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Dorothy Unleashed's avatar

I took my SO to the ER last weekend for severe pain. He’s very stoic about pain, as he lives with pain daily. It was so intense that night, he was uncontrollably crying out. I practically raced to the ER, almost learning how to make my car into a flying car. At the ER, the first doctor, who was seeing the same level of pain I was, asked some questions and because he had prior conditions, I could see the doctor’s mind start closing, fitting his pain into one of the preexisting categories, which was also the easiest to treat. I was like- wait. He’s been living with that for 2 years. It has never hurt, never mind this much. That broke through the cognitive barrier and so he called a surgeon to assess. The surgeon had the opposite attitude, thankfully. Now I’ve been misdiagnosed or given shrugs my whole life by conventional medicine (since 6 yo that I can recall and I am GenX so many decades) so I’ve learned to assume the worst. (If not for alternative medicine, I’d be long dead. My will to live was shot at one juncture and when that goes, it isn’t long after that you go). So I was really attuned to the nonverbal communications that usually accompany the average corporate medical practitioner and recognized I needed to challenge the theory of my man’s case. I can see how many people would simply accept the verbal reassurance of any intervention offered up, hoping that it’s all resolved and that it isn’t a bigger deal. It’s human nature. Denial, wishful thinking, rationalization, are common defense mechanisms we turn to in crisis.

The surgery went superbly, by the way. I was grateful to that surgeon. Credit where it is due. People at large need to develop their relationship with their gut (instinct; intuition; somatic intelligence). Your frontal lobe activity can be fooled (rather easily, unfortunately). Our human bodies are built to survive. That intelligence is much harder to fool.

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Elaine Russky's avatar

Good for you, for your persistence. What I've been seeing is a total lack of intellectual curiosity. Doctors shrug, say they don't know, and send me home. You must have something easily diagnosable or treatable, or they just flat aren't interested.

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ACroneintheWoods's avatar

They never ever want to hear about any type of home remedy that might actually work. And they hate that we read the internet.

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Sharon Beautiful Evening's avatar

ABSOLUTELY true - everything you have stated here. MUCHAS GRACIAS, Dorothy (how's Toto these days - (smile)!!

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