Tonight was interesting. All the talk about being chastised and discriminated toward in regard to medicine and health came true this evening.
I thought the classes preparing us for such instances were sort of ridiculous when it comes to real life. I was wrong. The societal norm is to discriminate against chiropractors, even if the person is one who follows an ethical approach to patient care. It happens among medical practitioners and it happens among those who work to supply more medicine to the masses.
What is it that got me all pissy? I was having a meaningful conversation with an acquaintance over a pint of fresh hop beer about Maxwell's scientific advances in electromagnetism ( Guass's Law s/t Newton's inverse square law of gravity), when an insurance man from Kaiser Permanente sat down with a co-worker and joined the conversation. Granted, the innocent conversation sort of branched out into medicine including him into the conversation, but nevertheless, his comments and stupidity added a sense of complete ignorance with the current medical norm in our society.
The acquaintance I was initially talking with was a retired engineer who was studying old-school mathematics. I told him I was a chiropractic student at UWS and he was delighted to be speaking with me. We chatted about electromagnetism and it's role in MRI studies and why it wasn't being studied beyond diagnostics in realms of treatment modalities. It was a great conversation. He was open to learning more about the mechanically-oriented chiropractic world of medicine. I shared things I have learned while studying it all and he was completely receptive and respectful of what was shared. The conversation quickly turned to his ankle injury he suffered 10 months prior that was inhibiting him from sailing, golfing and running - three things he loves to do. He equated the problem to "getting old", but I assured him that he would be able to run, sail and golf pain-free again if he utilized chiropractic care with me at the CIC.
I highly doubt he will accompany me a the CIC due to a Kaiser Permanente employee's involvement in the conversation.
An obese fellow walked in with his co-worker and loitered next to me and my new friend. He seemed to know my new friend and I included him into the conversation. He quickly asserted himself as a Kaiser Permenente employee and persisted to try and recruit my friend as an employee, who just joined me with his lovely wife person, who is trying to get into DO school. I was offended by the KP employee's ignorance and stupidity with how he socially behaved amongst us. He ignored the true meaning of the conversation and decided to make a monetary ploy to recruit my friend. The more I hung out with his ignorant ass, the more I learned how stupid he was.
He blurted out that chiropractors are 30% MD's. He complained that the DC he worked with as a patient wanted him to come in every month because it was a good way to prevent his musculoskeletal condition. Being a medical professional (a man with a BS in economics... whatever!), he chose to discriminate against such advice and continued living his sedentary lifestyle, now being an anti-chiropractic advocate at KP. Granted, he probably consumes 5-10 prescription medications from living such a gluttonous lifestyle, but he knows health (yeah right!). Not to be harsh on those who do live this way. There are some who finally get it and seek professional help to learn how to be as healthy as they can. This is honorable and in a way, our role as their DC is their ticket to success.
The 80/20 rule exists in our society, meaning, eighty-percent believe in Western medical thought for their ailments. Twenty percent avoid the risks involved with medical intervention by living a proactive lifestyle. Now, whether that involves chiropractic or not is another story.
Many people seek chiropractic for pain reduction. They suffer from musculoskeletal pain and they want a cure. Medical management of these problems consists of pain medications and muscle relaxants or surgery. Manual medicine (musculoskeletal manipulation) is a bit of a problem for primary care practitioners, in that, they mismanage it with drug therapy and ignore the biomechanical association of pain. Here lies the modern medical phenomenon that plagues the lives of many PCP's, chiropractors included.
Do we allow such ignorance to continue by simply avoiding conflictive conversations that guide the modern view of wellness? Or do we stand up for what we believe and educate the ignorant morons who believe their mediocre views of health care are correct? My stance is to educate the morons, of which, I proudly expressed tonight!
It is up to us to either be cowards or stand up for what we believe. Getting the UWS education gave me the education to defend the science-based approach of chiropractic tonight.
If you are a DC student, do you let society dictate what they believe is right and what is wrong? Use your education to determine if maintenance care is right for each case. Prevention is a thought process used by 20% of the masses or less. Do not justify your stance based off of 80% of those who do not utilize preventative action for health gains. The inability to take action for personal health gains is an ignorant lifestyle and a risky one at best.
All for now
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