How to Talk Back to Your Arrogant Doctors - EFFECTIVELY

B'SD

1 Iyar, 5773

Whew, it's a new Jewish month and I ended the previous one with some impact. I'm back from yesterday's exciting and insight-packed encounter with those vision rehabilitation medical students. Class was directed by my personal eye doctor, whose innovative and pro-patient assistance over the last few years helped me to attain self-sufficiency when I'd faced a future of despair and physical decline.

I've been reflecting on how much laughter the professor, students and I shared. The students were shocked, mystified and amused by my medical case (they were looking at, or listening to verbal accounts of, my medical records) then scared to respond to the professor's questions about it all (my case made medical history. It baffles bigtime experts let alone students).

They tested my sight, flipped out at what I can do, fell silent at what I struggle to do, and realized "Yeah, those prayers must help her somehow. And the vegetarian diet sure seems to help. Nobody who eats meat ever recovered sight after such a medical experience."

I told jokes, played games with the eye exams (one of the pluses of my limited vision is that I can detect things that people with normal vision do not), explained personal decisions about choosing life and forced courage over death and despair.

We talked about our private lives a bit, they looked at copies of the EMPOWER Yourself book and invited me back every two weeks of the remaining semester. 

The BEST part was that my craniosacral therapist Chana Bracha aka Andrea Garden Kornfeld who succeed at opening a formerly paralyzed eyelid drove me to the appointment (she wrote the Introduction to the 2nd edition of the book). The staff was impressed with her and she is now booked to speak at the college!

There was an interesting interlude when my eye doctor informed those college students of an arrogant eye surgeon who'd once demanded that I permit her to blind me in one eye to end my double vision (I wrote of the encounter in the EMPOWER Yourself book), and that I declined the hopelessness she'd prescribed and proposed that there might be ways to restore my sight.

I jumped into the conversation and explained that the long-ago surgeon shook her head "NO" to my optimism. She recommended psychiatric intervention to convince me of the "need" to sign an agreement for the permanently blinding surgery. I shouldered my purse and responded with a LOUD slamming of her office door as I announced "I will not permit you to maim me. I see the future and it looks ever-better" or something like that as I walked off into my ever-more-visible future. 

Yesterday's college students were speechless after hearing the story.

I then gently explained to them that the average patient lacks the stamina or quick-witted poise to resist bad medical attitudes. Part of my effort in interacting with the medical school's student body is dedicated to teaching future doctors to listen better, to think broadly rather than in limiting points of view, and to dedicate their medical work to helping the person before them - not merely to deal with tension by arrogantly or abruptly dismissing medical problems with harmful procedures and processes.

The students flipped through copies of 

and asked why I'd written it.

"To help people who need to know how to deal with drawbacks in the medical world," I replied. 

"Not everybody can vastly re-engineer their personalities to become so assertive, nor do they know the wonderful resources I've been exposed to as a former Health Information Management professional (I used to supervise medical records rooms, legal requests for information, prepare statistics, communicate with medical innovators and more). The book whispers over the reader's shoulder and helps them to face their medical and mental health problems with dignity and solutions."

I left some teary-eyed people in that eye exam theater. We plan to meet again, several times over.

I hope you'll respond to the scenario I've described. Your comments are welcome! 

A medical crisis - you'd cry too, if it happened to you. Use your tissues and handkerchiefs with my blessings borne of experience. GOD gives you Permission to Weep (the license to do is in the book!). And you can say that to any critics after explaining that "It's MY Crisis! And I'll Cry if I Need To."

 

Buy the E-book or print edition to EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Face frightening people with the right response!


 

Sing Your Way to Better Sight and/or Health!

B'SD

16 Shvat, 5773

Some days you read or hear about someone who has advice for other people. You end up wondering "Do you just tell other people what to do or do you take your own advice, too?"

In my case, the answer is "YES! I thrive by taking my own advice (that's how I know it can help you, too)."

In the

 

book's Find Ways to Smile section, you can read that I'd written "... keep a journal or a blog of your struggles, victories, and whatever else you wish to include. Focus on progress. It's your life. Find out what works for you and use it. I don’t have all the answers and you might find new ones I don't know about. Look for 'em!"

