Not so sure? I will give you a hint: parasympathetic and sympathetic. Does that ring a bell?
I doubt it.
Only someone who has walked the walk and talked the talk would know that this pnemonic (memory aid) describes the male sexual response nerve pathways:
- parasympathetic--point--erection
- sympathetic--shoot--ejaculation
Prostatectomy used to carry with it severe side effects. One, was loss of urinary continence due to the reconfiguration of the urethra. But the most devastating was the loss of the nerves in the pelvis, the ones on each side of the prostate, I believe where the lymph nodes are which are dissected out for staging of the cancer. They are parasympathetic. Lose one, and there is a twenty-five percent risk of impotence, loss of the ability to have an erection. Lose both and the odds are fifty percent. These facts were drilled into my head by the established medical system. Over the years, we have found by using the robot and even cryotherapy, nerve sparing technique dramatically lowers this risk of impotence with surgery.
Today, my favorite gastroenterologist shared with me a lesser known fact: in the 1950's and 1960's, the technique for hysterectomy at the time routinely severed both of the pelvic nerves, the ones that govern the female sexual response like the ones that do for the males. Furthermore, in that time was the highest rate of cesarean section and hysterectomy (not c-hys) in all history in the USA. Over forty percent of women at that time had female sexual dysfunction. And no one at the time ever was taught to ask. Everyone asked the men. But not the women. It wasn't until the 1970's that the female sexual response was anybody's concern at all in the field of medicine. (Fortunately someone researched a nerve-sparing technique then too, which is what is used today.)
How is that different from female circumcision--physiologically?
Whether the anatomy is intact, or not, if it is not functioning because of surgical intervention, isn't it the same as that barbaric cultural ritual that is still practiced in some parts of the world?
Why didn't anyone care? Didn't they know?
The first thing they taught in 'How to interview a patient', is 'that everyone wants you to ask about it.'
- are you doing it?
- does it work?
- is there anything more you would like to talk about it?
And the things patients say? Sigh. Some things in fact I wouldn't want to know, but that is the job. Someone's got to do it.
I am still in shock that such disparity has existed for so long. It wasn't until the eighties that anyone thought that women's cardiac disease might be different from men's, and that the treatments developed for men might not be the most effective for women with cardiac disease.
No wonder why he is my favorite gastroenterologist!
For the rest of you, who are discussing Obamacare, here is one important thing to know if you have Hepatitis C:
The Medicare/Medicaid/Cal Optima protocol for treatment of Hepatitis C is from 1991.
(He would be dead by now if that was the treatment he was on. He has it* and has been kept alive by the latest technology on Hepatitis C)
He also shared that a colleague of his at another institution, a radiologist, said that 'barium enema is enough, and that colonoscopy is not indicated. If you don't see a mass on the film, there is no need to do a colonoscopy.' This is against the standard of care that has been in place since my training. But who is to stop some insurance company, some administrator, or some health care policy maker from enforcing this cheaper and technically backward policy into effect if there are doctors out there who promote it?
What I am trying to share with you is that there are a lot of diseases and treatments for them that are highly 'open to interpretation' between your caregiver, where they work, and the socio/politico/economic milieu. There is no time like the present to have your Intuition be in tip-top shape, and to follow it. It may save your life. And Reiki is an exceptional way to increase Intuition.
Namaste,
Reiki Doc
*there was another patient, a former health care worker, who had hepatitis and cirrhosis with portal hypertension we took care of recently, too. We really do put our lives on the line for our patients.
