With all the Quackery abounding at the moment – and what could be more eponymously quacktastic than jabbing teens, young adults and now single digit children with an injection that supposedly inoculates them against a sickness that threatens single digit children’s lives almost as much as the Bogeyman – I thought I’d relate another indictment of the white-robed Divines.
About a year ago – it feels much longer – I did something to my left shoulder. And it did something in return. As Mr. T used to say . . . pain. At night especially. This made sleep rare and left me with raccoon eyes and a chronically bad mood. Like a latter-day Nixon, I sauntered around the empty house, with no one to kick around but myself.
I assumed I had some kind of tear within the shoulder; a rotator cuff issue, for instance. But there was a clue suggesting otherwise that I should have paid more attention to: I could still lift weights. Pretty heavy weights, in fact. All through the past year, I’ve been hitting the weights harder than I have since I was half my age and I am now stronger than I was at half my age. I work out with 225 pounds on the bench; four sets of 10-12 reps. That is pretty respectable weight to push for a middle-aged has-been and – here’s the clue part – strongly indicative that my shoulder isn’t torn. If it were, even partially, I doubt it would support that kind of weight.
Not without . . . pain. Serious, crippling pain.
Well, I didn’t pick up on this clue. I just dealt with the night pain – not serious pain but just enough to keep me awake, like a nagging ex-wife. I figured I was just getting old – which of course, I am. But that is not the point of this story.
The point is, I probably would have gone to see a Quack – a member of the Order of the White Divines – out of defeat and desperation. . . were it not (thank god, in a way) for the weaponization of hypochondria and the insufferable Kabuki that descended after it enveloped the country. If you want to see a Quack these days, you must wear a Diaper over your face – which is a grotesquery I simply will not perform. Not even if if means . . . pain.
For the rest of my life, even. I would literally rather die than submit to this degradation as I consider it preferable to die with dignity than to live knowing I gave in to the idiocy and the creatures behind all of this.
At any rate, no Quack for me. But I found the cure.
With some help and some random luck.
My girlfriend – who is “crunchy,” meaning she is into natural healing – got me taking some powders (especially Turmeric but also some magnesium) and poultices; I am ashamed to admit I was mostly just going along with it at first because I’m not “crunchy” myself and besides, why not? It couldn’t hurt. I didn’t think it would do much good, at any rate. But it made her happy – and that did me some good.
This began about six months ago.
My shoulder sometimes felt better – and then felt worse; making me feel like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football Lucy was holding (and then inevitably pulling away). Last Monday, it felt worse than ever. I jerked awake from a nap and immediately felt . . . pain.
Serious Mr. T levels of pain, this time. The kind of pain you cannot just deal with. Take-your-breath-away pain. I could not move my arm at all – and forget lifting anything. But here’s where it gets really interesting.
As I was sitting at my desk, with my left hand resting on the top of the desk – which I’d done to try to take some weight/load off the thing to dial back the pain a little bit – I leaned my body back a bit and felt my shoulder – and arm – move in relation to the rest of me. It popped forward about two inches. 
Or so it felt. I have never felt anything like that.
And then it felt . . . good.
The pain was almost entirely gone; some soreness remained. But I was operational again. Unless this was some kind of Ernest Angley Moment – heah-uhl! – it was not a tear repairing itself.
It was my shoulder relocating itself.
And then the light went on in my head. I had probably dislocated my shoulder – somehow – more than a year ago and hadn’t figured it out until just now. By accident, with some luck. The Turmeric and poultices probably helped loosen the joint up, reduced the inflammation and helped me relocate it. But the point here is I was able to heah-uhl myself. It is not 100 percent, yet – but it is much better. The pain at night is half or less what it was, I am getting some sleep again and I no longer feel like an irritable Nixon prowling the halls of the White House mumbling about enemies.
Now, had it not been for the weaponization of hypochondria, I probably would have gone to see a Divine six months ago. And what do you suppose the odds are that surgery would have been prescribed?
It was prescribed the last time I went to see a Divine – which was about 17 years ago – when I thought I tore my knee irreparably while moving us (myself and my now-ex-wife) to where I am (with my girlfriend) now. I was hobbled – literally. Barely able to walk and forget running – a passion of mine.
Since there was no Kabuki requirement in those days, I went to see the Divine – who told me I had a torn meniscus – which was true – but failed to tell me something else. He told me I absolutely needed arthroscopic surgery, which entails removal of the torn/loose piece(s) of cartilage in between the bones that can cause the . . . pain. What he did not tell me – and which I luckily discovered by chance, just a few days before the scheduled knifing (and billing) is that knee cartilage tears can heah-uhl on their own, depending on where the tear happens to be.
If the tear is in an area where there is blood flow, it will probably heal on its own – if left alone. If it is in an area where there isn’t sufficient blood flow, it probably won’t – and in that case, surgery is the only cure. But it is not the cure in all cases – and that was the key piece of information the Divine didn’t share with me.
He also didn’t share what it means to have cartilage removed, which is that it doesn’t grow back. Which means more likely that arthritis will develop in that joint and probably sooner. He just told me I needed surgery, absolutely.
I never got it – and heah-uld on my own. Seventeen years later, I run 4-5 miles every other day and have zero pain in that or the other knee.
Now my shoulder appears to be heah-uhling, too. Without the knifing, the billing – or the attending arthritis, accelerated by the knifing. All it took was figuring out what was wrong – and I didn’t have to go to medical school to find out.
This isn’t to say those who do go to medical school are all Quacks. That would be an unfair because untrue collective guilting. But an MD degree on the wall is no more a guarantee you’re not dealing with a Quack than an ASE certification on the wall is a guarantee you’re not dealing with an under-the-hood Quack.
And the plain ugly fact is that medicine in this country has become mercenary, a concatenation of unfortunate synergies, including the doctors being in huge hock and needing to earn – in the sense of lower-level mafiosi – and of being vassals of Consolidated Hospital Systems that apply pressure to them in the same way that cops are pressured to write traffic tickets. Pills – and surgeries – are pushed because there’s more money in that. “Masks” and vaccines – because there’s politics in that. And punishment – for them – for not toeing the politically correct line.
You should never trust what they tell you on faith. They are not infallible and they are sometimes wrong and occasionally, corrupt.
Ask them questions – and if they don’t have good answers or get angry because you questioned what they said, it’s a very good sign you are dealing with a Quack.
The more you ask, the more you’ll know and the less you’re likely to be Quacked – by Divines of all persuasions!
. . .
