Just Right?

This week I realized at the doctor's office that all of the main docs rotating there demonstrate a spectrum of the healthcare field.

Chronic sinusitis is one of the 'failed' areas of traditional medicine, just like chronic back pain. Here are their takes on the treatment of one of my kids, who has been suffering with a sinus infection since early November.

"Papa Bear": This is the owner of the place. A very traditional allopathic physician. He took an x-ray of the sinuses, prescribed steroids, antibiotics, expectorant, and said to come back in ten days. The only 'catch' is that all of the medications were on formulary for the facilities' 'pharmacy', a closet in the back. At the end, he asks, 'what is your co-pay?' and offers to charge me that only on each of the meds. I have gone along with this in the past, out of convenience's sake. But I know that all the meds are generic and much cheaper than my co-pay. Last time, I asked, after he said, 'for a savings of sixty dollars!', and since I had to go to our pharmacy anyway for one of the meds I was given, 'would you mind if we just went to the pharmacy for all of them?'. He wrote the scripts. I took them to my pharmacy. And two of the three meds were less than half the price of a single copay.

"Mama Bear": A caring physician with a therapeutic sense of humor, he wrote for Ciprodex ear drops instead of antibiotics the visit before last. That is non-formulary, non-generic, and set me back one hundred and sixty dollars  due to my generic-only insurance policy (cipro is bad for growth plates when taken as a pill in children). It cured the ear infection, but not the underlying sinusitis behind it. This one is who wrote a different antibiotic for free over the phone when there was a reaction (rash) to one written by his partner, 'Baby Bear'.

"Baby Bear": the most human of them all. Very into New Age medicine. Has given a number of excellent resources for this blog. He had given a referral to a homeopath, but due to scheduling I never contacted them. Did not want to expose this patient to 'more x-rays', and had been treating sinus infections since November. The critical part missing in the therapy plan was the steroid

There is no 'Goldilocks' in this story. The answer is in the middle of all of these. They clearly represent the types of people that are out there:

Papa Bear:  taking care of number one while taking care of your loved one. Likely to go away after Ascension due to self-serving behavior. Does have skills that work, though.

Mama Bear: a good overall blend of Papa Bear and Baby Bear, has a somewhat less guarded heart in taking care of you, more compassionate.

Baby Bear: Puts the most of himself into his work--heart and soul. Is excited about the prospect of new medicine. Is the only one I trust enough to let know I am Reiki Doc. Perhaps if I had been more open about the two week's of work missed in taking care of my sick kid, about how stressed I am that every day post-call has been spent taking care of same kid, and how I referred myself out to my old allergist because I felt it wasn't getting resolution on the sinuses, we could have come up with a better plan together. I think objective endpoints to reassess would be a good way to go when working with a doc like Baby Bear.

Again, sinusitis is a tough one to treat. The problem is that the mucus membranes lining the sinuses don't absorb very much antibiotic, and antimicrobial therapy should last a minimum of three weeks' to allow for adequate penetration. Saline nasal rinses with a Neti pot are helpful, but only Dr. Neil has the right tonicity in the packet and the water fill line. Even with that, there is risk of terrible cross contamination from one use to the next, and for sure each family member should have their own Neti Pot. (I find soaking in one part vinegar to three parts water for an hour, or hydrogen peroxide rinse and dry, to adequately address this concern).

I thought we might discuss these three different 'approaches' to medicine today, so that you can see 'where your physician' is coming from. There is room for improvement in each type, that is why it is called the Practice of Medicine!  Who is going to be the first to incorporate Light Therapy and Sound Healing into their practices? The Baby Bears of the world, no doubt! And who can benefit from Reiki Training and opening up their intuitive ability in medicine? ALL THREE!

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!