Focusing on Health and Wellness

I haven’t posted in several weeks because I’ve been having a serious crisis related to my health and wellness. I’m only 50, but I feel like I’m 80. When I catch a cold (not difficult with two little gremlins in preschool), it quickly turns into a sinus infection that lasts for weeks and even months. And when I’m sick, my body gets so stiff that it’s painful to move, especially when I first wake up. The insomnia is what really kills me – I can’t get deep sleep and I’m awake every 45-60 minutes. Going to bed around 11pm and getting up at 6am equates to about 4.5 to 5.5 hours of sleep a night, according to my Apple Watch. That probably wreaks havoc on my immune system.

This is a recurring problem that started in 2017, when I gave up on IUI and IVF. I had suffered two miscarriages and the hormones were making me crazy. So it’s been 7 years since my last injection of infertility drugs, but I don’t think my hormone levels ever regulated. When I complain to my primary care physician (PCP), she tells me that I’m overweight and explains that all women in periomenopause feel like this. Then she prescribed escitalopram, which is intended to ease depression and anxiety, but she claims that it eases menopause symptoms as well. I never took it.

Health and wellness isn’t just dependent on health and exercise

Her recommendation for my health and wellness is always diet and exercise. About 4 months ago, I saw an ad on Facebook for Equelle, which is a supplement that promises menopause relief. It uses S-equol, a plant-based metabolite that mimics the effects of estrogen. After 1 month, my periods returned with a vengeance. After 3 months, my libido returned and I didn’t feel sore every day when I woke up. In the 4th month, I felt like I had never taken the supplement. I was stiff and sore, my periods were gone, and I had hot flashes again.

I went back to the PCP when I had a serious pain in the bottom of my right foot. When she saw no issues on the x-ray, she blamed it on my weight. I get it… I’m overweight. But 195 pounds at 5’7″ isn’t SO bad that my body should hurt all the time. I admit that I could eat better and work out to get myself back down to an ideal weight of 140 (you know, in my copious spare time!). But I do believe that I have a hormone imbalance that needs to be addressed.

Trying a new doctor

I tried another PCP in the Kaiser Permanente system when my doctor was on vacation, and I was so excited to see her. The nurses all sang her praises claiming that she was older, more patient, and would understand.

NOPE! This doctor treated me the same way. She ignored my pleas for help and repeated the last doctor’s instructions to diet and exercise. She chastised me for my busy lifestyle and encouraged me to maybe let a few things go to reduce my stress. However, she did agree to test my hormone levels and I was over the moon!

She tested my estradiol, TSH, FSH, and LH. They were normal! In fact, they looked better than they did during my infertility days, before the IUI and IVF. I didn’t notice that she failed to test my progesterone levels.

Back to the Hospital

Shortly after that, I got really, really sick. I think I just picked up a daycare germ. After a week of me coughing and choking on thick, sticky mucus to the point of dry heaving, my husband forced me to urgent care. They gave me amoxycillin and a z-pack without testing me for flu, strep, COVID, or anything else. The doctor said “these meds will knock anything out of you.”

Except they didn’t. Three weeks later, I was still sick. I stayed home from work on a Monday and around 4pm I had a pressure-like pain in my left breast with a surging pain in my right arm. By 8pm, my husband sent me to urgent care again. With a clear EKG, they chalked it up to stress and referred me back to my PCP with a new referral to Behavioral Health for stress reduction.

Waiting in the pharmacy for steroids and inhalers, my chest pain returned and the pharmacist urged me to go to the emergency room. Four hours, a follow-up EKG, and 6 tubes of blood later, I was told that my heart and lungs were fine. They discharged me. Isn’t Kaiser supposed to be focused on health and wellness? I just want to know what’s wrong with me but no one there seems to care.

This isn’t the first time I’ve been down this road with Kaiser Permanente. Back in 2020, I complained of similar symptoms and they suspected MS. I went through brain scans, MRIs, nerve tests, blood tests, urine and fecal tests… when they ordered a spinal tap, I pulled the plug on testing. After all that, they still found nothing wrong with me and I was not going through the pain of a spinal tap just because they didn’t know what else to do.

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!

Two friends reached out to me the next day suggesting Functional Medicine. I had to go look this one up. According to Cleveland Clinic, “The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to chronic disease management. It seeks to answer the question, “Why are you ill?” so you can receive personalized, effective care for your needs.”

I went straight to Google to search for Functional Medicine in my zip code. What I found was an IV therapy clinic about 30 minutes from my home with numerous and consistent 5-star ratings. I booked an appointment for the next day, and they asked me to bring my medical history with me including any current OTC and prescribed medicines, a list of prior surgeries, all blood test results within 6 months, and any questions/concerns written down. The woman on the phone told me “Your health and wellness are the most important thing to us” and I felt like I had found the right place.

Functional Medicine/IV Clinic

I did my homework as asked and practically skipped into the little clinic in the strip mall. After going through all of the above with the nurse, I almost walked out when she set up a tablet in front of me to meet with the doctor via Zoom. The doctor was an older female Asian woman – cocky and aggressive. She talked alot about herself and her methods but didn’t ask me anything. She immediately prescribed a host of supplements (sold on-site, of course) and an IV therapy regimen. She had wrongly assumed that teetering between periomenopause and menopause was my only issue.

The nurse came back as I was packing everything back into my purse to leave. She apologized for the doctor’s abruptness and begged me to give them another chance to help me. She even waived the consultation fee. Curious, I agreed to try the IV, which was really just full of vitamins (C, B complex, taurin, lysin, selenium, zinc, methione, inositol, choline, calcium, and magnesium).

I sat in a very comfortable reclining chair and they placed a fuzzy blanket on my legs, then offered pillows to rest my arms on. My arm veins were too small so they had to put the IV in my hand, which is always so painful. Since the bag of fluid was cold, they put warm compresses under my hand, on my wrist, and on my chest. Halfway through, I experienced what felt like a headache in my hand, so they replaced the warm compresses and the pain quickly went away.

We made an appointment for another IV the following week (they claim most women need a series of 8-10 weekly IV treatments and then monthly follow-up) and an appointment in two weeks to speak with the doctor in person, in more detail. Next week’s IV will be a stronger dose of what I received this week, with the following IV likely starting me on NAD, which is far more expensive.

Results

I’m not sure what effect the IV had on me, if any. I can tell you that my eyes felt very open and my urge to nap was gone. The next day, I still had the same aches and pains, the same coughing and choking on mucus dripping down the back of my throat, the same insomnia. Each IV is $220 and the NAD is $499. My fledgling digital products business is stagnant with no hint of sales, which means that financially I can’t keep up the regimen they’re recommending. I also still have doubts about whether this is the right doctor for me.

This is a long post and I hope there were some lessons in the details for you. We have to advocate for our own health and wellness. If your doctor isn’t hearing you, then tell them that or find a new doctor. Don’t stop until you find relief. I’ve let this go on far too long.

There’s more to come. Stay tuned!