I Try My Hand at Doctoring

I'm not a doctor, but I played one today at the Acute Rehab Center.

I got to wondering why Bettie was having the upset stomach lately, and I finally had a theory: Several years ago we both went to Dr. Jonathan Wright's Tahoma Clinic and both of us were tested for low stomach acid.

As we age, our bodies tend to produce less of the the stuff we need, so logic would say that holds true for digestive juices too. Unfortunately, that is not what "conventional" medicine teaches. The conventional theory is that if your stomach aches, it probably has too much acid. So I think they are giving Bettie an antacid when, in fact she had too little acid already (the test we took a few years ago proved that ). We both routinely take HCL (hydrochloric acid) capsules with meals and never have stomach trouble.

Rather that preach to the doctors, I simply printed this article by Dr. Wright and gave it to the nurse at breakfast, along with a bottle of HCL capsules. By lunch Bettie was having HCL and doing better. I hope the article got to the internist who is attending to this issue. We'll see. So much for my venture into doctoring. (No, I did not charge them for my diagnosis and subsequent remedy.)

I returned to visit at 1 p.m., hoping to see her walking during her physical therapy session scheduled for that time. Alas, they changed it to 2:30, so I'll try again tomorrow.

When I arrived, she was having a nice visit with an old friend, Debbie Compton. They seemed to be having a high old time, so I didn't stay long with her. Just long enough to show her the clothes I had picked out and brought in for her. (One of the reasons I know the real Bettie is in there is because of how fussy she is about what to wear each day. Feel free to kick me if you ever hear me complaining about how long it takes her to pick out clothes again. It used to be an aggravation, now it's hope!)

My dinner-time visit turned out to not be dinner at all, but rather a pint of flavored nuclear waste ... well, whatever it is that lets them see inside during a scan. They still want to make sure everything is OK in the tummy, so one more test.

Hmm, so much for my medical credentials. (Maybe I should have charged them for my consultation.)