Everything Looks Good.
My last post got one comment: Please go see a real doctor.
Oh, how I understand this sentiment! Real doctors are the ones who know, who have studied, who understand things our mere mortal minds can’t comprehend. They are the saviors, the confidants, the gods in human clothing who know the answers to our ailments, who fix what is wrong….
But that’s not what I’ve experienced.
For example, I had a sporadic pain in my right side for years. It started during my first pregnancy, when I assumed my son’s foot was lodged in my rib cage. After he was born and I still felt a foot in my rib cage, I learned that this pain was probably from my gallbladder.
So after years, I finally went to a doctor – a GI specialist recommended to me by several people. The local “expert” asked me some questions, took my vitals, poked and prodded, and gave me his ruling.
“Your gallbladder has to come out,” he said.
“WHAT?!?” I shrieked. “You want to take it out?!? Isn’t there anything else I can do? Don’t I need it to live?”
“You don’t need it to live,” he said. “Lots of people live long, healthy lives without a gallbladder, and they also live without this kind of pain.”
“But isn’t there anything else I can try first? Couldn’t I try a special diet or something?”
“No,” he said. “Get an ultrasound. I will call you when I have the results and we can talk about next steps.”
I left his office shaking. Surgery? I couldn’t believe it. I was terrified.
So I hopped on the internet and found a list of what foods are good – and bad – for the gallbladder. I ate the right foods and avoided fatty foods like ice cream, which (coincidentally) I hadn’t eaten for seven years before my first pregnancy. I took a plant-based supplement: milk thistle. The pain disappeared immediately.
After two months of eating right, I got the recommended ultrasound.
“I got your results,” the doctor said a week later. “Everything looks good.”
“I don’t need surgery?” I asked, incredulous.
“No,” he said. “You have a normal, healthy gallbladder. Can you remind me why you came to see me?”
I almost laughed.
My diet has caused me numerous problems. After years of researching and trying very specific diets, I’ve tackled all of these issues without a “real” doctor.
But I needed a primary care physician to prescribe my natural thyroid medication. Finding her took six years. At my first physical in more than a decade, I had a bandaid on my palm. I’d opened a container of lettuce too quickly and gotten the equivalent of a paper cut.
“You’ll probably need a tetanus shot,” my new doctor said, gesturing to the bandaid.
She wasn’t kidding. Maybe she’d also offer to cut off my hand.
“I don’t need a tetanus shot,” I told her.
“Okay,” she said. “It’s your choice.” That’s how I knew this was the doctor for me.
This week, with agonizing arm pain, I asked my husband for help. I pointed to where my neck hurt and he pushed on those places. It was horrifically painful and caused my head to spin. I actually believed I might die.
But the next morning, my arm worked for the first time in weeks. Astoundingly too, my right leg – which I’d assumed would never lift properly again – felt like it did when I was 14. My body is in perfect working order for the first time in years.
I’m not sure any real doctor could have done that for me.