My book

As I have said before, I am thinking of writing a book.  I thought I would share with you my introduction (first draft) and see what you think. Did you like it?  Was it interesting?  Would you buy it?  Let me know.  Stay well:)

Introduction

Have you ever been sick?  Have you ever had no idea where to get help? It can be a huge puzzle and when you are sick finding the right answers and the right direction in which to head can be a huge and daunting task.

So, what is the right answer?  And how do you find it.  Well, the answer depends on what is wrong and also differs from person to person.  This book takes a holistic look at the health care system and what you can do as a patient to make sure you get the right answers and the care you deserve that matches your needs and requirements.

Whether you are young and healthy and never been sick a day in your life but worried about what to do if you ever did, or you are older with some minor ailments or you have a live threatening condition you can find what you need to learn.

The medical world can feel like a minefield.  The human body is extremely complicated and even the smartest of doctors cannot understand everything.  Far from it, in fact.  So how is someone with no experience in medicine supposed to figure it out?  Well, the answer is actually much more simple than you think.  A little bit of time, following the guidelines in this book and using a few techniques or tricks if you will you can make sure you get the right care and best possible outcome for you.

And why do I say for you?  Well everyone is different and what maybe the right treatment option for one person may not be right for you.  We are all different and there are many factors that may influence the healthcare option that is best for you.  And there is only one person who can make those decisions.  You.  You know you best and you are the best person to make the choices that are right for you.

The other part of this book will be how you can make sure that you treatment option is executed as well as possible.  We always hear on the news or current affairs shows about medical malpractice or where things have gone wrong and the onus is always on the healthcare system or hospitals to make sure that it does not happen again.  Well how is this for an idea?  As the patient can use techniques and put in measures to make sure it doesn’t happen to you.  After all, it is your body, your health and your life.  Don’t you owe it to yourself to make sure everything goes smoothly?

So why am I writing this?  I have friends that have needed to have medical treatment or surgery from time to time and they have asked me for advice.  I am happy to talk to anyone about what I have learnt and any advice I can share that will help can only be a good thing.  However, others seem to think that I may be a little offended by the line of questions.  Nothing could be further from the truth, but I figured that if I put what I have learnt in a book it would achieve two things.  First, people would be able to share in my knowledge without risking offending me and if I had a formal communication of what I have learnt, people would be more receptive to asking me directly.

I also found that nobody had written a book like this.  I thought about finding a book that I could recommend to friends and fellow patients to help them achieve the best possible outcome from any medical intervention.   And, I couldn’t find one, so I thought I’d write one.  This would definitely mean that I would be able to 100% back the book I would recommend.  Now there are plenty of books out there to help people that have suffered bad health, but they all seem to assume the diagnosis has been confirmed.  For example, ‘how to survive cancer’ or ‘the key to losing weight’.  Now these books can be great if you know your diagnosis, but one of the most worrying times is when you do not know your diagnosis.  How do you find the right answer and how do you know you have found the right answer.  This book will help you find those answers.

Time for some fun

Mostly, my blog has recently been biographical in nature, so I was thinking it was time to do something a little fun.  I have not been talking much about medical news and advancements but I was inspired a couple of weeks ago by a show I watched on television called "The Prophets of Science Fiction".  It peeked my interest as it basically followed the work of some very prominent science fiction writers.  Isaac Asimov and his literature on robots, Arthur C Clark talking about the space elevator and Robert Heinlein and his theories on the internet.

So how did it inspire me?  Well in keeping with the subject matter of my blog I thought I'd have a go at propheteering some advancements in the field of medicine.  After all, through my own health problems and doing research for this blog I have found that ideas swimming around in my head about what one day might be possible.

I also think it is important for people to use their imagination.  As Albert Einstein said "Imagination is more important than knowledge".  I also disagree with necessity being the mother of invention.  It is sometimes true but not always.  When the Wright brothers built the first aeroplane the didn't do it out of necessity they did it because they wanted to.  Seriously there was not much practical application for that plane made out of plywood and old motorcycle parts but they built it anyway and now it is one of the most famous machines ever built.

So if we do not proceed we do not move forward and even the most outlandish ideas may sometime become fact.  I mean some people said man would never fly, we would never break the sound barrier, we will never make it into space, it is impossible to fly to the moon.  Need I say more?

I think that probably the best example we have working at the moment is the space elevator.  Arthur C Clark prophesied this contraption which basically consists of a 100,000km rope anchored to the ground and used to lift cargo into space.  The rope is kept taught and upright by the centrifugal force created by the rotation of the earth.  Now will it ever be built?  Personally I think so.  Arthur C Clarke was once asked the same question and he said it would be built 50 years after everyone stops laughing.  Well I think the scientific community has stopped laughing.  The science is sound and there are people out there conceptualising how it would work.  So fifty years from now I hope I am around to see it.

Anyway I thought that I, Andrew Price in my supreme clairvoyant wisdom would throw this prophetic exercise upon the science of medicine and see where it takes me.  I have some ideas and I hope to develop them.  But medicine needs to challenge its advancement as does all science.  An incurable disease in only incurable until someone has figured out a way to cure it.  And if we get stuck with traditional thinking we will have our heads buried so deeply in the sand that we will fail to see any advancement.

A good example is with heart stem cells.  Conventional thinking is that it is impossible to grow new heart muscle.  Well, it has been done yet there are still experts who refuse to acknowledge the breakthrough.  And sure, it is only in trial stages but if I had a cardiac problem I would be busting a gut to get in on the trial.  Click here to see what I wrote about earlier.

So from time to time, in among the updates etc I will post my premonitions.  Alas, I am not a fortune teller, I will be relying on science and logical progression to point me in the right direction.  Until next time, stay well:)

More Running

Stay well:)

Vlog

Choices

I was reading on Facebook recently about a person that was considering the same procedure (HSCT) I did.  However, where as I was fully supported in this decision by my close family and friends, this person in question was not supported.

Now it wouldn't take a rocket scientist to figure out which side of the fence I sit on.  Family support with something like this is critical.  If you do not have it, it simply adds another stress to what is already a remarkably stressful time.  I believe that a negative reaction is own from ignorance.

Don't get me wrong, I do believe that family members do want the best for their loved ones, but they hear words like "stem cell transplant", "experimental" or "medical trial" and they instantly think the worst.  Now there is a risk with the procedure.  But, normally there is a risk with anything.  Driving a car, catching a plane, people have even died going to the toilet.  But that is really irrelevant and not the point I am trying to make.

Or is it?  You can't not go to the toilet, it is something that has to be done.  Now this choice, the one I made has one more variable and it is only a little bit more complicated than to have or not to have it.  The choice is to risk a dangerous procedure in an attempt to reverse the devastating effects of a crippling disease or attempt to live with the disease and the risks of all the conventional treatments that go with it.

Wow, when you look at it like that the scales look a lot more balanced.  I think that some people look at it like a game of chicken where the worst that can happen is you end up dead and the best result is to carry on as normal.  In this case there is risk associated with both choices, but one at the very least carries the benefit of potentially reversing the progress of your disease.

So next time you know someone that you believe is making a needless and risky decision.  Take a second to think about it and do a little research.  Your opinion cannot be ignored if it is educated and informed.  And maybe, you might just think a little differently about it.  Until next time, stay well:)