After my first appointment with Dr. Chen I started to feel really good. The pain in my right side went away and I was having less problem with reflux. I was confident that Dr. Chen had cured my reflux. Amazing! For the next week or so i got progressively better, then something changed. The pain in my right side slowly came back and my reflux issues came back. It was very distressing. I sent an email to Dr. Chen and asked to go see her. I made an appointment and went to see her that Friday.
After Dr. Chen checked my tongue and took my pulse, she was very unhappy with me and she told me so. She said that I should have gone to see her sooner, my treatment was not complete and now I had relapsed. She gave me a stern lecture about how Western people do not understand how Chinese medicine works. There are no magic bullets or drugs that seemingly make people instantly better. In fact, these things do not exist in Western medicine either but for some strange reason, Western people do believe that these things exists. In Chinese Medicine, you have to stay the course and go through as many acupuncture treatments and take as much herbal medicine as necessary. I listened to her lecture without protest because she was absolutely right. I should have known better because I did know enough about Chinese Medicine to be aware of all of the things that she said. The truth was, I was busy and I felt that the treatments and herbs that she gave were sufficient. One week slipped into two weeks and then three. In truth, the only reason I called her after three weeks was because I could not stand the pain on my right side.
Dr. Chen kept me for almost two hours that evening, by the time I left her office it was past 9:30 PM and she still had another patient after I left. Now that is true dedication! In addition to a thorough acupuncture treatment, she thoroughly questioned me on every aspect of my health and bodily function that anyone could possibly think of. She also did a complete physical examination of my abdominal area. Dr. Chen discovered the scars of my gall bladder operation and realized that I had by gall bladder removed. She seemed to feel that this was significant information and asked why I did not tell her before. I said that it did not occur to me that this was important information. I could clearly see that she was exasperated with me.
She gave me several different medicines to take and gave me explicit directions on how to take them. In Chinese Medicine there is no such thing as off the shelf medicine. Every prescription of herbal medicine is individually tailored to the patients specific illness and condition, so what Dr. Chen gave me and her instructions that she gave me might be completely different for someone else who had a similar ailment.
I felt good after I left her office, it was the effect of the acupuncture. Even without the beneficial effect of the herbal medicine, the acupuncture had a positive effect on my condition. I went home and slept very well that night which was unusual because I was getting up at least one a night to deal with the effects of nocturnal reflux which usually meant going to the bathroom to vomit.
The next morning, I drank Kombucha before I went to practice Qigong. Afterwards I ate a small bowl of congee then I ate breakfast with my wife. Before break fast I drank my herbal medicine in a glass of warm water. I went on to drink my herbal medicine three times a day, before every meal. Dr. Chen also gave me goji berries to eat with my congee in the morning. since the goji berries are dried I soaked them in water before I added them to my congee. I only added to them after I heated up the congee because I didn't want to do anything to diminish the beneficial effects of the goji berries.I followed Dr. Chen's directions explicitly and took the medicine exactly as she prescribed it.
The next day the pain in my side improved but still did not disappear. I was feeling better but all my symptoms had not disappeared. I was looking forward to my appointment with Dr. Chen on the following Tuesday.
Showing posts with label GERD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label GERD. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Colonoscopy and Endoscopy
At the best of times I have a strong dislike for hospitals.. The fact that I was going to go to the hospital and have not one but two invasive procedures done to me was not something that I was looking forward to. On the other hand I was really looking forward to finding out what was wrong with me.
Since I only had one day to prepare for the procedure and I was not feeling well I stayed home. Besides, I very well could not go to work when I needed to go to the bathroom every hour. Also, the effects on my stomach were not pleasant. Let's say that the laxative that was prescribed to me was more than effective.
I was not allowed to eat any solid food while I was preparing for my tests, only clear liquids. There is only so much water, and jello that you can eat. My wife made this delicious Beef Bone Broth that was not only tasty but it was nutritious as well. My wife also brought home some other things for me to try that she bought at a health food store, Goodness Me, goodnessme.ca, in Burlington. She bought Aloe water and something that I had heard about but never tried; Kombucha,Kombucha. I did not like the Aloe water but I drank it because,after all my wife bought it for me. I tried the Kombucha and found that it settled my stomach immediately. Kombucha has become a mainstay of my treatment. My wife bought quite a few bottles of Kombucha but it is not the cheapest beverage to buy so we figured out how to make it ourselves. It turned out to be a lot easier than we thought. We have included the recipe for Kombucha that we use along with the link to the website. As it turns out, my favorite flavor of Kombucha is ginger.
