Becoming my grandmother?

[gitanawolf]

Recently I've felt a growing closeness to my maternal grandma. She raised me in my early years for awhile and I spent all my school vacations with her until my parents and I moved to CA when I was 13. She was a down to earth woman, immigrant off the farm somewhere in east Germany back in the late 1880's, who believed more in common sense than "

Comments

[chatalaine]

Dammit, I commented on this last night - where did it go????

Anyway, I liked reading this. And I agree about the medical stuff. I watched and felt helpless as my Mom was prescribed more and more stuff, then more stuff to take care of the side effects of the previous stuff, and onandon. I think the worst of it came when she was very close to the end, and I realized that she was complaining to the doctor about things that really couldn't be helped, much less cured. But like most western-educated doctors, he just listened and prescribed another pill.

My endocrinologist is a pill-prescriber, I am realizing. Thank goodness my GP is a woman who set up her practice in order to combine her western and eastern training. She's open to lots of different approaches and I've started going to her for second opinions. ("no" to the statin drugs for cholesterol, it's coming under control with some dietary changes and herbal supplements, "yes" to the drug for liver function. I really do need that, she said.) I can get acupuncture and myofascial massage for pain right in her office. I *heart* my doctor and hope she outlives me and stays in practice for a looooong time!!

We really do have to take charge and manage our own care these days. I firmly believe there are too many doctors out there like my mother's, who prescribe because they don't know what else to do, and there are surgeons who want to operate for practice or for money. Caveat Emptor - Let The Buyer Beware.

[gitanawolf]

Yup, pretty much my regular doc and the endocrinologists are pill pushers, too. My acupuncture is also an RN, so she knows both sides of the aisle, so to speak. She always must caution me, that she will help if she thinks she can, but still pushes me to be checked out by an MD, then make my decision, which she will accommodate if she thinks she can really help me... Same with my chiropractor.

I always feel kind of caught in the middle, though, you know. Both chiropractor and acupuncturist must be careful of their legalities in their licensing, and know that the medical establishment dis-respects them and tries to scare patients into not pursuing holistic alternatives. It's warfare and the patient is caught in the middle, and the holistic practitioners are hamstrung. UGH!