East Meets West: In the O.R.

Today, while doing the first  appendectomy out of four consults seen the night before, our surgeon commented on the patient from last week who had delayed treatment.

Apparently, the patient had done so much 'cupping' that there were petechiae (puh-tee-kee-eye: small hemorrages in the skin seen when platelets are dysfunctional or low) all over the skin.

The Eastern Medicine treatment was done for some time after the onset of pain. At least six days.

The appendix ruptured.

What had been a simple, forty-eight hour hospital stay with surgery (unruptured appendix) turned into a one-week long, PICC line (long term i.v.), and ten week course of home antibiotic therapy to clear the infection.

The question the surgeon posed is: if someone was wondering how they were going to pay for all this, wouldn't it make sense to seek early treatment first?

Well, yes and no. The surgeon, who is a life-long vegetarian raised by vegetarian parents, is a delightful, hard-working, conscientious person from Western medicine practice. The patient, is from Eastern medicine tradition.

I think it would be best if we took the strengths of both, and educated everybody on what works and what doesn't--East and West! Wouldn't you agree?

Here are some times to head straight to the hospital:

• worst headache of your life (hemorrhage in the brain)
• a sense of 'impending doom' (even that one scares us, clinically--it is often right)
• abdominal pain so bad you can't jump up and down at all (peritonitis)
• a cold foot (when the other one is warm--there is no blood flow to the cold one)
• any infection of the groin that is getting bad fast, especially diabetic (Fournier's Gangrene)
• sudden weakness on one side or inability to speak (stroke--if treated in six hours can reverse)
• chest pain that radiates to left arm, shoulder, or jaw--pressure like an elephant is standing on you (heart attack-men)
• any strange sensation that is new in the chest, or like one you've had before but is not going away, and/or shortness of breath sitting still (heart attack--women)
• throwing up blood, pooping blood, or having thick coffee ground throw up or thick poop like tar (gastrointestinal hemorrhage)
• sudden pain in one lung and shortness of breath (spontaneous pneumothorax--needs a chest tube)
• coughing up tons of sputum, especially if creamy colored (pneumonia)
• any blunt or penetrating trauma
• any broken bone (you will know by a huge bruise and or a deformity--limb bends weird)
• sudden abdominal pain whether you jump up or down or not (ischemic bowel)
• a hernia that won't pop back in (bowel can die if you wait too long)
• an elderly female aged 60-70-80 with sudden right upper quadrant (under right rib) pain--the gallbladder can spin and turn into gangrene
• you can't pee
• any inkling of infection in a baby less than one month old (they have no immune system)
• seizure
• loss of consciousness

This is a short list of the kind of things we see in the operating room every day.

People have died from a tooth that went 'bad'--blood poisoning and death.

So if it's fixable--do it! You are more important than any bill that you might get! Remember, there are 'cash' discounts, payment options, and also certain types of insurance coverage that one can get from the county and state even once you are in the hospital.

Namaste,

Reiki Doc

Reiki, Science and Naturopathic Physicians

I had a comment on one of my posts: Reiki Doc? Aren't you supposed to believe in the Scientific Method?

I also had a request to post on Facebook a petition for Naturopathic Doctors to be titled as Physicians.

I have spent the last three days in very deep thought. Let me condense my findings:

• I felt a twinge of the challenge a guest speaker who was an oncologist 'soapboxed' about for an hour in this speech on Alternative and Complimentary Medicine. I felt like letting someone else have the title of 'physician' might in some way 'lessen' my hard work and life dedication to allopathic medicine. It 'hurt'.
• For those of you who are not in the medical field, the fields of medical practice, in descending order of rigorousness and difficulty getting 'in' and 'finishing training' are: 

