I recently had some surgery (four days ago). It was fairly minor, as far as surgeries go. But anyway, coming from off my cloud of Vicodin, I'm realizing two things:
- Family members don't think that any surgery is minor. All procedural dates and times must be shared repeatedly. Enough said.
- If you're ever in the hospital for one thing, like having a biopsy or delivering a child, tough luck if you're suffering from a separate ailment...
This last point deserves some explanation. When I delivered Dean, the following day he scratched the cornea of my eye with his little baby fingernails. My eye was in so much pain, and all the nurses in the maternity ward could do is give me some cream and an eye patch. They had no idea what to do with me, because I needed care that had nothing to do with opstetrics or breastfeeding. They didn't even know it was a scratched cornea. Matthew and I joked that for Halloween (Dean was an October baby), I'd go as a pirate and he'd be my baby parrot. It wasn't until a full 24-hours later when the pediatrician came to check on the baby, that I begged him to look at my eye and tell me what was wrong. He recommended not using cream, which would make it worse, but just some saline drops. Why in the world the maternity ward nurses couldn't figure that out, I am not sure. We had even suggested early on that they ask people in the ER for help. But I digress...
Fast forward to four days ago. I went in for a biopsy, but unfortunately I was suffering from a simultaneous sinus infection. I complained, because I'd had nothing to eat or drink, and combined with the sinus infection I was suffering a massive headache. I have a bad history of migraines, and this one was coming on super strong. And what did they give me for the pain? Morphine. Not what I normally take for headaches. Is this a commentary on the total compartmentalization of the medical profession or the tendency to treat the symptom, not the cause?
I recently attended a
quick seminar on the "Three Pillars of Optimal Health", given by a doctor who practices naturopathic medicine. He focuses mainly on elimination, reintroduction and stress reduction, and he also talked about a few basic principles:
- Find and treat causes of symptoms (not symptoms)
- Symptoms are the clues and not the problems to cover up.
- Avoid suppression
- Bodies are good at being healthy, if we stay out of their way.
I am thinking of diving into this a little further soon, as my sinus infection does not seem to want to go away - the morphine didn't exactly cure me. Arrrrrr.....
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