Photoessay #520 - My team

I'm really sold on naturopathic care. Today I feature my current team Dr. A and Dr. G. I find that a nautropathic approach suits me well. Here, in Seattle, we benefit from the presence of Bastyr University and Clinic. Many graduates practice in the area and have a great network going. So you can always find a good doc. Also, in our community and state, NDs can do almost everything that an MD can do as far as treatments and prescribing meds. The western medicine clinics also respect the local NDs. You can specify your primary doc as a naturopath or Bastyr clinics with confidence to the local conventional clinics, labs and hospitals.

You get all of the conventional wisdom plus alternative techniques in a much more personal setting. Myself, I have found that cranio-sacral therapy is an excellent way to control the pain symptoms of my upper back condition. I know that western medicine doesn't have much to offer except ainkillers (hey, I like narcotics as much as the next person) and maybe some steroid courses or injections. Right now, I'm getting very comprehensive care for a spell of hypertension. I had labs done at a local hospital and Dr. A, my main caregiver, takes the results very seriously as we try to get this under control. Dr. G has provided some acupuncture needling behind my ears which has brought my bp down 20 to 30 points in 15 minutes. Naturopaths take much more time with their patients; so important for everybody especially middle aged women who are largely invisible.

Dr. A is much taken with what she calls my 'party trick'. My blood pressure marks highly correlates with by basal temperature. Low basal temperature; low blood pressure. I get my basal temperature and I can predict my blood pressure. Nothing in the literature to support this. But she takes great care of me and, I've found, if I do cranio-sacral therapy every two weeks, I'm largely pain free. Repeatedly, if I go three weeks between treatments, I'm in trouble.

But I like both of them; it's a relaxing experience. And they've moved to a new very convenient location.

Dr. A says she takes a lousy picture and this one, the best of the batch I took this afternoon, doesn't do her justice. I'm thinking that NDs prefer shallow rectanglular glasses....