I once watched a mountain man (back in my mountains) get health advice from his pharmacist. Sometimes when he bent down, his knee would pop out of its socket. He hated going to doctors, so he shouted back and forth to the pharmacist to figure out what his options were. Not exactly patient confidentiality. I thought, "Go to the doctor already!"
A silly neighbour of mine found a little lump on her breast and went to have a biopsy done. The anxiety over the next week as she waited for her results, nearly killed her. She told me she found a solution; don't get screened any more. This way, cancer can sneak up and take her unawares.
A good friend of mine lost his grandfather, father, and brothers to heart attacks. Congenital high blood pressure is the killer. He got early diagnosis and all through his prime he has taken powerful blood-pressure medication. He's still here, a grandfather and the best husband I know. He knows he is living on borrowed time, but he makes sure he is living every moment of it!
We are not medical people. Go to a doctor already. Go to a good, gentle, patient doctor with a listening ear.
