It took almost a year to fully recover from being this sick. Before I got to the recovery point, I had a friend that told me about these health summits that had targeted topics on health from different doctors and health professionals. I decided to take my health into my own hands since I wasn’t getting help from the conventional way.
My treatments with the naturopath were all trial and error and we weren’t getting much anywhere. He checked my hormone levels and said, "I can't believe your numbers. You are worse than a menopausal woman and you aren't even going through menopause. How are you even functioning?" I had full support from my family doctor to see the naturopath and he was willing to work together with him. They had found that one of my vitamin levels were depleted and so I had to weekly go into the medical center and get prescribed injections. I had lots of tests done and requisitions filled out to see different specialists to hopefully get answers but unfortunately the waitlist was so long it would be a minimum of a six month wait. I had lost a total of 34 pounds and weighed 85 pounds, the lowest I had ever weighed.
I was able to eat one tablespoon of watered down plain oatmeal to start where my body wouldn’t reject it and eventually the same with watered down rice. I lived off of that for awhile and would try eating it with a bone broth but that wouldn’t go over well for quite sometime. My stomach was super sensitive.
I researched and really felt that my issues were highly connected to the medication I was taking for my endometriosis and decided to research it in depth. I joined different women’s groups online to see if anyone else had experienced the same symptoms that I was experiencing and sure enough there were many, many stories like mine. I had conversations with my family doctor and he told me he figured I had IBS and there was nothing that they could really do as it is all part of having chronic pain. I wasn’t willing for that to be my end all on this and pushed to see a gynecologist. I explained the clock work symptoms that I had regularly experienced each month and he agreed that it seemed more than a coincidence. I also was going to this compounding pharmacist that specialized in hormone issues and he explained how my medication most definitely causes these types of issues and wished doctors would stop putting women on them. He had loads of connections and connected me with a doctor that had a special interest in hormones.
When I had my consult with this woman doctor that did hormone stuff, I told her my theory about my endometriosis medication and the health issues I was having. “Oh absolutely it’s this medication that’s doing that to your body but you need to stay on it.” She said. ”But I’m so sick and I want off of them. I heard that bio identical progesterone is a better option and would like to be watched while I switch.” I told her. “You haven’t seen what I’ve seen. Endometriosis up the nose, in the brain. This is not something you want to mess around with and you need to stay on it.” I started to cry and I begged her for help. “I’m suffering. This is no life. Please help me. I feel like I’m slowly dying here.” She told me that she wasn't comfortable with it but would talk to some gynecologists and get their opinion on it and get back to me. I was relieved, scared, frustrated and thankful all at once.
Eventually I heard back from this doctor and she told me that she spoke to three gynecologists and they agreed for me going off of my medication and would need to monitor me. What a relief but even in my relief I was scared of the possibility that my endometriosis could flare up again and wreak havoc on my body. I decided to have a consult with this functional medicine doctor that specializes in women’s health as well as see this other naturopath that focuses on hormones.
The functional medicine doctor is the most thorough doctor I have ever been to. I am so grateful that I went and saw her. She ran a lot of tests and found numerous issues and prescribed the right medications, vitamins and supplements that helped me get my body back on track. The endometriosis medication that I had been on is known for causing malabsorption issues. I had no clue until I had seen this doctor and she explained it all to me. It was very frustrating because I had been on a plant based diet, ate gluten free, organic food for the past three years at that point but regardless of my efforts of eating healthy, my body wasn’t able to use or process the food properly due to the medication. She helped me switch my endometriosis medication and I also saw a nutritionist that specializes in endometriosis and what was necessary to support my body.
Before seeing the functional medicine doctor, my husband had this really important dinner with the big bosses. He knows that these are not my favorite events to go to but this particular dinner was really important to him and had been on the calendar for almost a year to mentally prepare me. He was willing to let me off the hook because of my health issues and me not really able to eat anything, but it had been months of me being sick and I wanted to do something nice for him. I decided that I would do my best to go even if I only could manage it for a short stint of time. I got all dressed up, wore his favorite dress that he liked on me, put on lipstick and felt really good about myself. When we arrived, I didn’t realize that there would be an hour of just fried appies and drinks and then the eventual dinner. My stomach started to really hurt as it couldn’t handle being empty otherwise it turned into extreme pain, I tried drinking lots of water to keep my stomach happy. One of his co workers came up to us and she looked at me and said, “Oh, how nice, out with dad for dinner tonight.” ”That’s my wife.” Brandon piped in. I stood there feeling deflated and a little annoyed, my efforts of feeling hot for my husband felt squashed. Shortly after this older woman that I had seen maybe once before at the dinner the year before, came up to me and said, “You are looking way better. I mean the last time I saw you, you were ( she puffed out her cheeks and held her arms in half circles by her sides, signaling how fat I looked before).“ I was thrown off, like in my head I was trying to register the complete humiliation from a stranger, and at the same time holding my tongue from saying words that I will not repeat. Brandon immediately said, “She’s actually been extremely sick and we haven’t been able to figure out what’s wrong.” Again my weight slapping me in the face. At that point in time, I would’ve given anything to be fat again because dropping weight rapidly and at the same time losing my hair and not able to enjoy the pleasures of food was awful and scary.
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