Doug Thorburn on Lies are Unbekoming

[Doug Thorburn]

Another fabulous post, which I shared to Facebook. I recommend others do the same.

I've found doctors lack curiosity my whole life. I'll share here something I shared on one of Aldred's posts; it's worth a reshare. I wrote:

I was born with strabismus, which initially took form in crossed eyes; after two surgeries at two or so years of age the surgeon had over-corrected. The divergence got worse over time to a 23-degree spread. Can you imagine trying to get a date on top of my nerdiness?

I somehow found myself at one of the world's premier ophthalmology centers, UCLA's Jules Stein Institute, in my mid-20s asking about surgical correction. After prodding and testing and such the doctor told me nothing could be done. She jokingly commented, it has its benefits: I could view the road with one eye and look in the rear-view mirror with the other, which might make driving safer. LOL.

I nevertheless found myself a bride, married for over a decade and then divorced (another story in itself). In the dating world a girlfriend recently had LASIK surgery to correct her nearsightedness and wondered whether laser-type surgery might help correct my strabismus. I opted to try her surgeon, Dr. David Callister in Glendale, CA, who prodded and tested and looked closely at my eyes. I asked whether laser surgery might correct my divergence? He responded, No, but continued doing doctorly things as I shrugged my shoulders to myself and figured, oh well, at least I tried.

After completing his exam, he stood back and, fingers to chin and clearly deep in thought said, "I don't think we can make it perfect, but I think 70-80% is quite doable." I said, wait, I thought you just said nothing could be done. No, not with lasers. I looked him square in the face and asked, are you telling me the Jules Stein Institute had it wrong, and you can correct the old-fashioned way via surgery? And this could have been done 20 years ago? His response was classic: I just don't understand Jules Stein, because they get so many things right. Yet there are some things they Just. Don't. Get.

Wow.

In the most psychedelic experience I can imagine, awake but with a tinge of benzos on board, he did a partial correction (via what I think is called a z-myectomy). I landed at 8-9% divergence; most people would not notice in casual conversation. But it was destined to worsen over time. The divergence gradually increased back to the 23% area from which it had begun and reading was more laborious, not to mention clients and others wondering what I was looking at, heads turned over left shoulder before figuring it out (I focused on people and objects with my left eye; my right eye looked up and over people's left shoulder).

Two and a half decades later I called Dr. Callister's office figuring he was long retired, but perhaps his replacement could do it over. No, but they referred me to another ophthalmologist, Dr. Mark Borchert at the Children's Hospital in Altadena, CA. He'd done 6,000 such procedures, mostly on children, with a fair share of adults. He thought he could get the divergence to within a few percent; not perfect, but better than Dr. Callister's work (who Borchert not only knew and deeply respected; he studied under him).

The surgery, which had me under for 1 1/2 hours, was a temporary success. At our aftercare follow-up visit he measured the divergence at 3% but admitted the first words out of his mouth after he essentially pulled out my eyes at the start of the procedure were, "Oh fuck." The nurses were a bit shocked at his language, which he'd never before used, but it was warranted as I had much more scarring than he had expected. He explained: he entered the eyes sideways and could not change his approach once he had started. He cleaned out as much of the scar tissue as he could, but it would grow back and my eyes, he told me, would be right back where they were within five months. He would schedule me for another surgery, when he would tackle the job using the muscles above and below the eyes.

So, I asked a question that, apparently, few (perhaps only iNtuitive Thinkers and almost none of those other than INTJs) might ask: what prevents internal scarring?

He responded, nothing.

Few would question his assertion. He was a skilled surgeon, has seemingly done the impossible, and he is an "expert." Who would dare question this lovely and obviously highly skilled and intelligent gentleman and do the research? LOL.

I stumbled on to just one inkling of a possible solution: large doses of Vitamin C. I began mega dosing, increasing my daily gram to six grams daily.

Five months later he measured my divergence and his jaw dropped: the divergence was still 3%.

Borchert's a great guy. But even he did not admit that what I read might be right and wow, just wow. And where else might this be applied? I did not yet know much about myocarditis (the surgery took place in mid-2021, and I did not take the jab so was not yet carefully following the plethora of adverse events). (FYI: myocarditis is scarring of the heart muscle. Hmm....)

It's reminiscent of another experience. Long ago in my 20s I stayed at Mammoth Mountain Inn several times skiing Mammoth, CA. The altitude is 9,000 feet. I awoke two or three times every night gasping for breath. I figured it was some sort of sleep apnea and, shrugging, wondered what I could do about it. I lived with it.

I likely endured a few years of this when I read a "health nut" book (possibly Adelle Davis's "Fit for Life") in which the author mentioned one little factoid: Vitamin E helps the lungs assimilate oxygen into the blood stream.

I put two and two together and began experimenting with E. I don't recall whether I started at 400, 800 or 1200 I.U. or whether I initially ingested it daily at sea level, but whatever I took (likely 800 or 1200) worked and I never woke up again gasping for breath when at elevation.

Until 1987. I was by this time taking E daily. I ran out of the vitamin while on a trip to Denver, Colorado. We were heading up for a two-night stay at Winter Park, elevation 9,000 feet. I figured, "Oh, I'll be fine." I literally pooh-poohed the idea I would have a problem. Nope! I woke up three times that night gasping for breath. Staying another night, I found some vitamin E at a Safeway early the next day, took it, and was fine that night. I've taken E ever since, gradually increasing it to 1,600 I.U. daily, upping it to 2,000-2,400 on days when I'm heading to 7,000 feet or higher and when I expect to be heavily exerting myself at lower elevations. It works incredibly well, markedly reducing the degree to which I breathe deeply when water skiing (the difference between going out on a run before taking E vs. after is mind-boggling and cannot be ascribed to caffeine alone).

I long wondered whether E might help those with breathing problems, especially COPD. I mentioned the possibility over a couple of decades to COPD patients and never, to my knowledge, did anyone try it. Of course, they were all college educated and had consulted "experts" and if those "experts" did not suggest the idea it must be unworthy of consideration.

One day, my non-college educated office maid walked in with oxygen. I said, crap. She admitted she had smoked two packs a day most of her life. And of course, I told her my experience with Vitamin E and offered to buy some if she would she try it. Of course. After all, she was "uneducated." I gave her a bottle (Costco--nearly free) on her next visit and, sizing her up suggested 800-1200 I.U. daily. I don't recall now which I.U. she used, but later asked how it worked. Thanking me, she told me she had cut her oxygen in half, from four to two hours daily.

I suppose knowing of Ignaz Semmelweis's battle to get the idea of scrubbing one's hands before performing surgery, and the belief that "Carbs good! Fats bad!" helping to create a nation of obese and diabetics, and the idea that lobotomies resolved mental illnesses, set me up to question everything in medicine. And to be willing to experiment. So, if I had succumbed to the greatest propaganda coup in history and taken the fake vaccine, whether or not officially diagnosed with myocarditis, I'd be taking at least five if not ten grams of Vitamin C daily.

After all, that is what medicine is about: trial and error, experimentation, and "practice." And being open-minded.