modern advancements in medicine? (caution: for readers with weak stomachs)

I asked this question before a couple of years ago after listening to a relative share how he would not be alive today without the power of a priesthood blessing. He woke up in a military hospital in Iraq staring at the bottom of his boot. A bomb had gone off and it didn't look like they could save his leg. He insisted on a priesthood blessing before they could wheel him in and operate on him. During surgery Doctors found a missing section of bone protected by muscle and blood, so that they were able to piece together his leg. He did not credit the skill of the surgeon, or advancements in medical sciences. For him his faith in a God who favors priesthood blessings, even if it means delaying medical attention, is why he is alive and can walk today.

I too have faced some medical challenges, not so dramatic. But I know it is the wonders of medical science that saved my life. Not God playing favorites because I had a special blessing.

1) As a child I had reoccurring strep infections. The oral antibiotics were not handling it. So I was given a booster shot and that finally cleared it.

2) My first son was delivered sunny side up after 52 hours of labor. I tore and they had to use forcepts.

3) My second son is big. He was 23 inches long and they induced me a week before due date because they wanted to deliver him early. They expected him to be 11-14 lbs. He was 7 lbs 6 ounces at birth. He doubled that weight in 2 weeks. Currently he is 7 years old and 4' 9" tall in 2nd grade and loves playing pop warner football.

4) In my early 20's I fell down a mountain instead of skiing down it. My left knee hyper extended the wrong direction tearing my Medial Moniscus and ACL. Also within a few months my L5 lumbar was herniated causing terrific pain down my right sciatic nerve.

I am very confident I would not be alive today if it were not for the advances in modern medicine. How about you?

If it weren't for advancements in modern medicine, I'd nit be here today. If some infection or disease hadn't killed me in my youth, I'd have offed myself after I ruptured my L5-S1 disc and it was impinging my nerve root. I couldn't walk. I couldn't sleep due to the pain(and was on morphine pills) for nearly 40 hours before I passed out from pain eventually. I have PTSD from my disk ordeal, it was that bad. Nothing helped the pain, because it was my nerve. I was on the highest dose of pain meds I could be on without being admitted, and it wasn't nearly enough. I'd have killed myself if there was nothing that could have been done to fix it. Even my kids wouldn't have been enough to stop me. The pain consumed me. My life was only about that horrific pain for a few weeks.

I ruptured the same disc and I fought with the military and VA for years before they would take me seriously and actually diagnose the problem. I walked around with a herniated disc for almost 10 years before I finally succeeded in talking someone into doing an MRI. I was in surgery a week later. Still, I had to have another surgery, a spinal fusion, before the problem finally went away. The chronic pain after all those years affected me and I've also had PTSD issues because of it. You and I have a lot in common.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2010 08:50AM by Troy.

I've had some really bad infections over the years. I doubt I would be alive without antibiotics.

I'm glad I didn't just try to pray the infection away.

And I still have to wonder, why doesn't God heal amputees?

I hope it's OK to repost something I archived from another poster about 7 years ago. It's one of my favorite posts ever and goes right along with the subject of this thread. I have to share:
==============================================================

Last December, I stepped into my own emotional foxhole.

My wife was pregnant with twins, and she went into premature labor (4 months premature) in November, 2002. She was hospitalized for a month, while the doctors medically and surgically fended off delivery. For a month, I slept on a cot in her hospital room, only a few steps away from her, in case there was an emergency. During the first week of December, that emergency came, the labor kicked back in, and within a few hours, the twins were born.

My son weighed 2 lbs., 3 oz.

And my daughter weighed 1 lb., 14 oz.

Both of them nearly died.

They were in the intensive care unit for four months. My daughter had stomach surgery, eye surgery, and brain surgery (twice). It cost over a million dollars to keep them alive. And, even now, there is still a possibility that my daughter will have learning disabilities and even cerebral palsy.

On the day they were born, I prayed to God pleading with him to protect their lives. But, since I knew that there was a good possibility that they would die, I pleaded with him even more so to protect my testimony. I knew that if the kids died, I might become bitter and resentful and fall away from the Mormon church. And I was afraid of that happening.

