Belief

[nvscanman]

I have a doctor that is nice and is very test happy. Not bad ecept I don't believe in yearly mammograms. One radioactivity is cumlative and I have had a lifetime's worth and limit unecessary everything x-ray and two they have known since the 30's that compressing a cancerous tumor makes it spread.

When I had a tumor on my thigh they warned me very sternly about bumping it before they found out if it was cancerous or not. The same radiologist was speechless when I asked him why it was okay to crush women's breasts to x-ray them for cancer. He couldn't answer.

Every women in my family dies of heart disease. Usually about 95. My great-grandfather and Cromwell's daughter are the only two in my family tree I can find that died of cancer. Yet I have had to argue with doctors over heart tests that I want and mammograms I don't.

I also won't buy anything with a pink ribbon on the box anymore. And, I still sleep well at night. Usually. Not lately but that has more to do with my post in the Tavern than worrying about what a doctor thinks will be my death.

Only God knows the day or way and I am a firm believer he will take me if I am in my chair on TTOL or playing with guns.

First of all radioactivity from xray is not "cumulative". You don't store the photons
of high KV energy in your body year after year after year till you explode.

And the damage from being exposed to low levels of medical radiation is
not cumulative. Your body can and usually does repair the occasional
cell that is damaged by the radiographic procedure. Or the cell dies and
is disposed of by the body just like all the other cells that die everyday.

What is cumulative is the risk factor. The more x rays you have the more
chances you have that one of those exposures will trigger a malignant change
in a cell and you will develop cancer. Just like the more times you jaywalk across
the street at night wearing black the more chances you take at getting
hit by a car. You "might" get hit the very first time you do it. You "might"
get hit the 100th time. You "might" do it 10,000 times and not get hit.
Random statistical chance governs each occurrence but statistics also say
that the more often you do something that is risky the higher the chances
are that you will pay by suffering the damage of that risk.


Compressing a tumor does not "spread" the cancer. The theory is that
compression may possibly cause cancerous cells from the tumor to be
dislodged and thus travel (metastasize) to another part of the body where
a new tumor could form. This of course is a theory....there is no proof to
support this theory....and I'm not sure if it would be possible to prove this
one either way....and it's irrelevant.

Tumors metastasize, it's what they do,
you don't have to squish them to make that happen. And in mammography
the breast is compressed because it provides a clearer better more diagnostically
accurate image that requires less exposure to the breast tissue
to acquire. EVERYTHING that is done in medicine has a reason. A well thought
out scientifically based rationale. And if new research comes along to make us
reconsider the processes involved than those processes can change....but they
are not changed based on hearsay and old wivestales.

[MarkB]

Good word HW.

My parents in law are far and away the most perpetually sick people I have ever known, and have been for decades, primarily because they spend a good part of their lives at the doctor's office(s), believing everything they are told, taking every medicine prescribed for them whether or not it works, and whether or not it is compatible with everything else they have been prescribed. They are true believers, and the medical community has led them around by an imaginary ring in their noses for most of a lifetime. Every conversation of any length at all revolves around their poor health, their medications, and their next appointments. You couldn't convince them that this has been done to them by their doctors in a thousand years.

As a contrast, my wife was diagnosed with MS a year and a half ago, and was told early on by her neurologist that she has one of the most aggressive cases this doctor has ever seen. We were told that if she didn't take one of four seriously nasty drugs for the rest of her life that she would be in a wheelchair in short order, that her vision would get worse, her memory would be lost altogether, yada yada yada.

We rejected and renounced most everything she was told by most everybody she saw at the neurological clinic, began to do research for ourselves and found that a large percentage of MS patients feel that they know much more about their disease than the medical community does, that they are much better off without the toxic meds, and of course that their doctors for the most part don't want to hear anything about people who are doing well apart from their doctors and their drugs. We have sifted through medical journals, clinical trial documentation, hundreds of testimonials, lawsuit transcripts, etc. We know what we're talking about.

In essence, we chose not to believe much of anything that the medical community told us, and then chose to listen to and believe a large amount of what other MS patients are saying, because it is after all they/we who have the disease, not the doctors.

