[Note: This post may be updated in the future if more information is available.]
I was hoping that resigning from my teaching job and reducing stress would help more than it actually did. The mind/body/spirit connection is powerful, and I had high hopes that less stress would have a major impact on my physical body. I am sure it helped, but not quite enough.
A few months later (still in my late 30s), when the Ob/Gyn specialist was out of ideas and ready to discard me as a patient, he recommended that I do pelvic floor physical therapy (partially covered by insurance when the deductible is met). I went to 3 appointments, and it made my pain worse at this stage of the journey.
About 5 months later, my paternal grandfather passed away. It was his time to go, but it was definitely an emotional stressor.
For the next 6 months, my Naturopath really tried to help me feel better, but my symptoms were not improving. I was having more pain in my upper abdomen, so we made an appointment with another GI specialist in our area. He recommended an upper endoscopy and found that I had erosive gastritis. Biopsies from the stomach showed chronic, nonspecific inflammation, but negative for H. pylori infection. [We had retested for H. pylori after the previous treatment to make sure it had worked, and this test confirmed those results.] The GI specialist prescribed a PPI for 30 days to help the stomach heal. I did not want to take a PPI, but I knew that I needed to try his treatment plan in order for him to continue working with me.
Unfortunately, the PPI made the pain worse. I stuck it out for 30 days to try to follow his treatment plan, but the pain kept getting worse. It was hard to eat, and I was losing weight.
I then asked for a gallbladder test to eliminate that as the problem. The results indicated that my gall bladder was functioning properly.
The GI specialist then suggested a prescription medication to relieve the symptoms. I knew that this medication would cover up the symptoms again instead of actually helping me find the root cause(s). Obviously, I was looking for the root cause(s), so this approach did not align with me.
I was out of ideas, and I was open to trying anything. One of my close friends told me about her positive experience with Neurofeedback (not covered by insurance, of course), and I decided to give it a try. Because of the gut-brain connection, I was hoping that retraining my brain would be the answer to all of my gut problems and more. Maybe I just needed to rewire my brain, and then the rest of my body would be good as new!
Just another day of . . . This Brutiful Life: The Brutal & Beautiful Moments of My Life.
This Brutiful Life 