I had a chat with one of my clients/friends this week about someone who had been advised to try a herbal Pain remedy. She asked me about it and my thoughts on the subject. The thing was that the person in pain had recently undergone a complicated 'plating and pinning' operation on a broken wrist. Now, three days later, she was still in a lot of pain and wondered whether adding another pain killer would be a good thing.

As it happened, the herb in question was not advised to be taken unless under professional supervision, but could be applied as a cream to help bruising etc. In this situation the cream idea could not be used either as the operation involved healing wounds and stitches, not to mention an external splint.

The conclusion was that the lady in question should get back to her surgeon/doctor for a progress check-up and a request for appropriate conventional analgesics.

My reaon for telling you this story is to point out where conventional medicine has the last word. I spend a lot of my time writing about the deficiencies of conventional medicine - the life long drug taking, the blinkered attitudes, the box-ticking doctors uncaring of their patients and so on.

But when it comes to medical emergencies - the heart attack, stroke and accident - conventional medicine wins most of the time. The techniques of such crises are second to none and simply don't exist in the alternative world. You can't beat how surgeons and consultants deal with the physical traumas involved in everyday accidents and organ failures.

So it is with the lady's wrist. The operation to stabilise and fix a broken wrist must have been traumatic and painful. (My toes are curling at the very thought.) I can well understand her worry that the extreme pain was not subsiding as quickly as she hoped. But, given some effective pain killing drugs for a few days, I'm sure she will recover fairly quickly.

Alternative therapies will come to the fore once she has got over the initial stresses of the operation. After the acute pain of the procedure and its aftermath, and when it all settles down, she will have time to consider her position more carefully.

Then some of the many alternative therapies, either alone or in combination, may well have something to offer. For instance, a pain killing remedy from the herbal range, or a homepathic remedy could help. An appropriate Flower remedy migh be useful. Acupuncture could help wipe out the last of the pain and some massage may restore movement to the affected joint.

I know that this may not be what the patient wants to hear - she only wants rid of the pain. But I can't offer her anything else right now. A few days wll surely make all the difference, although they will seem like an eternity to her.

After that, however, it is possible that conventional medicine will pass on to the next patient, leaving her behind to cope with the aftermath. That's when alternatives come into their own.

What I try to show is that you need to consider what's best for you at the time. convention may be ideal in some situations while alternative hold sway at other times. But whatever place you find yourself take an overview before choosing.

Always keep your options open!

Wishing you the best of health.

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