You're your own advocate!

  I was watching a little show called "Dr. Oz" today.  The topic of the show was the blending of both traditional and new aged medicine.  In the show, Dr. Oz. made a point that really hit home for me.  There are two people responsible for your health.  1) Your primary care physician 2) YOU!  If I were to have heard this statement about 10 years ago, I'd probably think, "theres no way your putting the responsibility on me for something someone went to med school for 10 years for".  But he's right.

About 10 years ago, my mother began experiencing various odd symptoms, including night sweat, unexplained weight loss and fatigue.  She had been to see her doctor on more than one occasion in ADDITION to her regular physicals, and he told her, "Stress, it's stress."  Turns out, my mom eventually found a lump in her stomach area that was biopsied and in fact CANCEROUS! Now, you can imagine the anger and frustration not only her but my family had.  To make a long story short, my mother has since passed, which should leave you to wonder, would she still be here if she had gotten a second opinion?  Often times we take Dr.'s words as carved in stone but they do have insurance for a reason and that'ts because they are human and do make mistakes!

To drive the point home I had an issue with my health right after my mom passed.  I was sleeping CONSTANTLY, like literally 12 hours at a time, waking up but still able to pass out an hour later.  My friends and family thought I was pregnant OR that it was depression from my mom's passing.  I knew it was something physical beyond my control, so one day I made a dr's appointment, just at a walk-in clinic.  I knew that all I wanted was a requisition for a blood test, and when I told him my symptoms, that's exactly what he gave me.  2 weeks later, blood results were in and I was told a) that I was iron dificient (which I had already known) and b) that my thyroid levels were off.  A few more tests confirmed that I had a thyroid problem called HYPOTHYROIDISM and that medication would do the trick.  Here I was, doing poorly in school ( you can see on my transcript when my health problems sprung up) and all because my hormone levels were out of wack!  The point of this blog is this, take the time to know your body.  Consciously realize what feels right and what feels wrong.  Get regular check-ups/physicals and second opinions.  A 10 minute check-up could mean the different between an A or a C in school, or the loss of more than 10 years off your life.