Our Visit to the Naturopath

It was probably 2 months ago that Kristen and I went to see a naturopathic doctor. As I have blogged before, we were at the end of our rope with her frequent nausea and dizzy spells. We had been to all kinds of doctors including a neurosurgeon who we will never see again. So for the first time in my life, I went to see a naturopath.

Dr. Schrader was as kind, considerate and compassionate as any professional can be. He listened carefully, asked intelligent questions and I was very impressed by him. We spent close to an hour with him and when we were finished, he suggested that Kristen take a test that we would have to send to the US. The results would likely show us what the problem is and also, what we could do about it.

For the test, Kristen had to provide 3 stool and 2 saliva samples. According to her, taking the stool samples was "gross." I won't go into details about what she had to do but she took care of it like a trooper.

Finally, last week, we could see the doctor for the results. It seems that she had candida (too much yeast in her intestines) as well as a kind of parasite (something he had suggested as a possible cause at our first visit). Apparently there is some disagreement in the medical community about this particular parasite. Some believe that it is harmless, some think that it can cause problems. Regardless, we are going ahead with a regime that includes taking 5 large capsules twice a day. She has not had an attack in the week since she's been on this regime and her energy level has certainly improved.

One other challenge is that she's on a pretty strict diet. No sugar, dairy products (eggs are okay) yeast, mushrooms, dried fruit, bananas or peanuts. She can only have 2 fruits per day but lots of veggies. Considering that she has been surviving on bagels, cream cheese and bananas for months, this diet is quite a huge change. Almost all prepackaged foods have one of the forbidden ingredients so everything needs to be made from scratch.

Suppers won't be a problem but there will be no more bagels, or cereal for breakfast-all the quick, easy foods that teenagers are accustomed to eating. She also LOVES cheese and is already missing it. We did find some bread that is okay for her to eat and she says it's not bad so she'll be able to take sandwiches to work if she needs to.

We are hoping that once the levels in her intestine get back to more normal levels, she'll be able to add more foods to her list, perhaps in smaller quantities than before. I suspect however, that this is something she'll be dealing with for the rest of her life.

We see Dr. Schrader in 2 weeks and hopefully, he'll be able to give us some more good news.

We were at SuperStore yesterday, looking for things she can eat. Wes, Kristen and I must have spent an hour just reading ingredients and trying to figure out what we could buy. I am so grateful to be living in a place where there are options! If this were 20 years ago, it would be much harder to find something for her. Next week I'll buy some soy cheese to see if she likes that.


She's got a pretty good attitude towards all of this now as she was ready to do anything to stop the attacks. Thanks for all your words of encouragement, thoughts, suggestions and prayers.