[xherberta]

"The great secret, known to internists and learned early in marriage by internists wives, but still hidden from the general public, is that most things get better by themselves. Most things, in fact, are better by morning."

- Lewis Thomas, The Lives of a Cell (Among other achievements, he was dean of Yale Medical School and president of Sloan-Kettering. This collection of essays was published in 1974 and is absolutely prescient and fascinating - he offers profound thoughts on the nature of science, computing, and medicine that have stood the test of time astonishingly well.)

[anonymous2017]

But that't the whole point: for fifteen years it didn't get better on its own. In fact, it got progressively worse over a period of months and years. When things got really bad (like on-the-floor-writhing-in-pain-wishing-I-were-dead bad) I went to see a doctor. The doctor did something (meds, endoscopies) and then things got better, and they'd stay better for a few years before they slowly, steadily, and inexorably got worse again. This cycle repeated itself three times in fifteen years. This most recent episode was the fourth cycle.

What makes this last episode interesting was that fate intervened to force me to do a control experiment, and the outcome has been dramatic: I feel as good (if not better) than immediately after all the prior interventions. In 15 years I have never had that happen if I just did nothing.

[xherberta]

Wow! I did somehow miss the 15 years aspect. Mysterious. I'm glad you're feeling better.

[anonymous2017]

Thanks! Me too! :-)

[vectorjohn]

Also, any doctor will tell you that.