Yesterday, Colleen went in for testing that was, shall we say, a bit unique. If you have ever heard of BodyScan 2010, you are probably in the minority. It isn't all that well-known, and isn't really used in many places. (To be exact, as we found out yesterday, people from other countries will fly into America to get the test). You can read about the specifics online, but it is run much differently than your standard blood test (to be exact, blood isn't even needed). You are essentially hooked up to a computer and told to put your hand on a pad. When you do that, the computer runs 10,000 tests on your body, trying to determine what may be ailing you. (Say WHAT? A hand on a pad and a computer can tell me what is wrong with me?) Well, maybe. Let us back track a little bit.
When Colleen walked into the office, she had to fill out of a form indicating what has been bothering her for so many years - obviously, her number one symptom was going to be her stomach. She emphasized that without really getting into her own theories on what has been ailing her. For a while now, Colleen has been wondering about her hormones and her thyroid on top of her stomach. Something was malfunctioning somewhere, but every test she had came back normal. She would often bring up to doctors that normal blood ranges DO NOT MEAN A DARN THING sometimes, but they wouldn't listen, for the most part. "Your numbers are fine; that's all I know" Frustrating, yes. But as desperate as we may be to get Colleen healthy, we weren't going to break into any pharmacies overnight to steal thyroid prescriptions.
I won't get into all of the details, but the doctor who saw Colleen last night, without knowing much of anything about Colleen's own suspicions, almost instantly identified the thyroid as a problem. Not only that, he identified the hypothalamus as perhaps Colleen's biggest problem. The hypothalamus? What the heck is that? Well, I will let you read about that online - but essentially, it controls many functions within your body, including (drumroll.....) your hormones! (Ding! Ding! Another thing that Colleen has suspected for months comes up as a problem on this test!) The other two issues identified were fatigue and yes (ding ding!) her stomach. During the initial parts of the testing, the doctor even described to Colleen something about shooting pains coming from her chest. Once again, Colleen didn't mention this at all, and she has dealt with shooting pains since the day she was diagnosed with the shingles years ago. If you are sitting there in disbelief, I don't blame you - if someone came to me and told me they had this experience, I likely would have a tough time believing it myself.
So, what does all of this mean? For now, absolutely nothing. All we have is an open mind. We were given some supplements and a few homeopathic therapies that Colleen will be taking for the next several weeks in an effort to try to get all of these issues under control. The bottom line is that I cannot recommend or not recommend anything without seeing how Colleen feels when everything is completed. This can take months - perhaps as far out as Christmas or so - to see if it actually worked or not. All we have right now is a computer that identified things that Colleen suspected, and supplements/therapies targeted to try to fix those things. Will she wake up tomorrow as the healthy woman she was years ago? Of course not. But I will say this: If, after she is done with all of these appointments, she is feeling healthy and strong again, that is all the proof I will ever need that the system works, and works very well. Right now, I am feeling hopeful. And hopefully my future blog posts on this subject will be filled with good news. Colleen can certainly use plenty of it.
