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Peyronie's Disease
and a Man Whose House is on Fire
Here's a little
story that expresses some of the thoughts and frustrations
of someone with Peyronie's disease:
A man came home
one day to find his house was on fire. He ran to his neighbor's
house
and yelled, “Hurry, call the fire department. My house is on
fire!”
The neighbor came to the widow and replied in a professional voice, “Be calm,
and try not to worry. Research shows that 50% of house fires
go out by themselves, so in my opinion there is really no need to bother the fire department. I
suggest you just wait and see if you will be one of the lucky
ones.”
The first man replied, “Are you kidding? 50/50 odds are
terrible! If I'm in the wrong 50% group, I could lose everything. I can’t take a chance like
that. The fire is small now and it’s on the first floor, so
maybe I can do something to take care of it. If
you won’t call the fire department for me, then I'll just use a garden
hose to help myself.”
The neighbor casually replied, “I advise against it. There have been
no double-blind or cross-over scientific studies to show that
a man with a single garden hose can consistently put out a small
house fire. Some studies have shown that it works, but then
again there are other studies that show that it doesn’t work.
There is so much controversy about this subject that the
experts advise against doing anything but waiting to see if
the fire goes out by itself. I think we
need more studies in this area. I really can't explain
why some indicate that it
does help, and others show it does not. I hope you
understand that I don't want to go out
on a limb and recommend something that might not actually work.
With no official agreement how to handle your situation, to protect
my reputation for always being right, and to prevent you from
suing me for giving you false hope that you can put out your
own fire, I am going to suggest you do nothing right now.
That’s about the safest advice for me I can give to you. Can't
you just wait a while longer for more research to actually prove your garden hose
idea is correct? Research is being done right now to develop a
new chemical that can be used to put out small house fires. Of course, any new
chemical will be expensive and will only be available through
authorized outlets that will have to charge a lot of money for
the product, but in time, it could be helpful in a situation
like this.”
The first man shouted in a panic, “Are you crazy? My house is
on fire right now, and it is getting worse by the minute. I
need help right now. I can’t wait for your studies and your
research to prove anything, and I can’t wait for any new
chemical. If some of the studies show that the garden hose
will put out a house fire, or control it to some degree,
then why shouldn't I give it a try? Maybe in time this
will be the group that will be proven correct. I would
be a fool to not give it a try because it might be just the
right thing to do. I know -- maybe I can get a few garden hoses
going and even increase the odds it will work. Maybe it will completely put out my fire. If it
works, look at what I have gained – if it doesn’t work, who cares,
at least I tried.”
The neighbor then explained to the worried and agitated man,
“Not to worry: Be patient. You know, you are really getting
worked up. If your home is destroyed – and becomes useless to
you – you can always get a contractor to fix it. Think
of it as your back-up solution. If your house
becomes useless, just get it repaired. I've heard that some of
the houses turn out pretty good.”
The first man snapped back, “You are nuts! Why should I let
this fire get so bad that I need a contractor? Some contractors are better than others; what if I
get a bad one? I’ve heard horror stories about dealing with a
bad contractor. What if there are problems with the
contractor's work? What
if my house isn’t as good after his repair work as before the fire
started? Even good contractors sometimes have problems with their work
that even they can’t explain. I could be stuck for
the rest of my life with bad results. No, common sense tells
me the best thing I can do now is to protect what I have and
try to avoid dealing with any contractor if I can.”
The neighbor leaned against his doorway and told the
frustrated man, “I guess the garden hose idea could do no
real harm. But you could be wasting water, you know. Be careful
that you do not use more water than you actually need. Now,
I've read some studies about using too much water to put out
a fire, and... ”
The first man didn’t hear the neighbor’s last bit of logic. He
was now running back to his burning house and the garden hose.
He shouted back to the neighbor, “Maybe you would feel
differently if this was your house on fire. I’ve got to get
busy and try to help myself if you can't offer me better help
than that. I have to do what makes sense to me,
even if there is no research to prove me right.”
The man whose house was on fire picked up his hose and started working with it.
He felt less stressed as he got busy doing all
he could in a bad situation. Who knows,
maybe he even put the fire out.
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