Old skool medicine can be dangerous to your health

So you’re probably wondering what the heck I mean by ‘old skool’. It’s really simple, and I don’t think I’m alone on  this matter. When I was growing up we never saw a doctor unless it was a matter of life or death – and even then it was questioned.

“You have to be  bleeding from your eyeballs before we’ll seek medical attention”

“You better be puking up blood, otherwise shake it off”

These are just some of the ‘medical’ colloquialism’s I grew up with (trust me there’s  a lot more where that came from).

In a nut shell – you realllllly had to be sick in order to see a doctor. I think it originated from the idea that kids will say anything to get out of responsibility. Some children (and even young adults) would and will fake an illness just to get out of going to school or work, as well as get out of having to do their chores, homework, etc. I knew of many fellow friends and family members that abused this idea. So I think my family (my parents) and other families decided to put a stop to this. The answer being – you’re not sick unless you are on the brink of death.

I hate to say it, but sometimes it caused important injuries to be overlooked. In fact I know of a certain young girl who fell and hurt her arm. After almost a week of complaining of her arm hurting, her mother finally took her to the hospital/doctor. It was discovered she had in fact broke a bone in her arm and need a plaster cast. (Things that make you go hmm)

This crazy attitude seems to have held strong in some of the elderly population, something I discovered the hard way. I took care of a patient that literally knocked on ‘heaven’s door’ simply because she refused to see a doctor or visit the ED. Only after she suffered a nasty fall did they get her some medical attention to find out a myriad of other medical issues that needed tended to!

In the end she survived her stay (barely) thankfully.

The point of my rant is this. We no longer live in a day and age of reactive medicine – simply treating a symptom or an illness when it presents itself. We’ve gotten smarter in our old age (yes, that pun was intended). We now have evolved into a preventative state of mind with proactive medicine. The type of care that includes yearly check-ups and health maintenance. This course helps discover and prevent a disease from possibly even existing within our lives!

I don’t know about you, but my analogy of how we treat our vehicles and how we treat our bodies still holds true. You get your car inspected yearly and get the oil changed on regular basis don’t you?

Why not give your body the same kind of pristine treatment? Unlike your car – you only get one body. Don’t’ wait until it’s possibly too late.

Things that make you go hmm.