The Gall of it All

There is no medicine like hope, no incentive so great, and no tonic so powerful as expectation of something better tomorrow - Orison Swett Marden

I haven't mentioned in a while what I've been going through regarding my health. Things have not been good. My nausea almost never goes away. I've now lost a total of thirty-seven pounds since this health issue started (I was twelve pounds overweight then). I am currently twenty-seven pounds under the weight where I feel my best and most comfortable - 172 pounds - so that puts me at 144 pounds. I'm six feet tall, so it really feels way too skinny for me.

I tried a Naturopaths suggestion of diet and supplements for a month and felt worse. Now, for the past month and a half, I've been seeing a Chinese medical doctor for acupuncture treatments and things aren't much better. My General Practice doctor, Dr. M., (who practices holistic medicine) is going to test me for heavy metals, like mercury, and see if that tells her anything helpful. But even she is getting to the point that she thinks my gallbladder may need to come out (it has been functioning well below normal).

My gastroenterologist seemed to say that having my gallbladder removed would be a fifty-fifty chance of helping my condition (of course, outside of the pure risk of any surgery, he also said that a side affect could be diarrhea for the rest of my life). But Dr. M. thinks that the odds are much higher that I would be helped and that she would be able to keep me from the diarrhea syndrome.

Anyway, she's referred me to a doctor she called "knife happy," but she said, "he knows what he's doing when it comes to gallbladders!"