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The single most important advice I can give you if you are feeling ill in France is “go and see the doctor”. I am not being facetious or unkind but nothing starts here in France without a prescription. A prescription is the gateway to appointments with specialists, opticians, physio and most other medical professions. In most circumstances it also means that you obtain the medication and their services free (or at least to the maximum percentage allowed under the French medical system).
Over the next few blogs I will be recounting some of the funny, sad and curious things that have happened to me and my family following a doctor’s visit but first, I want to tell you about the most unusual and unexpected consultation.
This is France and there are treatments that you won’t necessarily find down at the corner surgery in rural England.
At one time I had really bad shingles on my back. I was in agony, it was burning and itching and, what was worse, it was spreading. I had grown up with the story that if shingles goes all round your body and touches itself you die!
As it was, the doctor said she had never seen such a worse case. She called it zona and gave me a post it note on which she had scribbled (sorry but you know what a doctor’s writing is like) a name, address and telephone number. She was sending me to a faith healer! Before you ask, no this was not covered by the health system!
The doctor was sending me to a faith healer! Before you ask, no this was not covered by the health system!
I made the call and went with trepidation, feelings of doubt and, for added security, my daughter, to a house in Agen. The door opened to reveal a lady sat on a chair with her leg in plaster. I can remember thinking that it obviously hadn’t worked too well for her, when another lady took me through to a darkened room full of strange artefacts and a treatment bed. Frankly, I wanted to run.
Then a rather rotund man appeared in a string vest with more holes than there should have been and stared at me. He came over and moved his hands around the outer perimeter of my body, without touching me. Letting out a sigh he indicated that he knew it was my back. Not a word had yet been spoken.
The door opened to reveal a lady sat on a chair with her leg in plaster. I can remember thinking that faith healing obviously hadn’t worked too well for her!
Sue
He went over and lit a candle and told me to put my hand over it. I looked back at him with amazement, what did he think I was? An idiot? He took my hand and placed it over the candle, whilst using his left hand to kind of wave at my back. His right hand joined in and then both hands would drop to his side and he would shake them out.
It was as if the heat from the candle (which I really couldn’t feel) was removing the heat from my back. I was mesmerised and, guess what, the burning in my back started to ease off. After two or three minutes of this there was no pain in my back at all! I kid you not.
My daughter and I stared at each other, it was surreal, it seemed bonkers but it was working.
My daughter and I stared at each other, it was surreal, it seemed bonkers but it was working.
He then told me to get on the bed and started to run his hands over my body again, without touching (before you get the wrong idea). Out came some stones which he placed all along my central line from my head to my feet and he began to wave his hands over me, shaking them out every now and again. My body felt light, warm and at ease.
The stones were removed and a chain and a single stone were swung around over me. I am sorry if I sound disrespectful to faith healers and their followers out there but this was my first time. I was sceptical and, at the same time, curious. This string vested man was not what I had imagined a faith healer to be. Clearly, though, something was going on that was way beyond my comprehension.
All I know is that I was feeling better and when he said I should come back again in two days, I didn’t hesitate. However, I do remember hoping that the dirty vest would have been washed by then and telling my daughter there was no way I was going without her. We drove home wondering what on earth had just happened, almost in shock.
Three treatments and a couple of weeks later my shingles had virtually disappeared, leaving just a few scars to remind me of my experience.
Faith healing, do I believe in it? My doctor clearly did and it certainly worked for me!