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That was a Great personal article. I’ll have to read all the comments and see if you mentioned what exactly the poultices are that worked for you. They might help someone I know.
I was never ‘crunchy’ (vitamins were for astronaughts, you know, like Tang) but I became so due to life and such about 15 yrs ago or so. I’ve read a shit-ton of health stuff, yet I had to look up the definition of, poultices.
When you wrote this, oh man can I ever relate:
“What he did not tell me – and which I luckily discovered by chance, just a few days before the scheduled knifing (and billing) is that knee cartilage tears can heah-uhl on their own, depending on where the tear happens to be.”
AFTER I got hernia surgery, and AFTER I got my gal bladder removed, I learned pretty much the same thing,… a day late and a Dollar short. There were options “they” never tell ya about! Being put on morphine kind of shades any attempt to find alternatives, too. Anyway,…
Modern medicine is mostly barbaric butchers on acid. Thank God for the likes of Mercola, Sardi, Brownstien, Miller, et al.
Medical doctors are good at acute emergencies. If my appendix bursts or I cant swalllow because a oiece of chicken is stuck in my throat (happened) get me to the ER please. What they are lousy at is treating chronic and lifestyle conditions. Thats where the influence of big pharma really raises its ugly head. Like the current covid hysteria where the only solution is a shot of poison instead of exercising and boosting your vitamin d levels (never mentioned). Very very many americans are under this spell. Instead of addressing the causes of chronic disease – including cancer – heres a pill with a gazillion side effects. Big pharma’s throrough indoctrination and capture of medical education isnt enough. Now they want miserable sufffering americans to take the pllls they hawk on television so we can feel like the cool guy in the mustang portrayed in the commercials.
Peronally, limiting sugar salt and -sadly- alcohol has made the bigggest difference in my health. Along with cooking all my own food, exercise and avoiding checkups, doctors, and their tests like the plague. But yeah if I’m in a car wreck or have a toothache get me to a doctor man.
“toothache”
Have you read about how cavities can heal and how oh so very bad root canals are? Not to mention how bad almagalm is, er how ever ya spell it.
And, I’ve known quite a few Evil Kineval types that will tell you the ER docs doing the stitch up had no fucking clue.
Cavities will heal about as fast as termite infested wood will “heal”. Which means never. Sometimes you can slow the progression – perhaps with diet and hygiene changes but no one does that. Please tell me what your suggested alternative to a safe procedure that can add decades of function to a part of your body other than what a root canal does.
And yes if my guts are spilling out of my body I’ll roll the dice on the ER doc. Call me crazzzzzzzy
Do as you like.
Seems you’ve already made up your mind and closed it.
It’s amazing how many doctors either
A. Don’t know
B. Refuse to tell
My daughter had major breathing problems early in life.
Asthma that had hospitalized her multiple times, had her on 6-8 different medications daily, she was still considered to have life threatening asthma and was barely functional.
We found an allergist who took a more holistic approach. Got her allergy tested, changed diet drastically anti mucus and ant- inflammatory. A year later she was off all medications. She carries an albuterol inhaler “just in case,” but it always expires before it runs dry. Maybe uses it 2- 3 times a year.
There is definitely something to “crunchy” when properly applied.
I’d venture to guess 85% of all “chronic health problems” are directly tied to behavior which could be rectified without surgeries and pharmacists pills. Most people don’t want that though. They think they can live like hell and “duh doktor will fix meeee!”
Happy you were able to solve the problem.
Coincidence – I had the same two injuriess. Physiotherapy solved the shoulder issue by strengthening the muscles around the joint, although I’m told there is still some scarring on muscles and ligaments that were damaged. But I’m pain-free now, and have been for some time.
Crashed a dirt bike in the Virgin islands and tore an ACL, which upon x-ray turned out to be completely ruptured – such an injury doesn’t heal itself, unfortunately, the loose ends are dissolved by the body naturally. I elected to have it surgically replaced with a section cut from my hamstring in order to have a functional knee joint while doing sports such as skiing and skating. It was painful, agonizing even, but overall worth it, especially since the alternative was to give up on all active sports. Of course, I didn’t have to mask up.
The only caveat is the early detection of malignancy (or pre-malignancy) in the lower GI tract. In other words, a colonoscopy at 45-50 might save you a lot of suffering.
There’s something to that, but if you find something, often modern medicine doesn’t have much to offer. If I found I had lower GI cancer or something, I would immediately ingest copious quantities of Vitamin B17, or Laetrile via apricot seeds. Eventually they will kill the cancer. Modern medicine is good at diagnostic, lousy at cures
I haven’t been to see a doctor for treatment in over 10 years. The last time I did, he gave me a week’s worth of antidepressants (I was going through a rough patch and feeling bummed). I took them for two days, then flushed the rest. They made me feel suicidal. Told him so a week later when I went back for a follow-up. Haven’t seen a doctor for anything other than a physical since, and even now I won’t go to a mainstream doctor for that much. That visit was also the last time I got an injection – a flu shot that the nurse who gave it to me told me that she never gets. Now I don’t either.
Mainstream medicine sucks, plain and simple. And I’m highly unlikely to partake in it ever again.
I have had at least two doctors recommend that I eat rat poison because I experience intermittent atrial fibrillation. I told them I was not interested.
Had I followed their advice, I would be dead now. Why? Because warfarin, the substance in question, is a potent anti-coagulant, not a “blood thinner.”
Meaning, it turns you into a low grade hemophiliac. Slice your finger with a kitchen knife? A chisel slips while you are working in your shop? You could bleed out before you get to a ho$pital. And don’t even think bout going hiking.
Sorry, I am not interested in consuming the active ingredient in the original formulation of D-Con. It kills rats. It may well have killed my dog, long ago. I’ll take my chances with a more natural death, thank you very much.
I’ve been on an epilepsy medication since high school, and I’ve noticed the behavioral side effects have worsened now that I’m in my mid-20s. If I tell my worthless neurologist this, he’ll most likely prescribe Prozac as a counteracting agent.
Hi Handler,
I’m just a beginner when it comes to being “crunchy” but there are many excellent resources you might consult, including Dr. Mercola, Bill Sardi and Mike Adams over at Natural News. I’d recommend checking out as many non-pharma alternatives as you can find.
Hi Handler,
I would recommend talking to your doctor about the Keto diet. There have been studies how a high fat, low carb diet significantly decreases seizures.
