By Teri Cayton
The Parsons Advocate
I remember a time when we had doctors that actually knew a person by name. Yes, I said it, a doctor that knew you by name. When my sisters, brother and I were small children our doctor was a man by the name of Gow. Now Dr. Gow was a man on a mission when it came to curing an illness. He took the bull by the horns and addressed the problem immediately.
I can remember many times when mom took us to him for a sore throat or earache and his first words were, “Drop your pants and this won’t hurt a bit.” That last part about it not hurting wasn’t exactly the truth, but that shot in the butt did wonders. In two days that penicillin did its job and you were as good as new.
I don’t think doctors today even know what penicillin is. Momma Said, “As far as I am concerned, it is the one and only wonder drug, besides Vick’s Salve.” I believe doctors should take a step back from some of these super drugs of today and study the works of some mountain medicine folk.
Poultices and natural occurring medicinal plants and extracts should be examined more closely. Plain ole white sugar was used to dress wounds on the battlefield as far back as the Civil War. Polk leaves, mustard, moss, spider webs, yellow root, blood root and bark from some trees have been used to treat all sorts of wounds and ailments for years.
Doc Adams from Gun Smoke would agree with me if he was still around. I think the only reason the natural cures are being mostly ignored is because the big pharmaceutical companies would not be making any money from them. Momma Said, “Just keep pumping poison into us and we will continue to pay you big bucks.”
You see advertisements on television for this pill or that pill to cure everything from losing your hair and eyelashes to pumping up your testosterone. The scary part is when they start spewing off the side effects. Momma Said, “I think I would rather stick with the initial illness than contend with everything that could kill you from taking it in the first place.”
With that aside, I would like to take this time to say so long to a very nice doctor that is leaving the Tucker County area, Dr. Elaine Moore. She is a doctor Mom would have liked, she knew you as a person not just a chart number and she treated you likewise. She listened with a passion that is rarely seen these days in the medical profession. We wish her the best of luck and hope she someday returns to us.
