Blessings,
Jenna

Doctors must have the courage of RE-starting their evaluation and viewpoint of LD, putting away all preconceived notions, all prior lack of and mis-information about LD, and as true scientists “look” in an unbiased way at LD. Why has there been such a negative and un-professional approach to LD? This didn’t even occur with AIDS and HIV. Could it be because patients with AIDS didn’t live long, so in the long term, they were more “cost-effective” than chronic LD? What an unethical, gruesome thought! But “cost-effectiveness”(both time and money), “evidence-based” (on what?), and “productive” are nowadays the goals of medicine, NOT healing, supporting, and listening.

Doctors must do some self-inventory if they wish to survive in the medical system. Their god-like pedestal is not a god-given right, but a privilege! It must be earned, and maintained. Doctors are expensive, don’t have time to listen, don’t listen with an open-mind (or compassionately), rely on their preconceived notions of health and disease, don’t continue to learn about emerging health issues (like the tremendous increase in vector-borne illness in the US and worlwide), and refuse to admit their lack of knowledge.

So imagine a patient already in pain, with PTSD from the abusive medical system, feeling unvalidated and mistrustful, going to see such a medical provider. Obviously, this is not going to work. It’s much like speaking in different languages, unable to understand each other, but worse yet, as the desire to understand is not there! There are no “language, interpreting lines” for the patient to use to communicate with the doctor. The laws about providing equal access and treatment do not exist for LD. The concept of “informed consent” does not apply to LD.

In effect, medicine has decided to intentionally and purposefully ignore LD, to NOT treat it as any other illness or health matter, to maintain its prejudicial viewpoint, to effectually, deny proper care to this population of patients. There is NO medical care for LD! It’s denied to LD patients! This is beyond unethical, unprofessional, and frankly, illegal. Why is it being tolerated?

In the meantime, LD patients must be armed with a thick protective wall when they have any contact with the medical system. They are submitted to discrimination, abuse, neglect, malpractice, and are denied proper care. It’s time to expose this corrupted system, and expose it as it is. Doctors are not gods; they don’t know it all, and above all, just the fact that you are a doctor, doesn’t mean that you are a healer. Healers listen, admit their lack of knowledge and mistakes, are open-minded, are compassionate, treat everyone as a unique individual with unique needs, and are honest.

Although doctors are just one arm of the medical system, namely that of “treating disease” as they have evolved, they have been placed in a very high pedestal as the leaders of health. What a predicament! Health is not just the absence of disease, but a state of wellbeing that is unique to every person. Did medicine forget about health? Did it forget about illness that is not classified as such by an antiquated, corrupt system with multiple conflict of interests?

So, for all of us who deal with LD and its devastating life effects, don’t give up. And prepare yourself before each medical encounter. Be strong, and don’t let them have the power. You have the power! You are the patient, around which all your medical care, must revolve, not the doctor! We need to remind and educate doctors about this. We have equal rights as any other patient with any other illness or health condition. We must be heard, and if they are unwilling to do so, then they have the responsibility to provide us with alternative resources and access to other providers.

Health care is our right, not our privilege. And being a doctor is not a right, but a privilege. So it’s time to look into the eyes of the beast.

Felipa