A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I was completing 5 tests: one lab test (blood) and four at-home tests (saliva, urine (x2), hair). I was able to complete the remaining at-home tests earlier this week and ship them. So, what now? We have to wait a few weeks to receive results. Then, we have an initial online consultation in March (not covered by insurance, of course) with the functional medicine chiropractor who ordered these tests. [This medical practice has patients complete testing prior to the first appointment with the doctor.]
Will this doctor be a doctor who can help us find the root cause(s)? Do we want to work with him? Can we afford it? Will these test results provide any useful information? If so, will the information result in something easy to resolve? If not, what is next?
It could be easy to get caught in a cycle of worrying about the future, so we try not to think about more than one day at a time, and sometimes, one minute at a time. The rollercoaster of this situation can be emotionally taxing, so we try to find as much joy as possible in the regular moments of life. We also each have tools to keep us grounded and in the moment as much as possible.
We first called this doctor’s office and asked questions in mid-January, and I won’t have an appointment until March. While we are waiting for the test results and initial appointment, we have been piecing together a treatment plan to try to keep my body from regressing more than it already had since ending treatment with my last team of doctors. One of my previous doctors provided the treatment of 4 practitioners all in one place. So, finding someone who does what he did is difficult to do. We have done a great job of finding practitioners who each do one type of treatment that he used to do, but it costs a large amount of money to go from one doctor donating his time and services to treat me in 4 different ways to now receiving treatment 3-4x per week using 2-3 different practitioners (not covered by insurance, of course). However, we believe that it is worth it to not lose any more ground.
We also don’t want the emotional trauma from the sudden and unexpected ending of treatment with my previous team of doctors to cause any more harm than it has already done, so we have continued to work through the emotions with both our wonderful therapist (not covered by insurance, of course) and our new team of practitioners.
Brutal. Waiting.
Beautiful. Finding the joy and laughing when we can. Taking one day at a time. Finding kind and compassionate practitioners. Remaining hopeful that more help is on the way.
Just another day of . . . This Brutiful Life: The Brutal & Beautiful Moments of My Life.
This Brutiful Life 