When “Urgent” meets “Healthcare”: What’s a believer of natural health to do?

“Mother !@$%#!” I heard The Hubs scream after he slammed the car door.

We had just been re-installing our son’s carseat so that he could pick up The Bear after a long day of work. Feeling that I no longer needed his assistance, Hubs excitedly left the backseat of the car so he could get going, with the alacrity of a man who loves his son so much he can’t wait five seconds longer to see him.

And now he was jumping around in the middle of the driveway, clutching his hand to his waist, and cursing in rage as men tend to do under stress. (Is it the extra testosterone that kicks in or something? Why do guys get so ANGRY when they’re hurt?) I allowed him to calm a bit, then asked, “Is it broken?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to look.”

I took a glance at the injury and saw a bit of mangled skin and a lot of blood. I said the number one thing you SHOULDN’T say to someone who is injured, “EEEEEsh! Yeah. It’s bad.” So, we went inside, iced the finger, made him elevate it, and went to the drugstore for some first aid supplies. (I mentioned a few posts ago that I never go to the drugstore any more–no need. Well, here was my need.)

Four hours later, Hubs’ pain was increasing, so we decided to go to the ER to see if the nail needed to be cauterised to release some pressure that was building under it. Plus, we still weren’t sure if the finger was broken, and, I guess it would be nice to know that. At the very least, they could properly clean and dress the wound since my Hubs wasn’t trusting my high-school-soccer-coach gauzing and taping skillz.

One hundred twenty-five dollars, three hours, two x-rays, two prescriptions, and one tetanus shot later, Hubs was wrapped up and popping Tylenol with codeine for his “crush injury.” Quick and easy. I couldn’t help but balk, though, at the fact that we (or at least I) try to approach health holistically and here we were at the polar opposite of holistic health: the local hospital.

Obviously, I’m a huge proponent of eating healthy to avoid ending up in a hospital for major illnesses, but what choice does one have in an urgent care situation?

After the fact, I looked into homeopathy in emergency care and found that Hypericum is a great remedy for nerve injuries, particularly those to fingers and toes. But I’m no homeopathic doc, we don’t have anyone like that in our area, and Hubs was in a great amount of pain. (I would like to note here that it was tremendously hard for me not to compare his pain to the pain of natural childbirth. Granted, contractions aren’t constant and they serve a purpose, versus throbbing digital pain but… What happened to all that rage-inducing testosterone? I digress.) Not to mention, Hubs works with a lot of people throughout the day and much of his job involves typing. It’s pretty hard to do either when you’re focused on your middle finger. (Well, at least focused on middle-finger PAIN. You might be focused on elevating your middle finger for other reasons…) Should we have given the natural remedies a try? I knew, as I have known in many cases of my son’s or Hub’s pain, that he would have been okay. He could have done some breathing exercises to get through the pain. He could have taken some herbal or homeopathic remedies to ease the pressure and swelling and deal with the discomfort. He could have trusted my wrap-job on the injury and left it alone.

He got the predictable medical treatment at the hospital: x-ray, talk from the doc, tetanus shot, wrapping (no cleaning!) of the wound, prescriptions for pain meds and an antibiotic. Read: radiation exposure, injection, basic wound care, liver-clogging med, bacteria-killing med. With the dangers associated with all but one of these treatments, I feel as though I should have insisted that he try alternative therapies, but time was of the essence. I’m frustrated that I live in a culture where TIME and MONEY dictate how HEALTH and CARE are administered. Another finding in my after-the-fact research included Holistic Nursing: A Handbook for Practice. I started reading the book (yes, I am the research nerd who will get lost for hours in journals and publications) and thought, “My god. This is how HEALTHCARE should be!” Chapters like “Holistic Self-Care,” which explained the importance of understanding ONESELF before assessing others, and “Holistic Caring Process,” which was a kinder way of saying “treatment” gave me that wholesome glow I get when I read something that just makes good sense.

As with unprocessed food, have we, as a country, gotten so far from the fundamentals of caring that it is impossible to perceive ever using homeopathy, herbs, acupuncture, massage, meditation, or any other number of “alternative” methods as treatment in an urgent care situation?

I’ve asked a number of rhetorical questions in this post but feel free to respond to them. It’s a constant struggle for me to react in a way I know best when I’m confronted with a larger society that would have me believe otherwise.

If you are an herbalist, versed in homeopathy or are an alternative care provider, how would you have responded in this situation?

If you’ve never considered alternative treatments for any medical issue, why not?

Dossey, Barbara Montgomery, Lynn Keegan, and Cathie E. Guzzetta. Holistic Nursing : A Handbook for Practice. Jones & Bartlett Learning, 2005. eBook Collection (EBSCOhost). EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.

Rupert, Becky. “Homeopathy for homesteaders.” Countryside & Small Stock Journal 88.5 (2004): 98. MasterFILE Premier. EBSCO. Web. 11 Oct. 2011.

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