The passage is an invitation to keep your options and mind open to new possibilities over time.

Here's how I followed that advice I've given to you: 

Two summers ago, I addressed an audience about the EMPOWER You to Cope with a Medical Challenge book during one of my speaking tours. After my presentation a woman in the audience  introduced herself to me. She explained that she is a vocal pedagogue and vocal  reconstructionist. The exclusive teacher of the Giro-Vocal Motion technique, Miriam Jaskierowicz Arman has authored books about GVM, popularly called the Bel Canto Technique (you can find her books and CDs by entering Miriam's name in the search bar at Amazon.com). 

Miriam commented that her teaching technique could improve my sight. She invited me to take classes at her Music Vision Institute.

I thought, "Hmm, she's a member of the world-famous Who's Who. This could be worth checking out."

I had nothing to lose and much to gain. I made necessary preparations to take the course and to arrange food plus housing accommodations for that far-from-home experience.

This past November I took 15 hours' worth of Miriam's classes. I spent several days learning the GVM technique for voice training, praying it would improve my sight.

Now we are in January.

I've practiced the technique Miriam taught me for a few months, now. My goal is not to become a professional nor better singer, but to see better. 

Get ready for a 

surprise ending 

to this story!

Yesterday I did my GVM exercises and immediately felt a "snap" in the temple of my skull, where the brain surgeon had cut my head open in 2005. 

Though the results of the life-saving surgery are an unfolding miracle,  the experience came with a physical price: partial facial paralysis. I've had one drooping cheek plus a numbness affecting my lip and the ability to speak. The problems have resolved incrementally over time, but they have persisted to some extent.

Suddenly the droopy eyelid on that side of my face flew up into the correct position as I finished my GVM practice. It has stayed in the correct spot since then. I no longer feel the tightness of a pinched nerve that had been messed up by the life-saving surgery. The formerly flaccid cheek now stands firmly against my cheekbone. The affected part of my lip better heeds my efforts to speak or to sing. I sound a bit clearer, too.

I credit the GVM technique for the healing tug on my optic nerve and eye muscles, and for the expansion of my cranial fusion areas (the area that "snapped"). 

Some craniosacral and chakra therapy I undergo each month helped to further improve the muscle tone and appearance of my eyelid.  My cheeks are now symmetrical, too. Total bonus!

So much for me. 

Let's get back to YOU.

Dear readers, the EMPOWER You to Cope with a Medical Challenge book also mentions How to Make Your Moods Work for You. Passages explain how you can facilitate miracles in your life despite past anger, despair, pain and, well, fill in the blank with your problems!

Let me know which lines in the book EMPOWER You to Cope with a Medical Challenge.

The advice I gave from cover to cover works for me, too. Let's share the miracles. There's more than one way to sing yourself to better health ;^ D

  Buy the E-book or print edition today to open yourself or someone you love to healing options. Click on the words EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge.  

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity. Face Your Future with Optimism. 

Keep your mind and smile wide open. You'll end up better off for the effort.

 

Craniosacral Therapy Opens Healing Possibilities!

B'SD


18 Cheshvan 18 5772




One of the remarkable events of my healing journey concerns the eyelid paralyzed by life-saving brain surgery. Yes, the surgeon removed the benign tumor crushing my optic nerves and all the others caught in its hold. But the experience traumatized my body. It left me weak, in need of physical, speech and occupational therapy. And I needed to see again.


My entire medical team knew I could see only glimmers. And, those medical professionals predicted that the glimmer would fade to black, forever. They expected me to be blind lifelong. None of them seemed especially concerned at the paralyzed eyelid that would otherwise block my view. But as you read EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge you’ll learn how I revved up my motivation to be as functional as possible with the life left before me. That motivation included lifting the eyelid with nerves too weak to make it rise or even to flicker a bit.


I went for craniosacral therapy from a practitioner trained by a leader in the field, John Upledger himself. That practitioner, Andrea/Chana Bracha Kornfeld, quickly made my craniosacral fluids move in a more optimal fashion (CSF fills our spinal cords and surrounds our brains, helping them to function). The once paralyzed eyelid fluttered open, though at half mast. With further treatment, we watched it rise to an increasingly normal position. Today, few people can detect the slightly off-kilter position of the rather normal-looking oval.


