Sick by Ben Holtzman

(except for agreeing that I wasimmunologically fucked). I rode this medical merry-go-round unquestioningly for eleven years, and was sort of satisfied as long as they kept me stocked on my meds and had some sort of scientific explanation for what was wrong with me.
    Then last year I hit rock bottom. All of these problems sort of hit at once, but the thing that was really causing me the most trouble was the irritable bowel syndrome. I’d given up most foods other than milk, bread, tomatoes, and meat, but somehow I was still really sick. I already knew I was allergic to all legumes (no more tofu, tempeh, beans, hummus, or veggie burgers) and a lot of vegetables, so I couldn’t really handle another food allergy diagnosis. I felt like if they took anything else away from me, I would crack and stab a specialist in the kidney (being sickly, I know just where the kidneys are located).
    In any case, I got to a point where my body was hardly digesting food. Almost every meal passed right through me with little thought on the part of my digestive system. It was like there was a knife in my stomach, a fire in my heart, and I was nauseated about half the time. I was also experiencing more headaches, sinus problems, and asthma attacks. I was always run-down and depressed, which is what happens when you’re badly malnourished. I felt like I was never going to get better, and was seriously wondering if I had anything left to live for. Somehow I was working my ass off and getting by professionally. God knows how.
    I had totally exhausted my options within traditional Western medicine. Every time I saw a specialist they’d rehash the diagnosis of the specialists before them, and it was starting to feel like a waste of my time. I was having a hard time dealing with any asthma triggers at all (household mold, seasonal allergies, exercise, the common cold), and my visits to my asthma doctor were getting increasingly desperate. “So … if I move to a different kind of house I won’t get better… and if I take this medicine I won’t get better… and I took that one and I didn’t get better… So there’s really nothing you can do at all. Nothing that can make me feel alright
ever
…”
    The doctor tried to console me by telling me that many people with my disorders live very full lives—with the aid of prescriptions, and by reducing their physical activity, and by not going out too much in the summer (or fall or spring) and by living in the most hypoallergenic accommodations they can find. And, like pulmonary doctors before him, he reminded me that it could be worse. I could have even nastier disorders, or as one specialist once said, “At least it’s not lung
cancer.”
You’re
probably
not going to die. Just be sure not to run or walk too briskly or get a bad cold or eat some soy by accident or get blown over by a strong wind. Given such demotivational diagnoses and treatment plans, I made an appointment to see an acupuncturist because I figured I had nothing to lose. I couldn’t feel much worse, could I?
    I had no idea just how much a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine could help, and as cheesy as it sounds, Chinese medicine gave me my life back. I have an awesome acupuncturist at Oriental Health Solutions in Durham, NC, and she has actually treated all of my problems successfully. Chinese medicine is a holistic practice, so they look to how certain meta-imbalances affect multiple systems, and as I’d expected, all of these auto-immune disorders ARE related. They believe that the digestive system supports immunity and the lungs, and my acupuncturist said I had to improve my digestion before I could expect to feel better on the asthma and allergies front. I didn’t believe it at first, but I figured anything was worth a try at that point.
    She put me on herbs to balance my system and digestive enzymes to make up for my pancreatic deficiencies. And much