I am attaching a study from John Hopkins.
https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/neurology_neurosurgery/centers_clinics/epilepsy/diet-therapy.html
Also, I would recommend following up with a holistic doctor as well. Lavender and jasmine both have healing qualities. Several oils should be avoided though….sage, thyme, and parsley have been found to trigger seizure episodes. There also certain vitamins that have found to be helpful, as well, magnesium and zinc. Definitely speak with your doctor to make sure that none of the above would adversely affect your medication.
Hi RG,
Thanks for the recommendations.
I’ve looked into neurologists that also practice holistic medicine, but they’re few and far between. The ones that aren’t on Big Pharma’s payroll usually suggest B-6 for patients on my medication. I already eat a variety of foods rich in B-6, though. I know too much of it will cause liver damage. Only way I’ll know is if I get a blood test (ugh!).
It’s great you’re feeling better. I went through something similar recently with my shoulder and it turned out to be muscle strain, not rotator cuff.
I should have realized it.
Why?
Because 40 years ago I became informed on computer ergonomics…to the point that I gave lectures on it at the local community college and elsewhere. What I had done violated every tenet I had preached. Go figure.
Computer use is like any other physical activity if you stop and think about it. Your hips should be at a height to allow for a 90 degree angle from thigh to ankle. Upper arm should be almost vertical with an 85-90 degree angle of your forearm. Wrists should be supported when using a keyboard and mouse. the monitor should be at or slightly above eye level. Lighting should be low and lighting tubes should be perpendicular to your line of sight and you should not get a reflection of them on your monitor. don’t put a cpu under the desk you’re using, it causes eye dryness.
Those are the basics.
As I said in 1981, Terminal Illness Can Be Prevented.
Best method:
Go outside & take a hike. Preferably somewhere with lots of trees.
Gloom, despair, agony on me, deep dark depression, excessive misery. If it weren’t for bad luck, I’d have no luck at all, gloom, despair, agony on me.
Had some bursitis in my right knee and hobbled around for six weeks in pain and misery.
“The Seven Social Sins are:
Wealth without work.
Pleasure without conscience.
Knowledge without character.
Commerce without morality.
Science without humanity.
Worship without sacrifice.
Politics without principle.
From a sermon given by Frederick Lewis Donaldson in Westminster Abbey, London, on March 20, 1925.”
https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/32234-the-seven-social-sins-are-wealth-without-work-pleasure-without
The one that sticks out like a sore thumb, pun there, is science without humanity.
I first read about those deadly sins when reading about Ghandi. Looks like Mahatma Ghandi stole the words from Pastor Donaldson. The dirty dog.
Say it ain’t so.
All sorts of credit given to Ghandi all over the net, they have it all wrong.
They’re all quacks!
Gandhi. Misspellings need to be corrected, or something.
The local hospital has names of doctors that make you think you are on a street corner in India. lol
Physical ailments are bothersome, tiresome, maddening. What is worse is to be assaulted and battered, anger becomes an all-consuming problem that won’t go away.
Not because you have done anything wrong other than be defiant, ain’t going along with your nonsense, stop it.
The aggressor hears none of it, attacks, becomes the traitor, you suffer the results, innocence lost.
Decades of suffering the misery of being battered and the batterer goes unpunished.
What really hurts, betrayal.
Chiropractic solutions for some physical ailments, besides broken bones.
A broken bone requires a good doctor to set the thing, about the only time you need a real doctor.
Hey, Eric,
Glad to know your shoulder is feeling better.
Based on my experience, all MDs are not created equal. If what you hear from one of them makes no sense, you are (mostly) free to seek other advice, especially if *you* are paying cash. I say mostly, because if you are confined to a medical incarceration facility (“hospital”) you are at their mercy (and may God help you, in that case).
I once had a *stupid* doctor tell me I probably had “bone spurs” when I knew full well I had pulled one or more muscles in my left shoulder (athletic injury). Frustrated, I called my Mom (a physical therapist) who advised me to find another doctor. I did so, and the second roll of the dice yielded an accurate diagnosis (confirming my own) and a “prescription” for a PT to provide ultrasound, deep heat and massage, which worked a treat, as I knew it would.
In those days, you could not consult a PT directly. A PT could be an independent business, but needed a note from an MD to legally render service. That may have changed – you might check it out.
The old advice to locate experts you trust *before* you need their services no doubt applies, but in today’s world there are so many different fields of expertise it is nigh impossible to have all your bases covered.
Here’s to your continued recovery. 🙂
225lbs for 4 set of 10-12 reps. My respect for our beloved “Libertarian Car Guy” just went up like “the cases, the cases.”
Much respect EP. No more of “I’m just getting olde, as an excuse to not put up the weight like I use to; which btw, would have maybe been 3 sets of this, in my youthful prime. Good on ya, Eric.
Oh, and happy to hear of your miraculous healing as well. Makes it even more impressive you were lifting heavy weights with a dislocated shoulder.
Thanks, Tim!
I feel pretty good for an old galoot!
The irony is that a “good” orthopedic Dr probably would have ordered an X-Ray that would have revealed this dislocation that could have been corrected in short order.
Now granted, finding a “good” practitioner in any specialty requires serious research, and a quantum of luck. But even if you had access to the greatest ortho guy in the country, you would not have gone, because of the “face diaper” mandate.
So you endured a year of pain and (perhaps even worse,) poor sleep to avoid wearing a mask for an hour or less. Nobody can question the strength of your commitment to your obsession. 😉
You took the long road home. But I’m glad you’re finally feeling better!
Hi Mike,
If I’m “obsessed” with not giving in to evil, it’s a title I will proudly wear!
However you perceive your quest, in this category, you are the undisputed champion, probably the GOAT!
Wear that belt with pride. 🙂
I do!
And – as you know (and I think agree) the Diapers were the prequel to the Needles. And will be used again, to push the Needles upon the “hesitant.” It is why I was and remain so condemnatory of the Diapering.
Eric,
Y’all are crazy. You’ve crossed over from principled protest to irrational zealotry. You rail against those who wear the “face diaper” while driving alone in a car or rush to line up for an experimental jab, while at the same time endure over a year of excruciating pain from an easily treated shoulder injury. Crazy is crazy, nonsensical behavior is nonsensical behavior.
Exercise and eating right are the keys to a healthy life, but sometimes shit happens. I’ve had two surgeries during the Covid hysteria and yes, wore the evil face diaper while in the hospital. So what. Thanks to some great surgeons and modern medicines, I’m alive and well today. Does this mean I agree with the Covid hysteria and the fear porn and propaganda? Of course not. Don’t allow the Covid hysterics and the government propagandists drive you to self destructive behaviors like not getting needed medical care (or submitting to the experimental gene therapy). If there is ever going to be a return to “normal”, it must be done by rational people behaving rationally.