And I wanted to be right with God. I wanted to be in harmony with his plan. I thought "Maybe it's in God's plan for my kids to die. Maybe there's some higher purpose." And I tried to meditate and pray to determine what that purpose might be. I tried to come closer to God, to align myself with his will, so that I could be an instrument in fulfilling his purpose. And so I legitimately tried to determine why God would want my kids to be sick. Maybe I would grow spiritually from the experience. Maybe I would learn patience and trust and dependence on the Lord. Maybe I would learn about my own physical limitations, strengthening my ability to be humble.

And so I tried to learn all those things. Maybe if I was a receptive student to the lesson God was trying to teach me, I would be able to stave off any further injury to my kids. But when the news got worse for them, rather than better, when my daughter had to go in for her second brain surgery, it was obvious that God was not staying his hand.

And then something in my mind switched gears. Maybe God was not trying to teach me something. Maybe there was no grand lesson in all of this. Maybe my kids had problems because that kind of stuff just happens sometimes. Wow. What a concept for me. The pressure was off when I realized that I was not in the midst of some cosmic pop-quiz of my personal character. God was not testing me, because there is no God behind the scenes.

To me, that was a comforting thought. Suddenly, I didn't need to worry about my own culpability. I wasn't responsible, through my sins and transgressions, for the physical problems my kids were experiencing. And when I met with the neurologists and the gastroenterologists, and I listened to their explanations of the biochemistry and the anatomical mechanics of their procedures, I understood what they were trying to accomplish. After hundreds of years of medical science, these doctors have the ability to facilitate healing and development where it would otherwise be impossible. They are healers, in a way that I have never seen demonstrated by anyone who speaks in the name of Jesus. And, in the presence of these doctors and their knowledge, I HAD HOPE.

Of course, many people have told me that I was in fact being tested by God, and that I failed his test. But then why did I feel that surge of hope? Why did I feel peace relying on mortal man rather than swaddled in the comforting arms of the Lord? Why did I feel nothing but despair in my prayers and nothing but optimism when I stopped kneeling before God?

Don't tell me there are no atheists in foxholes.

I've been there.

Thanks for sharing that one NormaRae.

I absolutely would not be alive without modern medicine. While I've not had serious health problems as a result of this, I was born prematurely.

My two year old granddaughter is alive today because of the open heart surgery she survives at two months. No blessing is wise just still skill skill.

I and my children would be dead. I'm always put off by people who advocate home births, etc. My twins were "transverse lie" meaning both were on their sides and my son's umbilical cord was the presenting part. I also had preeclampsia and the other thing (here I type up medical records and I can't remember the other thing that goes with preeclampsia). I would have died--my twins would be dead without modern medicine.

Problems such as yours demonstrates that the human body is not perfectly designed by an all knowing creator. Childbirth is the primary example of where walking up right has created increased risks in childbirth for humans.

And if it didn't you obviously didn't have enough faith!

NOT

Why is it that religious people trust science when they are sick, but once they are better give all the credit to God?

Modern medical science probably would have saved the 5 babies that died without needing the WoW or prayer...

As far as medical issues go, I've been rather fortunate. Broke a rib just after my folks converted to the cult. Weren't no "crack" neither. Damn thing was seperated and stickin' out my side. My folks hadn't been mormon long enough to know anything about no priesthood blessings. Almost died on the way to the clinic. It was the doc and the doc only who saved my life!

During basic training (1977), I caught something called viral syndrom, then caught the measels (again) while in intermediate care. Temperature shot up to 105, so they thought it might be time for me to go to the actual hospital. Modern military medical care - at the time still roughly ten years behind medieval medicine - managed to pull me through without the awesome power of the priesthood. Don't know how that worked!

A few years back, I got real sick while Beloved was out of town. Temp was hovering around 104 and I was actually considering suicide when it occured to me that a visit to the doctor might be a wiser course of action. Downed three of those little Aleve pills which knocked the fever out long enough for me to drive to the clinic. They also magically repaired the nagging pain from a minor shoulder injury I sustained during my football days. I don't think Aleve is blessed by priesthood holders at the source. Sorry, mormons, but I swear by them little magical pills!

Beloved had her gall bladder removed in 1999. When we were kids, that s**t would lay you up in the hospital a minimum of six weeks. Without a priesthood blessing, Beloved and I left the hospital for home in just over four hours from start to finish. Three years ago, Beloved had to have her plumbing yanked. She was in and out of the hospital within a day and a half. I axed the surgeon what women did before such surgery was available. She said they just died. I didn't bother askin' her 'bout no priesthood blessings. I did axe the surgeon if it was okay for Beloved to take Aleve. She said that would be cool!

