After my last few experiences with doctors, I have a burning question: is this the state of healthcare these days?

In an attempt to get into better shape—not to mention, paying attention to my health overall—I had an annual physical this past Saturday to see where my body was. Since the last two doctors were both underwhelming—doctor 1 saw me for a physical for 20 minutes and sent the Qwest Diagnostic test results with his diagnosis and recommendation (“less carbs”) in the mail while doctor 2 (a D.O.) recommended a list of suppressants for my headaches within 5 minutes of meeting me—I decided to try the practice where my wife’s primary care physician works.

On a not-particularly busy morning, the nurse saw me 15 minutes after I arrived, took my temperature, height, weight, urine and checked my eyesight. She deposited me in the exam room, where I waited for 20 minutes. When he came in, the doctor took the regular measurements and asked the typical first-time questions. Without blood-work results (I’m not even scheduled for the tests until Friday), he said that I was heading towards heart and high-blood pressure issues and that I needed to change my diet.

Within 10 minutes, my physical was done. It was when I inquired further about chronic headaches—exercise-induced headaches I’ve had for the last 15 years (any kind of exertion) and also regular intense headaches which do not go away until after a full-night’s sleep—that the visit really shocked me.

I don’t know [how heart medication, beta-blockers reduce instances of headaches]…no one knows…but they do. So, I can start you on Propranolol now…if there are no other questions…?

He said “well, it doesn’t help to just take stronger pain-killers, we need to stop the cause of your headaches. There is a whole lot of drugs I can prescribe to you that will work to prevent you from getting headaches: they’re blood-pressure medications, heart medications, blood-thinners, beta blockers, inhibitors…many different kinds. They happen to be known to prevent headaches.” When I asked how exactly these other medications work to prevent headaches, he said “I don’t know…no one knows…but they do. So, I can start you on Propranolol now…if there are no other questions…?” I stopped him there and said “Um…I’d like to think about this a little first.”

Knowing me for only 20-30 minutes, and without knowledge garnered from blood-tests, a medical-school trained physician was going to prescribe to me heart medication or high-blood pressure medication for headaches. Tell me there’s nothing wrong with that?!?!?!

A friend—a collector of all things peculiar, especially in print—showed me the above advert he’d found tucked away in a book. The incident with my doctor reminded me of the really creepy catch-phrase in this ad: “it can turn complainers into compliers.” Creepy indeed.

A Story: Sharing—Akiva and Yehuda

We were at the local park Memorial Day morning. Isabelle had just gone to the top of the massive playground set, and she was beginning to play with the match-this puzzle (one of the many discovery installations on the set). A boy and his father had been making their way through the set a few “stations” behind us. When they caught up, the boy did not hesitate and immediately started playing the match-this puzzle. Though he didn’t touch her—and with both Simone just inches away and I a few feet away—Isabelle was startled and pulled away, haltingly.

The father of this boy immediately corrected him, saying, “Akiva, share!” When he did not move away, his father repeated, “Akiva! Remember, share! Let her finish playing first before you play.” When he still did not move, Yehuda, the father, began to pull the boy back a little, but we protested, saying, “it’s okay, they can both play together.” Together, we continued to encourage both Isabelle and Akiva to share the match-this puzzle. As both children continued to hesitate, we resorted to the tried-and-true form of initiating communication: the high-five. It worked!

And eventually, they learned that they had to share this common space, that the playground was a place where you played with others and continued to learn the meaning of sharing. Even if they’ve not learned it wholly, repeated instruction such as this reinforces the notion, the behavior—but most importantly, the principle.

A Parental Exhortation

Simone and I have been teaching Isabelle to share whenever she is in a social context: sharing what she is playing with. But, when it comes to reacting to either children who are the opposite and/or parents to don’t discipline or teach their children (see “Possessed”), we’re woefully unprepared. Just as we’ve encountered children and parents such as Akiva and Yehuda, we’ve equally encountered children who just ramble past and through everything in front of them without stopping to say “sorry” or sharing their space and parents who—seemingly, without instruction otherwise—either approve or are either completely oblivious to the behavior or do not understand how to instruct their children or don’t even think of instruction.

     • Shouldn’t we be instructing our children, even as they are young (especially)?
     • What happens when you encounter these moments?
     • How actively is a parent supposed to “protect” their children in these moments?
     • Do you pro-actively teach your children to be kind, to share, to help others?
     • If you don’t, why not?

[EDIT: the questions above aren’t rhetorical. Feel free to answer in your comments: no Xanga log-in required.]

In our present day and age—America, in particular—it is common to believe that it’s no one else’s business how we instruct or not instruct/teach our children. I’ll give you that if you are an atheist or agnostic, you won’t have God-driven principles or directives. But you still have your own morals or convictions to live—and teach—by.

But if you are a Christian, then it is God’s command that you teach your young not only from the Bible, but that you instruct him/her through your own actions, living out the Bible to them. It is my prayer that as Christian parents, we shed the world’s view that each of us can parent in our own way as we see fit. While legally that is true—our freedom of almost everything, in fact, guarantees that—how quickly we have forgotten God’s commands just as we became parents and have subsequently become apparently inundated with “all that is parenthood.” It is as if we feel these burdens and “busyness” allow us to shirk not only our responsibilities as Christian brothers and sisters, but often forget what it means to be Christian. It is my prayer that we can encourage and exhort each other to follow in His commands, to honor and obey Him.