I'm Breaking Up With Traditional Medicine

Dear Traditional Western Medicine,

Our relationship is no longer working for me. I think it's time we see other people. We have evolved in different directions, and I find that our relationship is becoming unhealthy for everyone.

And honestly?  I think it's you, not me.

I know that I have to thank you for the many things you brought into my life. I've been on thyroid replacement for more than 30 years now, and that's allowed me to function.  The fact that you never explored why I might be hypothyroid when it doesn't run in my family and I was only 19 years old registered, but since we were managing the symptom, I never thought much about it. I am grateful for the two c-sections I had which allowed me to produce these spectacular and stubborn teenagers of mine instead of, you know, dying during childbirth. I appreciate the fact that you're so good with broken bones. If my appendix ruptured, I'd be knocking on your door.

But remember the reconstructive foot surgery in 2007? I'm pretty sure this is about the time we started to go off track, although it might have been in my 20's when I had hammer-toe surgery and the doctor never noticed the abnormalities in the REST of my foot. Or it might have been the exercise physiologist I went to in my mid-30's when I couldn't run anymore who never even x-rayed my foot before pronouncing that I had something called "lateral impingement." The treatment for that did nothing to actually restore my ability to run, but the orthotics meant I could walk pretty fast and I did that instead.

Then, at the age of 42, I couldn't even walk. My deformed foot was not your fault and I honestly think you did everything you could to try to help me, reconstructing the bones that had eroded, and attempting to fuse them. But something went wrong during that surgery, something you couldn't explain through your Western Tradition.

The chronic daily pain I was in was so excruciating, it deserves its own paragraph. I was in that pain for three years.

Three years is a long time when you are living fifteen minutes at a time. I kept trying to find answers. I had a wonderful podiatrist who was really trying to help me. I had second opinions. I worked with an internist. I saw another doctor, who prescribed anti-depressants that had an effect not unlike a lobotomy. When I tried to describe how disconnected I felt and how my life was unraveling due to the effects on my body of the constant stress of pain and that drug, he brushed me off, discounting my symptoms. (I did note the proclamation posted on his door that he received money from the Big Pharmaceutical company who made the drug.)

But see, that's my whole issue with Cartesian medicine--with YOU: why is it that if you can't figure out what is wrong with me and how to treat it, then you assume that I must not actually have those symptoms?

Maybe I could have forgiven all that. Because I know you're only taught so much in medical school. But what is unforgivable is that you never once suggested I look outside of your tiny paradigm for true healing. You were treating some of my symptoms, barely, but you never made the leap to suggestions that might lead to actual healing.

Dude, didn't you take an oath about that?

So I blundered my way into yoga and acupuncture and I found miraculous healing. And as I began to make other changes in my lifestyle, I found radiant health.

And now, I have to admit, I met someone else.

Someone named Functional Medicine. As I began to do more and more research into the effects of diet on the body, I kept coming across Dr. Mark Hyman, whose work really resonated with me. Dr. Hyman is a pioneer in the world of Functional Medicine and wow, it's just sexy as all heck. It just makes so much sense that we start to look at our bodies as entire systems, not disparate parts! Granted, I haven't actually MET Functional Medicine yet. I have a blind date--er -- appointment on March 11 with a local FM doctor. We'll see how it goes.

But this isn't really about the new guy, anyway. This is about the way you're not meeting my needs, nor the needs of the people I love. You can't seem to hear me, Traditional Western Medicine, and you you sure as heck can't seem to SEE me.

I believe it's our birthright, every one of us, to find radiant health.  And unfortunately, as long as I am in an exclusive relationship with you, I'm pretty sure that can't happen.

I hope we can still be friends,
Barb