THE DOCTORING CHALLENGE
The word “doctor” comes from the Latin “docera” which means teacher. A doctor should be a teacher who gives over teachings in such a way that he elevates those around him who are seeking advice. He should not create stumbling blocks before the blind, meaning he should not be leading people who seek his help in the wrong direction.
God is the true and only healer of all mankind. No human doctor of any type heals or fixes anything. Doctors are limited in their role to either helping or hindering the healing process. This healing process is governed by the choices your soul makes in its uses of your body. Just as a plant must absorb light from the sun in the process of photosynthesis to grow, we must absorb Godly rays to heal. If the sunlight is blocked, then the plant won’t thrive and will die. If the sunlight is magnified with a magnifying glass or laser, then the plant will similarly die. A plate of glass which allows the sunlight to pass freely will do no harm and will allow the plant to thrive.
The doctors and all their tools, vestments, hospitals, tests, and treatments can either help or hinder the process of healing between man and God. Each of the tools may have an application somewhere in which case they all have the potential to be truly helpful. However, every tool is also potentially harmful and when used with the wrong patient produces harm. Every type of doctor has specific tools of his trade. They tend to see these tools only as good and many somehow don’t understand how in many circumstances these tools cause harm, and block the healing light from God that we all require to survive, heal, and thrive.
The basic tenet of medicine is “do no harm.” This means at the very least to allow the healing power of God to do its work without causing an impediment to healing. In the field of orthopedics, in a community practice, most patients have aches and pains, many of which are related to life issues. For these, the surgeon needs to remove his surgical scrubs once he knows the problem is not a surgical one. He then often needs to remove his white doctor coat. And only then as a human being can he provide advice and a listening ear to the one in pain who does not need and would possibly be harmed by tests, pills, treatments, or surgery. For those patients with problems like strains and sprains or even fractures which will heal without surgery, the white-coated doctor will suffice. And only for those patients who will not heal without surgery and will benefit from surgery should the scrubs come on and the scalpel and operating room be utilized.
Very often a doctor is trained in a tunnel-visioned way to approach patients in a certain way, to look for only certain problems, and treat these patients with the same battery of tests, or pills, or treatments, procedures, or surgeries. It is the doctor who can readily transform from surgeon in scrubs, to doctor not in scrubs but in white coat, to human being-who is most capable of providing the right education and advice for his patients. Those who are fixed in one mode only can easily miss the forest for the trees and not exemplify the credo: “do no harm.”
There are two wonderful stories which clarify the notion that each doctor has his tunnel-visioned training and tools which are helpful for some patients, but other patients are merely on the receiving end of the expression, “with a hammer in hand everything looks like a nail.”
The first story is that of a financially challenged groom who goes to a tailor to have a wedding suit made. The tailor makes him a shirt which is not proportioned for his body-one sleeve is too long, the other is too short, and the collar is too tight-but the tailor tells the groom not to worry. Then the pants are made and they also don’t fit-one leg is too long, one is too short, and the waist is not right. The tailor again tells the groom not to worry. When the jacket is done it also is not proportioned for his body. The tailor tells the groom not to worry. He just needs to contort his body to make the suit look good-pull this arm in and this one out, this leg in and this leg out, hold your neck like this and your waist like this. At his wedding, as he appeared, those who had never met him appeared aghast. They felt so sorry for this cripple who looked and moved so awkwardly. But they all remarked on what a fantastic tailor he must have to have made such a well fitting suit for someone so deformed.
This story shows how a tailor who must know how to prepare clothes uses his abilities in the service of the groom, but instead of channeling his talent in the service of the specific needs of the groom, he forces the groom to instead fit into the mold of the tailor’s abilities. At first glance, instead of the groom being made to look good, it is the tailor who looks good. This applies in medicine where the hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, managed care plans, doctors of all types, and all who make money from healthcare try to fit the patient into their business scheme, whether the suit fits or not.
The second story which illustrates this problem involves a person who comes across another. He sees the first individual searching for something in the street. He asks him if he lost something and can he help him find it. The person searching explains that he dropped his keys and he’s looking for them, and that he would appreciate help. After a considerable time looking together without success the second person asked the first where he dropped the keys. He raised his hand and pointed down the street and said, “over there.” “If they are over there, then why are we looking for them over here?” asked the second person. The reply he got was, “because the streetlight is over here so we can see over here.”
This story illustrates how a problem can be solved only if the correct light is brought to the problem. If you go to where the light is but it is not the right light to help with the problem, the problem will not be solved. In healthcare, we have many tools for sale, each bringing its own potential light or solution to a problem. However, instead of bringing the correct light to each specific problem, we are purchasing all kinds of light, but not necessarily the light that is needed to provide the proper solution for a given problem.
The solution for all of this is to return humanity-Godliness- to healthcare. It’s like the debate over science and God and the Bible. There is no contradiction between science and God. Science is how things work, and the Bible tells us how we are to use and behave towards the things of science. Science alone does not give us guidance as to how we are to use and behave towards the things of science. Similarly, healthcare gives us the tools of medical science as we know it, but how we are to use these tools in the proper service of mankind requires a higher power of understanding than science alone allows. We need both science and Godliness – medical science and Godly wisdom to apply the science with Godliness.
But to wait for this grand transformation to occur is unrealistic. Therefore, the best solution for today is to do all in one’s power to stay healthy and avoid the need to enter the healthcare system, and should you enter the system, by all means understand how it works and maximize your speed of recovery and exit. One tool to help with this goal is the STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF program. STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF is designed to help prevent muscle and joint problems, to help maintain muscle and joint health, to help rehabilitate muscle and joint problems, and to help diagnose new muscle and joint problems. God-willing, STRETCHING FOR PAIN RELIEF can serve as a small tool to help usher in a new age of health awareness in which we will live our lives healthfully and responsibly with dramatic reduction in our consumption of health services, and in which Godliness in healthcare is expected and demanded rather than being the rarity it is today.