What's Up, Doc?

What a difference a year makes! At the beginning of 2010, I wrote my reflections about the previous year. Some parts of it had been rough, like moving to a new place that brought us nothing but unimaginable hell. But there were so many good parts as well. Tom and I had joined Vegan groups and made new friends. We were so busy with potlucks, picnics, parades, fundraisers, parties and volunteering for Veggie Conquest. It felt so good to be part of a community who shared our values and to have so many new friends.

I was also at the peak of health in 2009. Me, who had once been pushing 270 lbs. with a BMI of over 43, was over 100 lbs. lighter. I had gone from morbidly obese to just overweight. With those 100 lbs. went a bunch of medical problems and half a dozen medications. I was going to work, going to the gym and even had the story of my health journey published on the web site of my hero, Christina Pirello. And then everything changed for the worse.

Our living situation was intolerable, the stress was unbearable and I ended up in the hospital – a year ago this month – with chest pains, trouble breathing and dizziness. That hospitalization was followed by 5 more over the next couple of months. I had to take a partial leave from my job, only able to teach from home. Crimes committed against us, including identity theft and threats, forced us to leave our home and at times we were at a loss of where to go, with no money or food. Many of our friends, both old and new, deserted us. We were no longer part of any community. The invitations stopped. Several “friends” accused us of lying about our circumstances, adding insult to injury.

Meanwhile, my health was deteriorating and Tom had to stop working so he could take care of me. The dizziness hits so badly, I can’t walk without holding onto him. I can’t even walk my dog by myself. I’m in pain and so fatigued that sometimes I can’t get out of bed. There are days that just taking a shower leaves me feeling like I ran a marathon and got run over by a truck. Over the summer I was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm but the doctors don’t think that is the cause of my symptoms. Having steady doctors’ appointments has been hard because of our living situation. Another doctor found that my hormones were completely out of whack and put me on medication for that. Some symptoms got a bit better but even she said it was a temporary crutch until they find out what is really wrong with me.

Recently I saw a new doctor and he took a thousand tubes of blood. Tests came back positive for autoimmune disorders. That wasn’t surprising to me. I had a horrible bout with them about 11 years ago. Between the test results and my symptoms, this doctor thinks I have lupus but I’m not accepting any diagnosis so easily just yet. There are specialists to see and more tests that need to be done. Again, it’s not surprising that I would have an autoimmune disorder now because they are often exacerbated by stress and my stress level has been off the charts for over a year now. Not to mention the isolation, rejection and trauma that continues.

But the point of this post is to figure out what to do about my health. Of course, I will go to the specialists and have more tests. I will take all opinions seriously but I will also not fall for the “white coat” authority. My new doctor (who probably won’t remain my doctor for long) left me my diagnosis in a voice mail the day before he left for vacation. Not nice, not right. He said I could call the doctor covering him for a list of rheumatologists. I made an appointment to see him his first day back and let him know what I thought of his approach. He never really apologized and said he could tell from my scowling and glaring at him that we had trust issues. REALLY?? He then went on to talk about Prednisone and steroids and I said no. I would consider those when the diagnosis was clear. He really didn’t like my questioning him. When I mentioned that my stomach had been acting up, he offered me a prescription for Prilosec. I think I almost shouted, “I don’t want any medicine.” I wanted to know WHY my stomach was bothering me, not get a band-aid for it.

As he continued to go over the lab results, he mentioned that my ANA, other blood tests and my vitamin levels pointed towards lupus. I pointed out that he didn’t test me for any vitamin levels. He searched back through the papers….OOPS! He was making a diagnosis partly off a test he didn’t even do? I then asked him, as long as he was going to send me for more blood tests, to test me for celiac disease. I had asked him to do this before but he didn’t. He seemed hesitant and I told him that I was planning to go gluten-free because it reduces inflammation but I couldn’t do that until the blood was drawn or I would mess up the results. He actually rolled his eyes at the idea that my going gluten-free could help me.

I know that physicians are not taught anything about nutrition in medical school; I wasn’t. But you would have to live in a vacuum to not know that some foods are very damaging and that others can have significant benefits. Hospitals seem to be that vacuum because a year ago, when I was hospitalized in the cardiac unit, the menu was filled with catered choices such as chicken scaloppini. Really? Ham, cold cuts, and cheese for cardiac patients? But when I tried to explain my Vegan needs to the dietician, she looked like I was speaking a foreign language and I spent the next 3 days getting trays of lettuce, chickpeas and fruit salad. Maybe those high-salt, high-fat catered meals is how the cardiac units stay running but it’s certainly not going to keep any patients running.
How can it be that some doctors understand that poor nutrition can make you sick and kill you but they don’t believe that good nutrition can help or reverse disease? Well, I do and I’m looking into various nutritional plans, doctors who believe in integrative medicine and definitely, some type of help for my stress. The only thing I’m not looking for are prescriptions. I am going to figure out how to help myself using the health food store, not the drugstore.

As Dr. Mehmet Oz says, “I have become convinced that the most overlooked tool in our medical arsenal is harnessing the body’s own ability to heal through nutritional excellence.”