Above all, we choose to believe that ultimately God is the Physician, He alone knows what is truly wrong with my wife, and what it will take for a complete healing. So just like my parents in law, we too are true believers, but we have chosen to believe pretty much the opposite of what they believe, and we have chosen to believe Someone altogether different than who they have chosen to believe.

My wife gets better by the week, in every measurable way, from strength and mobility to state of mind, things she is able to do once again, memory and sense of humor. We as a family feel that she is "returning" to us bit by bit, piece by piece, day by day. No DMD meds, no clinical trials, no experimental procedures (what is up with doctors and the guinea pig thing?) no nurses at the house, nothing.

Her doctor on the other hand paints an ever more grim picture with MRI's, stories of other patients, reflex tests, "If you were my sister" scare scenarios, etc. I should make it clear also that my wife is in no way in "remission" - from the doctor's standpoint, in every measurable way my wife is getting worse.

Like you said HouseWolf, it's all about what you believe.

[anney]

Very good word HW.

I have learned over the years that doctors are people just like you and me...yes they have gone to school paying an enormous price for their educations, come out in debt to their eyeballs...but they are still people like you and me....AND not all doctors are at the top of the field....some barely make it thru..they all have differing opinions of how to treat what ails you.

I've learned to do my research BEFORE I go to the doctor and not always take their advise...I've learned that not all meds will suit my body whereas they help someone else with the same problem.

I know in whom I believe in...it is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Always seeking His guidance and His leading....knowing that He is my healer.

[Sgt. Spline]

My son has Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic birth defect that is fatal. Treatments basically center around pumping the body full of anti-biotics on a continual basis, inhalers, nebulizers, and numerous lung clearing techniques.

My son, praise God, has not been to hospitol, nor been sick beyond a cold, since the day he was born. This is very rare for a CF patient. While his mother and I follow his prescribed treatment for the most part, we also rely on and thank Him often for his protection of our boy. I truly believe that without Him, and His generous gifts, that my son would not be as healthy as he has always been.

[Earthsick]

HW is right on.

On a more practical level, worrying causes stress, stress is a major known risk factor for EVERYTHING.

With faith there is no reason to worry. If you're worrying, how faithful can you really claim to be? Concern and vigilance, sure, but not worry.

[Tired of Lies]

First of all radioactivity from xray is not "cumulative". You don't store the photons
of high KV energy in your body year after year after year till you explode.

And the damage from being exposed to low levels of medical radiation is
not cumulative. Your body can and usually does repair the occasional
cell that is damaged by the radiographic procedure. Or the cell dies and
is disposed of by the body just like all the other cells that die everyday.

What is cumulative is the risk factor. The more x rays you have the more
chances you have that one of those exposures will trigger a malignant change
in a cell and you will develop cancer. Just like the more times you jaywalk across
the street at night wearing black the more chances you take at getting
hit by a car. You "might" get hit the very first time you do it. You "might"
get hit the 100th time. You "might" do it 10,000 times and not get hit.
Random statistical chance governs each occurrence but statistics also say
that the more often you do something that is risky the higher the chances
are that you will pay by suffering the damage of that risk.


Compressing a tumor does not "spread" the cancer. The theory is that
compression may possibly cause cancerous cells from the tumor to be
dislodged and thus travel (metastasize) to another part of the body where
a new tumor could form. This of course is a theory....there is no proof to
support this theory....and I'm not sure if it would be possible to prove this
one either way....and it's irrelevant.

Tumors metastasize, it's what they do,
you don't have to squish them to make that happen. And in mammography
the breast is compressed because it provides a clearer better more diagnostically
accurate image that requires less exposure to the breast tissue
to acquire. EVERYTHING that is done in medicine has a reason. A well thought
out scientifically based rationale. And if new research comes along to make us
reconsider the processes involved than those processes can change....but they
are not changed based on hearsay and old wivestales.

You have just found the essence of this thread.

Sorry if you took it to mean I ignorantly thought I would set a geiger counter off from further away or with a higher reading with each x-ray.

