So, going back to my mysterious stress illness, I had a follow up appointment with my normal doc.

And she has no idea what is wrong with me. Gastritis is such a hard thing to pin. It’s not ulcers. It’s not liver problems. It’s not acid-reflux. It’s not my gallbladder.

Speaking of which, I got my ultrasound results back and my mom deciphered them for me. Apparently my gallbladder is ok, except for the

RANDOM GALLBLADDER SLUDGE inside!!

Can we say “ewwww”?

I did some quick googling of WTF that means, and here’s what I came up with:

“Biliary sludge is a mixture of particulate matter and mucous that forms in bile. (Bile is the yellow-brown fluid that drains from the liver into the gallbladder where it is stored and concentrated. After meals the gallbladder contracts, squirting the bile through the common bile duct into the duodenum, where it helps to digest the fat in meals.) The composition of biliary sludge varies. The most common particulate matter in biliary sludge is cholesterol crystals and calcium salts. Occasionally drugs may comprise the particulate matter since bile is one of the major routes for excretion of drugs.

Biliary sludge has been associated with certain conditions including rapid weight loss, pregnancy, medications (ceftriaxone, octreotide), and bone marrow or solid organ transplantation.
Biliary sludge may cause no symptoms or cause intermittent symptoms. Biliary sludge also can progress to gallstones or completely resolve. ” (medicinenet.com)

Again, eww. This doesn’t really hurt me (yet?) and apparently there’s no way to get rid of it, other than wait for it to mysteriously disappear.

All of these problems with my body lately have got me thinking about the way I live my life. I’m tired of eating shit all the time, and feeling like crap, too. I don’t want to shove any more pharmaceuticals into my poor system, but it’s hard to avoid in this day and age.

More and more I am leaning towards some alternative and natural health practices. I’ve been a strong supporter of massage for years now, and I think I’m ready to start incorporating more things into my life.

Problem is, I’m a huge sceptic. I “want to believe” in some of the treatments, but when I do the research I am often put off by the lack of scientific findings, and also the general marketing spin put on most natural health products (being a marketing professional for this long has granted me the ability to see through a lot of stuff.)

I am trying to open my mind now and take reasonable risks with some treatments, in addition to making small changes in my life. For example;

• instead of juice or even diet pop (aspartame and acid) I’ve been making jugs of water with lemons to drink and cleanse my body.
• I’ve also started taking a B complex vitamin because I’m seriously lacking in those bad boys.
• I’m also considering getting a colonic or two. My roomie gets them and says she feels great afterwards (once all the crap – literally! – is removed) and they are thought to be a good way to eliminate toxins in the body and help prevent colon cancer by doing so.

I feel like I’m falling apart at 23, and my family has a history of various illnesses which I would like to avoid. I think my body is telling me that I need to take better care of it.

I think I’m finally starting to listen. Slowly but surely I’m making those changes, but I’ve been meeting some challenges along the way:

• Money. Things like colonics, massage therapy, acupuncture, vitamins and herbal teas, etc. are rather pricey. So far much of it seems to be worth it, but moving forward this will be a difficult challenge for me since I have so little income.
• Willpower. I am notoriously bad with this. I get discouraged easily, and I don’t like doing unpleasant things like taking pills every day, watching what I eat, sticking hoses of water up my bum, etc.
• Focus. My major problem is stress. It causes all kinds of nastiness and exacerbates other problems. I will often get stressed or anxious about things for no reason. It builds and builds until I get very sick with mysterious illnesses. I need to learn to let things go, and also how to manage stress through exercise and relaxation techniques.

Those are my major challenges, but I’m sure there will be plenty of little ones along the way, too. I don’t expect the path to be smooth when you’re trying to change your life.

Assuming I get motivated enough to write another post in the near future, I will probably write about some of the small changes that I’ve been trying to incorporate into my life.

In the mean time: Readers, have you made any changes to get yourself healthier? What did you do, and did it work?

…and don’t worry. I’ll be sure to write a detailed post about my first colonic. I’m sure you’re all dying to know! 😉