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Going to the doctor isn't always fun. There are always long waits and God only knows what illness the person sitting next to you has. I have had my fair share of visits like this.
Most people who go to doctor will find they their visit typically ends with the doctor prescribing some latest fad pharmaceutical that the hotty drug rep dropped samples off for.
I have always been of the mindset to avoid pharmaceuticals as much as possible only turning to these as a last resort. When your sick and feeling horrible that's usually when the last resort mechanism kicks in.
As a general rule for my everyday life I go towards the healthy, herbal, nutrition remedy.
There is a newer trend within the medical community and they is Preventative Healthcare. A few have fully embraced, some were dipping their toes and the majority still waiting on the sidelines. Concierge Medicine, Functional Medicine, Age Management, Regenerative Medicine, there are many variations.
The medical care I am talking about is personal, personable, one on one with the doctor. This one on one is actual time spent with the doctor, actually trying to diagnose the symptom, and the root causes leading to the symptoms.
How can you heal yourself by finding what made you sick in the first place.
Concierge and Functional Medicine although slightly different are both focused on healing and prevention.
Age Management is a medical philosophy of balancing out the hormones and delaying the aging process. For many actually being able to turn back the clock.
Today I find myself back at the Functional Medicine Doctor. Each visit is cash out of pocket, but each visit brings me closer to finding the root cause of my stomach, silent GERD issue. The easy avoidance treatment is to take over the counter Prilosec or go through an assortment of pharmaceuticals that will do who knows what to your body.
My choice is to pinpoint the trigger and find a real solution. After a battery of tests and blood work I am finding a list of food trigger allergies. Amazing that I can have an allergy to foods I eat daily.
Leading up to today's visit I was asked to fast for 12 hours. I bring this up because I came in for 2 tests, one that has me breathing into a device that will analyze bacteria in my gut which reacts to glucose substance I had to drink and the emits some methane like has. Second test was another series of blood work.
Normally I am perfectly fine with giving blood. What I failed to think about was that I was asked to fast for 12 hours prior to coming in. Well 4 vials nto the blood, my arm began to ache, beads of sweat appeared on my forehead and an unpleasant queasy feeling rolled through my body.
Well I thought I was going to be perfectly fine with the blood draw. I told the medical assistant the same thing. We only made it half way through the 8 vials for blood and I had to take a break. They even took out the smelling salts, but it wasn't that bad, I didn't pass out.
The battery of tests are completely worth it. Not cheap, as most of these visits are not reimbursed by insurance, but worth it. The stomach bacteria test and blood work with five me a huge amount of information to add to my previous blood work results showing the food allergies.
My recommendation to anyone reading this is that you embrace your own health. Find a doctor that will work with you and not against you. You need to educate yourself on your health, start being the driver, and not a passenger on the path to your well-being.