>endured a year of pain
I once endured six months of extreme pain in my right knee, because the orthopedic doctor I contacted via Yellow Pages refused service. “Reason?” I propose to pay cash for his evaluation, which his female minion told me was unacceptable.
As an outsider, believing (incorrectly!) the Medical-Industrial Complex to be a monolithic entity, I sucked it up, and directed my own recovery, which involved non-prescription NSAIDs, generous amounts of California brandy, sleeping upright in a chair for six months, and a self directed, progressive, exercise regimen as and when tolerable.
It took six months, but I paid *ZERO* fees to any Doctor God, and recovered completely, i.e. *ZERO* physical restrictions.
F* em.
Lol.. my wife is ‘cruchy’ too! Now I am crunchy adjacent. Many years ago she started studying and researching natural health out of desperation (the doctors were going let/help us suffer until our early death).
The two of us were severely sick with completely different deseses, and she cured us both.
We have not been to a doctor in 14 years and are both now as healthy as we have ever been in our lives. Lesson: Stay far away from the medical indusyrial complex and their minions.
* diseases
* industrial
Lol.. My bad 😁
Oh, and Eric, so happy you are finally getting some relief from your shoulder pain. Wonderful. 😎
Eric,
I resemble that remark! I am much younger than you but have a torn labrum & torn meniscus (sports injuries). The meniscus one is large, there is a piece that can flap around in there & that causes soreness when it moves too much.
I must have a particularly good orthopedist. PT was the recommended option, maybe a cortisone shot occasionally. He ran me through the pros and cons of surgery. Because of the arthritis thing, which leads to knee replacements etc. I’m trying to wait 20 years for that if possible.
The exercises do help a great deal. Lots of work on hips, glutes, & stabilizer muscles for the knee. Lots of work on posture & mid-back muscles for the shoulder.
My pleasure, Publius!
I ain’t as good as I once was, but I’m as good once, as I ever was… !
Publius, GET THE SURGERY!!! for your shoulder, sooner rather than later. The longer you wait the worse it will be. Trust me, I’ve had both done with 5 procedures done on each. 7 hooks in my right and 4 in the left, to stitch it all back right. Good luck
I was told that shoulder surgery is for when you can’t get through your day without dislocating anything multiple times (e.g. when reaching for a high shelf) and has a low satisfaction rate.
I’m a much stronger candidate for knee surgery, but neither is bad enough or chronic enough to justify it right now. And that’s ignoring the financial side of things.
Best to avoid as long as possible.
Best way to avoid, is to stay active and healthy. And avoid running on hard surfaces.
Indeed, Publius!
I forgot to mention: I’m a trail runner. I run in the woods – on earth, not asphalt. It is (to me) also much more enjoyable to be in nature than worrying about getting creamed by some sail fawn-addled clown on the road!
I am envious, Eric. I love running, too, but don’t run as much as I’d like to because I live in a sweltering urban shit-hole. The environment through which you run is important, and a treadmill just isn’t the same.
Also, sadly, I was maxing 225 on the bench when they shut the gyms down last year. I built a little cinder block weight bench, which kept me functional, but I’m down to 205 now. It’s insane how quickly you can lose your gains. :/
Morning, BaDnOn!
It gets hot here, too… but there is the saving grace of the shade in the woods. Once I get going, about a mile in, the heat no longer sweats me. But then, I’ve been running regularly since I was about 14.
On the weights: It is, indeed, alarming how quickly one’s strength declines when one cannot maintain it. I was lucky during the lockdowns in that my buddy Tim – the mechanic – has a set of olympic weights, including a bench, in the back of his shop and so I went there when I was unable to go to the gym. Had I not had that, I bet my bench would have plummeted as my gut expanded!
I’ve been very, very careful to warm up/stretch before lifting anything heavy. I start with just the bar (on the bench) which as you know is 45 pounds. Then I add 45 plates on each side. Then I go up to 185 pounds (a 45 on each side, plus two 25 pound plates) and do 10-12 smooth/controlled reps. Then I go up to 225 and that’s where I have stayed and intend to for at least another month or so until I am sure my shoulder can handle more and I have had time to work on ancillary muscle groups.
Eric,
Brother, the LOW today was 90F, with highs in the 1-teens. Though, you do have higher humidity there, which is rough.
The shade and nature makes a great deal of difference, though, it really does. Just being in the country helps one’s spirit and vitality, and makes the run much more enjoyable. While you’re running through the forest, breathing in the O2 generated by the plant life, I’m on the concrete breathing the ozone. But I’ll cease my bitching. 😉
I so very much look forward to moving out to my land in the country. It’s about a mile high in altitude, as well, which will condition my blood to kick ass at lower altitudes. 😉
Oh, and regarding the weights, I do something similar, though with less weight, these days. Stretching and warming up are quite important to avoid injuries.
Awesome work, though! You’re an inspiration to your fans, doubtless!
Yep. Had to give up playing tennis, unfortunately–and I was getting good again, too!
Maybe I can find a club that has clay courts. Grass, sadly, is nearly impossible to find.
Running is actually pretty good for your knees, unless you get hardcore and start running multiple marathons every year.
I was never much of a runner, always a cyclist. When I started skiing in my 30s my knees would ache after a day on the slopes even with strength training. That and the fact that I was always a little bit envious of runners because of the portability of the sport I finally took it up about a decade ago and haven’t looked back. My knees make some noise but otherwise are fine.
Is it? Both my brothers blew out theirs, attributed to running on pavement, and I blew out mine landing poorly after jumping to try to return a tennis ball.
They’re both skinny, I’m…not obese, but nowhere near as skinny as I used to be.
Hi RK,
I have a theory – well, a hypothesis – that trail running on uneven surfaces, on earth rather than asphalt, on varying terrain, is good for the body as our hunter-gatherer bodies were designed to do this sort of thing. I get in touch with my paleo rhythms out in the woods, tempo just right. I can go for miles and the time just stands still.
Well, I never really had a problem with running on pavement but around here almost nothing is level, except along the river, and even that’s pretty variable. For sure the way they grade the roads, with a very high crown to keep water from puddling and forming ice patches probably helps. Scrambling up and down trails is definitely an enjoyable workout, something I should do more often.
