This Brutiful Life

[Note: This post may be updated in the future if more information is available.]

We were now in our early 40s. Since the GI specialist in our area was no longer helping us move forward, we began searching for what to do next. At this point, my health was declining at a rapid rate.

I had previously heard about a functional medical doctor (not covered by insurance, of course) from the state of Nevada who worked with patients virtually. Functional medicine involves trying to find and treat the root cause instead of covering up symptoms, and since this functional doctor was an MD, he could also prescribe prescription medications if needed. I quickly made an appointment for an initial consultation. He listened to my story, asked me to send him my previous test results, and gave me a list of 4-5 at-home tests to order and complete (not covered by insurance, of course).

The results for these tests indicated that I had Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO). We were elated to finally have some results that made the next steps clearer. My functional doctor said that my results were the worst he had ever seen, so that would explain my extreme pain. He said that there were multiple treatment options, and I told him that I wanted to take the most aggressive approach. I wanted to feel better, and I didn’t care about much else. The gold standard for treating SIBO was being on a special physician’s formula liquid diet that provides you with the nutrients you need, but also kills the SIBO. If this was the answer, then I was happy to do it.

Well, the liquid diet did not go as my functional doctor had planned. About 1 week into the treatment, I started having diarrhea. He said that he had never had that happen before, so he suggested that I keep going. I did, but I was definitely not feeling better. He said that we should keep going, and that some people need to be on it longer than the normal timeframe. He then added some antimicrobial supplements to the treatment plan. I ended up being on the liquid diet for too long, and we decided that I needed to get off of it and try solid food again. He told me to eat a low-FODMAP diet, and to slowly add in each new food. If the food caused pain, then take it back out of my diet.

I was also still doing Neurofeedback during this time. The Neurofeedback practitioner was well known in our area for being great at her job, and she was wonderful. She treated me for 3 months and told me that my brain was now functioning more optimally. Yay! However, my physical symptoms in the rest of my body had not improved, so she told me that she didn’t want to take any more of my money at this point. She told me that since my brain was now functioning more optimally, and the rest of my body was still struggling physically, the brain was not the primary cause of my physical ailments. She said that there was something else going on in my body that was causing my nervous system to stay on high alert (fight mode). She told me to keep searching for the root cause(s) of my physical symptoms.

The liquid diet also did not take care of my physical symptoms, so almost all of the food I added back into my diet caused pain. I asked the functional doctor how I was supposed to know if I was reacting negatively to a food if my stomach was not feeling better prior to adding in new foods. He didn’t have an answer, so he just said to keep trying to add low-FODMAP foods. I asked about the possibility of Small Intestinal Fungal Overgrowth (SIFO) along with SIBO since I had been treated for candida overgrowth on-and-off by my Naturopath for over 15 years, but my functional doctor did not believe SIFO was involved at this time.

About a month later, Covid-19 began. I was in the middle of trying to figure out foods that I could eat, and now I was wondering if I would be able to buy any foods that I could eat. As it was for everyone, Covid-19 was an emotional stressor to the max.

My functional doctor started to become confused about what I was reporting to him, so he asked me to complete another SIBO test along with some more at-home tests (not covered by insurance, of course). I did, and the answers were confusing. The SIBO appeared to be gone, but the symptoms were still there. He said that we should continue to treat the SIBO, because sometimes there are false negatives. He had me try some different antimicrobial supplements. Treatment continued like this for another 5 months.

At this point, it was getting obvious that he was running out of ideas. However, we didn’t know what to try next, so we continued to work with him. He was becoming frustrated with the fact that he couldn’t figure it out, so he started to blame me for many things even though I was the model patient. He then told me that I just needed to manifest good health. He told me to try meditation, and gave me a recommendation of a book to read about manifesting good health. I read about how to do this specific type of meditation, and as always, I was willing to give it a try.

A few months later, the Covid-19 vaccine became available to me. I asked the functional doctor for his recommendation for my body, and he recommended getting the vaccine. I ultimately chose to get vaccinated, because surviving and protecting others were my main priorities. If there were any consequences to this decision, I would have to deal with them later. I followed my doctor’s recommendation, and I made the best decision that I could at the time.

Just another day of . . . This Brutiful Life: The Brutal & Beautiful Moments of My Life.