Fast

It's been a while since my last entry because I've been busy with some things. I was having headaches again so I decided to make an appointment with the doctor. The doctor I'd been going to couldn't see me for months (sidebar: what's the point of limiting the number of patients a doctor sees if you still have too many to get an appointment within a few days? American medicine needs major reform.) So I had to find another doctor. Fortunately my insurance is pretty good and allows a lot of flexibility, so I found another that came recommended and went.

This turned out, like most things, to be a blessing in disguise because this doctor is WAY better. She actually practices medicine instead of guesswork. Where the previous doctor would say, "could be X...try this." and repeat endlessly, this doctor actually runs tests and verifies assumptions before acting. She also has a much more holistic expertise so instead of saying, "well I'm an X-ologist, so I think it has to be X-itis"...which incidentally makes me want to pitch them from the window! Why would I pay all that money and time to have them do what I could do on the Internet! Their license should be revoked!... anyway, this doctor actually cultured my sinuses and then prescribed an antibiotic that she knew this infection was sensitive to. She also recognized symptoms of another complex condition and suggested a two-part course of treatment.

The long and short is that the root of most of my health issues is allergies. Apparently people who are highly sensitive to things like I am don't often exhibit classic allergy symptoms to most of them, but the constant state of physiologic stress does other things to a person. They will spiral down into other allergic sensitivities, depression, malaise, aches...even the acidic stomach condition I had is caused by allergic reactions, mostly to things we eat. In fact, even IBS is now thought to be linked to it. What I discovered in my confirmation research on the doctor's opinion was that many things which doctors traditionally call "mental" or "stress-related" could in fact be equally as likely the polar opposite. The mind-body connection goes both ways, so what I was thinking was a psychosomatic condition may very well have been a physiologic condition that was causing the other problems.

God is wonderful. He is answering my prayers in His time and in ways that I could not imagine. This doctor is confident that she can turn off my reactions permanently, and even more so that she can reduce them through this course of adaptive management...which rings so true with my own scientific understanding.

So one of the first things I had to do was a serious elimination diet. I had to purge myself of all the reactions. This meant cutting out everything I tested positive to and anything else that could potentially have a problem. I basically ate whole foods I prepared myself. Nothing from a package because of hidden additives, nothing with unknown spices. Meat, certain grains, certain fruits, certain leaves. That's it. She warned me that it would not be easy and that patients often go into depression because of it. I knew from my cold turkey refined sugar halt a few years ago that there can be weird withdrawals and I steeled myself to endure.

I prayed that it would be a fast to God. An honoring of Him with my diet. And you know what, while I have missed a few things, there have been no cravings. Coupled with the almost immediate changes in my overall condition, I became even more assured. I began feeling things that I have, seriously, no memory of ever feeling before. You might not understand this, but I had to ask my wife what was happening to me because I had never known what the pangs in my stomach were that occurred just before meal times. I had never known what it is to be sated and steady in the stomach and then to have it gnaw and growl on regular intervals when more food is needed. I'd seen it on TV, but I thought it was dramatization. There have been many other such changes and awakenings.

Now I am in the stage of slowly introducing single dietary elements to track reactions. The end goal is to widen my diet to a comfortable level. But I already know that I won't go back to eating like I did. This suits my natural bent so much more. It suits my spiritual bent. It's like when I discovered Parkour as the physical element I'd been seeking...I know this is now a lifelong fit. It forms a puzzle piece that locks into my being. I don't need a wide diet. I'm perfectly comfortable eating a few simple things all the time. It is how most of the world lives and I am no better than they. I don't want to fear what I eat. I am comfortable rejecting mainstream culture in this, not in a fad way, but in a real necessary way. When something makes you sick, the appropriate reaction is to not want it. To do otherwise is a form of madness.

So I know I have a long way to go. I'm just setting out. But I feel so much better. I am committed to this process. I'm surrendering yet another aspect of my life to the redemptive power of Jesus and it requires a radical alteration of my life. And ironically, (actually not, since this has happened in other areas as well) it has nothing to do with the sort of teaching we get from most religious leaders, not getting morally right, not just believing. Quite the opposite actually. It could receive this only after God told me that I must trust the science and medicine. He reminded me that science was created to describe His character just as theology was. He told me to stop relying on works-based systems, faith-healing hocus, and prayer alone. Now I wasn't going around buying prayer towels and stuff, but I was convinced that I God would take care of me and that it was His will that I was where I was at. But God showed me once again the truth I had believed and forgotten: There was a man of faith in a flood who didn't evacuate when told it was coming. A truck came by and offered him a ride, but he refused saying God would save him. The same thing happened as the waters rose and a boat, then a helicopter came. Then the man drowned and asked God why He didn't save him? God replied, "What do you mean?! I sent the truck, boat, and helicopter!"