Since there was not a lot for me to do at home, I started researching my symptoms on the Internet. There is a lot of misleading information on the Internet. In this blog I am only going to share information that I know from my own experience. I am not a doctor and I do not have any kind of medical credentials behind my name so I can only tell you what I know from my own experience. Following the various symptoms for gastrointestinal diseases I came up with GERD, gerd. The thing is I did not and still do not have the traditional symptoms of GERD, mainly a burning sensation in my stomach. I have never felt that. Instead, I have phlegm in my throat, a constant cough, difficulty swallowing when I eat, hiccups when I eat and after meals and especially in the middle of the night, I have food and liquid rising back up into my throat. The only thing that I found that even came close to my symptoms was LPR (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux ) Disease, Laryngopharyngeal_reflux. Yet I was not sure because the doctors at the ER said that I did not have Reflux.
So Wednesday came, my wife drove me to the hospital for my procedures. I was admitted to the surgical ward and then I waited. I had anticipated the wait so I brought a small paperback with me to read, something that I could slip into my coat pocket when it was time to go in for my procedures. It was a book that I had read many times, Chinese Folk Medicine, by Heinrich Wallnofer and Anna Von Rottauscher. Chinese-medicine-acupuncture. After a long wait I was given a bed and instructed to get undressed and put on a gown. After that, I sat in the bed and waited so more. Eventually, I was taken to the operating room where I met a cheerful Dr. Choi and his anesthesiologist who I remember that she was very personable and chatty. Of course, It did not take long before she had me out like a light. The next thing that I remember was that I was waking up in my bed in the same spot where I was before the procedure. My nurse came by and told me that everything went well and that Dr. Choi would come and see me. Dr. Choi came by shortly to see me. He told that they did not find anything in my colon, or in my esophagus or larynx. He did find something irregular in my stomach that he took a biopsy an sent it for analysis.
So after all that, I still did not know what was wrong with me. Afterwards, I made an appointment with my family doctor to find out the results of the tests. I had to know what was wrong with me so that I could do something about it.
Beef Bone Broth
1-2 lbs beef bones
1 carrot, cut up
1 stalk celery, cut up
1 onion, cut in half
Place all the cut up vegetables in a roasting pan. Put the bones on top.
Roast for an hour, or until the bones are brown. It they look dried up, that's ok, it will have better flavour.
Take everything from the roasting pan and put it into a big soup pot or the crock pot. Pour hot water into the roasting pan. Let it soak for 10 minutes. Then try to remove all the bits stuck to it. Pour the liquid into the pot. Add water to cover all the bones and vegetables. Bring to a boil and cover, simmer for 2-3 hours. In the crock pot, cover the bones with water, place cover on the crockpot and set the timer on high for 5 hours.
When the soup is done, pour the soup liquid through a sieve and throw the bones and vegetables away. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. If the soup is fatty, skim off the fat, or let it cool and remove the hardened fat.
Kambucha.
3 1/2 quarts of water
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of green or black tea.
Follow the instruction on the following web site http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-kombucha-tea-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-173858. It is not hard to make, it takes a little practice.You will need to make the recipe for a scoby(this will ferment your tea) You will need some clean jars for your finished tea. You can have a fresh batch every 2-3 weeks. It is much cheaper than the bottles for sale in the Health Food stores
I was not allowed to eat any solid food while I was preparing for my tests, only clear liquids. There is only so much water, and jello that you can eat. My wife made this delicious Beef Bone Broth that was not only tasty but it was nutritious as well. My wife also brought home some other things for me to try that she bought at a health food store, Goodness Me, goodnessme.ca, in Burlington. She bought Aloe water and something that I had heard about but never tried; Kombucha,Kombucha. I did not like the Aloe water but I drank it because,after all my wife bought it for me. I tried the Kombucha and found that it settled my stomach immediately. Kombucha has become a mainstay of my treatment. My wife bought quite a few bottles of Kombucha but it is not the cheapest beverage to buy so we figured out how to make it ourselves. It turned out to be a lot easier than we thought. We have included the recipe for Kombucha that we use along with the link to the website. As it turns out, my favorite flavor of Kombucha is ginger.
