The doctor of the future will give no medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet and the cause and prevention of disease – Attributed to Thomas Edison
We live in a society that has been programmed and encouraged to enjoy immediate gratification: fast food, on-line purchases with overnight delivery, social media thrills at the touch of our phone, tummy tucks and Botox, and a pill or two or three per symptom, or to lessen our risk of disease progression. But, what if you have many symptoms and many health risks? After a failed neck surgery, and then learning I had fibromyalgia and lupus, I found myself on 23 medications. In those 23, I was also taking medication due to the side effects of the medications, particularly Nexium to protect my stomach.
It was costing more money to pay for all the medication than was actually coming in financially. We (including my precious husband) were using savings while waiting and hoping that I would gain disability to ease our financial crisis. It was my all time low. I remember how defeated I felt, my identity was wrapped up in my career, which was no more, and I felt like such a burden. After a year on all of this medication, I didn’t feel any better, I felt worse, and had thoughts of suicide. What kept me from taking my own life was the knowledge that I would be leaving my husband and family with the fallout.
I believe in God and Jesus as my savior, and in the back of my mind I knew that killing myself would be going against everything I believed. At the time, I was on newer medication that didn’t come with the warning that there might be thoughts of suicide, although the warning is spoken during a commercial for that medication today.
After many months of asking God to take me, He allowed a Pulmonary Embolism (PE) instead. I remember that I had a sinus infection and was put on an antibiotic to help me get over it. On the second day of being short of breath, I called my general doctor to ask if I was experiencing symptoms that were medication related. I was told to go to the emergency room which I immediately obliged.
The ER doctor took an x-ray of my chest and discovered a saddle-back PE. I was told that I needed a filter in my right subclavian vein to catch any potential additional blood clots that might be heading toward my heart. I wasn’t given any sedation and felt all of it. The experience helped me understand that I was really stronger than I had been giving myself credit. Because I had the filter put in, I was given another medication to protect me from another blood clot. Later I learned that I had a genetic clotting disorder called a G20210A mutation. I was very fortunate to be alive.
When I got back to my house, I had an overwhelming feeling of gratitude for the fact that I was still alive. I didn’t want to die. It was just a lie I was telling myself.
The realization gave me a new sense of optimism and I began to see my story in a different way. It was very slow, definitely not a quick fix, but I vowed to get back to my roots, my college degree in health and wellness, and change my attitude, my habits and my life. I had gotten so far away from the very belief that I stood on: that we can make a huge difference in our health if we become our own advocate and change our behavior to have a better outcome than with medication alone.
I had been in so much physical pain that I literally wanted and thought I had needed all of those pills for my symptoms. I forgave myself and started researching what I needed to do to get well. The journey was definitely not a sprint, but a marathon. My pursuit became a lifestyle, not a diet. I knew I had to change my eating habits, increase my activity and get help with my mental state. I enlisted the help of a Christian counselor and started physical therapy. I started watching Oprah, Dr. Phil and then Dr. Oz. All I wanted to do was get well. I got to the library and read any book I could get my hands on about health.
It was two steps forward and one step back as I started to make small steps toward a better life. I had been plagued with anxiety attacks that would come whenever they wanted without warning. Usually, when I had gotten brave enough to leave my home to try to get groceries or run an errand to take the load off my husband and mother. I would fear I’d have a panic attack while driving or worse yet in front of people. My counselor gave me a sheet called Anatomy of an Anxiety Attack which outlined what happens in the body when one goes through a panic attack. The sheet helped me realize that I had some control over my body and thoughts. I have not had an anxiety attack for years. I can still go through the emotions of anxiety today, but now I have tools to rationalize and over come the physical side effects of anxiety and live my new story.
I did not get rid of most of the medication alone. I had the help of very supportive doctors. As the doctors saw my mental and physical changes (blood work), they were more optimistic about titrating (slowly lessening the dosage) of my medications and agreeing with me that I could do without some of them. It became very important to me to have doctors who wanted to form a partnership with me and would take time to explain blood work, how my body was working and cared about my personal goals.
