SC - Health, medicines, etc.

[Philippa Alderton]

Lainie, I think you're misunderstanding what Ras means here.

Controlling one's physical problems with medications simply means taking
your medication as prescribed, in order that you resemble a person in good
health. This is not limitted to medications either- proper diet and exercise
are included. For example, if you are a diabetic, you can be diet and
exerdise controlled, diet and pill and exercise controlled, or injectable,
diet and exercise controlled. Along with this, it is often suggested that
the diabetic keep something handy to eat in case of a sudden mis-balance in
their blood sugar. This is controlling their disease- not curing it, but
controlling it.

By the same token, an epileptic might be on meds, and as part of controlling
their seizures, avoid certain stresses and situations which might trigger
them. I saw one lady at Pennsic who was going a step further, and had
brought her Agrican Grey to Pennsic. This bird had been trained to warn her
when she was likely to have a seizure, so she could deal with it.

Where we as Chirurgeons get angry and frustrated at people is when they are
allergic to beestings, for example, and left their epi-pen (injectable
epinephrine, used to prevent the histamine reaction from occurring) back at
camp, or they don't follow their medical instructions and expect us to pick
up the pieces, or where someone comes to an event, and they're too badly
sick or injured to attend to their own treatment, and expect us to act as
nursing or rehab staff- most of us just aren't trained in that capacity.

So relax, Lainie, you're doing fine, and Ras wasn't slamming you- you were
just misunderstanding each other a bit.

Phlip

Nolo disputare, volo somniare et contendere, et iterum somniare.

phlip at morganco.net

Philippa Farrour
Caer Frig
Southeastern Ohio

"All things are poisons.  It is simply the dose that distinguishes between a
poison and a remedy." -Paracelsus

"Oats -- a grain which in England sustains the horses, and in
Scotland, the men." -- Johnson

"It was pleasant to me to find that 'oats,' the 'food of horses,' were
so much used as the food of the people in Johnson's own town." --
Boswell

"And where will you find such horses, and such men?" -- Anonymous