One morning, several years ago, Mr Happy went to put on his shoes, but got ‘stuck’ with excruciating back pain. He had to lay on the ground, cancel work, and call a friend to take him to the doctor. He was completely disabled. But when he painfully limped into our doctor’s office and explained his symptoms, the doctor just shrugged and said,
“This is normal now that you’re getting older. Take some Nurofen and you’ll be fine.”

Mr Happy was only 27 then – hardly ‘getting older’! So we went to our chiropractor for a second opinion. He ordered a scan, which showed a severely bulging disc that was pressing on the nerve.

At the time, Mr Happy was fit and healthy, and so had had little experience with the medical world. He was stunned that a doctor could be so dismissive, so uninterested in finding out what is wrong, and fixing it. After all, isn’t that the purpose of a doctor? Continue reading “Out of the mouths of doctors” →