Post #79: Thanksgiving (blogging) leftovers

I'm blogging 30 posts in 30 days for National Health Blog Post Month with @wegohealth.

Join me: http://info.wegohealth.com/nhbpm2012 #NHBPM

 

(yeah, about that....)

 

Haha, turkey Fonz. Heyyyyyy.

Awww, sorry neglected blog. I was a little ragey on Wednesday, and then Thanksgiving happened, so now here we are.

 

I cooked a lot of delicious things for Thanksgiving, and then I ate them. That right there is progress, my friends. I started tapering off my steroids this week (sigh), and I was concerned about indulging on Thanksgiving, but I decided I wanted to be a normal person for the day and I ate what I wanted. Today, I was about as sick as I expected, and took a looooooong nap. I'll take it easy for the next couple days, but it was exciting to eat pie. Totally worth it.

 

Now! There are an assload of prompts to catch up with, but I think it counts as sticking with the whole monthly blogging thing if I do a 4-in-1 post, no?

 

Les Prompts:

 

1.) Write about alternative treatments/regiments/medicine. What do you support? What is crazy?

2.) Create a new technology related to health

3.) Write about change

4.) What's something your doctor taught you, or you taught your doctor?

 

LET'S DO THIS.

 

1.) Ok prompt, let's chat. If you call something an "alternative" treatment and then ask what might be "crazy" about it, you're setting up a dichotomy between Naturopathy and Western Medicine that I don't enjoy. Honestly, there are more CRAZY side effects from the prescription drugs I take than from the vitamins and shizz my naturopath gives me. Nothing "alternative" has ever made my hair fall out. I'm just saying.

 

Now, there are some admittedly out there treatments for Crohn's that could be described as alternative-parasitic worms, anyone?-but they're also being studied with increasing frequency by the mainstream scientific community. Conversely, Western Medicine, the non "crazy" one, is doing fecal transplants-let that sink in for a minute-to combat conditions like C. Diff. So, worms or donor poo? I think they might be tied in the wild and wacky "alternative" column.

 

I support care that treats disease and optimizes health with the fewest toxic side effects. I'm not going to make a sweeping generalization about Crohn's patients, but in my case I need mainstream drugs to control my symptoms, and I add on supplements suggested by both my gastro and naturopath (as in, they both tell me to take the same thing. B-12, etc.). 

 

I would also like to note that YEARS before I was diagnosed with Crohn's, a naturopath looked at my blood work and announced, "You have a chronic inflammatory disease that is causing you to continuously lose small amounts of blood. You need to go see a specialist." My primary care, and my gastros for that matter, had all looked at this same lab results, but since the values weren't marked in red, they assured me that everything was in the "normal" range and said that they didn't see evidence of a specific problem. I think the naturopath was able to draw conclusions (the correct conclusion, as it turned out) from the exact same blood work because she looks at the patient's total health, through a holistic AND scientific framework. Did she tell me I had Crohn's? No. Did she listen to my story, consider it carefully, and discover a pattern the other doctors either dismissed or missed? Yup.

 

Bottom line: there are benefits to both traditions, and it isn't fair to write off one as being wacky or "crazy" without trying it out first.

 

 2.) If I were to create a new technology related to Crohn's, I would invent a toilet paper that turned a color if it detected trace amounts of blood. This would be useful, because sometimes you can't really tell (I mean, sometimes you can, ahh). It's important information to know, and the tests currently available to check for it are gross. Ok let's be one with this one.

 

3.) Change......I'm not so good with change. This is a whole post (hell, a whole blog)-not something I can really discuss in a few sentences. Suffice it to say, as I approach my 1 year diagnosis anniversary, it's been on my mind a lot: how much things have changed, how they might continue to change....

 

4.)  Which doctor, prompt? I'll break it down:

 

Current doctor:

-How to be a (better) educated consumer of health information and how not to psych myself out with information overload.

 

Past doctors:

-You know your body best, and it serves no one if you don't share this knowledge.

-Not all doctors have to be your BFF, but if they are disinterested or dismissive they are not going to be the best caretaker of your health. Keep looking until you find someone you can work WITH.

-Write down your questions, because some people (*raising hand*) get flustered/emotional/forgetful during doctor's appointments.

-If you want something, ask for it (and keep asking for it).

-Ultimately, you are in charge of the details. Don't expect your doctor to remember/keep track of them all.

 

Ok! That's enough. There is about a cup of stuffing left, and I need to go take care of that, ha. I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and spent quality time with friends, family, and awesome pie.