I've been thinking a lot about the limitations of medicine, ever since I broke my wrist last week.  It was a chicken related injury; I was towing my chicken pen across the yard, and the tow rope broke.  I stupidly did not have a leg out behind me, and I fell straight back and caught myself on my wrist. 

I broke my scaphoid bone, which is one of those tiny bones inside your wrist.  It turns out that breaks of the scaphoid bone are very common.  This seems very unfair, because there are so many little tiny bones inside your wrist, and do we really need all of them?  But it turns out that even the little tiny bones can hurt an awful lot.

I finally was convinced to go to a medical clinic, where they gave me an xray and found that the pieces had fit themselves back together correctly.  The prescription therefore was to keep wearing the wrist brace that I already had, and wait.  It ought to heal itself back together without any problems, but if it doesn't, they can put in a pin, or I can get a bone graft from my butt to make a new one.

I was pretty sure that this is what they were going to tell me, which is why I dragged my feet about going in.  Unfortunately, they don't have a magic shot for fixing bones.  Even Big Pharma doesn't have a shiny new medicine that will fix a broken bone.  In the case of a broken bone, the solution is to put the pieces back together as best you can, and wait for the body to heal itself.

We tend to think that the doctor can fix everything.  It's a little heartbreaking to realize that you fall outside the scope of what medicine can do for you.  In some cases, non western medicine can be helpful.  I occasionally get attacks of hives, and the only thing that can fix it is an acupuncturist.  I went to many dermatologists and specialists in the early years, and the only advice they ever gave me was "here, try this cortisone cream." 

It's one thing to seek alternate solutions when you're covered with hives.  But desperation will drive us to many lengths, and the snake oil salesmen know it.  Diseases like fibromyalgia, diabetes, autism, and chronic pain disorders, where western medicine can help the symptoms but not effect a cure, are classic targets for this kind of thing.  Hives and broken bones will eventually cure themselves on their own, but chronic debilitating diseases are a prison from which there is no escape.

I spend a lot of time trying to get the word out about these quacks: the peddlers of colloidal silver, the sellers of ionic treatments, the spas with magic healing baths.  I understand why people want to put their faith in such things, and what drives them to such crazy lengths.  But the truth is, sometimes there's nothing that anyone can do.  One of the best ways to gauge whether or not this is the case is to look at how much you are being charged for the supposed cure.  It's a hard truth, but the more someone is charging, the less likely it is that the fix is valid.