Larry's Ten Day Rule

Back in the early 1990s I was hit in the face by a volleyball. The hitter was a tall powerful guy who really knew how to spike the ball - and I was in his way. My contact lens popped out and I had a massive red eye and a shiner as well. I went to my ophthalmologist the next morning. He examined me and announced that it would be fine in 10 days. Sure enough, ten days later the redness and swelling were gone.

I saw the doctor at a dinner party a few weeks later and asked him how he knew that I'd be all cleared up in ten days. He said, "It's always ten days."

In my experience most medical-type problems resolve themselves in about ten days - UNLESS there is really seriously something wrong. We have to remember that our bodies usually heal themselves, given enough time. This is a FACT that many of us have forgotten, especially in these days of powerful drugs and insurance payments.

There's an old joke about the common cold. If your doctor prescribes something for you a cold will clear up in about seven days - and if you don't do anything, it might take a week. Again supporting the idea that our bodies heal on their own in a relatively short amount of time.

Many people run off to the doctor or the emergency room at the first sign of symptoms. They want the latest and best - and, often, most costly - treatment, and they want it now. As my story demonstrates, the best treatment might actually be time, not drugs.

What's a person to do?

I suggest that a little common sense and patience goes a long way in almost every medical situation. Think about it this way. If symptoms suddenly appear you can be relatively confident that they will resolve themselves in a week to ten days. If, after ten days the symptoms linger, or have gotten worse, it would be a good time to get to a doctor, without delay. There's a huge difference between waiting ten days and waiting six months.

When the Ten Day Rule fails.

It should be intuitively obvious to the most casual observer that emergency situations aren't going to resolve themselves in ten days. If you're hit by a train or wounded by a machine gun, get to a doctor immediately. The Ten Day Rule does not apply.

I recently saw a video about Inflammatory Breast Cancer (IBC). This is a serious condition that demands attention - quickly. One sad commentary in the story was about a woman who visited a doctor about the sudden onset of symptoms. Supposedly, the doctor took a look and told the woman that it was probably a bug bite and that they'd look at it again in 6 months. The lady had IBC and the waiting made her chance for healing very small. Actually, waiting 6 months probably signed her death warrant. That lady should have acted promptly and found help right after the first ten days passed. Time alone was not going to heal this disease.

This is not a radical approach to health. In fact it seems to be a most rational approach. Treating every malady as a reason for expert medical care can be very time consuming - not to mention, costly.

Eat correctly, take your supplements, exercise regularly, and pay attention to your body. Notice when something seems to go wrong and then keep an eye on it for ten days. I'll practically guarantee that you will notice significant improvement in that short a time period. If so, youy've saved time and resources. If you aren't better contact a doctor.