Not too long ago, I found myself in the waiting room of an alternative medicine practice.
You might be thinking, Thats not the jot down of disease that lends itself to seeing a chiropractor.
To be honest, I thought the same thing at the time.
Courtesy of the author
Yet, there I was.
Lets rewind for a minute: I was diagnosed with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) five years ago.
The condition causes painful abscesses and boils to occur near hair follicles, such as the underarms and groin.
I remember feeling a huge wave of relief that I had a diagnosis.
He said the diseasehas no cureand suggested I follow up with a dermatologist.
But that hope steadily declined as time went on.
At that point, the disease had spread from my underarms to my groin area.
I had days where I could barely walk or lift my arms.
I needed relief so badly.
Some of the medications helped at first, only for their effectiveness to lessen over time.
Others didnt work at all.
I knew she was doing everything she could for me, but I just felt so defeated.
Over the last couple years, I started doing research on my own.
If anyone on the internet mentioned a product that worked for them, I bought it.
I joined Facebook groups populated by other people with HS who were also desperate for treatments.
As a result, I looked into tailored diets, like paleo and autoimmune protocol eating plans.
I was willing to listen to anyone and experiment with unconventional healing methods.
At the appointment, I explained my condition as well as the symptoms I was having.
I mentioned how frustrated I was and that I thought certain foods might be triggers.
The doctor told me they would like to run a few tests on me.
I immediately said yes, half-expecting that those said tests would be blood tests.
But theres limited scientific research on applied kinesiology.
My practitioner printed out a list of the foods that were tested and the so-called sensitivities that it revealed.
An hour later, I walked out of there with a medical bill and over $200 in supplements.
The eating plan would help me cut out some less-nutritious foods anyway.
I also decided to take the supplements.
I figured they wouldnt be any worse than the traditional medications I tried, right?
I just blindly trusted that personsomething I normally would never do.
My ownresearchalso revealed that goldenseal does have thepotential to interact with other drugs.
Deep down I knew I should err on the side of caution without additional information.
I felt like an idiot.
Doing research isnt necessarily a bad thing.
She recommends speaking with your medical provider about any supplements or natural treatments you might want to try.
Otherwise, youre going to clash, and you might not be able to have the most productive discussion.
I felt like each one that ended up not working caused me to become even more depressed.
And the more stressed and defeated I found myself, the worse my flare-ups got.
I wanted so badly to believe that these natural tests and remedies would be the solution to my symptoms.
Instead, it just added to the list of treatment options that havent worked for me.
I also feel so guilty for spending thousands of dollars over the years to find a cure.
And to be honest, I often feel a little bit let down by Western medicine.
These days, Im back on adalimumab, which has at least partly helped my symptoms.
Im my biggest advocate.
