Julie’s post about the extreme pain she was living with on a regular basis really hit home with me. It was what was on my mind the many days that I walked outside this week. It was what was on my mind as a pattered around the house. I meditated on it before I went to sleep.
There are so many things that came up for me–so many questions. I can’t even write a correct essay about them because they are far ranging, follow no logical order/pattern.
* So many of us have experienced excruciating back pain–back pain that literally knocks us down for days at a time–why have there been no devices created (ala wheelchairs, scooters, etc), whereby those who are going through back pain can remain mobile and a part of their environment–rather than bed bound up in some room somewhere?
* I have discovered the beauty of acupuncture. It’s completely changed my perspective on the world and how medicine works. First–acupuncture is not something I could afford in most situations. In this case, I can afford it because the acupuncturist I go to runs her office on a sustainable model the centers the health of the community. Second–since I’ve started going to regular appointments, my back as improved *considerably*. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still achy, and the last appointment really seemed to undo a lot of dependency I was placing on one part of my back, thus causing a different part of my back to have to work for the first time in years–which ached like hell.
But I am mobile. And I have stayed mobile since I’ve been going to treatments. The treatments don’t hurt. They are very gentle and relaxing. I would go even if they didn’t work for me because I usually drop into a deep meditative state and leave feeling emotionally renewed.
As I went for my walks this week, I reflected on how gentle and guilt free these treatments are. How the acupuncturist doesn’t make you feel shamed for being a crying mess, being unable to walk, have horrible diarrhea, etc. I told her about how the sole of my foot always seems to vibrate when I’m getting treatment and she replied that when energy moves, you never really know what it’s going to do to you.
Can any of us imagine telling our doctors that a medication made the sole of our foot vibrate?
For acupuncture, it seems like it all boils down to energy held within the body–a practical explanation with no guilt, no fear, no stigma…And the response to that energy is to manipulate it, be patient with it, listen to it, feel where it is and encourage it to go other places–not punish it.
Or, as my therapist said–it’s easy to chop down a tree, much harder to work the roots out.
Which is not to say I give up on Western medicine entirely–but more to ask, having seen my back improve so much under gentle guidance and do nothing but get worse under almost brutal medications/therapy–is it right of us to demand that Western medicine treat our bodies that same way? If we do, how will things change? Will things change? How would we want them to change?
What would a medical praxis that operates in a capitalist structure look like that centered working the roots out rather than chopping down the tree?
* Is mobility a human right? I was thinking on a walk about how most of us have been mobile in some shape or form since we were about five or six months old (the time we start rolling over/crawling). It seems like a natural human tendency to attempt movement (I say “natural” very cautiously), whether it be a baby watching her hand move from her side to the front of her face or a grown up moving from her chair to her kitchen.
If mobility is a human right, how can we justify structures like prisons, borders, reservations (which don’t forget, started first and foremost, as POW type camps), walls, etc?
How can we justify not fully funding wheelchairs, walkers, seeing eye dogs, wheelchair accessible vans, accessible buildings etc?
How can we justify not funding research on mobility options for those immobilized by back pain–or immobilized period?
* When did walking transition from meaning “to roll, toss, journey about” to putting two feet on the ground, lifting one, then lifting another…? Why did it transition in such a way?
* How many of us think about our relationship with walking with “gratefulness” coloring our thoughts? That is, I may have to do X,Y and Z in order to walk–but *at least I can still walk* and for that I am “grateful”?
Why are we grateful to still be able to walk instead of pissed off that the times that we can’t walk aren’t accommodated in anyway at all in this culture?
I could go on and one with this forever. I have so many questions. And absolutely NO answers. I’m going to be content with that for now.
My Cilantro: Always moving towards what is best for her.
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March 9th, 2009 at 4:09 pm #
so many important questions here!
i’m really sitting with this:
“* How many of us think about our relationship with walking with “gratefulness” coloring our thoughts? That is, I may have to do X,Y and Z in order to walk–but *at least I can still walk* and for that I am “grateful”?
Why are we grateful to still be able to walk instead of pissed off that the times that we can’t walk aren’t accommodated in anyway at all in this culture?”
March 9th, 2009 at 8:28 pm #
I am very intrigued by this acupuncture idea. Very intrigued.
Thank you for this.
March 9th, 2009 at 8:29 pm #
Er, that is, the whole essay, not just the acupuncture.
March 10th, 2009 at 10:59 am #
Wow, I have a lot to say about this. When I was in high school, I worked two jobs, one at a movie theater and the other at my chiropractor’s office. I loved that job because I got all the free(!) chiropractic adjustments I wanted. I ended up at the chiropractor in the first place because my back was getting to the place where movement was painful, and x-rays showed I had the back of a 60 yr old, at 15. But chiropractic was great, and my back was completely normal and felt great when I stopped. It’s getting back to that place where I feel stiff after work, and wake up in the middle of the night for no apparent reason.
At the same time, my educational background is for all intents and purposes pre-med (though I don’t want to have anything to do with providing human healthcare). And that does its best to instill a deep distrust of alternative and homeopathic medicines as quackery, while at the same time leaving a lot of unanswered questions and a lot of problems that can’t be remedied by modern medicine — such as chronic pain.
It would be radically different than the one we have today. It would be much more thorough, more collaborative between patients, nurses, and doctors, much less doubting of the patient’s self-reported history (which would hopefully be more open if mandatory reporting of illegal activities were done away with), and slower all together. There would be more touching, too.
That is something I found while working at the chiropractor – touch is deeply important, especially for people who don’t get touched often. I enjoy giving massages to friends and the SO when they need it, even if they don’t physically need it, because it’s a good excuse for them to get touched outside of a sexual context.
Did you see the series on service animals posted at feministe? here are some links NYT article author’s ScienceBlog, follow up 1, follow up 2, follow-up whatever. I think that also ties in a lot to touch. My dog soothes and comforts me, and cuddles with me whenever I want. Ditto for my SO’s bird, which was doing something similar for him to the bird in the article, before it passed away this past winter. Animals are calming, and readily available sources of physical contact. Something a lot of people don’t get enough off.
Thank you for reminding me to get a massage or something when I get my state refund back.
March 13th, 2009 at 12:02 pm #
Wow! So much to think about here. Your question “what would a medical praxis that operates in a capitalist structure look like that centered working the roots out rather than chopping down the tree?” really struck me. Of course a lot of the time it seems like capitalism *is* the root that needs working out; but we have to be able to take care of each other in the meantime, and ourselves. I think gardening and this whole urban ag thing is part of that, medicine for the meantime
*and* the long haul…maybe we can just not water those other roots anymore, and turning our faces to the sun, like your cilantro.
March 13th, 2009 at 6:39 pm #
So much to think about– I love these questions. Thank you for your posts!