Andrea/Chana Bracha and I worked together for months to promote other healing. My skull, damaged by surgery, regained strength, correct positioning and – years after the surgical event – healthy new bone!


I’ve watched Andrea/Chana Bracha and other craniosacral practitioners effect miraculous results in babies, children and adults of all ages. The process is rather pleasant. The patient sits comfortably or lies upon a treatment table as the craniosacral therapist (CST) lightly touches them to promote the improved flow of the CS fluids.


Not every medical procedure needs to be painful or frightening. Want to learn about other medical miracles you or a loved can benefit from? Read

EMPOWER Yourself to Cope with a Medical Challenge for the holidays and beyond. 

Face Your Medical Problems with Dignity.
Face Your Future with Optimism.

CranioSacral Therapy is also Healing Me!

11 Adar Bet 5768

Folks, I've been weighing my words for a while, wondering how to explain to you another of the miracles in my life. I'll go for the briefest possible chronological explanation I can cobble together and hope I effectively communicate to you about the phenomenon in my life these days.

Bear in mind that the following is NOT a comprehensive account of personal events. That would take weeks to type out!


Dec. 20 2007 My elbow and wrist break in a freak accident

Dec. 20 2007 The orthopedic doctor who tends to my arm errs but I do not realize it until...

Dec. 30 2007, upon admission to the emergency room of a local hospital after I've fainted from increasing pain over the past 10 days. Turns out that the guy who set my arm increased the damage. According to the specialists who admitted me, assessed the problem and performed surgery, the errant doctor should have sent me by ambulance to this very hospital for immediate surgery instead of providing a flimsy splint and unstable cloth sling and telling me to see a doctor in three weeks! I should have been put into what is called an "Immobilizer" (constructed with specialized materials) that prevents further movement of the healing arm for the prompt, arm-saving journey.

Jan. 7 2008 surgery stabilizes my very deteriorated arm. The long wait for this operation was due to circumstances beyond my control and that of my doctors (we live in a country besieged by terrorists and filled with their victims). My arm is temporarily casted in plaster, then soon encased/immobilized in a special hinged device to promote maximum healing for several weeks.

I use my Personal Pain-O-Meter to lessen pain (see Lower Your Pain in One Step by Using a Personal Pain-O-Meter ). It works.

I munch on pain-busting foods (see Painbusters! Doctor's Orders that Work!). They improve matters.

Upon removal of that hinged device mentioned above, I begin aggressive Physical and Occupational Therapy to restore the use of my crooked arm (the stiffened elbow does not yet extend my arm) and stiff hand. Elbow fractures are among the most difficult types of bone breaks to heal, as doctors know.

Elbow fractures, my sore wrist and my bonus Comminuted Ulna Fracture (a "Complicated Fracture" to medical folks) made treatment and recovery quite delicate and painful. Doctors prescribe a common painkiller that helps me a lot. We stop using it before I become accidentally addicted. But within days, the shockingly high pain necessitates a trip to the emergency room. That doctor restores the previous medication to my life ("You don't have an addictive personality," he announces), advises less aggressive PT/OT and the situation improves. For a while.

I continue less aggressive therapy until I'm advised to use a different painkiller. And I begin using an arm-straightening brace several hours daily, as well as a device to increase the flexibility of my fingers.

But something goes seriously wrong... The new drug makes me vomit violently for several hours. My doctors end drug treatment and prescribe moist heat packs, relaxation techniques, accupuncture and nerve stimulation. They worry about how to relieve my fluctuating pain. So do I. I try EFT, massage and more.

Within days my surgeon, therapists and I realize that my pain is not lessening as much as expected. My arm and hand movements are not improving as much or as quickly as expected, either. The pain becomes so awful that I eventually fall to the floor from a seated position, fainting in front of friends at a social event.

Another emergency admission to the hospital leads to me to a very savvy doctor and a frightening Diagnosis: Reflexive Sympathetic Dystrophy also known as CRPS, Complex Regional Pain Syndrome.

