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Take Control of Your Disability
Be an Informed Patient
by - Kendell Lang
I'm sure most of you have heard the term "knowledge is Power." That is what
makes physicians, lawyers and PhD's so revered in our society. My dad always would say to
me that no job is hard if you have the right tools. He was a plumber. I remember going on
some jobs with him as a helper. He would have to fix pipes that is some cases were 40-50
years old. Pipes that were rusted solid at its' joints. "No fret" he would say.
"We'll put some rust cutter on the joints and come back tomorrow. They will come
apart easy then." I thought how cool is that. My dad was a seasoned plumber who over
the years had learned all the tricks of the trade.
How wonderful is knowledge? In my opinion, it is the most wonderful thing that we can give
to ourselves. It is something that once we have that no one can take away. It is also
something that is never wasted. Take fear for instance. Fear is an emotion that is
directly related to knowledge. For instance, why are little children afraid of the dark?
As parents, we tell them that there is nothing to be afraid of. That there is nothing in
the dark that isn't there in the light. When a child accepts that, he/she now processes
knowledge of the situation and in most cases the fear disappears.
It is extremely difficult to take control of any situation if you don't have the knowledge
to deal with it. Let me tell you about my first night on call ever in a hospital. One of
the patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) coded. That means that the individual's
heart stopped beating. Not a good thing, this was obviously an emergency. I had been
involved in this kind of emergency before, however, there was always someone more
experienced than I in control. I was scared to death. I almost lost it. After taking a
deep breath and hearing one of the nurses say "come on doc, you've done this
before," I realized that I had the knowledge to handle this and my fear started to
subside and I took control of the situation.
Let me ask you a question. Do you know everything that there is to know about your
disability? Do you? Well if you don't, why not? There are a number of different web sites
that you can go to that will give you information about your disability so that you can be
empowered about your condition. To name a few: WebMD.Com, DrKoop.Com, Nutrition.Com,
AlternativeMed.Com, Homeopathy.Com, Acupuncture.Com, and Herb.Com. I would suggest that
you go to these sites and learn as much as you can about your disability.
You may ask, "what will I gain from doing this"? I think the answer to that is
the knowledge to accommodate your lifestyle to your disability therefore giving you a
better lifestyle. You will also keep up with the latest advancements concerning your
disability. With this kind of knowledge, you can intelligently discuss you condition with
your physician which I can almost guarantee will make your lifestyle better. You may also
find new therapeutic approaches being used on your condition in another country, something
that your physician hasn't heard of yet.
I challenge you to discover how you can change your lifestyle so that you can live as
optimally as you can with your disability. I know this sounds hard to do and you know
what, it is hard. It will take you a while to figure this out.
The first thing that you need to search for in my opinion is diet. You need to decide what
is the best diet for your condition? We have all heard the saying "we are what we
eat." I believe that to be a true statement. If you put junk into your system, then
junk will come out. Also, you may think that you are eating a good diet. However, it may
not good for your condition. Let me give you an example of what I mean. Many of you out
there with mobility disabilities have herniated discs in your spine. Did you know that
with that condition that you should avoid alcohol, caffeine in all forms, bacon, cheese,
chocolate, potatoes, tomatoes, eggplant, peppers, sauerkraut, sugar in all forms and wine
near bedtime. This information can make a big difference in your lifestyle. Also, did you
know that fresh juices such as carrot, celery, spinach and parsley are therapeutic for
people suffering from debilitating headaches? These are things that you should be looking
for that will make your lifestyle better. To find resources for information like this, you
can go to any search engine and type in nutrition and read through them. Another query
that you can use in the search engine is alternative medicine. There is also a book out
called Alternative Treatments for Common Conditions that was written by Dr. Howard Hassman
D.O. which will give you this information. You can find this book under the title or
author's name in Amazon.Com.
Next, again go to search engines. By the way, I suggest that you use multiple search
engines to do these searches. The ones that I would suggest are Yahoo, AltaVista,
4Anything, Oingo, and Mamma. This will give you a wide variety as each one may offer
something the others didn't. Type in the name of your condition. Make sure to use the
proper name of the diagnosis. A list will pop up. Sometimes you will get hundreds and even
thousands of sites that in some way discuss your condition. You guessed it; you need to
browse through the brief description of site to see what it has to offer. What you are
looking for is up to date treatments for your condition and any new research that is going
on.
Finally, you need to join support groups that deal specifically with your condition. In
this way you can communicate with people who have the same condition. These individuals
may offer you insight on how they are dealing with a specific problem. They can also offer
you insight on the treatment that their doctor is giving them that may in turn help you.
You can find these groups online at either egroups.com or topica.com. The other benefit
from the groups is that it will give you a sense of helping others.
Empower yourself with knowledge about your disability. Learn and understand what you can
do and what you can't do as a consequence of your disability. Adjust your lifestyle so
that you are in the least amount of pain and discomfort. You are not only helping
yourself, you are also helping your loved ones because everyone will be happier. Remember,
being disabled doesn't mean that your life is over, it simply means that it has changed.
As human beings, we have the ability to adapt to change if we so choose. I pray that you
will do just that. Adapt to your disability by empowering youself with the knowledge
necessary to do so.
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