Health- cough cough cough... so smoked I should be well preserved!
Well, there is a wildfire in the Great Dismal Swamp that is making life for anything that breathes miserable and the air quality is "CODE PURPLE", meaning that everyone is affected and those with health conditions are at elevated risk. I wonder if I can hold my breath long enough for it to lift?
This fire is burning underground in the peat as well, and with the drought going on the ground is good and dry which is not helping matters at all... the smoke gets into the house (even though it is sealed tight) and smells like a combination of burning leaves and boiling tar making eyes water and asthmatic lungs have conniptions. Using an inhaler or doing breathing treatments only opens the lungs up for more smoke to enter, so very much a no win situation.
On other topics-
Today I am going to talk about the disparity of Human to Canine resources when it comes to Gastroparesis...
It took me over 20 years to get a diagnosis of Gastroparesis... from the time I was an adult and could go to doctors on my own and ask "why is this happening? what is happening? does everyone feel this way?" until I finally was taken seriously by a Doctor and tested in 2009. Before that I would be told 'you just have a sensitive stomach, eat healthier foods, like a nice salad' or 'it is all in your head, you are stressed'.
Loki (my wonderful little long haired chihuahua and service dog) was diagnosed at the tender age of four months old (years before I was) by his Veterinarian who not once tried to convince him that he was making himself sick and told him that it was stress and he needed therapy. She simply listened to his symptoms (vomiting undigested food 12-24 hours after eating, food aversion, etc) and after two appointments had him diagnosed and on a special prescription diet.
There is no 'special prescription diet' on the market for me. I cannot simply run to the store and show my prescription card and purchase foods made especially for my condition.
Why is it that Doctors for animals are able to do this and human Doctors can't?
Why is it that Loki is able to munch away at foods made just for him and his condition but as a human I am left to stumble through a grocery store in the vain hope of finding something on the shelves that I will be able to digest?
I think it is because dogs cannot talk back or ask questions... they do not challenge the authority of the Veterinarian so ego does not come into play. The Vet can simply go on the physical aspects and not on how it 'feels'... an animal does not have to try to clarify their thoughts and vocalize what they are feeling it in a way that the Vet can understand. Instead, the Vet can do a physical examination and with that combined with what the animal does at home (bowel movements, urination frequency, vomiting *how often, consistency, etc*, scratching, avoiding food) can go through their mental catalog and place the animal's symptoms and physical aspects in a category and start treatment.
With humans, the doctor hears what we are feeling... and no two people feel the sensations the exact same way or express them in the same manner. The doctor first associates those interpretations of how the patient feels with things they, themselves, have felt then does an examination and combining personal experience and the examination makes their best guess based on facts at hand and their own mental catalog. The Doctors know what a stomach ache feels like, they have had them in the past... but that feeling went away for them so their first thought is that this will go away. If the patient seems to be 'focused' on the stomach ache, then they are probably obsessing on the discomfort and need to think on something else. The Doctor will think that there is something else going on and the person is just seeking validation in some area in their life and it is manifesting as a stomach ache.
When a patient tells a Doctor "the medication is not working" they do not hear 'the medication has failed to help me' they hear 'you have failed to help me' and that can be felt as an attack on their knowledge and years of training so in 'self defense' they will turn it back on the patient.
"You have not given the medication enough time..."
"Have you considered talking to a therapist about your stress..."
"Well, that is all I have for you, if it is not working then there is nothing else out there..."
This leaves both the patient and the Doctor unsatisfied and often angry and makes for a very difficult situation because the patient looses confidence in the Doctor (and after many instances like this the entire Medical profession) while the Doctor labels the patient in their own mind as a 'trouble patient', attention seeker, drug seeker and hypochondriac.
What does this all boil down to?
The "Human Condition"!
One human has a condition and another human tries to diagnose it by comparing it to their own condition instead of doing as a Veterinarian would do and combine symptoms and examination to get to a conclusion.
A Veterinarian does not mentally place themselves into the roll of their patient and think "well, the last time I was shedding..." because they see their patients as different species and not as themselves so they are able to be much more objective.
Now... I wonder if Loki would be willing to share some of his kibble...
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