On August 12, I went to see Dr. Patty.
I was about 45 minutes early, and I sat in my car anxiously awaiting my first doctor's appointment maybe EVER. I was clutching my pre-visit form in my sweaty, overprepared hand. I was Indescribably scared and at the same time curious about what she would say to me. I thought for sure she would be able to look at me and tell me everything. I thought she'd look at my skin in horror and tell me I should have worn sunscreen. I thought she's tell me I was allergic to everything and I better go eat cucumbers for the rest of my life.
Luckily, none of that happened.
I awkwardly sat in the waiting room while she got ready for me. I only imagine what a naturopath does to get ready. Maybe she does a quick neti-pot, puts some nettles under her tongue and smokes a damiana/lavendar cig? Whatever she was doing was lost on me, I got lost in the magazine article on being really old and healthy. Apparently it's whiskey and walking! I might have to try that.
Anyway, she calls me in.
"Hello April! How are you! How did you hear about my office?"
"Um, my sister, Lindsay Schief"
"OOOHHH LINDSAYY!!! YES!! sit down, sit down, would you like some water?"
"uh, no thanks. I dont actually drink water, I solely drink iced coffee" (ok that was made up, but true)
She looked at me and said "well? what's ailing you? why are you visiting me today?"
SHOULDN'T YOU BE ABLE TO LOOK AT ME AND TELL?
"Well, mostly my sister made me come here to get my food allergy test and to ask you about a possible Candida overgrowth"
"ah, yes. tell me about your symptoms"
"Well, I'm always tired, I need sugar or I turn into a monster, it hurts when i eat most things, i can see clear pictures of the things floating in my eyes, my skin breaks out when i eat sugar...and I am curious to see if it's just food allergy or normal."
She then proceeded to do a full physical examination on me, made sure my heart was good, my lungs were good, my eyes were good, my ears were good. My blood pressure and so on. She was extra impressed with my ears. I was like, I know.
She then wanted to check on my Thyroid. She grabbed me a glass of water, and asked me to take a drink while she felt the front part of my neck. That's where my Thyroid is apparently. As soon as she put her hand on there she said "oh, no need to drink the water. I can feel your thyroid is inflamed and there are a few nodules on it. I'm going to give you a thyroid test to take at the lab along with you food allergy test.
Diagnosis:
Candida overgrowth
Treatment: For 3 months minimum
Yeast free diet (no sugar, dairy, yeast, anything fungus related or fermented)
Supplements of Magnesium, Pro-biotics, licorice extract, vitamin C
Exercise
This is where it gets real. I left and immediately started crying, not crying like a little sniff and a few tears. Crying like, uncontrollable sobbing and inability to stop. Granted, it was the first day of shark week. It was shocking how much I was crying. I couldn't see the road, I couldn't control my wailing. I can't remember a time before that I cried so hard (minus some choice prayer times) Usually my crying is one forced tear, and maybe a few silent sniffs. This was so out of character for me!
I think it was a mix of hormones, relief, and worry all at the same time. The overwhelming thought that now that I know, I can't ignore my body anymore. Now that I know for SURE I have no excuse to treat my body like crap. The information about my health was right in front of me. Now that a DOCTOR said I have candida, I have to take care of it. Now that the DOCTOR is worried about my thyroid, IM worried about my thyroid.
I needed someone to tell me it was going to be ok, and possibly just hug me and give me my last cookie maybe ever. I decided to see Linz at work. I love Olympia Coffee Roasters, and I was SO excited to sit there and cry for a while. It actually felt kinda good! I walked in to OCR and it went something like this
Linz - "Get over here little guy" holding her arms out for a hug
Me - "IM CRYING!" then i sobbed and sank into her arms.
"ok, let's go outside"
So I sat outside and told linz everything. She is so wise, she just looked at me and said, "I know this is overwhelming, but you might not have even gone to see her in the first place, so you can take your time with starting treatment and paying for expensive tests. Do what you can do on your own and save some money to do the rest!"
She then had a customer so she ran inside and I sat, still crying (It had been atleast 20 minutes) on the front stoop of the shop. Her extremely attractive boss pulled up in his nice car, got out and walked toward me to go inside. I looked away like, CRAP now a really cute guy (i now know he's married and stuff, so it was ok) is here! Of course!
He just looked at me and said "Are you ok?"
I said, "yeah, yeah, (awkward hard swallow) I'm good" as i turned away in shame.
As soon as I collected myself, I walked inside and sat down. Linz offered me an americano, an orange juice, and hot chocolate. I shook my head yes to all 3.
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