And yes I know why they squish the breast for the procedure but if they found a cheaper, less painful and safer way to detect breast cancer do you really think they would take the billions of dollars the industry has invested in those machines and put them in the basement next to the iron lungs and blood letting devices they once used regularly as well?

Breast thermography and ultrasound has been shown to be effective and yet the medical establishment refuses to support either in studies in any significant way. Too much money invested in mammography to let women think anything else is effective and that if they don't get one every year they are walking around with two timebombs on their chest just waiting to stop ticking and explode.

http://www.breastcancerchoices.org/faqimaging.html

[Pastor Guest]

Snake oil salesmen come from all quarters.

Top four people I don't take at their word.

1. Politicians
2. Lawyers
3. Doctors
4. Automobile mechanics

True. But let me add to your list the worst of all - preachers. These are worse because how they lead people
has eternal consequences. Whenever you hear anyone say anything about spiritual matters (and this includes me),
look it up in the Bible so you will know the truth. The Bible is the only standard that can be used to determine
truth.

I am not talking about disagreements on points of doctrine, but about those who deliberately mislead others for
whatever purpose. We can disagree in love on scripture and doctrine.

Remember, Jesus repeatedly warns us about deceivers and false prophets.

[forever blessed]

Belief is an essential power, reserved to the individual. What you believe has everything to do with who, and how you are. And like the individual, so too the nation.

And similarly, who you believe (and believe in) has much to do with who you share your essential identity with. You also have the essential power to extend or withhold your belief, and to ask those who share their beliefs to explain the basis of them, and to hear the basis of yours.

I refrain from proselytizing here, I don't think its right for me to use the admin position to espouse my philosophy.

While you may regard it as a privilege, HW, it must be incredibly frustrating to maintain your silence due to a self-imposed obligation, while bearing also the burden of maintaining this site's availability to those who aren't bound by such.

It is not improper to use your voice here in the same manner as we use ours — to declare our beliefs and our concerns to all who may care to read them, and to invite them to respond in kind, so long as they don't seek to impose their views to the exclusion of others and those who give voice to alternate views. Cutting your tongue out to ensure that each of us felt free to use our own isn't a sacrifice I would ask you to make.

Freedom is truly honored only by its robust exercise, for more than words, the actions which breathe life into those words are the greatest expression of our beliefs and our purposes in this world. The words are an initial commitment to a standard which our actions declare to God and to each other our willingness to uphold. Silence may precede such actions too, but while we pray to God in secret, we exhort each other in openness. And then we pray for strength, wisdom, and protection in honoring our commitments with actions as well as words.

Here we exchange words. Yours cannot be compelled, but they ought to be shared with the same liberty as anyone else's, and with the same assurance that agreement isn't a requirement for participation, though mutual respect is. You hear each of us speak frankly; we should be honored as well to hear you in the same way.

What you BELIEVE is what you are. Its intrinsic. Doing IS being, and its an essential facet of faith that we BELIEVE.

This can go for or against the believer.

My point tonight is that each of you needs to be sure that you believe in yourselves.

Know that if God didn't believe in you, you would not exist. Thus, by the undeniable truth of your own existence, you must have an importance far beyond what this world has honored. As your neighbor also has.

And that you likewise believe in God the Father, Maker of Heaven and Earth, and that you are good- made in the image of Him, and Endowed with inalienable right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.

If you believe you're well, you will be well.
If you believe you're happy, you will be happy.
If you believe you're smart, you are smart.

Nothing in the world can stop you if you believe.



And if you believe in God, then you are blessed by Him, your Father.

So please folks...

Believe with passion in what you want to be true.

And give God room to act alongside you to make it true.

[Archangel]

Snake oil salesmen come from all quarters.

Top four people I don't take at their word.

1. Politicians
2. Lawyers
3. Doctors
4. Automobile mechanics

Excellent point, Chicom. I endorse said viewpoint with a hearty 'Amen!'

~Gabe

[Gonzomedic]

I believe in God HouseWolf! and also very well stated Sir!