Imagine If!

I went to see my doctor for a follow-up visit for the shingles infesting my ear (sounds creepy, huh?) this past week.

"I am recovering from my old lady chicken pox, but what I really want is to not see you for, at least, 6 months. I don't want to come in here with my normal fall bronchitis or my December strep throat, and more than absolutely anything at all - I do not want to be tired anymore! My baby just went to kindergarten, my little girl is in 4th grade, my homeschooler wants to learn a sport this year, and my oldest is playing football and starting junior high! I don't want to be too tired to experience their lives anymore!"

He agreed that this sounded quite sane and reasonable, as I tugged on my ear and screamed a little bit (Shingles are tiny very painful recurring chicken pox). I told him that my neuro was sending me into the cancer center for another iron infusion, because I have virtually none in my body suddenly and again. He already knew this. I told him that I wanted to be one of those normal people who just naturally absorbs iron from their Saturday afternoon steak. He agreed that, this too, is very normal to want and a much more normal physical state to be in than I usually am.

So, for one of the few times in my weirdo medical history, I have taken my own care into my dystonia fingers.

"I think I might have a wheat allergy," I said to my doc.

"Why?" he asked.

I have him all the pertinent reasons (which he agreed in his nerdy doctor way are all quite medically sound), and I then informed him that I am embarking on research and heavy self-medication through vitamins, minerals, walking the dog, etc...as is safe.

"Sounds fine to me," he said. "Just let me know what new vitamins you begin to take and who you are getting them from. Some aren't all that good."

But what I have discovered is that every time I take vitamins, with the exception of iron, I absorb them fairly quickly even with the every day drugstore supplements. But I do much better with high quality ones.

For years now, I have wanted to finish my degree, but in natural health. I tried to get my BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) a couple of times, but got sick in the middle of my way up and had to quit about 1/4 of the way there. It was the all the holistic and natural health classes I loved the most though, while other student nurses found dissection or labor and delivery infinitely fascinating. For me, though, it was learning all I could about the true effects of homeopathy (if any at all), and how an herbalist might get better results in a child with ADHD than Ritalin might in some instances. And so last year, around this time (when I was feeling slightly better for about an hour), I applied to a rather prestigious natural health college, but got too sick to enter. They continue to invite me, and the counselor I spoke with sends me tips on energy retainment nearly every week.

"This worked for me, but it might be different for you," he tells me. "Just keep trying. Something will work eventually, even if standard medicine cannot."

Now, I have this insane goal to finally get healthy (God knows I have tried a million fruitless times in the past) and if I can do it (with Our Lord's help), teach others and finish the degree I have been starting over and over again for a decade now (that this really already a masters but completely non-cohesive).

Like Miss Thaeda would suggest in her shrinky way, I even wrote down my goals. True story. And now I pray my gluten-free living for the next few weeks works.

Already, the whey shake has given my quite a bit of energy today. But that could be adrenaline due to the prospect of health, and maybe just maybe...a life without the cancer center!

Imagine if!