I have found the most effective of medical doctors to be Indian or Middle Eastern. In my experience, they seem to want to find the root of the problem and are the least likely to push pills. I am apprehensive when it comes to US trained MDs. Most of them feel the need to assign a prescription for what ails a patient. I prefer honesty. Three years I walked into a general practitioner’s office due to a racing heart. When I finally was able to see the NP (I wasn’t special enough for a doctor) she checked my vitals (which were all good) and started writing a prescription for heart medicine. I stopped her mid way of her lack of diagnosis and said I don’t want pills. She looked up at me and asked, “What?” I stated again, “I am not on any pills and I don’t want to be on any.” I looked at her and stated, “I want honesty. If I lost 40 pounds and walked everyday would it fix my problem?” She seemed befuddled by my request. I actually went to the doctor just to verify nothing was wrong with my heart. I don’t have the high tech gadgetry that they have. After a minute of silence she asked if I had heard of Keto. I had heard of it, but did not know all that was involved. She printed over 20 pages of literature for me and I left the office with no prescription and a ton of research to do. That one doctor visit made me realize how dangerous our food supply was. After extensive research (books, YT videos, etc.) I switched the entire family to an organic/non GMO diet and we haven’t looked back.
Basically, the gist of my story is doctors can be helpful you just have to drag it out of them and ignore the first things they tell you.
I was once prescribed yoga & exercise by an Indian doctor
Seemed to help a great deal.
Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it.
Hi Publius,
I actually like yoga and Pilates. They are great for flexibility and improving balance.
You’re (presumably) a girl, so you’re “allowed” to.
I sometimes get funny looks when people find out about the yoga thing.
Two and a half years ago, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, given a script for a couple of drugs, and sent home. These drugs apparently may take up to three months to work. At the end of three months they appeared to work, a little bit. Peak improvement was shortly reached, and I was still in a LOT of pain at least a few hours every day. Per the Doc, the alternative were one of a few drugs that cost 5 to 6,000 dollars per month. The doc also assured me that funding could be found to pay for it, since I most definitely couldn’t. I refused, much to the Doc’s dismay. I will not be a party to such extortion, no matter who’s paying for it. I have not been back to a Doc since they all got on board with pretending masks work. Did a lot of research on my problem. I reduced my sugar intake, which was pretty light to begin with, and got results. So I took it out of my diet, including things like BBQ sauce. MUCH improvement. I’m now back to a little bit better than I was on the first drugs offered. Curious how the Doc never once mentioned any thing about what effect my diet may have on my ailment. All disease is a drug deficiency.
Hey John,
“…including things like BBQ sauce”.
I created a keto friendly BBQ sauce. Most commercial bbq sauces have 7-9g of carbs per tablespoon, mine has 1.5g of carbs per tablespoon, and it’s awesome. So, 2 – 3 tablespoons of my sauce with puled pork or smoked ribs still keeps the meal within the keto window. Let me know if you want the recipe.
Cheers,
Jeremy
I do!
Barbecue sauce is liquid crack for me… I drink it straight from the tap sometimes.
Hey Eric,
Here you go:
Primal Chipotle Barbecue Sauce (10.4/1.5 per Tbsp)
3 cups smoked pork stock (135/0)
1/2 cup aged sweet balsamic vinegar (320/72)
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar (0/0)
2, 14 oz. cans fire roasted tomatoes (210/42)
2, 7 oz. cans San Marcos chipotle salsa (350/56)
1 med/large sweet onion, coarsely chopped, approximately 10 oz. (90/21)
3 tbsp bacon fat (345/0)
1/4 cup brown sugar (180/48)*
1/4 cup wheat free soy sauce (40/3)
total calories = 1670, total carbs = 242, 10.4/1.5 per Tbsp
yield = 2.5 quarts (160 tbsp)
* With Keto sweeteners: total calories = 1490, total carbs = 194, 9.3/1.2 per Tbsp
– Pure Monk (100% monk fruit) = 1/4 tsp + 1/4 cup water
– Xylitol = 1/3 cup
– Lakanto Monkfruit (monk fruit/erythritol blend) = 1/3 cup
– Erythritol = 1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp
Sterilize 5, 16 oz., Mason jars in pressure cooker. Brown fry onions in bacon fat, add remaining ingredients and simmer, covered, for 1 hour. Transfer to high speed blender and puree until completely smooth. Pour into the Mason jars, then refrigerate.
I make my own smoked pork stock, which is well worth it. But, you can substitute a good, no crap, bone broth if you want.
I included the keto sweeteners in the recipe (but I don’t use them) because some people in the keto community won’t ever use sugar. Personally, I use very little sugar and am not convinced that the highly processed keto sweeteners are any better for you. Anyway, dose/toxicity matters and the very small amount of sugar in a serving of my sauce is almost certainly not going to hurt me. I always stay in ketosis even if I have bbq 4 nights in a row.
You want to use a really good aged balsamic, as it adds depth and sweetness. I use this,
https://www.amazon.com/Trader-Giottos-Aceto-Balsamico-Modena/dp/B078V9J94G/ref=dp_prsubs_3?pd_rd_i=B078V9J94G&psc=1
from Trader Joe’s (it’s much cheaper at TJ’s). I’m sure that there are other really nice balsamic vinegars available.
Brown frying (caramelizing) the onions is also really important. This adds an earthy depth and a complex sweetness. Despite what the cookbooks say, brown frying onions takes about 30 minutes at low heat. Any book that says you can do this in 5 minutes is full of it.
Let me know if you want the smoked pork stock recipe.
Cheers,
Jeremy
Now you’ve gone and done it Jeremy, I’m going to have to whip up a batch of that stuff!
I’ve always stayed away from doctors and am not on any prescription medications. That always confounds other oldsters when they start talking about their prescriptions and ask me about mine, the answer being “none!” It’s like they can’t believe a “seasoned citizen” can exist without popping pills. (Then when they find out I’m not on Medifraud or Socialist Insecurity their heads really explode.)
Thanks, Jeremy for the recipe. I have been making vinegar based sauces for our BBQ, but hubby prefers real BBQ which I haven’t been buying because reading the ingredients make me ill. I have a few Kettle & Fire bone broths set aside which I may substitute for the pork stock since we don’t have a smoker.
This sounds really good!
RG,
What about mustard based sauces?
I know those aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. But, I think those may have less sugar. And a little turmeric never hurt anyone.
I am learning to cut back a little on the vinegar, too much seems to do something to the meat.
Hi RG,
You’re welcome. Carolina vinegar sauce is certainly real BBQ, but the thicker, sweeter, tomato based sauces are predominant. As Publius notes, mustard sauces can be very good too but, as with the KC style sauces, most are loaded with crap and sugar.