I sought out doctors of osteopathic medicine (D.O.). I have a primary D.O. and an interventional pain management specialist (D.O). D.O.’s practice in all areas of medicine, emphasize a whole person approach to treatment and care and are trained to listen and partner with their patients to help them get healthy and stay well. I have found that this approach has helped me get to the “root cause” of my “dis-ease” rather than putting a band-aid on a symptom. It is important to mention here that I had the help of supportive doctors that knew if a medication could cause a rebound effect (called rebound phenomenon; a reemergence of symptoms that were either absent or controlled while taking the medication), to help me titrate off the 20 (I still take 3) medications.
One of the best partnerships I have found are with counselors. The last counselor I have had since 2016. Looking back, I would not be where I am without cognitive behavior therapy. Through council I learned invaluable tools to reduce stress and anxiety and have learned quite a lot about myself. Quite a while ago I was diagnosed with PTSD (mild and domestic, meaning I did not fight in a war), but did nothing to understand what the mind and body goes through due to this diagnosis. I shrugged the diagnosis off at the time and didn’t do much with the information.
Through my research and council, I learned just how detrimental trauma was to the mind and body, and how not appropriately dealing with the trauma was affecting my health. I started to understand the mind-body-soul connection. I became aware of how the trauma and the lack of dealing with the trauma attributed to my “dis-ease” and anxiety.
Our emotions do affect how healthy we are. How we handle stress does affect our health risks (blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, heart disease, autoimmune, arthritis, etc.). If we incorporate stress management techniques, positive movement/exercise, healthy eating habits and change how we navigate our perceptions and reframe our thoughts we can move towards a life with less medication.
Several months ago, I felt like I was not making any progress with my chronic fatigue, despite all of my efforts to dramatically change my nutritional input and life choices. Over the years I had gone from laying on the couch (in tremendous physical and mental pain) to being vertical and having the ability to step up for my family members who needed a caregiver, but there were times that I had just learned to power through, despite my chronic fatigue. I listened to my intuition and researched what could be causing the fatigue and decided to be tested for other food sensitivities. What I ended up learning was shocking.
I enlisted the help of an Environmental Otolaryngologist (Ear, Nose and Throat Doctor). After numerous forms were filled out detailing my family history as well as my past and current symptoms, I was encouraged to have further testing.
I am glad I followed my intuition that there was still something not quite right with my system. The testing revealed that I had an elevated total body burden of heavy metal, toxic compounds and mycotoxicosis (chronic mold exposure). When I learned what was in my system could cause Alzheimer’s of the dementia type, Parkinson’s, M.S. and other neurodegenerative (nerve and brain) issues, I had my mom tested.
My mother has had dementia for more than seven years, and the goal was to diagnose, but not to treat. She is very happy and child-like, living in a memory care facility. To put her through possible adverse reactions that she didn’t understand would be cruel. Also, at the late stage of her dementia, the environmental doctor felt like it would not be ethically sound to treat her.
My mother had some of the same heavy metals, toxic compounds, and was in the 75th percentile for glyphosate, or round-up exposure. Crazy, huh? I feel really blessed to have been able to get the information, for it may affect my siblings and they’re offspring. It could take me 2 to 3 years of chelation therapy and home detox protocols, but I feel like the investment in my future, and my families future is worth it, and can actually reduce my future health care costs (the care of someone with aging brain disorders is ridiculously costly), and will be worth the actions and investment I am making now. I feel very blessed to know how to follow my intuition and act pro-actively, rather than reactively.
I started reading “Toxic, Heal your Body from Mold Toxicity, Limes Disease, Multiple Chemical Sensitivities, and Chronic Environmental Illness”, by Neil Nathan, MD. Dr. Nathan outlines the most difficult and widely misunderstood treatments for chronic illness. He has also written “Healing is Possible: New Hope for Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Persistent Pain, and Other Chronic Illnesses, for Those Who Have Fallen Through the Medical Cracks, and Mold and Mycotoxins, Current Evaluation and Treatment.” The book reads like a college course, but I check in with Google for definitions of words and am slowly getting through the materials in the book.
