To the Editor:
Does our medical system need fixing?
At age 13 months, the head of a wood tick buried itself under the bone of my right ear. It was 30 miles by horse and buggy to see a doctor. I didn’t see one.
At age six, I was taken to the hospital with a splinter arm break. The doctor told me that his method of setting the bone would be medical history.
At 15, I had a sore throat and was given a tonsillectomy. As far back as I can remember, I have had earaches, headaches, gum abscesses, noise and ringing in the ears, sinus and throat pain, singularly or in combination.
Most doctors that I saw said my symptoms were a virus and nothing could be done to help me. A few doctors gave me antibiotics, which relieved the pain and lessened the noise for a while.
The infection travelled to the roots of my teeth and decayed them. Fillings and caps fell out. I swallowed most of them while eating. The infections have caused the loss of most of my ability to hear. At age 40, doctors’ diagnosis of the virus changed to “change of life”.
Time alone cannot always heal. I am now a senior and look back at a lifetime of not being able to eat or drink anything cold because it caused too much pain. I was not able to participate in sports that required balance, either.
I cope as well as I can and dream of how nice it would be if there were tests for Lyme disease (which is caused by some ticks) and I could be free of infection.
Is our medical system kaput? Was it ever any better?
Martha Likakur
Kingsgate