Thursday, June 5, 2008

Alternative Health could mean "do it yourself" after all

I want to tell you something that might save your life.
It's something that probably will never happen to you, but this story has some built-in lessons that could apply to other situations as well as the one described.

This will not be a lecture about eating right, losing weight, or getting regular checkups. This is about doing your homework. You see, most people are under a spell, created by all those authority figures in our lives who have led us to believe that there are smarter and better educated people around us who will always be there to take care of us if something goes wrong. All we have to do is call on the right one.

But it's a huge myth... a very dangerous myth.

And the biggest myth of all of them is the one about health. The largest percentage of our population has been thoroughly brainwashed to believe that the final answer to all things health-related can be solved or handled only by the medical profession.

But contrary to this popular myth, doctors are NOT gods. Get over that right now or you could easily become their next victim.

OK, here's what's happening... right now... as I write this: Someone I know very well has been exposed to the rabies virus.

We are both heavily involved in the animal care field and see animals in various stages of health, and often, in a state of disease. We are exposed to many risks, so it's just a matter time for the law of averages to catch up with us on something dangerous.

Dealing with unwanted, abandoned, abused, wild or otherwise compromised animals that will never make good pets leads us to have to make decisions, for the protection of the humans involved, or for the animals' own relief in some cases. This means some of them will be euthanized, and handling them during this time can be risky.

Exposure to rabies is one such problem. Wild animals, or abandoned pets that have supposedly gone wild, are very vulnerable to contracting this extremely fatal disease.

It affects all mammals (yes, you are a mammal, too), all over the world (except in those few locations that have eradicated it or have never had it).

Now here is where things become problematic. What would you do if your child had been exposed to the virus? Why, you'd go to the doctor or the hospital, right?

Why? Because you believe they will know what to do, right?

Well, try this on: What if they're WRONG? Or don't know what to do? My colleague could become a victim of our faulty health care system and could die. The only thing that has been done correctly so far, is that the animal has been tested and found positive for rabies.

Now that that has been established, the human victim, who I'll call Jane Doe for the sake of anonymity at her request, must undergo the dreaded rabies treatment.

One would think that a hospital would know what that means. One would think that a doctor would know, too. However, if they have only read about it in books during school, they probably won't know what to do in the real world.

Such is the case with Jane Doe at the moment. So far, she has been asked to go pick up the vaccine and bring it in so they can administer it.

She has been given the wrong vaccination schedule, which must be done correctly to get proper, life-saving results.

She had to call the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to get the correct information, which she printed off and took to the hospital to prove to them that they had misinformed her. Did they say thank you? Oh no... they are still angry that she has challenged their superior knowledge and abilities. Typical responses include: "Oh? What medical school did you go to?" and sarcastically, "Are you a doctor?" followed by a lot of heavy sighing and eye-rolling.

In effect they are saying, "What gives you the right to find out what's correct so you can save your own life?"

They finally gave her the first injection, but the second one is a different product and must be given at about the same time, or the first one is useless. The hospital is sorry, but they don't have access to that other product and don't know when it will be available.

The burden has been placed totally and squarely on Jane's own shoulders.

Now, the lesson here is this:

If you want your own scary health emergencies to come out right, you had better know what is going on and how it is correctly treated. If you have only some blind faith in one of those white-coated "gods" in your town, you might not come out alive.

In other words.... do your homework, people! Doctors are NOT gods. Neither are nurses. Wearing white with a stethoscope placed fashionably around the neck does not confer omniscience... or even the most basic competence.

Get over it now, or you could be sorry.

With the wealth of information available on the Internet now, there is NO excuse to remain ignorant. Medical people have always enjoyed intimidating people into submission and acceptance, and until now, that has been relatively easy. Now it's much harder, so expect them to try harder in putting you "in your place."

Bottom line: Do your homework, question anyone who wants to subject you to anything, and don't be afraid to stand up for what's right. Your life may depend on it! Really!