Thursday, September 30, 2010

Trip to the old country

A good friend of the family experienced what I consider major health issues, after being informed she has improved significantly thanks to an Amish doctor in KY....I had to learn more. Why would anyone drive hours to an area that not even mapquest can locate. Seriously, I used mapquest and well, I'll get to that later.

Inquiring minds want to know...or at least I wanted to know more. Again, my mind is open to everything, including alternative medicine and treatment. First off, one must write for an appointment and wait a confirmation via snail mail as the Amish community is far from any AT&T connections; no phones, no electricity.

My appt. for one Friday afternoon at 2 pm was confirmed and I alerted everyone I knew experiencing various health issues to ask if they wanted to join me on this trek to HestandKY. Two accepted, a dear friend and my mom. I grabbed my mapquest directions, bottle of water and we were off. I even left a little early JUST IN CASE we experienced traffic delay or perhaps took a wrong turn. Thanks to mapquest directions, every turn was WRONG.

After many stops at local gas stations, stores, truck drivers...whomever I could find to ask directions, I finally found a police station populated with two very nice women who put us on the right path. I don't recall the town...could have been Mayberry, as we were traveling for a good 5 1/2 hours across East TN and KY. If I were to gather almost everyone I asked for help in locating the small town of Hestand, collectively we would have one full set of teeth.

See, we decided at the police station to continue the journey and find this community...just to say we MADE IT and check it out. After all, we had been on the road for 5 1/2 hours in a pick up and wanted to accomplish something other than bugging up my clean grill and emptying a full tank of gas.

We were getting so close. Considering we were 3 hours past my confirmed appointment, stopped in route by a fella who shot a rattle snake and kindly brought it to our truck for a really good visual....we ARRIVED!

We got out of the truck and realized there were two clerks still inside the small white clinic building. They kindly asked us if they could help us even though they had officially closed their doors for the day. I explained to them who I was, apologized for missing my appointment and was hoping to reschedule. Oh, I also mentioned the family friend's name to which the clerks knew of her and suggested we go to the doctor's home and ask him to see us.

None of us wanted to impose, nor would we ever have expected that kind gesture, but after all that driving, we really wanted to see this mystery doctor who could diagnose one just by peering into the eyes. And he did just that! Upon arriving to his home, he listened and read all the directions I had accumulated from the trip and welcomed us inside.

I went first, even though I felt like I was the one with least amount of issues. How can I compare to my friend that suffers from painful migraines or my mother who has heart disease, bone spurs, the list goes on. But they insisted, and so be it, I went first for him to only ask me a few questions while peering through an instrument, looking into my eyes. I believe his specialty is considered iridology, or iridologist. He nailed all that was going on with me, or should i say re-confirmed my symptoms and prescribed me a long list of herbal remedies.

My friend and mom went next. Come to find out, the doctor quickly suggested to my friend that her wisdom teeth needed to be removed and that was the cause of her migraines and facial pain. Mom wasn't so easy. He quickly glanced in her eye to recognize plaque was in her blood, her digestion was in need of repair and simply put the food she was consuming wasn't being properly digested and her body is not absorbing the nutrients in the foods that she eats. Her list was quite lengthy, but she only pursued an herbal remedy for her bone spurs.

We left the doctor's community and returned to the clinic where two clerks awaited for us to fill our prescriptions. We all agreed this community was nestled in what we consider "old country"; beautiful land traveled by horse & buggy and free roaming farm animals.

I purchased lots of herbal liquids, all natural and NASTY in flavor. It took me a good two weeks to overcome the resistance in chugging 1oz of 5 different natural liquids 3x day. In addition to shooting the herbal shots, I pop several herbal pills, too. But, it's worth a shot...right? I mean, why only go half way in life?
Eye Chart