had my primary care appointment today- first time with anybody in cincinnati aside from the new rheumatologist.
i think i could really really work with her. she blends western and eastern medicine which is something i have been trying to do these last few years. even if a little bit at a time.
she got hit with all my info and had some great resources, in fact she had an overload but helped me narrow it down.
for the next month i am trying the yeast free/mold free diet under her guidance and advisement. so goodbye alcohol, goodbye bread, goodbye sugar, goodbye cheese & dairy, goodbye wheat flour, goodbye soy sauce, goodbye vinegar (which doesn't seem like much until you realize it is in like every condiment- mayo, mustard- i love mustard...ggggrrrr, plus pickles), goodbye mushrooms. perhaps i will see some of you after a month. (sniff) i'll miss you!
the thought is (and one i had considered prior so it is nice to get a little kick in the ass & support of it) that if i am having any problems with any of the above, much less feeding those yeast and helping them with world domination (or at least body domination) then this will show it. starve those little yeasties for a bit. then see where we stand! we can do this, right. so if i am grumpy this month it's because i can't have a margarita, mohito or glass of wine and certainly not a beer. man oh man!
plus she sent of my precious blood off for some more studying. my blood apparently is not the subject of enough inquiry- which it was trying to tell us when it didn't want to leave my veins today. really filling 5 vials should not be that hard. blood is just trying to take care of its own!
she is checking for which foods i might be sensitive towards that may not show up on traditional allergy testing. in short it
tests for immunoglobulin G whereas traditional allergy testing targets immunoglobulin E. which is good for me since i tend not to show up on patch/skin tests and looking at a different immunoglobulin should be useful. hopefully my insurance will cover it although most don't. fortunately it is semi-reasonable. i figure a small price to pay for finding some potential useful info. or lets be honest small price for my parents to pay ;)
plus she sent out stuff to test for
PCOS. i was tested a while back and had elevated testosterone and a couple other symptoms (like extra hair for the female and bizarre weight gain) but the definitive hormone test came back negative. so add to the bloodwork i am getting an ultrasound tomorrow. nope, not pregnant- no f'in chance. they are going to check and see if i have any neighborhood friendly cysts on the uterus/ovaries. which involves me drinking 32oz of water within an hour of the test and not peeing until after is completed. fyi - that helps keep the bladder out of the way when ultrasounding for the uterus and ovaries. did i mention recently that i came across articles on a link between anti-epileptics (say depakote, which i used to take) and the development of PCOS. grrr- medicine the cause of and solution to all life's problems.
and another plus- she had names of people in the are who do energy work & assisted stretching. which is what works well for me but i have a hard time finding people as some can be full of crap and huge wastes of money (hey the good doctor said this too). but she gave me a
watsu (water
shiatsu) practitioner that also has tai chi/
qigong background. this makes me happy as my friend G has had fantastic results in chicago with watsu but i couldn't find it here. and i have been looking into tai chi / qigong. and she also gave me some PT leads- a few that deal with assistive and active release, one concentrating on smooth tissue involvement. i had great luck under strain-counterstrain and have had difficulty finding it here. while different this is in the same vein. plus i respond to cranial-sacral work very well- that's part of my weekly massages as of late- which addresses many of the same things.
she is a licensed acupuncturist which i have had interest in but was hesitant due to all that is going on to find anyone. i figured if i do have acupuncture who best to do it than my primary care.
i figure i will incorporate one or two things before i see her next - yeasties free diet and watsu. those and a couple vitamin recommendations. if i can get to anything else before june that is a bonus. i don't like doing too much at once as it doesn't help give an accurate picture of what works, plus doing too much at once= fatigue of the entire process and i wouldn't be able to keep it up.
all that said- i think this could be a good fit. and even if it doesn't miraculously fix everything that is going on they are all good things for me as well regardless of what is going on in my health.
here i go....