Complementary and Alternative
health therapies have a long history of being at odds with Medicine.
Frog in my Throat traces the way in which a typical man or
woman might find themselves taking the odd step of entering a
profession, knowing that they would likely find themselves in a
lifelong row upstream against the enormously powerful lobby of
modern medicine.
Frog in my Throat traces how Dr Preston
was an unregistered, illegal practitioner for the first eight years
of his professional life, often at odds with medicine, and his
growing acceptance in the medical community. Accepting a referral
for a ‘lost IUD’ of twenty years duration was considered ‘unethical’
by a local gynaecologist. Paradoxically, there was complete
acceptance by the local radiologist and neurosurgeon.
Chiropractors also tend to be odd people. Dr
Preston is no exception: the book is laced with stories about his
passion for the sport of lunatics (soaring) and carpentry (madness
for a man totally dependent on having all his fingers).
A fine life can be totally spoilt by certain
habits. The book is littered with stories reflecting on the
difficulty that all doctors have challenging their patients about
their weaknesses. The tragic and unnecessary death of a favourite
patient because he, Dr Preston, chose to look the other way causes
him deep grief.
Complementary and Alternative therapies have
also been noted for confrontation with conservative Christianity.
Perceived to be rooted in ‘something Eastern, and thus of the Devil’
Chiropractic has sometimes been denounced from the pulpit. As a
practising Christian Dr Preston reflects on these issues.
The book ends with a twist that would leave any
practitioner, complementary or otherwise, gasping.
