Miracle in the land of the Kickapoo
A Night visit to the Quiet Barrio of the
Kickapoo Reservation
The night was unusually chilly for this
time of the year and we entered the gated community of the new houses built by
the tribe for its elder members and others deserving to live in this quiet area
just a few hundred yards away from the centre of their reservation bordering on
Mexico and Rio Grande.
Past the guard, we glided towards the well
ordered houses and streets, kept incredibly clean and stopped in front of a
house. Here and there you could see small symbolic gestures on trees denoting
the season but nothing elaborate.
There were three cars parked in front of
house, denoting there are visitors in the house.
I was very pleasantly surprised and grateful
for the decision of the tribal council to build these houses for the elder
members of the community. They would look like a well organized suburb of a
richer developing nation and certainly a cut above the barrios of the town that
surrounds the reservation.
The Matriarch of the family was seated in a
sofa in the centre of the living room. As expected the TV was on, tuned to a
Mexican soap opera. There was a younger couple with their children, obviously
the newer generation of this family. Two daughters of the lady in question was
also busying themselves with chores around the house.
A glass of sweetened iced tea arrived and I
sipped slowly, feeling good about one of the traits among Indians, that of
social responsibility. The idea that the welfare of the tribe is dependent upon
the welfare of each and every individual and that only collectively they can
get ahead, the notion of a social and cultural identity which each and every
one shares in, and the willingness to help each other. This is so far removed from
the incredibly individualistic central notion of the country they live in.
The Grandmother, born in 1939, showed me
the medications, prescribed by Family Practitioners and also some specialists.
It is almost like a shopping list of any
older patient in this country: a couple of medications for Diabetes, two for
hypertension, one for cholesterol, thyroid medication and a couple of other
heavily promoted drugs which are of dubious value.
Her BP was 130/80
For the sake of this missive, the
outstanding aspect of the review of her records and examination was the sudden
normalizing of her daily fasting Blood sugars..
20
nov 456
21 nov 235
22 223
24 nov 262
this was more or less the pattern on the
records kept in the house, fasting blood sugars in the middle to upper 200s.
There is no record of other Blood sugars, as the lady in question is disabled
with a stroke that affected her left arm many many years ago.
But now let us look at the recent values.
2011-12-05 105
2011-12-04 135
2011-12-03 136
2011-12-02 197
2011-12-06 88
2011-12-06 130
after the preliminary enquiries about her
health and also her mobility and the services she is receiving for her general
condition, to explain the sudden near normalizing of fasting blood sugar from a
double its value, I asked her, has there been a dramatic change in something
you are doing?
This would be interesting I thought, since
she is not mobile, her activity pattern couldn't have changed, nor has been any
change in the medications.
Yes, she said.
I am not revealing what she said to me, but
let you guess what it could be by telling you about the next person I examined
in the same living room who happens to be her daughter.
Patient No 2 is the daughter of Patient no
1
Once again a picture of what is happening
in this society (the general society)
Diabetes type 2
Hypertension
And the usual slew of medications some of
which would show the influence of the drug representatives on the prescriber,
sine she was on the latest injectable medication for type 2 Diabetes,
Liraglutide.
In addition she was on Long acting Insulin
taken once a day, two oral agents.. that is a total of four medications, two
oral and two injectable for the control of Diabetes, a combination medication
for hypertension (Olmersatan/hydrochlorthiazide),also a drug heavily promoted
by the drug companies. And of course the usual thyroid medication in the dosage
of 100 microgram.
There has been no change in her
medications, and the blood sugars were in the range of 400s for the month
before.
But I noticed that for the past one week,
her Blood sugars has been hovering around 130. She was very happy to receive
this news, and she even knew the answers why the blood sugars had come down to
the near normal levels in this lady with long standing Type 2 Diabetes.. Her BP
was 130/85 and she looked a little pale, making me think of renal complications
of disease.
The daughter is employed as a Cook in the
Nutrition Section of the tribe. She does not participate in any form of
organized exercises.
Dear friends and readers: I will be happy
to hear your suggestions why something so minor a change in their lives made
such grand differences in their blood sugars that confirms many of our beliefs
that we live in a very toxic environment.
Or you can email me at cochinjew@yahoo.com for the right answer.