I think your hubby will really like my sauce. It’s modeled on the thick, sweet tomato based sauces, but a little less thick and not as sweet (which I prefer even if the goal was not LC). But, the sauce comes across sweeter than you’d think based on the amount of sugar. It’s also more complex. Caramelized onions create a deep earthy sweetness that’s really nice.
Cheers,
Jeremy
I appreciate the offer, but I’m too lazy to make anything that actually requires a recipe. About as far as I will go is fermented kraut, which consists of cabbage and salt, maybe some chili peppers and onions, and very little work. I make two gallon batches, takes about two hours including cleanup. Much different, and better than the canned stuff from the store. And far better for you, being full of probiotics. Keeps for a year in the fridge or the root cellar. I quit making it when the arthritis in my hands got really bad. Think I’ll start again.
John,
Research boron supplementation as a treatment for arthritis.
Modern dentistry is full of this sort of quackery as well. They push root canals like they’re going out of style.
The only health discipline that thinks its OK to leave dead tissue in your body. .
I had several fillings when I was a youngn’ and covered under my parents insurance. Every checkup there was some problem and dental xrays, scraping and picking and general unpleasantness. I haven’t been to the dentist in 25 years. I brush and floss daily. Only problem I’ve had was a piece of one of the damn fillings got pulled out. I researched dentistry and discovered the ART method for filling cavities with glass ionomer. This is a method generally used in places where dentists offices and drills aren’t available. Like 3rd world doctors without boarders stuff. So i bought some 3M ketac molar filler from an online dental supply place and repaired the filling myself. My mother even used it to repair a damaged crown. Years have passed. No problems. The medical and dental practices are in business to stay in business. Avoid unless absolutely necessary.
I love this story. I find that rinsing with hydrogen peroxide also does wonders as well.
I’m a dentist. I like glass ionomer. Used it for decades. Teach it to my docs. Its not new or hip or have any flashy marketing behind it but it works. Fwiw evil mercury amalgam works great too if a bit tricky to handle. It can last a very long time. Proper placement of these materials is important of course. Tough to just thumb into a tooth and expect good results.
Of course you’re a dentist. And I’m the king of Siam.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/f/f8/Internet_dog.jpg
I have to have a day job. Leading the local klavern doesnt pay well
Buddy theres no need to push a root canal. Apparently you’ve never had a toothache. Whoever wrote Tom Hanks toothache scene in Castaway knew exactly what they were talking about. Thats how a toothache starts, what it feels like, and what a desperate person will do to get rid of it. If you have a dentist “pushing” one on a tooth without symptioms or observable infecttion then that guy must be bored (and should lose his license). Theres plenty of teeth that need them out there.
As for the “dead” part a lot of the natural folks talk about um, whats the alternative? Not doing a relatively simple procedure that can enable function of the tooth God gave you….or what?
One good thing that has come out of the “pandemic” is that it has revealed how many physicians are morons. How can you make it through medical school and still believe that wearing a snot-filled rag with holes ten times the size of the virus is going to control said virus? And how can you continue to believe it now that chart after chart after chart shows no correlation between mask use and infection?
Our neighbor’s pediatrician told him that with the PCR test, there is no such thing as a false positive. The entire family of four came down with exactly the same symptoms at the same time, but only the infant boy “tested positive.” The medical industry has a lot of ‘splaining to do.
I’ve often been astonished how one could be so stupid after spending 12 years in school.
I spent 12 years in school. The last four were a constant barrage of brainwashing to make me believe that if I didn’t jump through hoops and pay for several more years of “higher education” I’d be some failure found dead in the gutter. It’s basically an admission that the education system in america is broken if you can’t get a “good job” after 12 years of outrageously expensive instruction.
Some of the most unsophisticated boneheads I’ve ever met were highly educated.
No debt, no regrets!
Hi Anon,
Several facets to this. One being that today’s undergraduate BA is the equivalent of what a high school diploma once was, in terms of being a kind of certification of basic aptitude to perform such tasks as compose a coherent letter, do supermarket math and be capable of comprehending basic instructions – though today’s BA possessors often lack even those skills. A high school diploma in our time is a worthless totem of attendance; its possessor is often illiterate and innumerate. So the BA served as a kind of pass that employers used to sort prospects as to aptitude for the work. The corollary of that being prospective employees needed the BA to even be considered for certain work; journalism, for instance. When I began my career it was a necessary prerequisite to get a job as a reporter or copy editor.
Of course, this is a silly qualifier. Either a person can write intelligently and grammatically or they cannot. It is pretty easy to determine this – and without reference to a degree.
Today, a degree in other than STEM fields is arguably both superfluous and foolish, in terms of the debt encumbrance as well as the time wasted. Four years that could have been spent doing rather than futzing. And if one wishes to acquire a classical education, one can easily do so on one’s own without paying $40k-plus for the privilege!
Nice to hear Eric,
As you indicated you should have known your shoulder wasn’t torn because you could still lift the same weights. I on the other hand knew i had a lot of damage by the simple fact that i couldn’t lift a gallon of milk from the bottom shelf to the top shelf of the fridge with my right arm. I also couldn’t rotate my shoulder enough to pour coffee without leaning a little to the left(the only time that is acceptable) because of the extreme pain in my shoulder. I’m now almost 9 months post op and while not 100% i’m soooo much beter than i was. It was getting through the first 3 or 4 months that was a bitch.
I’ve heard that about 80% is the best one can expect from shoulder surgery.
I ruined my knees & hips after 30-ish years of long distance running. So I tried weightlifting but the repeated motions gave me tendonitis in the left shoulder. Used free weights & never went heavy (no desire to be Mr. Ripped). After the first round of tendonitis, I took several months off & then switched to bands. Yet the injury won’t go away. Like you I refuse to go to quacks. Nowadays I sit on my ass & pedal a stationary bike & read stuff like this.
Hi Mike,
This is just my experience, but for what it’s worth: Cross-training (days off/on) gives the body time to recover; workouts that complement muscle groups keep you in balance. Listen to your body; it will tell which forms of exercise suit it (I’m a runner by nature; I avoid squats because my legs and hips and knees tell me not to). Eat clean, good food. Stay away from almost everything Not Food sold in the typical supermarket. Eat a lot of healthy fat. Do the opposite of what the FDA says you should!