Since there was not a lot for me to do at home, I started researching my symptoms on the Internet. There is a lot of misleading information on the Internet. In this blog I am only going to share information that I know from my own experience. I am not a doctor and I do not have any kind of medical credentials behind my name so I can only tell you what I know from my own experience. Following the various symptoms for gastrointestinal diseases I came up with GERD, gerd. The thing is I did not and still do not have the traditional symptoms of GERD, mainly a burning sensation in my stomach. I have never felt that. Instead, I have phlegm in my throat, a constant cough, difficulty swallowing when I eat, hiccups when I eat and after meals and especially in the middle of the night, I have food and liquid rising back up into my throat. The only thing that I found that even came close to my symptoms was LPR (Laryngopharyngeal Reflux ) Disease, Laryngopharyngeal_reflux. Yet I was not sure because the doctors at the ER said that I did not have Reflux.
So Wednesday came, my wife drove me to the hospital for my procedures. I was admitted to the surgical ward and then I waited. I had anticipated the wait so I brought a small paperback with me to read, something that I could slip into my coat pocket when it was time to go in for my procedures. It was a book that I had read many times, Chinese Folk Medicine, by Heinrich Wallnofer and Anna Von Rottauscher. Chinese-medicine-acupuncture. After a long wait I was given a bed and instructed to get undressed and put on a gown. After that, I sat in the bed and waited so more. Eventually, I was taken to the operating room where I met a cheerful Dr. Choi and his anesthesiologist who I remember that she was very personable and chatty. Of course, It did not take long before she had me out like a light. The next thing that I remember was that I was waking up in my bed in the same spot where I was before the procedure. My nurse came by and told me that everything went well and that Dr. Choi would come and see me. Dr. Choi came by shortly to see me. He told that they did not find anything in my colon, or in my esophagus or larynx. He did find something irregular in my stomach that he took a biopsy an sent it for analysis.
So after all that, I still did not know what was wrong with me. Afterwards, I made an appointment with my family doctor to find out the results of the tests. I had to know what was wrong with me so that I could do something about it.
Beef Bone Broth
1-2 lbs beef bones
1 carrot, cut up
1 stalk celery, cut up
1 onion, cut in half
Place all the cut up vegetables in a roasting pan. Put the bones on top.
Roast for an hour, or until the bones are brown. It they look dried up, that's ok, it will have better flavour.
Take everything from the roasting pan and put it into a big soup pot or the crock pot. Pour hot water into the roasting pan. Let it soak for 10 minutes. Then try to remove all the bits stuck to it. Pour the liquid into the pot. Add water to cover all the bones and vegetables. Bring to a boil and cover, simmer for 2-3 hours. In the crock pot, cover the bones with water, place cover on the crockpot and set the timer on high for 5 hours.
When the soup is done, pour the soup liquid through a sieve and throw the bones and vegetables away. Season soup to taste with salt and pepper. If the soup is fatty, skim off the fat, or let it cool and remove the hardened fat.
Kambucha.
3 1/2 quarts of water
1 cup of sugar
2 tablespoons of green or black tea.
Follow the instruction on the following web site http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-kombucha-tea-at-home-cooking-lessons-from-the-kitchn-173858. It is not hard to make, it takes a little practice.You will need to make the recipe for a scoby(this will ferment your tea) You will need some clean jars for your finished tea. You can have a fresh batch every 2-3 weeks. It is much cheaper than the bottles for sale in the Health Food stores
Monday, January 26, 2015
THE BEGINNING OF THE TALE
I first noticed that something was wrong at a luncheon that my wife and I hosted one Saturday in September of 2014. We had a few friends and neighbors at our house for lunch. We had appetizers of cheese and crackers, vegetables and dip, and drinks before lunch. there was lot of conversation and everyone was having a good time, including me.
