BY GERALD OCHS

BY GERALD OCHS

Rappahannock News Writer

I have never been an enthusiastic visitor to the doctor’s office. Not that I have had unpleasant experiences there or have been mistreated or misdiagnosed. Quite the contrary. On the few handsful of occasions that I have placed myself in the care of the medical profession—for injuries, burns or my regular bidecadral check-up—I have been more than satisfied with the professionalism, competence, and caring in evidence.

Perhaps it’s the idea of it that keeps me distant from the MD’s. The concept of a diagnosis or tune-up is more appropriate, I might be subconsciously thinking, for my truck, though it is only on the rare occasion that I’ll submit the vehicle to that scrutiny.

I believe that I have found a better solution for me. I had been invited to visit the Dreamtime Center for Herbal Studies’ Clinic at the Healing Arts Center in Sperryville, and I thought that, instead of an impersonal and unsatisfying interview, I’d subject myself to their healing process. It was a big step for me. Volunteering to be evaluated for ‘what ails me’—it must be the Rappahannock air that made me shed my inherent lack of interest in the effectiveness and fitness of my corporeal functions.

The first step in the process didn’t hurt. I was asked to complete a multi-page form, a part of which required the determination as to whether or not I had some ailment to which the clinic might attend.

Of course I had to find something in order to complete this article, so I was forced into a bit of self-evaluation. Without too intense an effort I honestly conclutjed that my ever-lengthening afternoon bouts with fatigue was not necessarily the normal consequence of attaining the “double-nickel” stage in life—that it was perhaps more accurately a reflection of the