The miracles of modern medicine.

Just over 48 hours ago, due to not-yet-known causes, my son was born 8 weeks early. He weighs just over 3 pounds, is delicate and beautiful. Modern Western medicine is the reason he can survive right this moment, a true miracle of advancement.

The whole team helping him at the hospital are truly amazing. They are compassionate, skillful and very dedicated health care providers. They are working around the clock to ensure my son keeps breathing, that his heart keeps ticking, and that his energy remains stable. I am totally, 100%, indebted to them for their kind care.

It is in these somewhat awkward, traumatic and upsetting times that insights have a tendency to come storming in. For me, being a Doctor of Chinese medicine, this whole experience has been very humbling. It can become all too easy to focus on the things about Western medicine that I don’t like (the over steroid use for chronic skin disease management is one), that I forget about all the many many wonderful parts of our modern medical world that are actually really really good.

38 years ago, my mother lost a son born at the exact same gestation as my son. The hospital she was in at the time just did not have the proper technology, nor understanding, of how to keep the little guy alive. So far this journey has been an extremely healing one for my mom as she is realizing that it can work out, that our son, her grandson, can survive.

We all have this tendency to put things into neat little boxes of either “all good” or “all bad”, rather than seeing that everything in life can have both good and not so good qualities. There is no “us and them”, there is only what works. In medicine we call this collaborative care. I am pretty darn sure that no one practicing Chinese medicine here in North America would have as much success as the Western medical model in regards to infant survival. And the same is true for the opposite, I know of no better model of care for infant eczema relief than Chinese herbal medicine, as it much safer and effective in the long term.

Good medicine is a collection of techniques gathered throughout our entire world. It is the synthesis of many thoughts and skills coming together to provide the best result possible. So in this regard, there really is no “Western” or “Chinese” medicine, there is just “effective” medicine, which quite frankly could come from anywhere. We just all need to stay open to our options.

The prognosis for my son improves every day. He is growing everyday. His vitals are strong. He is going to grow into a beautiful man one day, much in part to the miracles of our modern medical system.

Thank you.

Wishing you health,

Dr. Trevor Erikson