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Pastimes : Don't Ask Rambi -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Edwarda who wrote (44129)	12/28/1999 1:46:00 PM
From: E	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 71178

On Sunday night, some girlfriends and I took a friend out to a Japanese restaurant to celebrate her birthday. Tashi is Tibetan (an amazing woman who escaped Tibet by climbing over Mt. Everest in sneakers and ordinary winter clothing, and eating only snow for the last several days of the climb-- the stories she has...) and was a doctor, an abdominal surgeon, in Tibet. Here, she practices acupuncture and herbal medicine. She met the man to whom she is now married when he was one of the small group of escapees with whom she crossed "Snow Mountain." He saved her life when she fell off a precipice-- he reached out and caught her with one hand; snatched her out of the air and pulled her back onto the ledge! He's immensely strong, and has served in this country as a bodyguard to the Dalai Lama. Anyway, the point of this story is to tell -- following your mention of your neurologist -- a story that Tashi told to us over miso soup and tempura. Tashi's husband, like Tashi, practices herbal medicine. An American neurologist had recently referred to him a man who was suffering terrible pain in his neck and shoulder from a pinched nerve and accompanying muscle spasm. This patient had refused ordinary painkillers, but had told his neurologist that he would happily take something "herbal." When the patient came to see Tashi's husband, TR (I shall call him TR because Tashi and her husband are both named Tashi), TR examined the man and found that his shoulder and neck were "like rock," they were in such spasm, and he couldn't even lower his shoulder. It was pressed up against his neck. So TR expertly massaged the afflicted parts until the man could hold himself normally, and was much relieved, and then TR gave him the appropriate herbs. The man was delighted at the relief he felt as a result of the visit, and reported this to his neurologist. Who promptly called TR and told him that he should not have "put his hands on" the patient, or "touched" him, he should have referred the man to a massage therapist-- the reason being that "You are a doctor, and what you did is beneath you." Beneath you. The two Tashis were of course amazed by this, and over dinner Tashi asked (this had just happened) how it could be considered "beneath" a doctor to do what he knew would help the patient. She couldn't understand. My interpretation is of course the usual status/class/hierarchy- related one, but with a Marxist coloration. The patient (or insurance company) pays once, in TR's case, because he gives the herbs and the massage. If TR were to take the neurologist's advice, TR gets paid for the referral, the massage therapist gets paid for the massage, and the massage therapist keeps in mind TR, who sent him or her the business, and reciprocally recommends TR when the opportunity arises. Of course since the original neurologist referred to the herbalist, that would make a total of three steps, each of which generates a new bill. The two Tashis were so surprised to hear that a doctor was not to "touch" his patient to relieve pain!