Though the medical world's jury is still out regarding the CAUSE of RSD/CRPS, I strongly suspect two culprits: 1. The substandard treatment I received on the day of my fall (it caused a bigger fracture) AND 2. The delay in my desperately needed surgery.

RSD is a degenerative condition that (according to textbooks) can be solved ONLY one of two ways: the upbeat psychological condition of the patient OR a drug cocktail that lessens pain while relaxing patient until the fracture heals and the pain resolves.

Upbeat is my nature, as the medical team kept noticing despite all that was happening with me (one kept laughing with me during some hilarious discussions). So a new doctor (a pain specialist) on my team added a particular drug cocktail to my diet while I prayed for a cure. I return home, still praying.

AND THEN the VERY UNEXPECTED HAPPENS: I suffer a horrible reaction to the drug cocktail on day two. I forget who and where I am, then fall from lack of balance during a stroll outdoors. A friend treats me with CraniosSacral Therapy. She ends the mental haze within minutes and provides pain-reduction techniques that work.

Next day, I meet with my personal physician. She believes the painkilling cocktail dose was too high for any normal person. "It could have felled an elephant!" she hollered at the prescribing doctor (no longer on my team).

It takes several days for the effects of the drug cocktail to leave my system. Ill and frightened, I realize how strong a Death Wish drug addicts have. I'd NEVER go through this experience voluntarily!

Talk about stuck! My sunny disposition is not helping my arm to heal and now drugs won't work. My worried surgeon (I adore his conscientious, caring attitude) and the growing team of medical experts on my case recommend the use of a Pain Management Clinic (it uses therapies other than drugs when necessary) and using even more gentle PT/OT methodology. WHEW!

But progress again proves to be too slow. We have a limited window of opportunity to heal the arm/hand muscles before the opportunity is lost. RED FLAGS go up with everyone on my now HUGE medical team. And (thanks to bureaucratic snafus) I'm still waiting for my first Pain Management Clinic appointment.

So how do I expedite the healing of my arm and hand while enjoying the aggression-reduced PT/OT? Read on.

I decide to laugh at my plight instead of letting it ruin my life. I prepared a hilarious costume for the forthcoming Jewish holiday of PURIM. It pokes fun at my medical dilemma so much that... More on that soon ;^ )

Thanks to the down-graded pressure in PT/OT and lots of giggles since then, I've been almost pain-free for about a week. At most I need an aspirin, NOT narcotic painkillers or sedatives. And with my clearer, more focused mind, I realize that there are MORE than two ways to conquer RSD/CRPS!

I call the woman who wrote the dedication in my book: that certified CranioSacral Therapist who helped me out of the accidental overdose. We book appointments to complement my PT/OT schedule. I also book appointments with another CST professional who can fill in when my preferred practitioner is unavailable.

Treatment One: Resolved the drug overdose problem that has clouded my mind for days, as you know.

Treatment Two: We get my arm to reach across my chest and face in a limp manner. I do NOT need to cry out in pain. My elbow loosens up so much that my crooked arm becomes almost entirely straight! NO stiffness or pain.

Treatment Three: We increase the flexibility of my wrist and fingers by several degrees. Painless!

My PT/OT team is shocked at my sudden leap forward during a subsequent appointment. The skin color on my affected arm is dramatically better, as are the flexibility and pain-free status.

Major Improvement, hmm? More movement and NO PAIN.

CranioSacral Therapy. Doing for me what Western medicine could not.

Stand by for more good news, G'D willing. And maybe a photo of me in my Purim regalia next week...

And, uh, Doctors on my "Whazzup with this Chick?" team, though you never admit it to me, I know you peek at my blog cuz I can track the visitors to my site. I also overhear your remarks when you think I'm out of earshot. I salute you. You're dedicated professionals who preserved my arm (let alone my sanity!). We're working together to fully restore it. My progress couldn't have happened without your compassionate and terrific care. Hugs, Yoji

~*~*~*~

Suffering with a Medical Crisis?

Been there, done that, wrote a book about it, and going forward into the future

Want to learn many more can-do healing/coping strategies?
Then read, benefit from, and tell others about It's MY Crisis! And I’ll Cry if I Need To.



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To your good health,

Yocheved Golani
Coping with a Medical Crisis?
Make the Changes You Need in Your Life.