Where does the brain end and the body begin? There’s no exact defining point, and so we should embrace mental health as being entwined with physical health, but the medical system tends to compartmentalise the two separately.
I have recently been undergoing surgeries for basal cell carcinoma on my face, which has been quite distressing. I have found frustrating the blanket assumption from family and medical professionals, that it has been caused by the sun, that the cancer is a consequence of my spending too much time outdoors.
It was the word to avoid on a myriad of health forums. Until recently, that is. Now, it appears that sufferers of cancer, Lyme Disease and many other conditions are joining force, and that can only be a good thing.
Before my ex-husband and I married, I momentarily considered whether two sick people together was a really bad idea. I asked myself: “Do two wrongs make a right?”
The first time I heard the word “biofilm”, I thought it was a bit sci-fi. I also thought that members of the various heath forums I follow on Facebook were being kooky. I discovered, however, that biofilm is more relevant to my health than I could have imagined.
I’ve probably seen around 20 different doctors and physicians in the last four years, in a quest to understand what’s happening in my body. None of them has given me ‘the’ answers, rather small clues. This was frustrating at the start, as most of us rely on professionals to sort out our health for us.
When I started travelling out of the UK to see specialists, I was struck by how unempowered we are in our country regarding our health. We expect our doctors to tell us what’s wrong and also expect, most of the time, to take something that will fix us. We don’t expect even to view our test results. In America, people appear to find this absurd. In my experience, people tend to organise their own health and ensure they are provided with copies of all the reports their doctors receive. It would not be unusual for Americans to question a diagnosis and request exactly what they want done re diagnosing and treatment.
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