1. D.V.M.--veterinary medicine. Super-impacted programs, super competitive. From what I understand, must start volunteer work at fifteen with single-minded goal to get admitted.
2. M.D. --this is allopathic medicine--4 years undergrad, 4 years med school, and at least internship plus three years residency. Competitive, as in 30 applicants for spot in medical school. 
3. D.O. --osteopathic medicine--same as above, but less standard allopathic academic material in a way because chiropractic medicine is also taught in the four years of training.
4. D.D.S. --Dentistry. Very hard to get in. Very tough boards to pass.
5. Pharm D--Pharmacist. Much licensing, much training, with residency in hospital optional, but mandatory for work in a hospital setting
6. D.P.M. --Podiatrist. They work with me at my hospital. Nice docs, very calm. Formal residency training in O.R. is mandatory.
7. D.C. --Chiropractor. Will have to look up the curriculum, but in talking with one of my chiropractors in the past, it seemed 'close' to the way medicine is taught, but parallel. Not sure if stays in hospital overnight with sick patients. Probably not.
8. N.D. --similar bachelors' degree prerequisite and subjects. Rigorousness varies across different programs. Very few residencies. I do know I have always had a Kneipp product available at my home since freshman year college--I was just drawn to it, and wondered why or how I was.
9. Acupuncture--I was treated at a school in San Diego. Very traditional, with good training, but no staying up all night in the hospital!
10. Physical Therapy, Nutrition, Occupational Therapy, Speech Therapy, Physician Assistant, CRNA, Nurse Midwife--all require some training after college degree, all are in 'conventional medicine'. Are in hospital at all hours, but with shorter shifts, and breaks, which M.D.'s do not get in the hospital.
11. RN/LVN/NA--can go from a two year program at a community college all the way to a Doctorate in Nursing. Is competitive, and in 'Conventional Medicine'. Nurses that do the toughest, highest 'acuity' patients are (in no particular order) NICU, SICU, CCU, MICU, PACU, OR, PICU, and Burn ICU. There is Neurosurgery ICU, too.
12. Xray techs, CT scan techs, MRI techs, Cath Lab techs, Nuclear Medicine techs, ...many many more I might have forgot. If there is a specialty, there is a tech, even and Ortho Cast technician...usually in a technical program, with a licensing exam.
13. Not sure exactly where midwives and doulas fit in as far as training and licensing is concerned. Same for Homeopathy, Ayuveda, and other Healing arts.
14. Edgar Cayce-type healers. People who work with Spirit and the Higher Realms for healing, and whose technical accuracy are only now being discovered behind the 'cures'. They just 'do it' and are pioneers.

• One of the problems in the past was that medicine was 'unregulated': it was an apprenticeship, very regional style of care, and there were many lives lost. Think of the surgeons, in suits, who went from the anatomy lab to doing pelvic exams on laboring women without washing their hands! More women died of puerpural fever IN the hospital than at home with a midwife.
• I 'get' that we are going to have to 'forge something in the healing arts together'--and give up our 'turf' in a sense. Was acupuncture discovered by randomized, double-blind studies? No way! Even now we are just beginning to understand how acupuncture 'works', as measurements before this time were not physically possible.
• I put my Reiki Doc 'woo woo' skills into this category--not yet measurable physical phenomena. Masaru Emoto has done seminal work with water crystals in this regard--'science of woo woo'
• Naturopathic Medicine is like the 'primary care' of all the Alternative Medicine Arts--they know a little about all of them, and about conventional medicine too, but no 'staying up all night with sick patients' like I do. (I did last night! Woken up at two a.m. and six-twenty a.m. for epidurals)
• Patients want to heal. Patients want to feel better. Love is an essential component in this healing art.
• On Science: I am a Chemical Engineer by training. The physical sciences are robust. The biological sciences--no so accurate. They are almost to the realm of Product Development Science in Marketing Research and Consumer Testing--'give me the answer you want and I will tell you the question you have to ask'. And the statisticians will tell you how many people to ask (how powerful) to show a difference. There is a trend called 'Meta Analysis' where you take the results of different tests, blend the papers together, and analyze them overall for 'super trends'. If you ask me, there is just too much error in the Meta Analysis method. But it is 'standard of care' in 'peer reviewed evidence based medicine' on which our government-backed 'protocols' are being built.
• Louis Pasteur was once on a train, praying the Rosary. His seat mate teased him, and challenged him, citing the superiority of science over religion, and taunted him why he still had to pray on those beads. Pasteur, humbled and unrecognized by the seat mate, asked, 'Tell me more of this Science that you discuss. If this is true, I want no more part of this Science!' and broke down in tears. Pasteur had a special devotion to Mother Mary his entire life, and dedicated his life-saving work to Her...
• All people in Medicine pray. Sometimes 'formally', sometimes even if not religious, a heart-felt, 'help me God with this horrible situation--clinically--help me to do what is right and do it well'.

Therefore I am saying, Science and Medicine are One. Healing and Religious Faith are ONE. 

When it comes right down to it, illness is an energetic imbalance that responds to Love, Compassion, Concern, and Caring.

It is from this foundation that the future of all Healing shall be built. When 'Quackery'--the misuse of the healing paradigm for one's own personal benefit by the twisting of science into 'flim flam' is no longer possible--through Ascension and the ability to intuitively and instantly KNOW someone's intent by reading their aura; when Quackery is no longer possible, things are going to more very fast forward from where we are today. Hold on to your hats! This is going to be a MIRACLE!*

Namaste,

Reiki Doc

* Note: that in the fifth dimension, physical illness no longer can exist. We will need some 'transition', but the end point is health and youth and vigor!