Alternative medicine

I know it's been awhile since I last blogged, but I just haven't been feeling up to it. Since last fall, I kept getting sick with the flu or a cold over and over again, and just couldn't shake things. Over time, I had less and less energy, and basically spent the majority of my free time sleeping so that I could keep up with my new job.

Earlier this month, I had enough. After six months of things just going further and further downhill, and little support from my doctor to figure out the root cause, I started seeing a naturopath. My only regret is that I didn't go to her sooner. I'm constantly blown away by how different it is than traditional medicine.

As a comparison, my regular doctor would spend ~10 minutes with me and by the end of the appointment, would give me a prescription to treat my symptoms. Only after a lot of prodding did she order a couple of tests that uncovered that I'm not only deficient in vitamin D, but even after almost a year of high-level supplements, my vitamin D count went down. However, for whatever reason that didn't seem alarming to her to figure out why it had gone down. Instead she just wanted me to take more supplements. This is among a lot of other problems that she didn't want to figure out the root cause.

Compare that to the naturopath, who spent 1-1/2 hours with me on my first visit, and at least 30-60 minutes with me for each appointment thereafter. She really listened to everything I had to say, all the symptoms I've been having, and asked a ton of questions about my lifestyle, workload, stress level, etc. I've started tests for regular annual physical stuff (cholesterol and the like), blood tests for food allergies, and urine and saliva tests for hormones and neurotransmitters. I should mention that out of all the tests, the only ones my regular doctor ever ordered were at annual physical time.

In the meantime while we wait for the results, they've started me on injections of vitamin B + vitamin C + magnesium to help my immune system, since I seem to have trouble absorbing vitamins. I take daily supplements to boost my immunity and she has switched me to a liquid vitamin D supplement, which is better for absorbtion. I already feel a difference, even though I'm not out of the woods by any means. In fact, I overdid it a bit this weekend after celebrating my birthday. I'm not used to being out on the weekends much anymore, so even just being with friends and family was tiring for me. I now look forward to Fridays when I get my vitamin injection because I get a real noticable boost of energy for a few days afterwards. It's amazing.

For the first time, I have real hope that I can get better and stay better. And one of the best parts is that by figuring out the root causes, it will help my health overall, including my weight and everything else. It seems that a lot of my recent weight gain was tied to a borderline underactive thyroid, which causes a lot of things including fatigue, exhaustion, weight gain, etc. My naturopath also confirmed that my trying to exercise each time after getting a bit better was backfiring, since I don't have enough energy right now to sustain much physical activity. Hopefully through figuring out all of the root causes and addressing those, I'll be able to add back in physical activity without feeling like passing out afterward anymore.

I know that I'll have a road ahead of me to adjust my lifestyle to whatever comes out of these test results, but I'm so ready to start feeling better again and get back to my normal self. Turns out that all the stress I was enduring over the last few years was really dangerous for me, and now I just need time to let myself recover. Here's hoping that this is a year of getting my health back in order so that I can feel like me again and not sleep my life away. I know that this will mean a lot to me, as well as to my husband, and family, and friends. I've been missing in action, but I don't want to hide any longer.