Educated Guesses

I have a friend who was told three weeks before her wedding that she should cancel it because she wouldn't live another two weeks.  That was 8 years ago.  She didn't cancel her wedding, she still has the same medical condition, however, her mantra is now 'Doctors only make educated guesses'.

When my father was taken by ambulance to Gladstone Hospital after being bitten by a brown snake, the doctors told my mother 'Don't worry, we have never lost a brown snake bite victim yet'.  He died two weeks later due to their negligence.  They paid a high price for it, but of course that didn't bring my father back.

Twenty years ago,  I received a phone call at 10pm from my doctor telling me that I had stage four cervical cancer and that he had made an urgent appointment with a Specialist for the very next morning that I MUST attend.  That following afternoon I was told that my tests were clear and I was perfectly healthy.

Last year Adoring Husband and I were told by her doctor, that his mother had bone cancer and all they could do was try to make her comfortable for the few weeks that she had left.  The following day she was miraculously cured and her doctor was too busy to see us.

Another friend was told the dark irritation on his neck was caused by his collar rubbing there.  Two years later, a specialist took one look at it and performed urgent surgery to remove a melanoma with a deep root system and it required 24 stitches which has left a major scar on his neck/throat.

A man I know was told he had RSI and required surgery on his wrist.  Somebody suggested that he try a chiropractor and it turns out that he had a pinched nerve that was affecting his arm and wrist.  Three appointments with a chiropractor and he was cured.

A female friend was treated on and off for 18 months for what she was told was recurring thrush, when finally it was discovered that she had cancer of the vulva.  Luckily, it wasn't too late for her.

These are just seven examples that I can think of - off the top of my head, where doctors have been very wrong.  I'm sure that if I thought about it for a bit longer, I could come up with many more examples.

When I first went to a doctor in Sydney to have my Hyperthyroidism diagnosed, I sat in the chair watching the doctor study a computer screen for ten minutes, before I suggested to her that I might have an over active thyroid.  She looked it up on the computer and then sent me for the appropriate tests.

I don't trust doctors, not just for the reasons above and it would take too long to explain all of the other reasons.  I believe that doctors write prescriptions too quickly to treat our conditions and don't take the time to explain the short term or long term side effects.

I believe that most people don't understand their own medical conditions and trust that the doctor will give them the best treatment available.  In this day and age, with all the information available to us, we should all be experts in our own health.

We should be aware of all the different types of treatment available and not just blindly take any medication that's prescribed.  We should be more interested in curing our illness, rather than taking something to mask the symptoms.

I believe that fresh healthy food, clean water, regular light exercise, maintaining a healthy weight and a happy life is the best prevention for a lot of medical conditions.

I also believe that, at the very least, we should combine our doctor's advice with alternate methods like Naturopathy, Chinese Medicine, Herbal remedies etc., and always ask lots of questions of your doctor.

I absolutely believe, like my friend at the beginning of this post, that doctors only make educated guesses and I would NEVER put blind faith in those guesses.