Burden of Knowledge Pt 2: Why I need to learn to keep my mouth shut

Or alternately titled: sharing my knowledge doesn’t always make the situation better.

So this is a sad post- there’s your warning, I understand if you skip this one.

My grandma ended up in hospice last week and ended up suffering a massive stroke. Family members were hopeful because she would periodically raise both arms. I, being the jerk I am, informed them all about motor pathways and reflexes and the differences between upper motor neuron lesions and lower motor neuron lesions. Now, I didn’t do this to be crass and unfeeling. I was very close to my grandma and was also taking this hard. I think I was hiding behind my knowledge. I couldn’t feel grief as strongly if I was busy analyzing the situation. I also didn’t want to give my family false hope. My grandma had rallied so many times, we almost expected her to wake up the next day and be right back to herself. Unfortunately, she didn’t rally and passed the next day.

The moral of the story is: don’t spout of random medical knowledge unless you’re asked. Some people need that hope. I could have used it, but my brain is a giant bully that bulldozed my emotions with logic and factoids.

This is my g-ma. She was a pretty fantastic individual.

My experiences with Naturopathy pt 2!

So the past month has been crazy hard on me, but I’ve also learned a lot.

First: summer quarters suck. That’s all-I’m not going to dwell on that.

Second: I’ve had some really cool experiences with nature cure and naturopathic medicine I’d love to share. The normal disclaimer applies: this is NOT medical advice and these are my OWN experiences. 🙂

Homeopathy:  I didn’t have any experience with homeopathy before, so when I realized I had a medical condition, I jumped at the chance to try it out. I was prescribed a remedy and WOW! 2 out of my 3 major complaints were completely cleared up in less than 2 weeks. Fatigue was my third, and I really don’t think there’s a cure for that when you’re in medical school. My favorite part was it helped my hip pain I have had since high school. I didn’t tell my doctor about it because it was previously diagnosed and I was managing it with exercise and fish oil. I say it again: WOW! she hit the nail on the head when she selected my remedy because I’m so much happier and pain free than I was before! HOW EXCITING! I may become a convert 😉

I don’t normally take my remedy with daisies nearby, but it seems like it couldn’t hurt.

Nature Cure: Apparently I ran myself ragged after boards. We had boards, then the week after boards we had midterms and then clinic entry exam. Two nights before my clinic entry exam I was feeling terrible. I was coming down with a cold- my body was exhausted. So I decided to try out wet socks (http://www.bastyrcenter.org/content/view/197/). The next day I was feeling 100% and all my symptoms of the oncoming cold were gone. It was amazing and now I’m the biggest cheerleader of wet socks there is!

Those are the actual socks and my actual feet. So comfy cozy that night 🙂

So that’s what I’ve been up to in a nutshell. I’ll probably post a little later “my burden of knowledge part two… why I need to learn to keep my mouth shut”.