Clarck method
Wednesday my daughter had to go to an appointment with the diabetes clinic
nurse who is diabetic herself. We told her we were walking about two miles
a night with our dog (after building up to this for some years), and she was
saying she didn’t do that much exercise. I asked her about any alternative
options at Kaiser and she said she can only work with insulin (I don’t know
who makes these determinations, but I would be curious). I told her that I
have had to use do-it-yourself supplementation to keep my daughter and
myself going (although I stopped doing much with Susie while they were
scrutinizing her bloodsugars for obtaining her driver’s medical clearance as
I was afraid to interfere and have the endocrinologist not want to
cooperate). I told her I would really like to have a practitioner with the
clinical experience of hundreds of patients for feedback instead of the
do-it-yourself approach. I think I made a point although I’m not sure how
far I will get with it. Hopefully she will consider how well Susannah is
doing keeping records, etc. and compare it with other patients who just
stick with the insulin approach alone. It amuses me that there is an
alternative physician across the hall who works with chemical impairment and
does research. There were acupuncurists for pain control that were in the
building but they seem to have been moved elsewhere. Perhaps people were
asking too many questions about whether alternative services were available.
The nurse did mention a couple of diabetes websites with alternative
information (I told her that I am on listservs that volley info. back and
forth) and sort of gave me an idea we could carefully resume the
do-it-yourself approach. I took Susannah to an OMD who does CAM type
testing and it was going to be $1200 for BodyBio (Patricia Kane) testing.
We already pay Kaiser over $700 a month, so I told him I would think about
it after the driving scrutiny was over. The doctor seemed to have all the
background experience I was looking for but he seemed to be affected some by
aging, and I was hoping to start with pulse diagnosis, visual diagnosis,
etc. and maybe even some machine diagnosis and not such an expensive gamut
of tests. I wasn’t sure whether the tests would cover the scope of my
concerns. It cost $100 for the initial consultation (less than a local D.O.
who charges $350 for a 90 minute first visit. Mary J.
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