The good news and the bad news.
The good news...I'm alive and will probably make it out of this practicum experience in one piece, though it's brought out a bunch of my own issues (yay countertransference). Which in the long run will be good. I'm also starting to feel a bit more comfortable in the therapist role...and I'm pretty sure I still have no friggin' clue what I'm doing. :)
The bad news...
As some of you may know, my dad has been having health issues. Bunch of auto-immune disease stuff and colitis. Well, it got worse a couple of years ago and he lost a bunch of weight. It turns out this was because his small intestine wasn't absorbing any nutrients, which in turn was due to celiac disease (allergy to wheat and gluten). The celiac has probably been the cause of all the other problems, it's just been misdiagnosed for the last 25 years. Fortunately, he's had his entire digestive tract rebooted (for lack of a better term) and he's stabilized, now slowly reintroducing foods back into his diet.
Okay, so this is a genetic thing, so I called Kaiser and asked if I could take a gluten sensitivity test, but the bastards would not give me one unless I was symptomatic (which I ain't). So my molecular biologist Mom gets into gear and orders my brothers and I some genetic tests, which came back positive. The next step was the poop test to see if we were producing antibodies. My brothers did theirs and were borderline. Mine just came back last Wednesday.
Guess who won the genetic lottery?
So, yeah, I'm producing lots of antibodies and though I'm still not showing any symptoms (this is good), I need to cut wheat and gluten out of my diet as a precautionary measure if nothing else.
Dagnabbit.
The bad news...
As some of you may know, my dad has been having health issues. Bunch of auto-immune disease stuff and colitis. Well, it got worse a couple of years ago and he lost a bunch of weight. It turns out this was because his small intestine wasn't absorbing any nutrients, which in turn was due to celiac disease (allergy to wheat and gluten). The celiac has probably been the cause of all the other problems, it's just been misdiagnosed for the last 25 years. Fortunately, he's had his entire digestive tract rebooted (for lack of a better term) and he's stabilized, now slowly reintroducing foods back into his diet.
Okay, so this is a genetic thing, so I called Kaiser and asked if I could take a gluten sensitivity test, but the bastards would not give me one unless I was symptomatic (which I ain't). So my molecular biologist Mom gets into gear and orders my brothers and I some genetic tests, which came back positive. The next step was the poop test to see if we were producing antibodies. My brothers did theirs and were borderline. Mine just came back last Wednesday.
Guess who won the genetic lottery?
So, yeah, I'm producing lots of antibodies and though I'm still not showing any symptoms (this is good), I need to cut wheat and gluten out of my diet as a precautionary measure if nothing else.
Dagnabbit.