Modern Medicine

“Doctors are men who prescribe medicines of which they know little, to cure diseases of which they know less, in human beings of who they know nothing” ~ Voltaire


Almost two weeks ago the man took the day off. We went to town and he was driving and forgot where he was going, walked to the wrong car in the parking lot, took wrong turn’s, pulled in to get gas but didn’t stop at the pumps just drove straight up to the door, etc.

It really scared me. He said he had a headache and pressure behind his eyes. I took him to the doctors on Wednesday. They were not happy, wouldn’t let him drive or work. We stopped off at the hospital on the way home and had blood work done. He had an x-ray and MRI on Friday. And we had to wait on the results which made for a long weekend.

The headaches continued. He would have an ice pack on the back of his head and warm rice bag across his eyes and go to bed.

Sunday #2 daughter woke up with the beginnings of an earache so I knew I would be chauffeuring someone else to the doctors. That afternoon we were sending the pigs to the butcher and we were all at the barn to help load them. #2 daughter and son let the lambs out into the barnyard to play with them while waiting on the truck to arrive. Domino (lamb) would walk up to #2 son and very easily push him. #2 son thought this was “cute” so he got down on all fours …can you guess what happened next. As I am telling #2 to get up, Domino reared up on his back legs and let #2 son have it.

So Monday we trekked to the kids Drs. #2 daughter has a sinus infection … #2 son has a mild concussion (stupid is as stupid does). And we went home to wait on the man’s results.

Tuesday we get a call from the doctor that NOTHING is wrong, blood work is fine, MRI shows nothing. The confusion is down to one or two episodes a day (because he second guesses himself) so they said it could possibly have been a “temporary chemical imbalance although we didn’t test for that”. The blood work could have shown them but they didn’t do the test. They make an appointment with an eye doctor and prescribed some meds for the headaches.

Wednesday we go to the eye doctor who says nothing is wrong. They make an appointment for another eye test in two weeks.

The headaches continue, the eye pressure/burning continues but nothing is wrong. This is normal? We are out a week’s pay, copays, prescription costs, lots of gas money, and whatever other bills come in…and we still don’t know what is going on. I love modern medicine. This reaffirms his opinion of doctors so getting him to go to another will be impossible.

So I let him hop in his truck today and go off to work . Why? Because we need the money and they say nothing is wrong and that he is allowed to drive and return to work so he was going.

When my mother’s blood pressure started to rise, they upped the dosage she was on. Her family history said high blood pressure. When her back started to hurt we put it off on her age and working so hard in the garden. When she started losing weight we didn’t think much of it as we lose weight in the spring/summer when we are more active. When her legs and ankles swelled they said possible side effect of the meds and switched to one with a water pill in it…..She was later diagnosed with kidney cancer. The flags were there and we all did nothing because it was all so easily explained away.

Turning left to go home when you should be turning right, walking past your own car, forgetting where your friend lives and driving past their driveway, headaches that OTC meds won’t touch….these are not so easily explained away. I am not complaining because I want him sick. I want him to remember where he lives and I don’t want him to forget and turn left in front of an oncoming car or bus when he should have been turning right.

So I wait…to see if he gets better or worse, to see if he will go back to the doctor if it gets worse. I started keeping notes on what he eats and when he gets confused. For now that is all I can do since nothing is wrong.