot and notes, "This is been broken several times, right?" And, when I answer, "Yes", he says, "I need to operate on it and pin the bones in place. Looks like a metal sleeve with screws is in order." That sounds like a solution to a problem that reoccurs about every six months. I black out, fall down and when I wake up, my right foot is broken. Three of the
Tarsal bones, (bones in the top of the foot that hurt when stepped on), get broken and in the last two incidents I let them heal on their own without benefit of cast or brace. Why? Because I was given a 'scrip for pain killers and told that it would be impossible to pin the bones in place since I have diabetes. This complicates things and raises a chance of dying from the anesthetic. However...I suggested using Xylocaine, a strong numbing agent and a cousin to Novacaine, (I had this when my hands were operated on for carpal tunnel syndrome many years ago). I was told the danger of my blood pressure dropping dangerously low was too great and the Xylocaine, although a good choice for a foot operation, wouldn't work long enough. "It would quit working about the time we were sewing you up. The pain would be far too great for you to endure without moving and making stitching a real nightmare." I told him of the time my tongue was sewed up without ANY pain meds whatever. I told him my hands were operated on with Xylocaine and I watched, the med losing its effectiveness before the end, my hand never so much as twitched when the doctor sewed it up, despite the pain.
Did it work?
I have a broken right foot as I right this. No doctor has looked at it, and by the time one does, the bones will be set - by themselves, with placement left up to the whims of nature. In less than four weeks my bones have found a way to mend and the swelling, discoloration, and pain have all but disappeared. If my solution to my diabetes works as well I might just open my own clinic!
Doctor Jardenep's Healthful Healing & Bountiful Betterment Clinic - for all your aches and pains that other doctors say can't be fixed for one reason or another. Office hours dependent on work loads - computer gaming and blogging services offered for those with an interest but not enough time to put towards such wasteful, (entertaining), eye-damaging, godless activites. Right & Left join in the middle and pay your tithe to the one who can help you...for just a few bucks, you into a state of complete physical health, mental clarity, and spiritual cleanliness. Let me help you get closer to God by letting go of those devil-dealt dollars into the coffers of my clinic's holy tabernacle.
Let us pray...!