Here is an incredible story of the power of being your own advocate and beating the odds with chronic illness. While gaining my Certification as an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, I was blessed to be exposed to Dr. Terry Wahls, who is an Assistant Chief of Staff at Iowa City Veterans Administration Health Care and is a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa. She has a private practice and conducts clinical trials specific to her recovery protocol. Dr. Wahls had debilitating Muscular Sclerosis, or MS. She was almost confined to a wheel chair, when she started to research other options besides medication, which she eventually was able to significantly reduce. Dr. Wahls was experiencing excruciating facial pain and becoming less and less able to care for herself. She has had a radical shift in her diagnosis. She is now capable of riding a bike, lecturing and has had the medical community researching her protocol since 2010. Dr. Terry Wahls is the author and founder of The Wahl’s Protocol, and contributes her success not to medication, but a complete change in her diet, lifestyle changes, understanding the toxic load of her body, and describes everything she has accomplished in her book ‘The Wahl’s Protocol, A Radical New Way to Treat all Chronic Autoimmune Conditions Using Paleo Principles”. Because she was a part of the medical community, she was encouraged to take her research and gatherings and put it into action by training health professionals on how to help others with her protocol. For more information, and to see actual research participants before and after mobility, you can view her website www.TerryWahls.com. You can also view her TedTalk on YouTube.
The types of doctors I now have are a general D.O., a pain management specialist (who is treating my causes, not my symptoms), a chiropractor, a counselor (she helps me navigate caregiving, helping me feel like my actions are valid with my mom’s care and she gives me practical applications to apply to my life), a heart doctor (who helps me manage my genetic clotting disorder G20210A), a psychiatrist (who prescribes an anti-depressant) and an allergist (who is helping me build up my immune system with allergy shots) and an environmental ear, nose and throat doctor, (through blood and urine samples) helped me identify the heavy metals, toxic chemicals and mold exposure which we believe to be responsible for some of my physical and mental challenges. The kinds of doctors I am seeking are proactive and preventative, and help me get to the root causes of my “dis-ease”.
A very good documentary to watch is ‘HEAL’, by Kelly Noonan. It takes us on a journey of unconventional opportunities to heal. Some of the methods I have never seen before, but the overall goal of the documentary is changing our health destiny without medication first. Kelly shows how it is possible for tissues to regenerate, it’s possible to move from fear to love and shift our beliefs to better our health outcome.
She highlights a researcher and author Kelly Turner, Ph.D., who studied radical remissions from all over the world, putting 1,500 cases into a data base to find the commonalities between the people she interviewed. She documents over 75 factors that these individuals did to try to get well. Not all of the people did all 75, but she found that most of these people were incorporating nine of the factors.
RADICALLY CHANGING YOUR DIET
TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR HEALTH
FOLLOWING YOUR INTUITION
USING HERBS AND SUPPLIMENTS
RELEASING SUPPRESSED EMOTIONS
INCREASING POSITIVE EMOTIONS
EMBRACING SOCIAL SUPPORT
DEEPENING YOUR SPIRITUAL CONNECTION
HAVE A STRONG REASON TO LIVE
Only two of the nine are physical. Radically changing your diet and using herbs and supplements. The other seven are internal work to enhance one’s life towards emotional freedom. After watching the documentary, I realized that I had inadvertently learned to use these factors to better my health.
I have radically changed my diet. I have shifted my beliefs and have sought help for my emotional issues with trauma and anxiety. Through my journey of improving my health, I am no longer treating my fibromyalgia and lupus with medication. I have found out how my body responds to certain foods, “crowded out” the foods I am sensitive to and shifted my beliefs and perception to gratitude and positivity. I have strengthened my faith and conquered my fears. I have been able to work around my inabilities, by reacting to how my body is feeling with practical applications to allow me to be a productive individual who went from horizontal to vertical, from disability to ability (with limits).
If I can do this, anyone can achieve their health and life destiny. All of our stories matter. We are all worthy of good health, vitality, happiness and joy. What we think and believe and tell ourselves in our internal dialogue can be detrimental or healing to our health. The choice is ours to make, and I chose to achieve wellness, and live my life with purpose. My purpose and mission are to empower others to live their best life.
Believe in yourself, be kind to yourself, love yourself. Realize that your health and wellness is something you can control. We need to elevate ourselves to elevate others. If we care for the well-being of others in our family or are physical caregivers (to children or family members in need), we need to strategically place our health as a priority, for the sake of being strong and able for our loved ones. Having a quality of life, and working towards “inner mental peace”, we can give so much more to our loved ones, our community, our jobs and careers. We are all works in progress, and our health is ever evolving.
May your health evolve to give you your best life, because you and those you love deserve it!
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