wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) (09/13/85)
Some of the thoughtless responses placed on the net remind me how I was when I first started practicing medicine. The little county seat I started practice in, in Ohio, really needed doctors. The next youngest doctor was 25 years older than I was. I was looked upon as that "fresh scrubbed young man from the medical school". I can remember, as though it were yesterday, learning my lesson! Hyperventillation Syndrome is caused by an individual breathing too fast over a long enough time to cause the blood to become alkaline enough to cause some pretty scary symptoms. The ideal treatment is to explain to the patient what is happening so that, when the symptoms (Sx) occur, they don't get scared and hyperventillate more. Since the most common cause of the syndrome is chronic stress, fear and tension, you can see how not understanding what was happening would cause a vicious cycle that eventually CAN lead to the individual passing out. Unfortunately, since explanations take time and, especially in a small rural town, time is $, most patients I saw, who had seen other physicians in town, had been given tranquilizers as a remedy--effective, but certainly not what would resolve the problem. WELL, I decided that the reason my colleagues didn't teach their patients was that they didn't KNOW that the most effective approach was patient education. One day, in a medical meeting of all the MDs in the county, I got my chance. I got up and explained what I had learned about teaching the patient about hyperventillation. Since most patients won't believe what is going on, even when it IS explained, I was requiring them to breathe in and out, as fast as they could for 5 minutes, right there in the office. When precisely the Sx they had described were duplicated, little more had to be done. Since it only took 5 minutes, which could be done while the doctor was seeing another patient, I thought my colleagues might go for the idea. I had greatly underestimated the knowledge and experience of my peers! I'll never forget the blank, polite looks I received at the end of my first presentation to the medical staff. They knew all about it. They just were not doing it. From that moment on I knew it was a lot safer to assume that the other person was MORE capable that s/he was rather than less. It also made me over sensitive to making public statements unless I was certain I was right and that my audience mostly didn't already know what I was sharing. As a consequence, I tend to wait until the evidence is overwhelming before I am willing to speak out. It just happens that my field of special interest is outside the usual training and experience of most of my colleagues and lay peers. The people who go off half-cocked in response to new developments placed on the net are assuming that the author is just throwing something out that s/he has not thoroughly investigated. A very dangerous, and non productive, assumption! There really is a certain reality. The closer one lives in tune with that reality, the healthier and more fulfilling that persons life will be. We still have more to learn than we have already learned. cbosgd!ukma!wws(Walt Stoll) YOU Walt Stoll, MD, ABFP ARE MORE Founder & Medical Director Holistic Medical Centre THAN YOU THINK 1412 North Broadway Lexington, Kentucky 40505 -- Walt Stoll, MD, ABFP Founder, & Medical Director Holistic Medical Centre 1412 N. Broadway Lexington, Kentucky 40505
rcj@burl.UUCP (Curtis Jackson) (09/26/85)
In article <2176@ukma.UUCP> wws@ukma.UUCP (Bill Stoll) writes: >I had greatly underestimated the knowledge and experience of my peers! >I'll never forget the blank, polite looks I received at the end of my >first presentation to the medical staff. They knew all about it. >They just were not doing it. From that moment on I knew it was a lot >safer to assume that the other person was MORE capable that s/he was >rather than less. How can you imply that the doctors in question were MORE \capable/ than they seemed because they knew the correct treatment but were giving tranks anyway? I realize that doctors have to make a living, but it seems to me that you of all people would be one of the last to practice "Don't give them what they need, give them what they want" medicine. Any other folks have comments along these subject lines? Do you tell the woman to leave her wife-beating husband who is making her so nervous and mentally-frazzled (not to mention bruised)? Or do you give her the Valium she came for cause that's what she wants and she'll just go to another doctor and get them if you won't give them to her? Comments? -- The MAD Programmer -- 919-228-3313 (Cornet 291) alias: Curtis Jackson ...![ ihnp4 ulysses cbosgd mgnetp ]!burl!rcj ...![ ihnp4 cbosgd akgua masscomp ]!clyde!rcj