WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A DOCTOR BECOMES OUTRAGED?
I live in a town of under 10,000 people and everyone uses the same doctor, a man whose word is trusted in the community. I've known him for years and I have always gone to him for my yearly checkups. I'm forty-five and the last time he examined me he said I had fibroid tumors and I should have them removed surgically. I've read enough to know that fibroid tumors might disappear after menopause and I mentioned that to my doctor. I have no discomfort or pain, so I thought I'd rather not have surgery and see if, in time, the tumors go away. My doctor became very angry with me, he even raised his voice and told me that if I didn't trust him I should go find another doctor. I decided that was just what I would do.
Since he is the only gynecologist in town, I traveled to another community and sought a second opinion. The second doctor agreed that we should wait and observe the fibroids. I'm very happy with him and I've decided to make him my doctor. But my first doctor is still mad. This is a small town and everybody knows everybody. We all go to the same church, have children in the same school, and talk gets around. He has started to make insulting comments about me and my family, to tell false, unflattering stories about us, and I'm afraid people are starting to wonder what the facts really are. I've felt so uneasy lately that I've tried to talk my husband into moving.
L.V.
(name of town withheld)
Here a doctor's personal pride has come into account. He has always been viewed as the god in town. No one challenged him. No one competed with him. It's important in small towns, where women have few choices, that they band together to share information and form active community groups. A strong women's organization may be able to work with a nearby hospital administration to attract a new physician to the area. There should always be selection for you and competition for doctors.
This woman was definitely right to seek a second opinion. The worst thing a person can do is to submit to treatment that time proves totally unnecessary and deeply upsetting. Thank goodness she didn't think that an additional doctor's visit and travel were too much of a rigmarole. It's always extremely important to avoid unneeded surgery, no matter how inconvenient a trip to a doctor might be.
I hope this woman has friends to whom she can impart her story. I'm sure she is a respectable citizen in the town and she should voice her opinions about the local doctor. Maybe she'll find that others agree with her. As people begin to recognize her predicament, perhaps the doctor will be the one who thinks about moving.
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Women's Health
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ALEXANDER TECHNIQUE IN PREGNANCY AND CHILDBIRTH: MISUSE
Originally, when Alexander discovered that he was stiffening his neck and pulling his head back, and creating tension throughout his body, he thought that he was the only person to do this, but his investigations confirmed that this pattern of 'misuse' is common to the vast majority of people.
The effect of this misuse is that it interferes with the head/neck/back relationship, which means that a high degree of muscular tension is needed to maintain upright posture and for movement. This muscular tension is distributed unevenly through the body, with an excessive amount in some areas and too little tension in others, and there is a lack of interaction between the muscle groups. Obviously this brings about the very opposite of what we find with good use: being upright becomes an effort, there is a limited range of movement, the joints are stiff and breathing is impaired.
As with good use, misuse refers to our 'thinking'. It involves performing activities in a habitual and automatic way that is harmful to overall use and functioning. This could mean that we allow our emotional state to affect our musculature adversely, for example if we are worried about something we let tension build up in the neck muscles. Or it could be how we perform everyday activities. Observing people in action, we often see a great deal of effort being used, in parts of the body that are not directly involved in the activity. Check for yourself how tightly you hold your toothbrush while cleaning your teeth - or how tightly you are holding this book right now! You will probably find that, like most people, you are using an excessive amount of effort in holding what is a very light object, and in a task that actually requires a minimum of force.
People misuse themselves in different ways. Broadly speaking, a person may hold himself up with too much tension - the 'sergeant major' approach - or he may 'collapse', with over-relaxed muscles. In practice, of course, it is not as clear cut as this; both forms of misuse involve a combination of excess tension and over-laxity. For example, even in someone with collapsed posture, only some muscles are 'over-relaxed', and therefore others have to work all the harder in compensation, and are over-tense.
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Womens health
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