Then it was time to sit for lunch. It was quite a healthy lunch, my wife and I are mostly vegetarian so we served a variety of vegetables and other items. We started with a green salad, sliced roast beef and salami for our guests (just because we eat vegetarian there is no reason that our guests have to!), cheese and olive bread, butternut squash soup, smoked salmon and a freshly baked raspberry tart for dessert along with tea and or coffee.
I first noticed that I gagged on the freshly made raspberry dressing for the salad. The salad actually stuck in my throat just when someone asked me a question. It took a while to clear my throat before I could speak. I thought it was odd at the time but I did not think more of it. The soup went down without any problem and I had a small piece of salmon that was absolutely delicious and easy to swallow. However, I a some preserved fig on a piece of bread. As soon as the fig hit the back of my throat and I tasted the vinegary flavor my throat closed up. I picked up my glass of wine to wash the fig down but it only made the matters worse. I actually had to get up from the table and go to the bathroom to clear the phlegm from my throat.
The entire episode was a mystery to me. I thought that I cold or something like that was causing all of this congestion and phlegm to collect in my throat. I had no idea of where this was going to lead me and how long it would be before I found help for my issue.
This blog is a collaboration between my wife and I. I will provide the story about my ordeal with reflux Gastroesophageal_reflux_disease and how I eventually got help with my condition. My wife will provide recipes with every post because as you will see in subsequent posts, the food that I eat will be critical to my ability to deal with reflux.
In the next post I will continue the story about my life with reflux.
Here is a recipe that my wife make for that is easy on the stomach and is easily digestible. It is relatively easy to make.
Plain Congee
1/2 cup rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 cups water or broth
soy sauce to taste.
In a dutch oven place all the ingredients except for the soy sauce. Bring the mixture up to a boil and turn the heat down to simmer and cook until the rice is very soft and the whole mixture has thickened. About 1 to 2 hours.
Variation: Ground Beef or Ground chicken can be added. Vary the amount of meat to suit your taste, you can add as much or as little according to your own taste. Along with sliced green onions as a garnish.
Then it was time to sit for lunch. It was quite a healthy lunch, my wife and I are mostly vegetarian so we served a variety of vegetables and other items. We started with a green salad, sliced roast beef and salami for our guests (just because we eat vegetarian there is no reason that our guests have to!), cheese and olive bread, butternut squash soup, smoked salmon and a freshly baked raspberry tart for dessert along with tea and or coffee.
I first noticed that I gagged on the freshly made raspberry dressing for the salad. The salad actually stuck in my throat just when someone asked me a question. It took a while to clear my throat before I could speak. I thought it was odd at the time but I did not think more of it. The soup went down without any problem and I had a small piece of salmon that was absolutely delicious and easy to swallow. However, I a some preserved fig on a piece of bread. As soon as the fig hit the back of my throat and I tasted the vinegary flavor my throat closed up. I picked up my glass of wine to wash the fig down but it only made the matters worse. I actually had to get up from the table and go to the bathroom to clear the phlegm from my throat.
The entire episode was a mystery to me. I thought that I cold or something like that was causing all of this congestion and phlegm to collect in my throat. I had no idea of where this was going to lead me and how long it would be before I found help for my issue.
This blog is a collaboration between my wife and I. I will provide the story about my ordeal with reflux Gastroesophageal_reflux_disease and how I eventually got help with my condition. My wife will provide recipes with every post because as you will see in subsequent posts, the food that I eat will be critical to my ability to deal with reflux.
In the next post I will continue the story about my life with reflux.
Here is a recipe that my wife make for that is easy on the stomach and is easily digestible. It is relatively easy to make.
Plain Congee
1/2 cup rice
1/2 teaspoon salt
8 cups water or broth
soy sauce to taste.
In a dutch oven place all the ingredients except for the soy sauce. Bring the mixture up to a boil and turn the heat down to simmer and cook until the rice is very soft and the whole mixture has thickened. About 1 to 2 hours.
Variation: Ground Beef or Ground chicken can be added. Vary the amount of meat to suit your taste, you can add as much or as little according to your own taste. Along with sliced green onions as a garnish.
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