Mid-Summer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Honey Flow Moon<\/p>\n
Gotta get back to those core exercises.\u00a0 Back went ouch again today.\u00a0 Sympathy for the Doctor?<\/p>\n
Healing is much less science and much more art.\u00a0 Most of us see medicine covered in the glittering wrap of science, tested hypotheses, proven procedures, well-understood drugs, but in fact the science is often in deep background during a patient-physician encounter; where the most important work, diagnoses, is done often without the patient’s awareness.\u00a0 Diagnoses, taking a given person with a particular list of symptoms and identifying what’s actually causing a problem, begins a this\/not that path that then includes various treatment protocols.<\/p>\n
Will they work?\u00a0 No certainty.\u00a0 My former internist, Charlie Petersen, used to say, “We’re all\u00a0 a bit of a black box inside.”\u00a0 The difficulty faced by the physician is not only the variability in human bodies, but the inexact reporting of patients.\u00a0 We often don’t know how to express ourselves to the doctor, aren’t always aware of what’s important and what’s not.\u00a0 Ask anyone who thought that headache and funny vision would pass, then ended up in an ER getting treated for a stroke.<\/p>\n
I experienced this dilemma with Kona.\u00a0 She presented with a right front leg held gingerly and a real grimacing when it moved.\u00a0 I checked her front leg, feeling up and down its length, pressing at each point to see if there was a sprain or a break.\u00a0 Nothing.\u00a0 I felt no scars, found no blood.\u00a0 I wasn’t sure what had happened but could find nothing wrong.\u00a0 I never looked up and under her right shoulder where the wound was obvious.\u00a0 I took her lead, followed the symptom she presented.\u00a0 Doctors, of course, look beyond the first symptoms we present, but if we don’t mention something, they’ll not know to check.<\/p>\n
It occurred to me, given all this, that practicing medicine is an incredibly brave thing to do.\u00a0 No one knows the limitations of western medicine more than physicians, yet they show up in exam rooms anyway, willing to use what they know to benefit the rest of us.\u00a0 They work with us as knowledgeable experts, of course, but also as skilled listeners, both to our stories and our bodies.\u00a0 The older I get the more respect I have for this, one of the oldest professions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Mid-Summer\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Waxing Honey Flow Moon Gotta get back to those core exercises.\u00a0 Back went ouch again today.\u00a0 Sympathy for the Doctor? Healing is much less science and much more art.\u00a0 Most of us see medicine covered in the glittering wrap of science, tested hypotheses, proven procedures, well-understood drugs, but in fact the science is often … Continue reading More Art Than Science<\/span>