Your health is your own responsibility and not the responsibility of any healthcare provider, but so often we give practitioners and therapists control over our own health. In today’s post, we’ll consider the fact that you should be taking responsibility for your own health.
When we become ill, we tend to feel sorry for ourselves and then we visit the healthcare provider and we tend to give then the responsibility to get us back to health. Sometimes that is exactly what is needed, but even when consulting with a specific healthcare provider, you should still take responsibility for your own health. To not give over responsibility without considering the pros and cons.
Let me explain. When you are ill, you need intervention and whether it is a specific medication or a medical procedure or a therapeutic treatment, it is there to assist you in feeling better, but it is not supposed to be a surrendering of your responsibility in the process. It is merely the obtaining of specific medication or specific medical treatment or specific therapy, but the responsibility for your health still remains with you.
Let me make it a bit more practical. When my oldest daughter was about 2 years old, she had this constant severe coughing every time she went to bed in the evening. During the day she was fine and could run around without any problem, but immediately when she went to bed, she was coughing. I immediately thought it is due to an allergy causing a post-nasal drip, but I had to take her to the doctor for diagnosis and specific medication as the over-the-counter products did not seem to work.
There I had a rude awakening about responsibility, because until that moment, I also tended to give away my responsibility to healthcare providers. Visiting a few healthcare providers caused quite a bit of frustration, especially when a doctor prescribed a cough mixture, but every time when I gave the meds to my daughter, then the coughing worsened. And if you have children, you should relate to the fact that if a child is coughing all night, neither she nor the parents get any sleep and continuing like that for a few weeks, then everybody is tired and cranky. Well, eventually one evening in the middle of the night out of pure frustration of not knowing what to do anymore and trying to stay away to deal with the coughing child, I took out the pamphlet from the inside of the cough mixture box and unfolded and unfolded and unfolded it until I could read what this cough mixture was all about and then I became extremely angry towards the doctor that prescribed the medication and secondly towards the pharmaceutical manufacturer for actually making such a product available for sale.
What made steam come out of my ears, was the words on that pamphlet for the cough mixture that listed the following as a possible side effect: This product may cause severe coughing.
Really! I wanted to wring some necks. Why in the world would anybody manufacture and prescribed a cough mixture to a coughing child if the product may cause severe coughing. I found that totally ridiculous. At that moment, I realised that I should not have given responsibility for my child’s health away to a healthcare provider or to a pharmaceutical manufacturer, but I should have taken responsibility for her health by understanding the product and possible side effects prior to giving it to her. That changed my outlook on healthcare matters and I’m glad I did or else my child would have been negatively affected throughout her life, because what followed, was even worse.
We ended up with a Paediatrician that wanted to put my daughter on asthma medication for the rest of her life, because he diagnosed her with asthma. I refused the diagnosis and told him that she is not struggling to breathe, but only coughs when lying down. That was the first time a medical specialist told me that I’m very arrogant for not accepting his diagnosis, because ultimately he is the professional. I told him that I reject his diagnosis and will obtain a second opinion.
I’m so glad I did. I eventually ended up driving to another town to visit the Paediatrician I went to as a child that retired and only worked on occasion in a very relaxed private practice. He also did not agree with the diagnosis of asthma and sent us for blood tests that revealed that my daughter was allergic to the pine tree pollen in the area where we stayed. We put plans in place and moved out of the area and at the age of 3 the coughing was totally resolved. My daughter is 14 this year and ever since those early years, she did not need any chronic medication at all, she is no longer coughing and she still definitely does not have asthma.
If I gave responsibility for my daughter’s health away to a healthcare provider, my daughter would have been on asthma medication for the rest of her life for a condition that she does not have. I think that is a dangerous situation and therefore I fully believe in taking responsibility for your own health and not to give it away to third parties. You may invite healthcare providers into your life and make use of their services, but always be fully informed and ultimately make the final decision, do not give the final decision away to someone else.
Let me make it very clear: I am not suggesting that you should ignore medical advice; that is not at all what I’m saying. What I am saying, is that you should obtain all the necessary information needed to make an informed decision and if that means that you obtain a second opinion, then do that, but take responsibility for your own health and do not merely hand it over to somebody else.
Taking responsibility for your own health begins with living a healthy lifestyle: eating correctly, exercising sufficiently, sleeping enough and keeping stress levels under control. You are fully in control of that and one of the best ways of helping you stay healthy and keeping stress levels under control, is through therapeutic reflexology.
Take responsibility for your own health and make your therapeutic reflexology appointment today to ensure your stress levels are under control to prevent it from turning into any healthcare conditions.
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Christo A. Scheepers: Therapeutic Reflexologist
Dip.T.R.(Cum Laude) [IARAMT]
AHPCSA: A11945
Pr. No.: 1080000737453
Tel. 072-800 7243