“Eat a lot of healthy fat. Do the opposite of what the FDA says you should!” -EP
Amen to that Eric. Eat lots of healthy fats, and stay away from grains. As a matter of fact, throw that idiotic FDA food pyramid in the trash!
Happy to hear your shoulder is doing better! I had shoulder impingement once, and felt that pain…it ain’t fun. Its strange your shoulder could have possibly been dislocated, and you not notice it. I wonder if it was “moving” when you were sleeping? Maybe it moved out of place when you rolled onto it? Who knows? The important thing is no pain, and didn’t have to take any toxic pills or go under the blade to do it.
It’s funny that my parents were poor hillbillies in southern West Virginia. Back then they ate what’s now fashionably “farm to table” and “organic” and “low carb” including “healthy fats”. They burned every calorie they ate because they worked. Unlike their progeny who sits behind a computer all day.
Thanks, Rush!
Everything came to a head when I awoke abruptly from a nap. I jerked myself awake, actually – and that did something to my shoulder. Broke it loose, I dunno. All I know is it hurt worse than an IRS audit on the same day you get a colonoscopy. But then, it moved again – and now I am damn near normal again. I’m happy – and not asking too many questions!
It is somewhat curious that the FDA nutrition guidance is quite similar to the Dept of Ag’s recommendation for fattening cattle.
But then again, fat people don’t start revolutions. So maybe its a good plan. For them. For you? Not so much.
Hi John,
Indeed. And – while this am anecodtal, I consider it of interest:
I have several friends whose kids eat the Not Food from the supermarket; they also drink HFC “energy” drinks and sodas. They are all not just overweight – they are obese. On the other hand, the kids of other friends of mine, who are careful about food and do not eat Not Food, are slim and healthy. They look like I did when I was their age – not like middle-aged man-titted manatees on two legs.
‘I leaned my body back a bit and felt my shoulder – and arm – move in relation to the rest of me. It popped forward about two inches. And then it felt … good.’ — EP
Accidental discoveries are unquestionably the sweetest. As Dr Alexander Fleming remarked, ‘One sometimes finds what one is not looking for. When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic [penicillin].’
‘This made sleep rare and left me with raccoon eyes and a chronically bad mood.’ — EP
With your raccoon eyes presumably over, give a thought to those such as ‘attorney general’ Merrick Garland, who suffers from a congenital case of sunken, shifty little black peepers … as he turns a blind raccoon eye to the mafia-like, rent-extracting ‘health care’ system.
It now features a fresh overlay of shady Big Pharma public health muscle, operating with full legal impunity to crush ‘crunchy’ remedies such as ivermectin for those who actually get sick and can’t breathe. Instead we get this (NYT, June 18):
A Pill to Treat Covid-19? The U.S. Is Betting on It
‘A new $3.2 billion [fedgov] program will support the development of antiviral pills, which could start arriving by the end of this year.’
As the former Soviet Union demonstrated, eventually grift on a galactic scale leaves citizens poor, barefoot and hungry.
Smash the therapeutic state.
Just as you pointed out – the idea of a “co[n]vid pill” is another opportunity for grifters. Meanwhile, ivermectin (another naturally based medicine, derived from bacteria) cures many alleged viral illnesses.
Putting aside the countless other reasons to reject the jab, the grift is all the more compounded by the fact that a pill to “cure co[n]vid” would undermine the alleged urgency of forcing everyone to be jabbed.
Backstory on ivermectin:
https://www.isglobal.org/en/healthisglobal/-/custom-blog-portlet/ivermectina-del-suelo-a-las-lombrices-y-mas-alla/3098670/0
‘the idea of a “co[n]vid pill” is another opportunity for grifters’ — Anon
‘Doctor’ Fauci — America’s analogue to Dr Mengele — shunted several million in fedgov funds through his cutout ‘Doctor’ Peter Daszak for the Wuhan Institute of Virology to weaponize the Sars-Cov-2 virus with ‘gain of function’ genetic modifications.
From Big Pharma’s ‘arsonist firefighter’ perspective, that’s a thousand-to-one return on a modest investment.
KA-frickin’-CHING!
Merck, a manufacturer of ivermectin, asserts ‘no scientific basis for therapeutic effect against Covid’ despite a growing mountain of peer-reviewed published evidence to the contrary.
https://www.merck.com/news/merck-statement-on-ivermectin-use-during-the-covid-19-pandemic/
Merck has to tear down its own low-profit, off-patent product to get on that $3.2 billion fedgov gravy train. Ka-frickin’-ching …
anybody that still believes this entire scam, soup to nuts, isn’t a colossal con job, well, I’ve got a bridge I’ll sell ya for cheap…
Amazing that the body has so many ways to repair and protect itself. Just give it the right level of raw materials and support. Equally amazing is this modern notion that every problem with the body is a chemical/pill deficiency or a scalpel deficiency.
I guess I’ve always been crunchy. Wherever possible, I have always relied on nutrition, vitamins, herbs, acupuncture, sleep and exercise. Having been on the inside, teaching immunology at a medical school, the scales fell from my eyes. I saw the sausage being made and want no part of it.
Considering medical mistakes kill ~200,000 every year, it can be wise to avoid the docs in some cases.
I was going to go in for my every few year checkup and blood labs in 2020. Not a religious doctor goer, but since my parents both died early, I do like to check for bad signs every few years.
But now I find myself wondering, how good can the docs be if they fell in for the lies and fear porn?
Are they not supposed to be “scientists”?
The most damaging thing about this disease theater is my now total lack of faith in the brain power of the medical community.
They are but one more tool of the controllers of our lives.
And as they played their part, how many are they responsible for keeping away out of fear, that have lost their chance to discover and treat illness that will now end their lives.
Some docs warned of this, but the medical community as a whole has failed America.
Indeed, Dan –
Any doctor who enforced “mask” wearing is either an imbecile – or a tool. And neither one is worthy of trust.
They’re not scientists and are not trained in basic research. Most don’t have the faintest clue about the biochemistry of the pills they dole out like candy every day. Many are bright, but uncritical. They are taught to match chemicals to symptoms (MD = doctor of medicine), not to parlay the existing natural mechanisms into healing – it’s better to suppress symptoms with forever pills. Much of their information comes from pharma reps who bring them sandwiches and the latest product literature. Few of them could read and understand a scientific publication, and even fewer could critique one. All of this is why so many of them push for face diapers and vaccines and act as know-it-alls. They don’t know any better, and the white coat is like a superhero cape to them, making them believe they have magic powers conferred during their white coat ceremony in the first week of medical school. Hint: it ain’t so.
