Herbs

Back we go to the herbalist. I've been on a break from his care for a few months now, a combination of "I didn't feel like I needed that kind of support, but it's time now," qi-gong practitioner recommending a hiatus, and running out of money because I was spending it on other health-care providers. Of course insurance won't pay for it; after all, it is effective, it does give me symptom relief, and it has no side effects, why would my "insurers" want to support anything like that?

Yesterday, I complained to him that my legs were cold. I started my herbs yesterday after dinner.

Last night, for the first time in months, I didn't need to put a heating pad on my legs. They were actually... a little ... warm.

Yeah. Stuff that does that is definitely not worth my insurer paying for. Tysabri, something that needs to be injected and will probably turn my brain into jelly and/or kill me, they'll probably pay at least something for. This... nope. Sorry.

Then again, I can't imagine trying to find a charge code for my herbalist's diagnosis: Too much Liver Fire, scorching the lobes of the Lungs, caused by insufficient Kidney Water to keep the Liver Fire under control. Qi gong guys says he's right, that's my problem.

Herbalist and qi gong guy, with their "funny" explanations--they give me symptom relief. My five-element acupuncturist gives me quality of life. The West... they got nothin'. Nothin' for me, at least... if you're getting help from your Western meds, dear reader, then you're one of the lucky ones.

An interesting system, no? Insurers will pay for stuff that maybe does good... but then again, maybe doesn't, there's really no way of knowing whether it did or didn't do you any good... but it will, 100% of the time, reduce your quality of life, at least part of the time. But they won't pay for stuff that definitely does good, and that 100% of the time improves my quality of life.

I'm having a hard enough time coming to true acceptance of my MS. Procedural idiocy and malignant stinginess from people that I'm already paying quite handsomely to assist with my health care... my plate was already full enough, thank you very much, without adding extra elements that require both acceptance and forgiveness.

Well, the good news is, I've got great care from great physicians, which I can still (sort of) pay for. And, except when I'm in the block-induced doldrums, I'm not really "suffering" from MS as much as I might be absent their care and friendship.

So, on balance...I'd have to say, it really is a merry Christmas, isn't it?