Chapter 6: Healing Comes From Within



"The physician is only nature's assistant"
--Galen

How ironic, as important as it is to allow others into our lives for support, it is as important to realize that ultimately true healing comes from within. In this pharmaceutical environment we find that there are many treatments for diseases. We are fortunate that technology has made eradicating some diseases possible. The other side of the coin however, is the fact that health care professionals get so caught up in curing or treating the disease that they often forget about quality of life. As a pharmacist I see this on a daily basis. Certainly the choices are not strictly in the practitioner's hands. The patient also needs to take charge of the healing process, but the truth is that many people will not question the authority of the practitioner and often trust them implicitly with their life.

Yes, we are living longer these days, but are we necessarily living better? Is our quality of life also improving? In most cases the answer is yes. In many cases the answer is no. How do we as practitioners know if we are indeed improving the patient's life or just prolonging it? Is treating the disease to prolong their life, only handing them a life filled with side effects brought on by medication that is treating their disease? Iatrogenic drug effects are to blame for thousands of hospitalizations and even death. The pros and cons of all treatment should be discussed with the patient and ultimately the decision should be theirs.

I have had to make these difficult decisions myself, having to decide to stop using a drug, after being on it for six months. It offered me a thirty percent chance of a better future while making me feel like I had the flu for 3 days out of every week. I couldn't accept sabotaging the present without any future guarantees. On the other hand I also know of MS patients who are doing much better and experience no side effects on the very same drug. It's an individual decision.

Medical treatments are wonderful if they improve quality of life as well as longevity. It just didn't make sense to me to sacrifice today in order to protect tomorrow, none of us know what tomorrow brings. There was a time when I envied people who had their health. But the reality is that no one is guaranteed a long healthy future. I could walk out in the middle of the street tomorrow and get hit by a bus. You would think this kind of thinking would increase my anxiety about the future? It doesn't, instead it reinforces the importance of not dwelling on the future for all we really ever have is now, this moment. This very fact affects all our decisions including medical ones. Dr. Alan Barach reminds his colleagues to "cure the patient as well as the disease." My advice to you is to understand that physicians are medical experts and the good ones are supportive, open-minded and help the patient make informative, individual decisions.

In my search for health, it was essential for me to keep an open mind, without of course losing it all together. In other words healthy skepticism is a good thing, but I allowed myself room for new thought and possibility. Having a disease with few therapeutic options, lends itself to having an open mind.