Hi BAC,
Indeed. I grew up around doctors (dad, grandfather) and that may be why I am not in mindless of awe of their putative powers. I respect them – when they are competent and honest. But the fact that they are MDs does not necessarily make them either thing. Much less omniscient.
One of the things that struck me about the doctors I grew up around – including my dad – was how many of them were sedentary, overweight and had really bad habits, like smoking and eating the most processed crap imaginable. My dad loved hot dogs and soda. He ate that garbage every day. And guess who was on hypertension meds for 30-plus years?
I can’t recall the last time I ate a hot dog – and sodas for me are an occasional treat. I may drink one a month, if that. Always a quality soda – made with cane sugar, not HFC.
And no hypertension meds needed by me!
Hey, Eric,
Not so much doctors these days (at least, here in SoCal) but I am struck by the overwhelming preponderance of fat, ugly, and *STUPID* females among their office staff.
What’s up with that?
Hi Eric,
HFC as in soda and everything else nowadays is one step below poison IMHO. Never had soda in the house and our kids only had it at parties or an occasional treat; both are healthy and normal weight…and drink beer and wine now😆. Beer is actually good for you, lots of trace minerals and stuff. I have normal blood pressure for my age but the cholesterol is high by the doc’s “guidelines” and he’s been pushing meds on me for awhile, which I refuse. Your body actually needs a certain amount, especially for your brain function, could be why they push it – want to keep the populace dumbed down. I used to get the newsletter put out by Dr. Douglass (rip) and it had lots of good info, especially on avoiding Big Pharma’s “cures).
Amen, Mike!
The Quack Machine lowered the “acceptable” cholesterol number such that what was previously normal no longer is. They can keep their recommendations. I can outrun and outlift most Quacks and my waist size is still the same as it was in high school.
Unless you just eat whatever stops moving long enough, your liver determines what your cholesterol level is, and does so per your need.
Mike,
Good point With the HFC.
Too much detail to list here, but remember around 1980 when they came up with the “food pyramid” ?
As the govt tried to get us away from animal fats & onto carbs, diabetes increased.
Based largely on a study that researchers didn’t like the results. It was pre-determined that meat was bad & that’s what was recommended.
Together with the corn-agri lobby, we were fed a diet of propaganda to eat carbs laced with HFC.
I stay as far away from that crap as possible.
And beer – yes, yes, double yes. Like Homer Simpson says, it’s liquid bread, it’s good for you. Beer played an important role in health (boiled water) and delivery of vitamins.
The “medical community” long ago transformed into the “Medical Industrial Complex”. Virtually all hospitals are now for profit. I assume they are still being paid a bonus for COVID diagnosis, and a bigger bonus yet for using a respirator. They also have a financial motive to reduce their staffing and equipment to an average load level. Which means any uptick in need creates a staff shortage, and an equipment shortage. Curious how that works out to panic over a shortage of ability to accommodate ANY increase. The only science “modern medicine” is interested in is book keeping. There are without doubt doctors who still remember the Hippocratic oath, but by and large, all they know about medicine is what Pharma taught them.
I’ve mentioned this before but it bears repeating because I think it bears on this discussion:
My dad and grandfather were both doctors; both earned enough to provide a solid middle class existence for their families. Doctors of their time didn’t live in 6,000 square foot homes with a $75,000 Tesla parked in the three-car garage. My dad drove a Maverick, actually. My grandfather had his practice on the ground floor of the family brownstone in Allentown, PA. It was him – and his nurse/receptionist. That was it. No gaggle of officious fraus collecting “insurance” paperwork. And you saw him, not a PA. Most patients paid cash – because they could afford to.
I was there; I saw it. Just like the world before Nahhhhhnnnnlevven. It existed. And it was so much better than this caca-show we endure today.
When I was a small boy. growing up in central New Jersey (1950s) our family doctor practiced medicine from an office in his own home in Hightstown. And he did make house calls, if necessary.
There were no pagers, or cell phones, in those days, only land line telephones, sans answering machines. If you telephoned the doctor, his home phone and office phone were likely one and the same.
There was also no Visa or Mastercard. According to my Mom (a PT) medical doctors did not refuse treatment to anyone, but carried debt for those who could not pay cash on the spot. Very few would intentionally stiff the doctor, but may have been slow to pay, only due to lack of funds.
At one time engineers were professionals, looked at in the same way as doctors and lawyers. Then when mass production got really going the engineers became employees. The physicians and lawyers saw this happen and were determined to prevent it. Up until the creation of the HMO they managed to stave it off. But now it’s goodnight nurse, literally. You’ll soon have a telemedicine session with someone in India or Bangalore to establish you actually require a trip to the doctor’s office. Then probably have 99% of the work done by nurses acting like technicians. Then eventually they might let you see a doctor for a few minutes if needed. Doctors will still be rich, but there will be so few necessary it will be more like management.
Just this week I ditched my former web hosting company, due to incompetent “tech support” based in the Philippines. Company HQ is in Burlington, MA.
Easily found a reasonably priced domain registration & web hosting company based in NoCal which advertises their tech support is 100% U.S. based. So far (one contact) so good.
If “telemedicine” means “tech support for your body” by incompetent WOGS whose sing song so-called “English” I can barely understand, then fugeddabout it, mate.
If “telemedicine” means “tech support for your body” by speaking to Landru, see above.
I’ve found that the Philippines and Costa Rica are the “Cadillac” of off-shore tech support (India is the “Yugo”).
I’m always relieved when I open a ticket with a big vendor (e.g. Cisco or Dell/EMC) and the engineer is of Pinoy or Costa Rican extraction.
I have maintained for years that engineers are born, not created in engineering schools. The school teaches us where to look for stuff that was not planted in our brains at birth, not how to be an engineer. Engineering is a thought process that is there or not. The rest is just filling in the blanks.
I feel that doctors are exactly that as well. Some go through the rote and prescribe what the books and the pharmaceutical salesmen tell them. Others know (or intuit) what they are dealing with because they were born to carry the black bag (which few even own now). They may prescribe a medication or surgery, but they will know exactly why.
I don’t know if you are a praying person, but I am! Praise God for His healing! (and the fact that you didn’t have to violate your conscience to obtain it)
Just as free enterprise capitalism was created by God, and there is no flaw in it, our immune system, and ability to repair damage on our own, is also created by God. I’m not a “religious” person, since religion has been the excuse for some of the greatest atrocities ever committed, but I do believe in a higher power. A divine power, that we have yet to even try to understand.