I’m sure most of you know the “Blue Pill Vs. Red Pill” conundrum that was featured in a popular 1999 science fiction movie. The Blue Pill represented blissful ignorance while the Red Pill represented unpleasant truth. One of the protagonists in the film further explained, “You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill, you stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”.
Let me give you some background of what has happened to me as it has been the sole inspiration in creating this blog and spreading awareness.
I guess you could say I was taking the Blue Pill for a long time. I had always had great health. Grew up in a stable and comfortable home with loving parents. Worked full time. Got married to a wonderful man. Worked towards a better job which I thought would be my career until retirement. Had the best daughter in the world. Continued within my career while having a busy schedule but never complained because everything was fine. It wasn’t until I was hit with a sickness in May 2018. I wasn’t doing anything unusual and was home at the time, but I felt this tightness come across my chest. I had never felt anything like it in my life and it was very scary. I then started to feel weak and shaky so I thought maybe my blood sugar was dropping. I quickly got something to eat but it wasn’t going away. I couldn’t sleep because I was quite frightened and didn’t know if I should go to the E.R. And that is what I did….went to the E.R. They ran a blood test, gave me a chest x-ray but didn’t see anything. They dismissed me and I went home; totally gutted.
Skipping ahead a bit, I started getting other symptoms along with the same chest tightness: chills, facial flushing, extreme insomnia, racing pulse, loss of appetite, anxiety, panic, and throat tightness. I went to see a primary doctor but he said I was fine; nothing was unusual on any blood work I had done and my vitals were all normal. I continued to go to work while feeling utterly horrible but I ended up either leaving early or not coming in all; I burned through all my vacation days and sick leave. I had panic attacks while driving. I was running on maybe 1 hour of sleep with Zzzquill or NyQuil not doing anything to help. I felt horrible all over and knew something was wrong within my body.
Fast forward, I ended up going back to the E.R. two more times. Again, they found nothing even after doing a CT scan. I got dismissed and sent home; although one doctor suggested that I should see a specialist and another doctor suggested a psychologist. I did some research on my symptoms and some of my symptoms fell under everything from a hormonal imbalance to perimenopause. So I went to an endocrinologist. She ran more blood work and a urine test. To my utter disappointment, everything came back fine. Instead of helping me further, not to mention believing that I had a physical sickness, she suggested I see a cardiologist since I had chest tightness (even though all three E.R. visits and my primary doctor found that my heart was just fine). Frustrated and knowing that nothing was wrong with my heart and tired of not getting answers while I felt terribly sick and not getting any help; I decided to research alternative doctors in my area.
I found one who had great reviews and most of the reviews praised his expertise and how he listens and gets to the very root of the issue. That’s what I wanted. Instead of treating my symptoms I wanted to find out the “What” that was causing the symptoms so that whatever it was could be eradicated from my body. I’m sure you can agree with me; you know when you are sick. You know when you are healthy and normal. You know when your body is “off” and your intuition is telling you that something is going on. Red flags start to go off and reveal things you have never experienced before. I felt like I was indeed going down the Rabbit Hole.
After suffering for several months, it not only affected my family and our day-to-day life, but my job was on the line. Thankfully I had co-workers who supported me and believed me; they knew I was not myself and that something was wrong. I talked to my supervisor about everything and she had sympathy and patience as well. But with burning through all of my leave, and feeling like I couldn’t work an 8-hour day anymore I wasn’t sure what the future would hold.
In July of 2019, little did I know that the day I met with the naturopathic doctor was my first step in healing. I was going to get answers. I was going to get help. I was going to get healing. And, most importantly, I was going to have a doctor who not only believed me when I told him I was physically ill and it wasn’t all in my head, but a doctor who was going to do everything in his power to find out what was going on and get me onto a plan that would put me on the path to good health again. My journey had just begun. I had chosen to take the Red Pill to find the origin of my decline.
Have you ever been told that you are fine when you know you weren’t? Leave a comment below.
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