There's always hope

[donq]

I've just got an email from a dear friend telling me she broke her foot last week (she lives abroad). First, she had no idea what had happened. She didn't feel so much pain at the time, but her face was soaked with sweat, she could not breathe or speak. She finally suspected she might get a heart attach, so she called 911. To make the long short, after the attack passed, she felt alright and went to work as usual, even though her left foot was swollen and turned so red. She went to see a doctor the day after.

My point is that she had something that is called "strong will".

I mentioned the story above because some friends warned me that people don't like to hear (when I talk/write) about sickness or dying. If I tell you something about that, I just want to tell you that there's always a way out. Yes, there's always hope. But it depends on your (strong) will.

This is because I believe that when it comes to subjective feelings (pain, etc.), medical science doesn't always know the answers. Not to mention the placebo effect (getting better without any scientific reasons) and the nocebo effect (getting worse without any scientific reasons). Or another example, one of my friends (very long time ago, when I was a young man) could drink a dozen beers at once without getting drunk at all, (while I felt like I already got drunk just sitting next to him and smelling all of that without drinking it at all).

Why are we that different?

I read somewhere that, "Medical researchers have long known that people respond differently to the same drugs - or diseases. Not only is each person different, but no single person remains exactly the same from one moment to the next. Bodily processes fluctuate in time with internal rhythms or cycles, which again bear the inevitable mark of individuality."

So, it seems there's no logic/explanation for subjective feelings. While something can make someone getting sick (for example, those with allergies), that doesn't mean it always makes others getting sick the same way.
Let me quote some ancient medical book here.

Huang Di (the yellow emperor) said, "In ancient times, diseases were cured by prayers alone . . . , but nowadays, physicians treat disease with herbs . . . and acupuncture . . . and the disease is sometimes cured and sometimes not cured. Why?"

Qi Bo (the royal doctor) answered, the ancient people lived... with neither internal burden of wishes and envies nor external burden of chasing after fame and profit, it was a life of tranquility which made them immune from the deep intrusion of vicious energies... Nowadays... they worry a great deal, they work too hard, they fail to follow the climates... they have lowered their moral standards, with the result that they are under the attack of vicious energies frequently... and when the patient’s spirits are not positive, and when their will and sentiments are not stable, the disease cannot recover.”

-from The Yellow Emperor's Inner Classic (Huangdi Neijing), around 111-282 CE.

[gruntal]

I live with one who is an empath. Sometimes she drives me crazy because I am a techie and love going " going by the book " and she relies more her feelings. It would seem it is possible to suck a disease from another at the cost of making yourself sick in the process. I would not have thought that possible until lately.

[donq]

Hi George,

A short message here.

I might be an empath once. While I still was in ICU and my endotracheal tubes was removed, but my doctors had to come from time to time to shorten my...what to call in English?...four sucking pus tubes that piercing through my stomach, I could start to speak. That time I was already a few years on my (serious) spiritual journey, so I spoke a lot about spirituality, to anyone. However, after I told my nurses that I saw many atoms floating around on ICU room, they fetched me a shrink. She was an older woman and seemed to be a very good listener. Still, I knew somehow she didn't agree with what I said. She was just too polite.