Why my knees hurt.

When I was in High School the doctors planned on starting in my feet at age 18 and spending the next few years working their way up my body performing surgeries to correct all my injuries and deformed joints. I was told to expect somewhere between 5 and 50 surgeries.
I was 17 years old and I had already seen too many people who underwent surgery to correct one issue or another, only to be worse off after the fact. I pretty much stopped going to doctors after I was too old to be on daddy’s insurance anymore for several reasons, but mostly because I couldn’t afford it. Since then I’ve paid over $1,200 to have a patch of cloth sewn on my finger where I cut it off, several hundred for a vasectomy (long story short, I have high drug tolerances and local anesthetics don’t work on me), and endured several physicals for different jobs. Hannah is convinced that I have acute pancreatitis right now, but we’ll never know unless the pain becomes severe enough that it affects our lives adversely. Some people think I’m foolish, and maybe I am, but each time I go in for a physical I get a report of exemplary health and I go on my way.

Shortly after the twins were born, Hannah started exhibiting a low grade fever that would spike every few days. This lasted over a week and we finally went to see a doctor who diagnosed her with a bladder infection. A week later the fever was still there, so we went back to the doctor and were sent straight to the ER to be admitted. After several days of hateful nurses, having our marital fidelity questioned, being accused of drug use, and countless tests and examinations I finally informed the doctor that he had two hours to figure out the problem before we left the hospital. In a fluke, during a CT scan of her lungs he saw the top edge of her left kidney and realized that it was infected. Five days to make the jump from bladder infection to kidney infection, genius.

After the twins regressed and we visited their nurse practitioner for the 2 year checkup, she told us that the only explanation for their behavior was that they were deaf. We took them out to the van and buckled them in. I stepped around to the back and whispered their names. They turned to look at me. Apparently they were deaf and psychic. She forgot the second part. 

When Andrew’s seizures were at their worse we visited with a pediatric neurologist 6 hours away. After the 5^th or 6^th visit with no conclusive test results concerning what was causing the seizures, she decided to prescribe him the same medication we sought to avoid by visiting her in the first place. When we declined she then offered a very thinly veiled threat to report us to Child Protective Services for endangering our child by not giving him the medication. We’ve since put him on a magnesium supplement and only observed 1 or 2 seizures in the past 18 months.

It isn’t at all that I think all doctors are evil and out to get us. The truth of the matter is that I believe that doctors are humans just like the rest of us and as such are prone to mistakes. I know without a shadow of a doubt that modern medicine saved Andrew and Joel’s lives when they were born, so I don’t have a vendetta against all things medical. I just believe that it is our responsibility to be as educated as possible about any and all prescribed treatments and medications. We go to the mechanic and he tells us everything that’s wrong with our car. Most of us don’t write a blank check. We go to the doctor, however, and all the sudden everything that we are told is gospel truth. It may be that you have a phenomenal doctor who always presents you with all the options and all the information, if not I’d suggest you start asking some questions. What are the side effects? What are the alternatives? What happens if we choose not to? Can I get a second opinion?

                It may just be that I am exceptionally healthy or lucky, but I can’t help but wonder if there is a correlation between the fact that I’ve never had a flu shot, and I never get the flu. Regardless, it’s my opinion that we ought to be a little more mindful of what we put into our bodies. In a society where McDonalds is vilified for serving toys with happy meals because it makes little kids fat, I find it hard to believe that we are so trusting of the medical industry. The clerk at McDonalds is likely not a mindful participant in a heinous conspiracy to make your kid obese, and your doctor is likely not a mindless puppet of the evil pharmaceutical companies. He is also not Jesus. Not all of your doctors words are absolute truth, and not because of some character flaw that makes all doctors liars, simply because they are human.  

                Just look for some answers. You don’t have to agree with me, but you also do not have to agree with your doctor. Find out for yourself what options there are for treatment. The internet is a wealth of information and we all know that if it’s on the internet, it must be true.