The book starts off talking about how since medical technology has advanced more people are living longer. Since people are living longer we are contracting more conditions, syndromes, or diseases that we wouldn't have otherwise including dementia and althestimers. Also because of medical technology many people expect to be cured of their conditions, syndromes, or diseases. When a person's symptoms aren't fully alleviated or the person isn't cured of the condition, syndrome, or disease the person gets disappointed. The person either blames their Dr that they are not doing their job or the Dr blames the patient that they are making up their symptoms.
The book also talks about the difference of symptoms and disease. A symptom can be produced by more things than physical disease; they can be produced by our life experiences, expectations, beliefs, and emotions" (pg 19). This is evident in those who have an optimistic outlook on their treatment. Those who are optimistic outlook do have symptoms but are less apt to focus on them. Also it is also evident in those who expect a cure or total remission of sorts. When I got diagnosed with RSD I knew my life was going to change. I did want remission but knew I had to get through every day and did so with the help of my family and friends. After 8 years I still have that support and realize how blessed I am everyday.
Dr's for the most part are taught to diagnose and treat their patients. When they find nothing wrong there is nothing to treat. This is hard especially with Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy where nothing shows up on x-rays, CT's, MRI's, or other medical tests. Doctors are left to diagnose the patient by ruling out other conditions and focusing on the symptoms. That is also hard to do since not everyone who has RSD has the same symptoms. Someone may swell like a balloon while person's limbs may turn different colors, while another's may do both.
I will post more about the book when I have read more. I have found it interesting pretty far and so far a good read.
On Saturday my mom and I went to the store to get some fresh vegetables and fruit for the weekend. It was absolutely crazy there. I would go and grab something and almost get ran over. My tension headache from the night before came back full force and I was pretty much down for the rest of the evening. That night my dad had went to cut the watermelon we had bought. We were all so excited since it was the first one that we got this year. It ended up having some kind of worm type holes. My mom ended up taking the watermelon back to the store since it wasn't worth eating. Today we went to my sister's house. We had a Birthday type gathering for my other sister. I brought my vegan burgers and munched on some raw vegetables. There wasn't much I could eat other than corn which I eat with nothing on it (yum!). I had offered to make a cake or cookies (vegan of course) but was shot down by my mom earlier this week. I'm nervous about when I go to NYC what I'm going to eat. I'm going with all meat eaters, and even though I love salads, I do like a bit of variety too.
As I mentioned above Ive been having some trouble with my neck and my tension headaches are back. The only way I know to rid of them is to get my neck massaged and don't have an appointment for a month. If you have any suggestions I will take any at this point.
Healing Thoughts To All of You!
