Not For Public Consumption: Medicine Man

"Human beings have no right to tell other human beings how long they have to live unless they have some kind of firearm in their hands, " he said. "Thank God he didn't take it and use it as an excuse to throw everything away and give up."

- Warren Zevon's 34-year-old son, Jordan, reflecting on their encounter with the medical establishment.

This matches my personal experience. After two births, an odd physical aliment my daughter has, and my grandfather dying of cancer, among other experiences. Alison's mother spent almost two weeks in the hospital as they tried to induce, then 10 hours in serious labor. I finally had to say enough, and told the doctor to do a cesarean. He consented. Alison walked on her toes all the time, and at 8 years old we took her to a doctor. The first diagnosis was that she was brain damaged, but an MRI showed no evidence (I could have saved them the money on that one.) Then they wanted to operate, effectively clipping both calf muscles and putting her in dual, full leg casts for over 4 weeks. I was against that procedure, so they agreed to just putting her in dual leg casts (only one was the full leg.) After two weeks of dragging her around, I brought her in and she showed no real improvement, so they (doctor and physical therapist) wanted both legs with full casts. The therapist was indignant when I suggested I take her home and bathe her prior to casting her legs (8 year old's get dirty and she stunk at this point.) I had enough. I agreed only to having two half leg casts that were split for easy removal and spent the next three months forcing Alison to stretch out her calf mussels. Problem solved.

The toe walking recurs, but I am sure it would have under their treatments as well. While they never gave any explanation for the recommended treatments, as far as I can figure out, they were attempts at causing the mussels to atrophy and more easily stretch out. Finally, my grandfather upon entering a hospital with what he assumed were the aches of old age, discovered he had cancer. The doctors gave him weeks to live and sent him home. He ended up living almost a year. Why harp on the clueless diagnosis. It can only have added to my grandmother's distress. With no signs of physical problems prior to the diagnostic, she suffered 2 strokes and died less than 5 months after it.

They are perceived of, and act as, scientist, but outside of pain killers and antibiotics, it is really just educated guess work. You need to do the research and understand that doctors are no better at their job than you are at yours.