Chickenpox, part 8
Homeopathic treatment of zoster - my own case
Context - I was in my first practice out of my family practice residency, chronically sleep deprived over the previous 4 years, working in a community health center in Bethel, Maine, 30 miles from each of 3 small hospitals and the nearest other physicians. My boys were 1 & 2 years old, & I was struggling to balance the demands of rural practice, which included a local ski area, a nationally attended outdoor adventure program, a boarding school for wealthy New England teens, attending home & hospital births, and the demands of a staff & community board of directors with little appreciation of the demands of medical practice, trying to balance all with my family life. My brother (in Wisconsin), who was a survivor of the Kent State massacre & “solved” his PTSD & survivor’s guilt with vodka, was drinking his way through his 3rd inpatient rehab program, & calling me every night to ask how to deal with the ninja cat assassins that were plotting to kill him in his sleep. On the Holmes and Rahe schedule of recent events (Social Readjustment Rating Scale), I scored 342, with additional prominent stressors not identifiable on the instrument, implying a greater than 80% probability of a “major health breakdown” within 2 years. Janice Kiecolt-Glaser demonstrated that white blood cells in blood samples drawn from medical students in the week of semester final exams were more readily infected by mono (Epstein-Barr) virus than those from samples drawn remote from exams; the medical student who graduates last in their class is called doctor. I was headed for a train wreck, only cushioned by my 15 years of zen practice & by living in one of the most beautiful parts of the world.
