Quote:
Originally Posted by peter12
On a slightly different note, this self-medicating BS aggravates me to no end. I have a lot of time for honest, decent skepticism of the pharmaceutical industry. A lot of the time the drugs that we told work quite effectively don't work very well at all or they come with a lot of stipulations that users are simply unwilling to abide by. The Accutane/pregnancy imbroglio is one such example.
However, what we have now is infinitely better than all of the essential oils, natural supplements, and pseudo-spiritual crap sold by the tawdry, myriad caravan of peddlers that truly make money off of the ignorance and misery of ordinary people.
I was just diagnosed with a disorder that I have had my entire life, and, until recently, was completely unaware of. It blew me away how many family members came out of the woodwork recommending this or that course of treatment that was downright insane. It blew me away even further how angry they got when I insisted I would be following the standard biomedical course of therapy/treatment.
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We were MOBBED when my daughter was diagnosed. Straight up mobbed by everyone selling essential oils, and magic juices and cleanses and this special diet and that special diet. It was exhausting. And it's hurtful and annoying. Suddenly all you are, rather than their friend or family member who could use some actual support during a rough time, is a dollar sign to aid them in building their "business." Bleh, business. WTFE. Families are already experiencing major stressors and this crap just adds to that.
When you sell essential oils and claim to me, that you can stop a spine from fusing? Every version of the F word to you, you asshat. If you're going to claim that, you're practicing medicine without a license and should be punished to the fullest extent of the law. People rarely try to sell us on their crap now as our reactions have given them good reason to never ever mention the BS to us ever again. The odd person sometimes says something to our daughter, not knowing her or us well enough to know how we feel about all the crap, regarding essential oils and now she just turns the tables on them and says she was "essential oil injured" and she "hopes they respect her choice to refrain from a therapy that has done her harm." Shuts them down fairly quickly, lol.
We tried some massage therapy per one of her doctors because they hoped it would alleviate some of the muscle issues (tightness, spasms etc) and chose someone based on a stellar reputation. We knew they were involved in reiki, etc and made sure the massage therapist knew we did not want any of that, we were simply after the massage treatments.
Turns out, the massage therapist is a freaking crackpot. They caught part of a conversation between my daughter and I, discussing a silly TV show we'd watched the night prior. Now, normally, it's not a TV show we watch. That episode was the first and the last and we only watched because there'd been so much yammer leading up to this particular episode that we wanted to see if the situation was as crazy as people were saying. The massage therapist interrupted us and started going on and on about how it was bad juju to have a TV and to watch crappy shows like that and if we only read more books, and did all these alternative "therapies", then she wouldn't have this autoimmune disease. Uh, what now? The massage therapist was asked to leave immediately and we refuse to give a referral. We're a bit gunshy now, on further massage therapy even though it's recommended by the specialists and our GP.
You know, we/she only ever refused 2 medication protocols. The doctors had initially misdiagnosed CRPS and had put her on Gabapentin. It was a nasty medication for her. They realized the misdiagnosis eventually and we weaned her off the medication. That was in the children's system. When she entered the adult system, a new doctor wanted to put her on Gabapentin right away and she refused and we backed her up on that. There was a second medication that they wanted to try in lieu, but having had a lengthy discussion with one great doctor while still in the Children's system about that medication and its side effects, she also refused that one. Her doctor wasn't thrilled but acquiesed. Later, the doctor admitted to my daughter/us, that having treated our daughter longer, they now realized the medication would have been ineffective.
We have found, within the medical community, that there are doctors that tend to treat by throwing medications at something and hoping it 'sticks.' Like any profession, there are turdbuckets like that. Even so, we'll stick with actual doctors and therapies/treatments/protocols before we'll ever EVER resort to essential oils and homeopathy/natural paths (yes, I know it's naturopath, I'm mocking everyone whose ever recommended one to us and couldn't even spell it) and the like.
We have watched this case in southern Alberta with some interest. We are very curious as to the outcome and believe there should be some sort of legal repercussion.