Now on to the next major problem I had to enjoy. Soon after starting undergrad, I was getting sick a lot again with things like strep throat and colds with a chronic cough. It seemed like I was continuously on an antibiotic, which of course was absolutely killing my already weak immune system. So it was of no surprise to me that I soon developed tonsillitis. No matter what the Doctors gave me, nothing would take care of it, but instead, my tonsils got larger and larger and I continued to feel more and more sick. Each time I would go in to see a Doctor it was the same story, “oh my gosh what is that?! I have never seen any tonsils look like that before!” I was now nearing the end of my first Trimester at Chiropractic school and was completely miserable. I tried both acupuncture and oregano oil, as well, but neither made a difference. I am all for trying the more holistic approach first, but Medical intervention is there for a reason, and is necessary in some cases.
I finally went to an ENT we knew, to get the situation under control. I had a two-week break between trimesters and something had to be done fast. He tried to convince us that this “extremely powerful” prescription he was giving me would do the job, but we insisted he schedule a tonsillectomy just in case. Thank goodness we insisted because that so called “extremely powerful” prescription made my tonsils even more enlarged. You do not want to know details, but he swore he had never seen tonsils so bad. I had to sleep at a certain angle at night as to prevent my tonsils from covering my throat. So we proceeded with the surgery and I had less than a week to recover before returning to school. If you have had a tonsillectomy as an adult, then you will understand when I say that an added benefit of the surgery was that I got back into my size zero jeans in less than two weeks. I see it now as an added benefit, but it’s safe to say that the recovery from that surgery was nothing short of terrifying. I bet you’re not surprised to hear that I did have some small complications discovered post-surgery due to a nicked nerve that thankfully has been nearly rectified, thanks to my sisters myofascial release skills.
This will be the final descriptive story I will share for a while or otherwise you will start to think I’m crazy. A word of advice, never go through a major cleanse while you are going through a period of extreme stress, like say, Chiropractic school for example. In order to remove toxins from your body, you need to be in a relaxed state in order to give your body the chance to properly heal. I was in, I believe my third trimester at school, that I started this highly recommended cleanse who’s brand I will not slam because they have helped many people. But again, my body is extremely sensitive and hopefully one day I will remember this. So my huge weakness is cheese. When I am stressed I want cheese and I want as much as I can get my hands on. Jason’s Deli was near my school…they have an amazing baked potato that my friends and I affectionately referred to as the steroid potato. Scotty P’s also has some cheese fries that are out of this world. It is healthy to allow yourself some cheats, especially when going through stress, but some of us tend to have a problem with moderation. So due to some particularly enjoyable joint and stomach pain I was experiencing, I decided to try this cleanse. I did it by the book. Which is how I do everything. If I set my mind to something, it will be done right. So I get done this cleanse and I honestly don’t feel too different, besides the fact of feeling like I had been starved to death. I was determine to continue eating well after I came off this cleanse.
The day after this cleanse ended, I went to a restaurant and had a salad, which had some cheese in it. An extremely small amount of cheese by my standards let me add. Later that day, both of my big toes began to ache. Then I noticed they started to swell and got really red. Now I had previously battled ingrown toenails, thanks to ballet, which I participated in after gymnastics, so that’s what I assumed it was. So the next day I had my “ingrown toenails” tended to. Well, that not only didn’t help, but it made them much worse. The pain was unbelievable. I mean I could not even let a bed sheet touch my toes at night, I couldn’t stand to wear closed toe shoes, and I could barely walk. Then I finally figured out what it was. Great, I was a seemingly in shape, healthy, twenty year old and I just figured out that I have gout. So naturally I freaked out, continued to eat a perfect diet...NO CHEESE!! I even went several weeks of only eating dehydrated superfood greens, which normally does wonders for whatever ails me. But the problem would still not go away. Here it was winter and I had to wear flip-flops!! The gout now had spread to the first three toes on each foot and down into the joints of my feet.
A couple of months later, I started taking Acupuncture courses on the weekend. When you are in Chiropractic school, those of us who are apparently demented had the opportunity of receiving additional specialties, which you could take on the weekends. I soon befriended a Doctor taking the courses for his continuing education hours for that year. It was nice getting extra tips from someone who had already been treating patients for ten or more years. So the second day of these Acupuncture courses he made a comment about me wearing flip-flops when it was nearly snowing outside. I told him what was going on and he said if I wanted, he would do some points on me and see what happens. Well of course I was up for anything. He placed needles in several points on my feet, back, and arms for about fifteen minutes and I kid you not, in less than an hour, the gout was completely gone and it has never returned since. I only thought I was a believer in Acupuncture before, but now I am completely convinced. I of course, had him write the points down that he used on me and have helped quite a few of my own patients get through gout as well with both acupuncture and nutritional advice. Sometimes it seems like the best kind of learning truly is by personal experience.
Like I previously stated, I have never been very interested in diagnosing the vast amount of problems that I have because they mostly all seem to come down to the same conclusion - weak immune system - need to be on a low inflammatory diet, get plenty of exercise, and eliminate stress. Seems simple enough, but it’s much easier said than done. I do think that Doctors tend to be a little too eager with diagnosing/labeling people just to feel like they solved the problem. Some of the additional diagnosis’s I have picked up over the years include Sjogrens syndrome, Dupuytren’s contracture, Medial epicondylitits, Ligament laxity, hyperthyroid, lymes disease, stomach ulcers and other stomach problems you don’t want to know about, celiac disease, trigger finger, plantar fascitis, De quervain’s tenosynovitis, encephalomalacia, absent seizures, pneumoparotitis, Erysipelas, and I’ll stop there. If I let all of this get to my head, I would be one of those people laying in bed all day longing for a “cure.” God provided us with many modalities to heal and prevent disease; we just have to use them.
No comments:
Post a Comment