Modern Medicine

People who know me know that I'm not a fan of modern Western medicine. I think there are far too many unnecessary tests ordered, surgeries performed, and drugs prescribed. Just look at all the pharmacies that have popped up in the past 10 years or so. There is a CVS or a Walgreens on every corner, it seems. And, yet, when I need to fill the rare prescription for an antibiotic, I have to wait at least 20 minutes before the script is filled. Does that not tell you that there are too many prescriptions being written? When I was in school, there was one lonely little school nurse, manning a small, but well-equipped nurse's office. Now, many schools need to employ several nurses and provide well-marked storage for the hundreds of prescriptions they need to dose out during the day to far too many students. It just makes me shake my head, but I digress.

I have lived my life fairly healthily, with the exception of exercise and smoking. I have never been consistent with exercise. When I was young, it wasn't an issue, as I never had an issue with my weight. I was five feet tall and weighed 100 pounds. And, at the time, I only associated exercise with weight issues. If you had weight issues, you needed to exercise. If you were at a healthy weight, exercise wasn't needed -- you were obviously getting enough, in my mind. So, I was ignorant on the need to exercise, until, one day, when I was in my 40s, I realized I had put on some weight. Oh, let me correct that. Not SOME weight, a LOT of weight. I had become obese and I really hadn't noticed it happening.

I had two children. I worked three jobs. I was a housewife and I went to college when I was in my 30s. I was too busy to notice what was happening to me. But, I thought I was healthy. After all, I ate healthy foods. I didn't really drink alcohol very often. I went to the doctor for check-ups almost every year and to the dentist every six months. I thought I was taking pretty good care of myself, yet I hadn't noticed that I was gaining a lot of weight. I don't do scales. I own one, but it sits neatly under a small 3-drawer chest in the bathroom. I take it out to dust it now and again, but step on it? Naaaaaaaahhhh... not me. So, maybe, in some small way I was in denial all those years. But I was healthy! Oh, yes, I smoked cigarettes, but my lungs were still healthy, my cholesterol was good, my blood pressure was good and everything else seemed to be working just fine. No meds for me. They poison the body. Sure, I'll agree that some drugs are truly miracle drugs, but most are poisonous concoctions developed by money-hungry drug companies, who lobby to get their drugs approved by a corrupt Food and Drug Administration before they've been thoroughly tested.

Then, one day, I came down with a cold and I noticed my breathing was much worse than it had ever been with any other cold I'd had in my life. I really had to work at breathing. It made it easy to give up smoking. Hell! I couldn't inhale semi-clean air, let alone cigarette smoke. But, I ended up having to go to the hospital for treatment to breathe. The emergency room doctor made me feel as though he wasn't going to treat me, when I answered "yes" to his question of "Do you smoke cigarettes?" He stood there for a moment, as if to say, "Well, what do you expect ME to do?" Then he abruptly turned and left the cubicle. I wasn't sure if he was coming back or not, but soon there was someone with some sort of pipe thing that I had to inhale and, after three such treatments, I was breathing much better and on my way home. I never picked up a cigarette again.

While my breathing improved dramatically after the treatments, it was never again what it was. I was afraid... and still am... that I had permanently damaged my lungs from smoking. However, I had also gained over 100 pounds and I know that's also doing a number on my breathing.