Imagine you’re sitting in a cold, sterile, lonely little room, bathed in unholy white florescent light. Mountains of menacing gadgets loom over you; their stainless steal finish softened only by the reflection of explicit diagrams of dissected bodily organs pinned up systematically in every corner.
The only sound that dares pierce the silence is the solemn metronome of a heart monitor chiming steadily just above your head: beep, beep, beep.
Minutes seem to pass as days, until; at long last, a thin man in a long white coat with a stern face and placid eyes emerges from behind the curtain. Without a smile or grimace, he stretches out his icy hands, and offers you two pills: one red, the other blue. Which do you take?
After many recent trips to the emergency room and quite a few different doctors’ offices, both here and on the mainland, I can’t say I had an experience quite so dismal, but some came hauntingly close.
I can say, however, there were many hours of lonely silence in those confined little rooms that provided ample time for reflection. One thought always seemed to linger after the brief visit from the man behind the curtain: are my only two options really just between the drug on the right and the one on the left?
Growing up, I had always been used to household remedies and herbal supplements to combat common ailments. Colds, flu, rashes, you name it, my mother had a concoction on stand by, but this time it was serious.
With much more on the line than a couple extra days in bed, I wondered, could those methods really be counted on for something as serious as an autoimmune disease?
Well, I can tell you that most of my doctors didn’t seem to think so, owing to the fact that when the immune system begins attacking its own healthy cells it can be cause for alarm. Especially when symptoms manifest in critical ways, which in my case was fatigue, inflammation, and partial blindness in my right eye.
As things got steadily worse, talk soon turned to drug regiments with plans stretching from one to two years. Unfortunately, these drugs, like many, came with a long-drawn-out list of symptoms that left me with lingering apprehension.
I really couldn’t believe what the doctors were telling me. It seemed that if you wanted to be healthy, you must accept high-risk medication, that in all possibilities, could you leave you worse off than you were to begin with. I mean we hear about this all the time, right? So and so is having problems with his liver because of their heart medication, and what’s her names hair is falling out from her chemotherapy. It’s baffling that someone hasn’t come along to say, “wait! You don’t have to take that pill,” or, “you needn’t get that injection three times a week.”
That is when I discovered, yes, there are real doctors out there saying just that, not just the back alley herbalist in trench coat offering you relief for the right price, real live, traditionally trained and thoroughly educated healers who are prescribing an alternative.
At first, I couldn’t say I was overwhelmed with joy at the news of an alternative. It seemed risky, outlandish, and in most cases expensive. My insurance company, who gladly paid for test after test and office visit after office visit with my regular doctors at the hospital, pointed their noses in the air at mention of a physician who had stepped off the allopathic pharmaceutical path, and onto the highway of homeopathic and integrative healing. So, the cost I would have to manage alone, as well as the risk of some real possible quackery. Though, at long last, and with my options dwindling, I finally decided to give it a shot, no pun intended.
When I first stepped into my new doctors’ office two things immediately struck me: first, was its resemblance to all my other doctors’ offices. Scrubbed up nurses, high-tech machinery, all the bells and whistles that screamed of convention, but with a gentle ambiance that felt somewhat like a resort style massage parlor, with comfy reclining chairs, graceful receptionists, and a relaxed vibe that put some of my worries to rest.
The second, and most astounding, was the doctor’s immediate presence. He was there to get to know you, and I mean really know you. From occupation to diet, head to toe, this man left no stone unturned. We must have spent at least an hour talking during my first visit, which to anyone who has ever spent an entire afternoon waiting for a doctor, only to be graced by their presence for a whole ten minutes can tell you, this was a therapy in and of it itself.
After fully sizing me up, and reviewing the results from my latest blood test, he said to me smiling, “it’s time to build your immune system back up.” And that is just what he did.
Through a series of what were essentially intravenous multivitamins and minerals, I began to feel my long lost strength and vitality returning. Almost over night, symptoms, which had plagued me for an entire year, were in retreat, and in two weeks, I was a completely new person.
I can’t say it was an easy fix, however, because it certainly wasn’t as simple as popping a pill three times a day. My diet needed to change, and my lifestyle transform to accommodate this new regiment, but I’m overjoyed to report that the only side-effect thus far has been steady unwavering good health, which I hope to carry with me for a long, long time.