Preview to this Blog

We are getting ready to head out Saturday to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. My wife, Heidi was diagnosed with "Probable ALS" also known as Lou Gehrig's disease almost two years ago (in April of 2007) and although we have tried many many options, nothing has really worked to stem the progression of this awful disease.

I have heard many things about the Mayo Clinic. Several of our Dr's have said "If it were my family, I would go there and see them." One of my Dr. buddies called it "Mecca", so I have adopted that as sort of a theme for this blog, hence the name. By all accounts, they have a different way of practicing medicine, and since, as patients, we have seen how MD's, Homeopaths, Naturopaths and others "practice" I will be able to compare their approach to some of the others.

Generally, I have found MD's to be a fairly paranoid bunch. With the exception of a few, the Doctors we have seen will not think outside the box, will not consider anything that is not in their "specific area of expertise", will not share their opinions with others. This is most likely the product ouf our litigeous society and they are merely protecting themselves from a potential lawsuit. There are those willing to live and work on the fringe...maybe they aren't MD's, but they are practicing medicine all the same (even if the drugs they "recommend" are supplements or whatever.) These practitioners need to beware not only of potential lawsuits, but also what I've dubbed "Black Suits," which would be FDA or some other "official" that would find them, censure them, take away any license that they have and hang them out to dry in any way that they can.

There are so many things we have tried, so many difficulties we have come up against in the trying that I could write all day. Maybe I will document those trials and tribulations in this blog, at this point I don't know. For now, my plan is to chronical our trip to "medical mecca" and leave it at that.

As a caregiver, I do need an outlet, so don't be surprised if I go on a rant or 10 about some of the stuff we have gone through. Some of it good, some of it bad, some of it weird. We'll just have to see how it goes.
Peace,
Bill