I dunno. Maybe I'll take three Aleve the next time the mishies show. Is it too much to expect they'll just disappear like all the other nagging pains?

Timothy



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2010 11:02AM by Timothy.

LOL! You never know! The Aleve just might get rid of the missionaries, too.

Funny post.

Speaking of posts, the quality of military medical care may have varied from one post to another. I knew a guy on Fort Sill who stepped on a "dud" mortar shell, circa 1980. His legs were blown to shreds and shards, but the docs at Fort Sill somehow managed to patch them up so that he could eventually walk again.

It drives me nuts listening to people talk about the power of the priesthood when it comes to medical emergencies. When the person gets better we're supposed to marvel at the priesthood, but when they don't it's "God's will." Total BS.

I was once at my aunt's house when a friend of hers came over, completely distraught, because her granddaughter had been hit by a car that afternoon (driven by the child's father). The child was in the hospital by this point and doing OK, but would need surgery to repair broken bones in her hip. Every time my aunt asked about her condition, the friend would just say she had so much faith in the priesthood, so she knew her granddaughter would be OK. Come on now, if the priesthood was real your son maybe wouldn't have hit your granddaughter with a car. Give some credit to the medical professionals treating your granddaughter!

My youngest son and myself would surely be gone without modern medicine. He and I battled with polyhydromnia during pregnancy and the birth had to be micromanaged in the operating theatre.

First they had to drain off the excess fluid by punching a hole in my side and syphoning it off, then labour had to be accelerated as he was very distressed. I gave birth to a sickly 8lb boy who, after a month in intensive care, recovered and is now 6'2" and built like a truck.

After recovering from the birth I developed a huge blood clot in my leg which was treated with Heparin and binding. I was not allowed to move but survived a potentially fatal situation.

That's 7 lives I had left until my immune system went berserk from the shock of my husband's sudden death. They saved me again during a very dramatic night of intervention.

I did have p/hood blessings but know that it was the wonderful medical staff and our National Health Service that has kept me here. Don't believe all you hear about Social medicine - there's a lot of scaremongering out there.

Briggy

My doctor thought it was some sort of rotavirus, but we never tested to find out what it was. My son had severe vomiting and diarrhea for four days and then he started vomiting blood. He was hospitalized and put on an IV to replenish his fluids since he couldn't keep anything down. I think that saved his life.

Survivied pneumonia at age 26 thanks to penicillin

Survivied cancer 6 years ago thanks to computer-assisted technology and the wonders of modern surgery.

And was not blessed, prayed over, or otherwise helped by supernatural intervention.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2010 02:14PM by sisterexmo.

I have a huge scar to show for it, but they did it right.

And my son would be dead for sure. He had to have tonsils, adnoids and appendix removed before he made it to junior high. He also had problems with chronic strep throat and asthmatic bronchitis. I don't even want to imagine what would have happened to my children without vaccines reducing the risk of childhood illnesses too. I've had the "big three" (measles, mumps and chickenpox) and I'm still susceptible to measles in spite of having them and being vaccinated. :)

that we would receive proper, correct care. Statistics show that it doesn't always happen that way. LOTS of mistakes.

Those who believe in God believe that God has some power that they can't explain.

I don't know if the medical profession saved my life, but it has been both beneficial and not so beneficial in our family.
All depends on the skill of the doctors, etc, and their ability to listen to the patient and believe them.

Do you actually think your family is the be all and end all?

Never been exposed to anyone or anything more arrogant!

Timothy



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2010 08:23PM by Timothy.

I would definately be maggot food were it not for the advancements of modern medicine.

I am asthmatic and need ventolin daily.

No revelations about:

Vaccines of any kind at all…nope

Advances in surgery techniques…nope

Engineering discoveries as in better built anything….nope

Energy conserving discoveries….nope

Electronics technology…..nope

Water purifications and conservation technology…nope

Food/plant production technologies…..nope

The discovery of Zarahemla’s location….nope

The discovery of King Noahs harem….nope

The location of the Hill Cumorah…..kinda sorta

The cave where the wagon load of Moroni’s gold plates are…..nope

And on and on and on and on.

Boiled down the “Prophets Seers and Revelators” only repeat the same revelations over and over like a broken record.

“Do as you’re told and send in your check.”