I was not raised with going to Doctors very much. We didn't seem sick, we were out in the boondocks. I think my sister had her tonsils out at some point. It's all sort of fuzzy and nothing associated with being a constant in my life. I thought Dr. were sort of magic in making people well, didn't think much of anything at all about Rx. Surely I must have had some penicillin or something!
I did have confidence in the medical profession and their ability to help the sick.
While I kept on board with confidence in Dr.'s I lost a whole lot of confidence in the medicines they dispensed because of what was termed news-wise as the "Thalidomide Tragedy". I was extremely sick when I was pregnant. One of those entire 9 months vomiting dramas. In the late 1950's the Thalidomide drug was found to stop morning sickness completely.
Fortunately for me, and I don't know why- Providence maybe?- my Dr. never prescribed it for me. Medical people in the 50's didn't realize that the developing fetus would/could be hurt by what the expectant woman took. To the horror of the medical field and the families of the children, they were born malformed. It was a nightmare with missing limbs and things were they shouldn't be.
Of course it was withdrawn from the market and stricter testing was introduced. This was the first time that I realized that Rx had to be tested and then there were still unknowns when ingested. I don't think they had sheets of paper listing side effects like today.
This incident made me leery and cautious and feeling strongly that Rx should be saved for the "big guns". Those illnesses that really needed meds. To build up natural immunity and not medicate every sniffle.
In the late 60's there was a vitamin and health supplements wave. We were in Anchorage and some of the sisters in our Ward really got into that phase, downing, what seemed to me, handfuls of pills. There was a to-do when one of the sisters wanted to teach a RS lesson on it and the RSP said she didn't believe it was the way to go and bypassed it and that caused a big stink. We'd move to Homer by then and I heard about from my friend who was the RSP.
I baked WW bread, we ate meat, potatoes etc. etc. and we were okay without needing a Dr. very often.
I had really wondered what people did for Rx before the sulfa drugs came out. Also wondered what a person could have in their food storage for emergency medical care if you were isolated. Some of my friends wondered the same thing.
And then I found out the answers to my questioning mind.
There was a woman, a nurse, that had been stationed with the military and saw so many wounded during her Viet Nam tour and it really impacted her. She saw so much horror that she decided she wanted away from that and move to empowering people to take care of their own needs as much as possible. She went to a college (in India?) to learn this new to her, and to us, form of medical care.
She ran an announcement in our little weekly paper that she was going to teach what she had learned, and open her own Homeopathic Clinic out East End Road.
Several of us went and my friend Joyce and I really enjoyed learning this information we'd never heard of before.
Over the years I've learned that the different areas of Doctors/Medical care and peoples preferences, are as volatile topics as politics, someone is always offended, there are always those who want to fight about it and tell you why you are wrong etc. etc.
This area is called snake-oil by it's despisers. That's fine. The only reason I even mention it is....
Calendula ( /kəˈlɛndjuːlə/ Ca-lén-du-la) This is made from Marigold flowers and is used as a salve/ointment on any cuts. It doesn't sting. It helps heal. It minimizes scarring. It's a natural anti-biotic and I could go on and on with it's claims. My son-in-law continues to use Neosporin.
Arnica is used on bruises and after trauma in sports etc. and also has all sort of benefits.
Joyce and I went to each class, enjoyed it, learned and used it. She eventually sold our Fudge Shop, after my move to WA and opened a Wellness center that feature Homeopathy and then she branched into other "natural" remedy type things.
After all these years, my family still uses Calendula and Arnica, often. I have found that people that sometimes do off beat stuff are a little radical. I have stayed private except for taking a spoonful of ointment blopped in a blob on a piece of wax paper if a friend wants some. It doesn't matter a hoot to me what people choose for their health care, I just pray for them and hope they recover soon.
One man's junk is another man's treasure and so it is with choice of medical care.
We have Physicians at the Clinic and enjoy their care so don't think we don't!
Now you know the tip of the iceberg!! Can we stay friends in spite of my erratic behavior??? Maybe I'm radical and don't know it???
Here are two little things I pulled off on the Internet....the first one about homeopathic hospitals that used to be in the USA. The 2nd one about the Royal Family and their use of Homeopathy. It's a sarcastic article and I really enjoyed it. It's true the have their own Royal Homeopathic Physician and that's why they don't get colds etc. but poor Prince Phillip needed a remedy after standing on that barge!!
1) The practice of homeopathic
medicine flourished in both Europe and the United States in the late
1800s until the early 1900s. In the early 1900s, there were 22
homeopathic medical schools and over 100 homeopathic hospitals in the
United States. The practice of homeopathic medicine dropped sharply with
the rise of allopathic medicine, but has regained its popularity in
recent years. In Europe, it continues to be practiced along with
conventional medicine, particularly in England, France, Germany, and
Greece. Homeopathy is extremely popular in India -- which has over 100
four-year homeopathic medical schools - and is also practiced in Brazil,
Argentina, Mexico, and South Africa.
2) If we now look at why Royals like
homeopathy then we can outline various reasons. Royals might be attracted to homeopathy
because it is rather nebulous, rather exclusive, rather special, 'divine' and private in the
way they probably think they are. It is also a rare, elite and minority treatment reserved
for the rich and clerics: traditionally that has been the case. It panders to their
arrogance and vanity perhaps, as it stresses the delicate, the subtle, the refined and
eternal like they probably feel they are. Those are probably the main reasons. I would mark
out the exclusivity and the rarefied and vitalistic or divine nature of homeopathy as being
especially important reasons in this list.
Another theme is that homeopathy is essentially organic and connects with all life, living forms, plants and insects, which to rural-obsessives as Royals often were/are, is another chord of resonance between them.
Homeopathy also very soon became a tradition amongst the aristocrats and Royals and they love nothing more than their traditions. Whatever their father or mother did, they also do. This theme of slavish following of tradition is deeply typical of their approach to life in general. So once something has 'got into their veins' as a darned good thing, then they tend to keep it and lavish upon it an amazing amount of devotion and loyalty. I suspect that private schools in UK use Arnica and Calendula in their sick rooms for precisely the same reasons: it is a tradition of the aristocrats.
Homeopathy also pandered to royal and
aristocratic squeamishness and horror of leaching and purging, at a time when only they had
the money to 'try something different'. No surprise there really, we would all recoil from
that approach I suspect.
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