The big diagnosis

Lack of energy was never an issue with me. In fact, I probably had too much, which caused me to get into trouble a lot because apparently couches aren’t made to be exercise equipment… nor is your sister. That all changed though when I was about twelve years old. I gradually started to feel more and more strange. I all of a sudden had a significant decrease in energy, started getting sick all the time, became very heat intolerant, my hair was falling out, kept having what seemed like asthma, and was experiencing the most unbelievable pain throughout my entire body. My eyes looked dull. I no longer had that energetic sparkle, was no longer beaming with life. I was losing interest in gymnastics, mainly because everything was hurting too much to do. All I wanted to do was lay around. This was not who I was. The only Doctor I was seeing at the time was a family practitioner. We had been going to him since I was three years old and were never really completely confident in his expertise, but he always got the job done for the basics. I started telling him about all of my new symptoms and it was clear he was not the man for the job. He kept brushing it all off, saying that I was about to be a teenager and these were all normal things to experience when getting older and he refused to have me tested for anything because he said they were unnecessary. My mom was never satisfied with this answer though and she wasn’t going to ignore my symptoms. This Doctor completely missed diagnosing me with Mono nearly a year prior and I was fortunately diagnosed and treated elsewhere. Yes, Mono seemed to make the round on several of us at gymnastics. Germs tend to thrive in places like gyms.

After suffering through several months of this new lack of energy and pain, my mom hesitantly decided to take me to a Chiropractor she kept hearing raving reviews about by friends from church. I say hesitantly because, I don’t know about you, but we always kind of thought Chiropractors were “quacks.” My dad had tried out a Chiropractor many years prior for some back problems, but I think the guy actually made him worse. But you know, there are bad Chiropractors out there, just like there are bad Dentists. Just because one is bad, doesn’t mean the whole profession is useless. So we decided to give this Chiropractor a try because all of the head injuries were definitely starting to wreck havoc on my neck.

I’ll never forget the first time I met my Chiropractor Doctor Kay. She is probably the smartest person you would ever meet, but also the most down to earth. She is a country girl at heart and would give you the shirt off her back if needed. I instantly loved and trusted her. I not only loved getting adjusted and found it all fascinating, but pretty much every visit we would get chastised by her assistant for laughing too loud and causing concern by other patients as to what on earth we were doing in the treatment room. I also enjoyed asking a lot of questions and felt very at home at her clinic. I was thankful that I wasn’t going to do what she did though. She would tell me about different classes she had taken and certain details about the board exams and I would think to myself, “Thank goodness I’m not doing that.”

Although the adjustments felt great during each visit, I must admit I didn’t feel that much different later on each day that I had been adjusted. Doctor Kay herself seemed a little frustrated by my lack of progress. So one day she asked me if I was having any other health problems. I had learned by this time that Chiropractic is useful for more than just neck and back pain, but the Medical Doctor had told me there was nothing wrong so I didn’t want to approach the subject much. I felt like maybe she might be able to help though. I began telling her what all was happening, how I no longer had energy, how I kept getting sick, how I no longer cared about anything, how every square inch of my body ached, how I felt like I was walking through a cloud, and on and on the symptoms went. She had also observed some things including how my face was always very red, how I would never hold an adjustment for more than a minute, always felt warm, and always had enlarged lymph nodes. Doctor Kay then wrote a letter and handed it to my mom and said to take it to my family Doctor and insist on having me tested for the things in the letter, and if he did not, then to find a new Medical Doctor. I think my poor mom didn’t get one hour of sleep that night due to researching and stressing over the things in that letter.

With much hesitance, the family Doctor ran the requested blood tests on me. The day soon came for the test results and he said, “Your daughter has tested positive for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis. Due to the extremely high levels, our only suggestion is that we send you elsewhere immediately where your daughter will be prescribed Chemotherapy and Steroids for the remainder of her life to help cope with the pain.” There was a mix of emotions. Slight relief to at least know something was wrong and it wasn’t just all in my head, mixed with shock and confusion as to know what to do next. She then asked if this treatment of chemotherapy would cure what was going on and he said that no it would not, but would only help with pain and that I would not live much beyond my twenties. My mother said that she did not want to put me through chemo, but instead wanted to talk to the Chiropractor to see if she had a more alternative approach to treatment. And then he said, “If you leave the office without following my suggested course of action then I could call CPS and force Catherine to follow my treatment plan.” Being the factual mother that she is, naturally she fed him a taste of his own medicine and threatened reporting him to the board for his multiple failed attempts of diagnosis, among other things. This shut him up.