So the first visit was kind of what I expected.
I started off by letting her know I’m a giant skeptic. To which she assured me I’m not the first person to tell her this. Then we went over my giant medical history, which is always fun times. She didn’t press on the miscarriage history, but I suspect based on my tone and matter-of-fact attitude she got the hint that I’m not going there right now. Basically, her first priority is to nail down what’s going on right now with my stomach, because unlike modern medicine / westernized medicine in my part of the world, she agrees with me that my starvation diet is an urgent problem. Once we deal with that, then she wants to look at why I’m having these issues every few years. I’m fine with this approach.
As for the current issues:
- She agrees with my assessment that the gastritis/ulcer that started all of this back in May, is not the same issue as the diarrhea that started in June. My GP also thinks this. So nothing new there.
- She agrees that Percocet is not a viable long term option. She also agrees with my decision that it’s not even a temporary solution and my refusal to take it.
- She really doesn’t want me going on and off Prevacid long term, it’s not a great drug for our bodies. I don’t disagree, I’ve done a lot of reading on Prevacid and acid inhibiting drugs – and the recent studies about how they can shorten peoples lives just adds fuel to not wanting to be on these. Clearly, I’d rather not take them too. But I will add that she’s a former pharmacist, so I do think that she understands these drugs better then most.
- After my H. Pylori test I started taking daily Thermacumin and Probiotics (I’d been told by many people that these help with stomach problems so I just went ahead and started them once the test was done). She wants me to continue taking these, but she wants me on a different brand of probiotics. That’s easy enough.
- Her plan for supplements to help my stomach immediately:
- She wants me to stay on Vitamin D, which is something I’ve taken for years.
- She had me start UltraInflamX Plus 360. Apparently it’s really good to help reduce inflammation in the gut and it has some basic nutrients in it which I clearly need right now. Unfortunately, she warned me that it is basically the most disgusting tasting drink in the world. So I purchased the flavour she said is the “best”. And after 1 dose, I can confirm that she is absolutely right about this! It is horrible!! (And for the record, I’ll admit I have done absolutely no personal research on this, at the moment I’ve decided it cannot make me feel worse then I do right now so I just started it….maybe not my best plan ever, but I will do some reading over the weekend).
- If the UltraInflamX works, in a few weeks she then wants me to add in something called Glutagenics.
- As an aside, I have to add that I appreciated that she didn’t tell me I had to buy any of these things from her. In fact, she gave me a list of pharmacies in our city that sell the products so I could choose where to purchase them. In the end, I bought them from her because I didn’t have time to make another stop before picking up Little MPB and I appreciated that she wasn’t giving me a sales pitch.
- She wants me to consider doing another stool sample. Basically, she thinks the diarrhea is an indication that I may have some sort of parasite – which is what Mr. MPB and have been thinking given my Sushi meal 2 or 3 days before the diarrhea started. The reason for a new test is that this one will be sent to a lab in the USA which tests for approximately 500 different things, including parasites. Evidently the stool test I had done here a few weeks ago tests for about 10 things and does not include parasites. And, what she said is really cool about this testing is that company will also tell you what to use to kill any parasites that they find living in your digestive tract (assuming they find any of course). Basically, while she can treat the current symptoms I have, she cannot kill a parasite if she doesn’t know what it is (which makes sense to me). The cost for this is $480+ GST and it takes about 2 weeks to get the results. Of course, we have no coverage for this.
- Once I’ve been without diarrhea for a months she wants to do IgG food sensitivity testing. Again, something not routinely done in my part of Canada. In fact, only Immunologists can do this testing and have it paid for through our public health care. She suspects something I keep eating is helping to trigger these gastritis/ulcer episodes. This will cost $250+ GST. And again, we have no coverage for this either.
So basically, right now I’m popping some pills, drinking a super nasty drink and hoping my stomach irritation continues to calms down. And Mr. MPB and I are contemplating our desire to spend $480 to send my poop to the USA for more thorough testing. We are both leaning towards forking out the money because it would be really nice to know if I have a parasite living inside me.
Other then that, I’ll just keep trying more foods, slowly and see what happens. Eating very little amounts of food frequently seems to be helping me eat more without diarrhea. So hopefully I can increase my intake of food from 2 bites an hour to real meals multiple times a day. Also, hopefully I can start getting more protein into me and less carbs – I’m at the point where if I can live the rest of my life without eating bread I’ll probably be a happy person.
Oh, and I am going to continue to dream of the day I can have a Chai Tea Latte again.
If you like this post, please feel free to share and please click the follow button on the side or return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
The other day I found myself in a group conversation about someone else’s fertility. Not that it makes it any better, but the person who was being discussed wasn’t in the room. (Yes, everyone was gossiping behind their back, as people seem to do all too often).
Needless to say, after five losses of my own, these are the types of conversations I try to avoid because I know just how hurtful it is to have people continually ask about your childbearing plans while actively going through losses and visiting infertility specialists. I now what it’s like to run to the bathroom and hide as tears stream down my cheeks. I know what it’s like to schedule my entire life around medical appointments. I know what it’s like to go through multiple invasive medical procedures and return to work and “normal” social activities sometimes that same day. I know the hidden loss of dreams and hopes that comes along with the loss of a baby and the loss of your presumed parenthood. I know what it’s like to be the one people talk about because she really should have had kids by now. I know just how hard infertility and pregnancy loss are, and so I never engage in conversations about other peoples family planning.
Anyways, while the conversation was unfolding, someone in the conversation simply stated, while looking at me,
After knowing what Mrs. MPB went through, I’ll never again ask someone or pressure someone to talk about their plans for children. I realize now just how hard those conversations can be when things aren’t going according to plan.
I can honestly say I was shocked when she said this because I realized that she learned from our experience. The person who made this statement will never understand what it’s like to loose multiple pregnancies as she is the mother to a couple healthy children, but as she spoke I appreciated realizing that she did learn something from our experience. And she’s actively trying to be more compassionate.
I was rather quite prior to her statement, but felt I should probably speak up as I was clearly drawn into the conversation. I responded simply,
Yes, it can be incredibly invasive and insensitive to ask such personal questions about someone’s fertility. It’s the reason that I never ask about anyone’s future plans to have children or not. I figure it’s a personal decision that people will talk about when and if they want to.
Needless to say that conversation ended as everyone moved onto something much less awkward.
As for me, all I was left think is that plain and simply, infertility sucks. I desperately wish more people could be more compassionate and supportive of those going through infertility. I also desperately wish that more people would realize that even if you one day someone going through infertility finds their way to a child (as we did via open adoption) the hurt of the losses, both figurative and literal, never goes away. The insensitive things people say, are never forgotten. And so today I’m thankful that if nothing else, at least one person has learned from our experiences.
If you like this post, please feel free to share and please click the follow button on the side or return to myperfectbreakdown.com to follow my journey.
My Perfect Breakdown 