Tuesday, May 07, 2013

My Latest Visit to Steveston

My Latest Visit to Steveston to See my Lyme Doctor

Any time your doctor prescribes coffee as an effective medicine and tells you more is better should be considered a good day!

Yesterday, I went to Steveston (Richmond, BC, has absorbed this quaint and beautiful cannery town, now a museum of the dying BC fishing industry).  It was my monthly trek to see the only doctor in BC that I know of who is actively treating Lyme disease.

Steveston, BC
My doctor is a Naturopathic Doctor, or ND, who has been university trained in more than one health discipline, and has passed the test that allows him to prescribe antibiotics, something that other provinces have talked about, but have not yet implemented.

The problem is that Naturopathy has some built-in problems of its own that can make it a bit of a mine field for folks like myself who can't get treatment in the regular medical system, due to the heads up their posterior, willfully ignorant, arrogant, elitist Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons in virtually every region in Canada, the USA and Europe, with the possible exception of Germany, who completely and vehemently deny most modern science relating to Lyme disease.

Many NDs claim to be able to treat Lyme disease, but when you visit them, a few quick questions will usually show that you've gone to the wrong doctor.  More and more NDs are licensed to prescribe antibiotics, but very few know anything about Lyme disease, and they will not provide the treatment needed.

In my quest for a Lyme Literate ND (LLND), I ran a gauntlet of some pretty strange folks (in my opinion) who were all very nice, but knew practically nothing about Lyme disease, and who often were dipping pretty deeply into the pond of Metaphysics...

Furthermore, many NDs visit Lyme disease seminars, which are very short and give an opportunity for them to meet with the speakers.  They are very quick to give their cards to these speakers and say they are licensed to treat with antibiotics, but the reality is that they are simply trolling for patients and have no intention of really learning anything about Lyme disease.  Many of them have already pretty much made their minds up about what works for everybody in a "one-size-fits-all" mentality that is almost as bad as the denial of the mainstream medical profession.

Unfortunately, you and I have to do our own due diligence when we are referred, because these poor, overworked speakers at these seminars simply cannot.  They share the names of the NDs with those looking for treatment, but they know very little about the doctors.  You can't assume you will get proper treatment simply because a Lyme expert has given you a name.  You have to research every one separately and ask a lot of questions.

Thanks very much to Dr. Murakami, who answered my call about the ND I am now seeing and gave me his approval of him, I now have a good ND.  And to top it off, he prescribes coffee as part of the treatment!  (Before you snort in derision, find out why!  Lyme sufferers, such as myself, have HUGE and DEBILITATING energy problems, and it's very difficult to overcome them.  Suffice to say, the coffee is only part of the regimen, and requires a number of other things to work.)

But did I mention?  I have to drink lots of coffee!  Now THAT is a prescription I won't be ranting about!




Friday, February 01, 2013

New Lyme Culture Test Causes Major Denial

New Lyme Culture Test Causes Major Denial

As usual, the standard denials and misinformation regarding the reality of there being far more treatable people infected with Lyme disease is being spread by the mainstream medical community.

ticks spread Lyme disease
While they pretend to show empathy, stating that such tests must not be used until proven (by their standards) to be valid, because they may cause patients to miss out on having a correct diagnosis, many, many patients, like me, ARE SIMPLY GIVEN UP ON by mainstream medicine.

I was ABSOLUTELY STUNNED when my doctor admitted to me that they were giving up and would not be doing any further diagnostic work.  The bottom line was, none of the doctors or specialists knew what was wrong with me, nor how to go about treating me other than pumping me full of pain medication, but rather than look seriously at any of what they claim is unproven and/or bogus diagnostic methods, they simply gave up.

WOW!!  If you give up in ANY OTHER PROFESSION, YOU ARE FIRED!!  But not doctors.  Does this inspire trust?  Not from me, any longer...  The greatest danger to health is not people going for untested and unproven medical help;  the greatest danger is those, including the various Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons, who are FORCING very sick people to look elsewhere for help.

The following article regarding a new Lyme Culture Test, published today on PubMed, is typical of what is going on:

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/778482?src=wnl_edit_medn_wir&spon=34


Tuesday, January 08, 2013

A Capital Ship for an Oily... er... Ocean Trip...

A Capital Ship for an Oily... er... Ocean Trip...

Oil Tanker

So, it is probably inevitable that a pipeline will be built from Alberta's oil sands to the BC coast to carry liquified bitumen from Alberta's frozen north to Asia's sunny shores...

Let's just take a tour of this project on the last part of its route through BC, especially if the present players build the line...
Place:  British Columbia, Canada, circa 2020...
We begin somewhere west of Hazelton, BC, along the banks of the Skeena River.


Note that the pesky odour of fish is no longer there to drive tourists away.  Instead, we now have the pleasant fragrance of diesel on warm summer's days, the gorgeous rainbow colours spread across the surface of this mighty river, the occasional dead eagle floating past....

As you progress downriver toward Terrace, you notice the shiny black logs sitting on the shore, and what looks like a shiny black ribbon gently rising and falling along the shore as the river slides by.
Skeena River

Should you continue past Terrace toward Prince Rupert, you will notice the increasingly strong diesel smell (the smell of money), and may notice more and more wildlife at the shore... decomposing... much easier to photograph...

But, rather than going to Prince Rupert, take a left turn back at the Thornhill intersection and head toward Kitimat, where the pipeline empties into the facility that will load it onto ships bound for Asia.  Isn't this exciting??

At the head of the Douglas Channel, seagulls no longer create so much noise... in fact, where are the seagulls?  Come to think of it, where are the seals, terns, sea lions, ducks, herons... look down into the water... where are the herring?  Come to think of it, how come you can't see down into the water?  Oh, well...

Let's continue the tour aboard one of these fancy "new" supertankers up the channel toward the open Pacific Ocean.  Note the pristine shoreline and wide open waters of the channel... say... what's that up ahead?  What's that island doing there?  Enbridge's famous video (2020: now removed) says there aren't any islands, so it must be true, right?

Whoa... then why is that island right there?  Their video shows a TANKER right there... imagine what would happen if a tanker WAS there...

But really, what is one island in this wide open Douglas Channel... Say, the map on the Sierra Club's page (2020: now mysteriously removed) couldn't really be more accurate, could it?  I mean... after all... those guys are extremists... right?

But look over there... ANOTHER island... this is beginning to look like the charts published in this pesky rag might be the real charts, after all!!

Ok, ok... so the video posted on Vimeo with the disclaimer, *This is not an Enbridge video, is a bit more accurate depiction of the route so far...  But hey... that's just an inconvenient truth, right Mr. Gore?  Once we get out of this rotten, narrow, island choked, vertical sloped (wow! just LOOK at the HEIGHT of those mountains!!) channel, we'll hit the open sea and...

Oops.  Why are we turning so hard to port, suddenly?  Who put that mountain range, there?  Why, we're OUT of the Douglas Channel, aren't we?  What do you mean, Inside Passage.  Isn't that where BC Ferries lost a ship???

But that was human error, right?  It couldn't happen with one of these modern supertankers, could it?  I mean, they use tugs...

Can you hear some distant singing?  Something about a rich man's world?...