Diagnoses & Adventures In Veganism

Ever since I gave birth, I've been having health issues. At first, I attributed it to my postpartum depression - the lethargy, no appetite, depression itself. Eventually, the smoke cleared (one day, it will for you too, if you're dealing with PPD), and I found myself still experiencing the symptoms and then some. During this time, I had contacted several physicians - including the primary OB/GYN on my cesarean section birth. She refused to see me, on different occasions, stating that it was pathological (which, for some women, pain can become pathological as a result of birth based trauma). Soon after, I found myself with an opening on my incision site - again, I was told this was pathological. Meaning, if I healed my emotional state - then my open incision would close, magically.

I'm not an imbecile, I'm well educated, AND I work in the medical field - technically. My pelvis was warm to the touch, swollen, red, and leaking fluid. I knew that I had an infection. Yet, my obstetrician refused to see me. Several local physicians refused giving care to me, because they weren't the surgeons who performed the cesarean. Eventually, I ended up driving almost two hours - to have a doctor tell me that I had the a severe bacterial infection occuring. I was prescribed antibiotics, and told to rest.

The infection, and my open incision healed. Yet, I was still having medical concerns. Vomiting and passing blood with no other indications, lethary, light headedness, blurred vision (on occasion), a sense of swelling and pressure in my abdomen, a constant metallic taste in my mouth, and the pain. Usually, when I experience pain, there's something serious happening internally - I know this, because I have an outrageously high pain threshold. For instance, when I had my c-section, I refused pain medication. I didn't need it - I was up and walking within minutes of my spinal block wearing off. So, I knew something was going on. Yet, every medical professional was essentially telling me that I was crazy.

I tried making appointments with many different physicians, all to be declined. Until two weeks ago - when the pain became so immense that I informed the receptionist that, "If you don't schedule me in, I'm likely to die for this pain and these symptoms - and that will be on YOUR conscience". It may have been an extremist tactic, but I was tired (literally and figuratively) of being ignored. I went in that day, and was first seen by a nurse - I explained all of my symptoms and the first thing out of her mouth was,

"Does anyone in your family have a history of colon cancer?"

Yes, you read that correctly. Bringing out the big guns, without any blood work or examinations. Ironically, colon cancer is the one of the only diseases that hasn't run through my family genetics. Breast, bone, lung, cervical cancer? Sure. Diabetes, mental diseases, suicide, renal failure, systemic organ shut down? Absolutely. And as of this point, I've been incredibly lucky - my weight has been my only issue. Even that isn't really a big deal - I'm unhappy with the size that I'm at, and feel unhealthy in that fashion, however, I have great cholesterol numbers, awesome blood pressure, no indications of being pre-diabetic or having heart disease. I'm thankful. However, I've also been waiting for the ball to drop in regard to my health.

So, they ordered blood work. A ton of it. Liver enzymes were high, but not to a point that it was concerning to the physician I saw - who actually took my symptoms seriously. My hemoglobin was awesome (14.8), hemocrit was fabulous, kidneys functions just fine, no high salt content. They still couldn't identify wear the bleeding was coming from, so I had a pelvic examination (fabulous), and a rectal examination (even better). They couldn't understand my symptoms, so the next step would be to get an internal picture. Meaning an ultrasound of my gallbladder, endoscopy, and colonoscopy, not to mention biopsies and samples taken for testing.

The next day I met with the surgeon, I was genuinely suprised at his bedside manner, kind, compassionate, and very forward about the range of things my symptoms were indicative of. Everything from a failing gallbladder to celiacs, to the big one - colon cancer (although that one is extremely rare, given my age, overall health, and sex). So, I prepared to be given an endoscopy.

The procedure itself is relatively easy - a scope with a camera goes down your throat and checks out your stomach and gallbladder. They would take a sample of my stomach acid, and a biopsy of my gallbladder - all said and done, they saw nothing unusual.

A week later, I received a colonoscopy. Which involves a lovely little thing called, "nuLytely", it's a bowel prep - a hospital-strength diuretic. It's an entire gallon of fluid, you mix it with water, and in my case add as much Crystal Light lemonade mix as you want to mask the intense salt taste. Lets just say that you spend hours with the bathroom as your new best friend, which is followed by not getting to eat or drink anything else. The procedure itself is as simply as the endoscopy, just going up the other direction. After making it through the procedure, I had the first of many diagnoses - diverticulitis. This is a severe inflammation of the intestines, which causes pockets in them, causing holes to occur (hence the bleeding) and allows for pieces of food to get trapped resulting in infections and severe discomfort. The biggest problem is that the medical community has no clear idea of what causes the inflammation - it could be stress, it could be spontaneous, or a severe food allergy (I'll get to that in a second).

The next diagnosis they discovered was a large quantity of white blood cells being sent to and inside of my gallbladder. Meaning disease/bacteria/infection of some kind. Thankfully, this isn't an organ that is essential to human living - it can be removed via a simple surgery.

Back to the potential food allergy. After being diagnosed with diverticulitis, I did a little research. The most likely culprits are intolerances to dairy and gluten - oh, great. Yes, neither of those are especially healthy or necessary (unless, in the case of gluten based foods, you're a caveman running around and burning off all of those calories) but I really enjoy the taste. Not to mention, that I've been having stomach issues with red meats ever since I gave birth. Now my plan is to eradicate these foods (slowly, as to not shock my system) and turn to a different type of nutritional lifestyle. I had been considering veganism for year, for philisophical and religious reasons (being Buddhist, vegetarianism is quite popular - that whole, no killing thing). Having these health concerns to back it up just threw another reason in my face - so, I'm making the venture towards veganism, starting with getting gluten and dairy out of my system.

Which, I started today, and I've only had one slip up - these awesome veggie dumplings from a local asian restaurant. Unfortunately, the wrapper has gluten in it, but I realized that after only eating two very small dumplings. I plan on documenting my trip into veganism - but I'd love to know if anyone has any suggestions on ways to make the transition easier? For once, I'm finally doing something for myself - rather than my motivation being my husband, or weight loss. I'm sick of being sick.

For the record, I'm still waiting to hear the results of the samples they've taken - I still don't know if I have colon cancer, or something equally serious. I get to wait around, and stress until the 6th.

I'd much rather deal with being vegan than cancer. Just saying.