First Do No Harm

A few weeks ago I had to pay a visit to the dentist.  We thought I needed only a few basic repairs.  I had tooth ache on the one side of my mouth, which most probably only needed a replacement of an old filling. I needed the amalgam to be replaced with a composite filling last year, but we postponed it, since I was pregnant with Michael and we didn’t want to take chances with heavy metal poisoning from removing of the mercury filling. 

Unfortunately the visit didn’t turn out to be a few simple repairs.  After about 20 X-rays, trying to locate the cause of the pain, it turned out that I needed a root canal in the one tooth, which would clear some of the pain. After evaluating different options, it also included the extraction of my one and only wisdom tooth!  I don’t have much knowledge about dental procedures, but I realized that I’m in for some pain! 

The local anesthetic was applied and 10 minutes later the right side of my mouth was numb. During the next 2hours my dentist had to increase the anesthetics, my throat was totally numb and I could only pray that I will not die in the dentist chair, due to inability to breathe!  

I was so relieved when he announced that he was finished and I could rinse my mouth and I was still alive! Little did I realize that the worse was still to come!  My friendly dentist, very concerned, asked me if we had any pain tablets at home and then wrote me a prescription for one.  We don’t have any chemical pain tablets at home, only natural remedies like Injura and Traumeel S drops and ointment (which works wonders for painful gums) and White Willow tablets (for any kind of pain).  I couldn’t see myself make use of the prescription, but didn’t want to argue with a numb mouth.

Our dentist is at the opposite of the mountain, in Camps bay, and after the hour long drive home, I was exhausted. The feeling was returning to my mouth, and I could feel a serious pain making its way into my skull!  I decided to go for a nap with little Michael, hoping to wake up after an hour, feeling much better and ready to start preparing dinner.  Wishful thinking!  An hour later I woke up with a pain I’ve never experienced before!  I could hardly breathe or talk due to the pain in my mouth, which made its way up into my skull. I tried to lay still, cover my mouth and be a big girl, but it was impossible.  

Blinded with pain, I got up, carefully, not to wake little Michael, who was fast asleep next to me and got to another room.  I needed help and I needed pain tablets, something I haven’t used in the last 15years!  I Skyped Christo.  I was covering my mouth and could only nod my head, not able to say a word. He promised me he would get the pain tablets and bring them as soon as possible.

It was now 15h20 and I, after trying a hot water bottle and ice cubes, decided the ice cubes maybe bring some relief, but not nearly enough for this unbearable pain!  Hour after hour I was waiting for Christo.  Convincing myself he is on his way with the pain tablets and I most probably only needed to wait another 10 minutes.  By 17h30 I was discouraged and sorry for myself.  How busy could my husband be to not hasten home to his wife in pain?

By 18h00 he rushed into the house.  I could not hold back anymore, and tears was running down my face.  I’ve never experienced such intense pain in my life!  Christo started to explain how he was trying to get pain tablets which was safe for nursing mothers, but I didn’t mind if it was the tablets on the description or not, I only want the tablets NOW!  It was only then that he, with much compassion told me, actually there isn’t any safe tablets  for me to use!  What! Was I supposed to just bear this pain!?  Only then I saw him open a box and bring out a machine, about the size of an A4 book.

He pushed some buttons and put a probe on my collar bone, after two minutes he asked me where the pain was and started moving the probe over my jaw.  

All the time he was explaining to me how he, a friend - who was dependent of pain tablets and morphine for 8 years before he got healed from lupus, another friend - a Homeopath and the local pharmacist in Durbanville, researched the whole afternoon to find a pain tablet suitable for a nursing mother. All the pain tablets contained a mix of seriously toxic and potentially harmful chemicals and could cause serious kidney damage (amongst others) to little Michael.  The best they could find was (Schedule 5) tablets which would cause ‘hallucinations’ and they suggested I use it only if I could not sleep during the night!  But our Homeopath friend told Christo about this little machine he had, for the treatment of pain.  He was on his way home and would drop it off at the Health shop.

Christo was sceptic about the machine.  Apparently it sends out different colours of light, infrared ‘laser’ and magnetism. He treated me with 4 different frequencies over a period of 20 minutes and asked me how I felt.  To his great disappointment I didn’t feel any different.  I just remember telling myself I need to get a grip on myself, there is nothing we can do about this pain and I’m not planning to drink tablets that will cause me to hallucinate - I have a baby to take care of during the night!  Graciously, while thinking all this, I fell asleep.  

Half an hour later I woke up and realized the pain was gone!  Seriously, I had NO pain at all!  My family was busy having dinner (which CJ and Heidi-Mari prepared) and the only pain I was aware of, was in my tummy, because I last had breakfast and was very hungry! Christo cut the chicken and quince  in tiny pieces and together with rice and gravy, I ate my whole plate of food!

After dinner, Christo gave me another treatment with the RIKTA machine and by 20h30 I was helping Heidi-Mari making a card for her card making challenge. I didn’t have one moment of pain since I fell asleep before dinner!

As I was pondering the care of my husband, friends and pharmacist, I couldn’t but help to wonder what went wrong that we believe only chemical medicine can bring relief to pain and heal.  Hypocrites said: “First do no harm.”  The pain medicine that was prescribed to me would cause beyond others, organ damage to my baby and hallucinations. Do you have any un-natural medicine in your house, that has NO side-effects? What went wrong that doctors don’t even care anymore that the medicine they prescribe can cause serious side-effects? What went wrong that we, the public, so trust the medical professionals that we blindly use the stuff they prescribe without even investigating the side effects? Where is, “First do no harm?”

I’m just thinking about anti-depression- and hormonal medicine, that almost every woman, who walks into Christo’s health shop, takes!  In 90% of cases it is only a lack of Omega 3 in women’s bodies, that causes the imbalance in their hormones.  The side-effects of anti-depressants and hormone replacement is more than what you can ever risk your life on, but still we take them and trust our ‘caring doctor’ BLINDLY! 

I don’t even want to talk about the VERY poisonous chemotherapy stuff (prepared by “scientists” in white coats, wearing gas masks and cloves) they inject into cancer patients to ‘heal’ them. Don’t think I don’t know what I’m talking about! For weeks I sat next to my Lung-cancer-diagnosed-dad while they injected these poisonous ‘medicine’ into his veins! The medical personnel wore cloves the whole time while they were preparing the intravenous drips. Chemotherapy has a less than 2% efficacy over a period of 10 years.  Exactly 4 years after my dad was diagnosed with cancer I had to tell his grandson, he doesn’t have a grandpa anymore.  Since my dad had cancer, we learned mind blowing facts about cancer and alternative methods of treatment (with 80% healing success)! But, that’s “un-$cientific - read more about this in Christo’s latests blog posting - Homeopathy and the Christian.

Over the years there were amazing discoveries in the medical field on treatment of the human body, and as in my case, relieving pain, without harmful side-effects.  For almost every chronic medical condition there is a natural alternative, but most of the time, there is no or very little money involved.  For example, the cure for 90% of sinus related problems, is simply eliminating dairy and wheat from your diet.  This kind of treatment don’t bring in any money for pharmaceutical companies, and money is what the medical world is all about! (My Dad’s cancer treatment cost R 1 000 000 eight years ago!)

“First do no harm”.  Makes you think, doesn’t it?  Since my root canal, Christo got hold of the company who imports this little machine from Russia and we plan to get one for our family in the relieve of pains and injuries, and to help other people with it.

I want to leave you with a challenge: Go search for the pamphlet inserts of all the un-natural , chemical medicine in your house and count the cost of using the stuff. Then try to find a natural alternative that, ‘first does no harm’!