Reasonable Expectations in Medicine

Aloha!

Recently I recorded something to help clarify reasonable expectations in medicine. In the age of pharmaceutical advertising, and the referral run-around, I think it’s hard to know what to expect for how quickly a thing can be expected to improve.

I made this to help clear things up a little.

Mahalo

Look at that crazy face! ^^^ This thumbnail makes me look insane, but I swear, I’m mostly all here!

Transcript:

Hey folks, Dr. Santander from Oahu Holistic Medicine. 

So something that I want to talk about real quick is what it means to like to get "fixed," like people want to go, they got a pain or something, you go to the doctor, you try to get yourself fixed, which makes sense. 

That's what we want, right? 

We want to be out of pain, we want our situation to be better on our shoulder to work better, we want our leg to work better, or digestion, whatever it is, obviously, we want to work better. 

So but what does that mean? 

So I had a friend come to me and said, Why would I want to forget the scars and the stories of life and stuff like that? Back when I was, you know, studying number of years ago, and he said, I didn't have the right answer for him at the moment. I thought, I hear where you're coming from. But that's not the point I'm trying to make. 

But then I went to a guitar shop. So and the then the guy who was trying to sell me on the services of the guitar shop, he said, Yeah, any guitar that comes in, we fix it, and we bring it to a place of optimum playability, which I thought was just such a beautiful way of putting it. So what does that mean? That means that whatever guitar was coming in to him, he would take it, and however old it was, however, twisted the wood was however new and shiny and original, it was or closest to its original form that it was, whatever situation it was, and he took, he would take his his, his guitar Tech's would take it, they would get it to a place of optimum playability, the best possible arrangement that, you know, is possible for that particular instrument, given the age and how beat up it is and stuff like that. 

I said, Wow, this was similar to people and the human body. And it's, that's what we do. That's what the acupuncturists and naturopathic physicians do. And that's what the body workers and stuff like that's what they all do. They try to get the body with a person to a place of optimum playability. 

Right. So to their optimum, so we're trying to fix you your shoulder, you come in, you broke your shoulder, well, it's going to heal, not to it's perfect, most original condition, that's just kind of like, that's just the way it goes. 

But looking at that and saying, Okay, that's, that's, you know, part of the beauty of being alive. What can we do with that? Right? What is the most best that we can make that shoulder work again? Or that leg or that digestion or that mind, right, whatever, from whatever fractures or fissures has happened in the world? How can we get things to knit up in the best way possible, right? Similarly, take your car to the shop, right? The more miles you put on your car, the more it breaks down, the more it gets older, and it shows the time and the salt air and all that stuff, right? 

The more and more and more that that happens, the more wear and tear, it will start to show. But we can still go into any state of breakdown or decay or, or health or great function of the vehicle, wherever it is, there's always gains that can be made, there's always a little bit more that we can do to make the situation better. And if your car is jacked up, your body's jacked up, your mind is jacked up from being alive and traumatic events, or any number of the things that bring us to a state of dis ease, lack of free flow in the world. There's a lot of things that we can do. And if you ever had any practitioner or doctor, anything anybody tell you, here's all the things that we can do. Here's what we can do and why we would want to do it, then you haven't really necessarily seen the scope of what's possible in a lot of medicine, to have that conversation with your doctor, whether it's us or anybody else. 

What can be done, what are our options is a conversation that happens over and over again. Like, again, getting back to that car analogy, if you bring your car to the shop. I'm gonna say well, it pulls to the left and goes where I tried to start it. So they'll say okay, well, we can get this starting to work this week, we can get it to pull back on the road, it'll cost you $15,000. Or it'll cost you $10,000, where we can get you back up and running for five, but you really shouldn't spend the 10 or whatever it is right. 

That is, you know, that's a conversation that can be had. That's very tactical, it's very logical. And it says, this is the minimum that you need. You know, this is what is going to get you to a place that's going to bring you to flourishing, what is really going to get you to your art to that cars, optimum drivability to your optimum playability. And what are the expectations that we can have that are reasonable? 

Because to say that we're all going to be running around like, you know, the best health of our entire lives like, like fresh out of the womb. Unfortunately, it's just not a reality. But that doesn't mean that we can't be lively and supple and soft and flexible and jovial. There's still a lot of joy left to be had in our lives. 

Whether we're alive for a week For a month or a decade, or a century, right, there's lots of lots of joy and lots of goodness and health that we can capture there. So that's all I want to say about that. If you have any more questions, feel free to reach out, ask lots and lots and lots of questions. 

We love talking about this stuff. And chances are you've had a question about this. Somebody else has had a question about this. So to have another talk about this and share this with somebody else, asking that question is helping somebody else. 

So feel free to help somebody else, Do a good deed, And thank you for listening. Looking forward to meeting you if we haven't met already. Take it easy.