health update---a cure?

Wait? An answer to my GI problems? There might be an answer; we just have to wait and see as the weeks go by.

Let me start from the beginning. You all know of my health issues regarding my stomach over the past year. I've undergone every imaginable GI test and exams and nothing except gastroperesis has been found as to why I suffer so much with pain and nausea. I've gone so many times to my GI doctor and tried various medications and yet I only felt temporary relief. There was no permanent "fix" to the situation since the doctors didn't know what to fix. All I was told was to take a certain medication and eat 6 small meals a day to help my digestion and gastroperesis. It is a continue struggle to go through pain and nausea.

After I had my surgery, on March 17, my mouth was very sore and I couldn't really chew anything that wasn't soft. That meant, I couldn't eat chicken, beef, pork, etc. Really the only thing I can comfortably eat besides very very soft cooked veggies and certain fruits was Talapia or Salmon. So, I was on this so-called vegetarian diet (I should say Fish and Veggie diet). I didn't eat any chicken, beef, or pork; and basically ate a lot of soups, broth and fish. Well, as I was on this "diet", I began to feel a lot less nauseated than I have been in the past. So I thought to myself, maybe I should just stick to this diet a few more weeks to see how I continue to feel (plus I still couldn't chew meat). So I stuck to the diet. I would basically eat nothing but fish and veggies, and drink some chicken broth for protein. Amazingly, the more I continued with not eating meat, my nausea level began to decrease significantly. I mean, I will still have those nauseated moments but it wasn't as fierce as it had been. As for my pain level, well, it was still there but not a continuous pain as before. I would just have moments in the day when I'm in a lot of pain rather than the whole day in pain. I've kept this diet for over a month now, and to test out if the diet was true or just coincidental, I purposely cheated (plus it is hard not too when on vacation) on my diet on our recent trip to NY to see my grandmother. During the 3 day stay there, I was cautions about the amounts of meat I would eat, but really tried to stick to just eating veggies. Well, I can tell you that those days I did eat just a few bites here and there of meat or seafood, I suffered a lot from nausea. The trip back down to VA was horrible as I was nauseated the entire trip. So, I'm back on my diet and actually my mom is thinking of switching to the same diet.

So, while in NY, my Aunt Mable took me to see a very good doctor/herbalist in China Town. She is so concerned over the level of pain and nausea that she made an appointment for me to see an Chinese Herbalist/ Doctor (in fact, his name is Shi Leung----ironic huh??). In fact, she and mom took me; mom insisted for her not to go with us, but she wanted to take me and that made me feel special. Anyhow, since I'm not fluent in Chinese my Aunt and my Mom explained to the herbalist my health issues. I was able to answer his questions in Chinese to the best of my ability. We gave him almost a complete history of all medical tests and medicine given to us and we told him how I stopped many of my meds. All of us were hoping to get some herb prescription (you can get fresh herbs, but there are some that is so-called "controlled" meaning there is a special blend that you can only know how to make with a "prescription" ). Well, I was sad when he said he couldn't give me a prescription. When all of us asked why, he explained to us my health issues/history and chronic stomach problems is too complicated and since I live in VA and he can't really follow up on me, he preferred not to give me anything. He wanted to er on the safe side in case I would have a reaction to the herbs and there was no way he could help me. He did say that if I were willing to move to NY, he would gladly help; but for safety reasons, he preferred not to. So, we were all quit disappointed, but I just said to myself that I was going to continue to stick to this special diet and go from there.

Sounds discouraging so far, eh? Well....here's the good part!

We got back to my grandma's house and talked to my other aunt, my Aunt Liz (my uncle's wife) about it. She's a certified acupuncturist as well. Aunt Liz decided to do a "work-up" on me to see what the acupuncture pressure points tell her. Amazingly, she quickly figured out what was wrong with me that Americanized medication would never figure out. She said that my organs, especially those organs dealing with the digestive track is nutrient deficient, mean it was lacking the proper nutrients for my GI to work properly,thus causing nausea and pain. She told me the best things to help nourish my digestive organs is to eat a lot of root veggies as well as "cold" foods and to AVOID wheat based products (which is what I do already); but she told me to completely eliminate it---some foods have small amount of gluten in it and she said to just avoid it 100%). I was also told to avoid tropical fruits, bitter veggies/fruits, peppers, and tomatoes. She told me that she is not surprised that my nausea lessened when I went on a fish/veggie diet because she said that those are the best to eat when someone has GI issues and it's good in nutrition. Basically, she suggested me to stay on my veggie diet because of all the vitamins and to avoid meat, if I can.

Then, I also got an acupuncture treatment as well to address the nausea. She gave it to me 40 minutes before we ate to see if it helped with the digestive/nausea part; it didn't eliminate it completely but I did see and feel the difference. She showed mom that spot to place the needle and had her practice on me---so I have some needles to be able to give myself a treatment once/twice a week. She only gave us the "area" points and that the true points had to be done by her--of course, that's not possible since we don't live in VA! I'm not biased, but I'm skeptical about acupuncturist here in Va....but I guess if I need one I should just go for it! Oh, side note, I still HATE needles, but those tiny tiny tiny acupuncture needles feels less than a prick, so I'm ok with that)

So, hopefully, with this newer diet suggested to me by my aunt, and some acupuncture treatments, I hope and pray the issue with my GI will be quickly resolved. I'm determined to avoid the foods my aunt suggested and to eat more of the foods she suggested (luckily, all of them I LOVE). Even though a lot of the "no no" foods are my favorite I'm determined to discipline myself not to eat it! I need a lot of prayers! The list of yes foods and no foods are a lot more than what I mentioned. Aunt Liz said she will email me a list of food groups/items to avoid or to concentrate on.

I'm so amazed at how a lot of the Eastern medicine practice is so different then the Western medications. My aunt explained to me that Western medications find something that helps the problem, but the goal of Eastern is to cure the problem. So hopefully by eating the proper diet, this GI issue will soon be cured. Keeping up with this diet will re-nourish my GI organs and eventually the pain will go away. Praying that this will work.