The test.

I’m a day late publishing this week. Why, you may ask?

Well, thank you for asking! It’s because I was busy this week taking a test.

What kind of test?

Well, it’s a health-kind-of-test. The kind of test you end up doing after you’ve completed all the standard-western-medicine tests. And they all come up negative. Which in the medical world, means “you’re good. Nothing is wrong.” Which I’ve always thought seems a bit backwards since negative usually means something bad is happening. But nope. In the case of western medicine it equals “everything is normal enough.”

Except what if it’s NOT normal? What if all your tests are “normal” but you’re still having health challenges? The kind that sometimes get-in-the-way of normal life. Where do you go next? What do you do?

Well, in this case I moved on to functional medicine. Functional medicine has providers who have been trained in a mix of both western and eastern and alternative medicine therapies. They bring a different perspective to the table. And it turns out they can do some different tests to get answers. Most of these tests have been around for awhile.

Like the one I did this week. Where I ate nothing but rice, chicken, and eggs for 24 hours. Then I had to brush my tongue (the top and the bottom). Have you ever tried to brush the bottom of your tongue?!? It’s not easy! After that I got to breathe into a bag intermittently for 3 hours to collect air samples. The samples will now be analyzed and maybe – just, maybe – an answer will be found!

As I write this out I realize it sounds ridiculous. It’s really not as ludicrous as I’ve made it sound. However as I went through my test I started wondering how people come up with these tests…

For example we’re all sitting in a think tank… First, we’ll have the patient eat nothing but kale, lima beans, and strawberry jelly for 22 hours. Yes, then they have to stand on their right foot. Oh course, and massage their left ear lobe. Oh, and hum out loud. We’ll measure the vibration of the hum to determine their inner health resonance… (Disclaimer: I totally made this up. It is not a real test in any way shape or form.)

So if I were my own best friend, and I were having medical issues that just weren’t getting better, I would encourage myself to think outside my normal box. It turns out when I start looking beyond what I know, there’s a lot – A LOT – more available to me. Just because everything is “negative” doesn’t mean there isn’t a reason or a cure or a way to improve things.

If you’re suffering from an undiagnosable, uncertain condition don’t stop after all the negative tests. Listen to your body. Keep looking. Keep exploring. Your health depends on it! Western medicine (while it’s great for many things) does not always hold all the answers.