Friday, May 20, 2011

The more I learn, the more I find how little medical science knows

Yesterday I saw the nurse practitioner that works with my breast surgeon for a follow up to my mammogram - which was last week but due to their scheduling mess up (they didn't see the note to schedule my appointment with her until I called and ask - second year in a row but I'm not cranky).

She asked how my health was and I told her 'well I'm seen by the pain clinic for back problems and bursitis in my hip, and I have PT for my knee and shots coming up, an infected toe, and tachycardia, and my thyroid levels might be out of whack' and she gave me one of those 'deer in the headlights' looks.
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I then added that in the past six months I have been going to first an exercise class and then a gym where I get help with a workout plan and in some ways my back has actually been feeling better. She said she used to work in the Pain Management department and they have so few resources to help with pain issues and there are so many areas where there is not much which can be done but exercise does help with controlling the pain. I pondered that and realized that yes that's probably the case because I have never been offered a lot of options - pain meds, injections, anti inflammatories, PT and ice packs.

This morning I found this article that says fewer cancer screening tests may be needed. The key word here is 'may'.New research is saying that some tests may prove to eliminate the need for other tests. But more studies are needed to figure out if this is really the case (another medical study to show the need for more medical studies).

How many times have I been told 'well we don't really know why some people get fill-in-the-blank ailment', they just do. My blood pressure issue was one of those - I come from a family with LOW blood pressure, I exercise and eat right (admitting to the occasional snuck in treat) and my blood pressure hasn't been cooperating.

Of course there is 'we don't really know why you got either cancer' - this is clear gap in medical knowledge. But that's another whiney blog post another day.

2 comments:

Eileen said...

The bacitracin thing made my infected toe worse. On the other hand, I get fast infection relief from an antiseptic solution I get from Whole Foods and other health/co-op stores (it's on Amazon, as well, but of course that will take longer, and time is probably of the essence in this case). The antiseptic is made with Tea Tree Oil and Lavender; it's produced by 'Tea Tree Therapy'.

Hot soaks with a few drops of tea tree oil can also be helpful, but I've found the antiseptic solution to be most effective.

Good luck!!

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