The first visit is nothing more than telling him my story and answering a bunch of questions. However, Dr. B is convinced that everything is connected. So he sent me home with a slew of tests (blood, saliva, urine, etc) that he needed done. Oh and he gave me homework. 4 supplements and an epsom salt bath everyday. Yeah so the salt bath thing didn't quite happen as often as he'd hoped. But I did do the 4 supplements:
- WholeMega capsules (2000 mg/day)
- Rhodiola Rosea (500mg/day)
- Curcumin (500mg/day)
- Alfalfa powder (I couldn't find that so he said the capsules are fine)
After I finished the first bottle of the rosea (which was expensive and I had to take 4 capsules to get the 500mg I needed), I found another source at GNC where I can take 2 capsules to get 680mg. A little more than my allotted dose, but I figured for one bottle it couldn't kill me. Still cheaper than the other brand I bought at Whole Foods.
Been taking the supplements for about 6 weeks straight and my energy isn't what it used to be, but it is way more manageable. And my appetite peeks its head out every now and then. So it's helping taking the edge off. I feel focused more often than I was so that's a bonus.
So I returned to Dr. B earlier this week. One test never made it to the lab (stupid FedEx), but the others were there. Vitamin D was at rock bottom. Neurotransmitter test came back retardedly low on.... nearly everything. Except PEA and Dopamine; which has Dr. B really confused since the norepinephrine and epinephrine are nearly non-existent. Yay. More confusion. But those two things being so low explains why I am so sleepy all the time and why my body feels so sluggish. So... Some answers. There were other crappy results as well.
Food testing is what has my head turning right now. For the next 8 weeks, I am told to avoid all items "in red" on the list. Maybe later I can try adding some of the lower scoring foods back in. Essentially, no more: cow dairy of any kind (it scored SUPER high), almonds, asparagus, corn, crab, eggplant, gluten, grapefruit, haddock, malt, mustard, onion (scored very high -- makes me sad), orange, peanut, black pepper, shrimp, tuna, and wheat. Grrr.... Doc (original dr) said he'd help me with ways to swap out those items. Dr. B said he was going to put me on a Paleo diet, until he saw that almonds were on the list; Doc says it's still my best bet and that it can substituted in the meantime.
*sigh* I have about 15 more tests to get done. And I have 3 more supplements I have to take to start getting my numbers back up (already on 4 supplements). Still don't have any specific answers, but Dr. B and Doc seem to be rather confident that food avoidance will help kill most of my chronic pain.
I said I was going to wait until after Christmas until I start moving towards this food avoidance thing. Well It's the day after Christmas. And I'm looking at the can of tuna on the counter thinking, "I'd really like a tuna salad sandwich after my workout this morning."
Damn....
No comments:
Post a Comment