Medical problems solved...

So on day 13 I tried to go into work and by the afternoon I was home sick again. I can't express how frustrating the process of steady improvement turning into setbacks is and has been.

So late on day 13 I bit the bullet and went out to visit my RN BSN Mom and I explained the whole gamut of how I've been feeling and what they've been trying. She nodded sagely, pointed out about seven people within the second cousin range with stomach/bowel problems, and then gave me a variety of weird over the counter medications and pills. All legitimate stuff, none of which any of the doctors had tried, and she basically told me to give it a shot.

Quite grudgingly I tried it all out and damnit if by day 15 I'm not feeling about 8/10 which is way better than I've been for the last couple weeks.

As it was explained to me, a good cross section of our family is sensitive or immune to different pathways of drugs. For example, my grandma is so overly sensitive to ibuprofen (and similar drugs) that when they gave her an extra strength pill in hospital her heart literally stopped. I'm not as sensitive but ibuprofen gets me high which is grossly unusual for such a common drug.

So for anyone who is ever having bowel/stomach problems, here's the nuts and bolts:

• Regular doses of probiotics
• Kaopectate on a self-scaling dose (i.e. every time you have issues you re-dose up to the proscribed 8 doses a day)
• A complete elimination of lactose, milk products, whey powder, etc.

For whatever reason, the above items have made a difference where multiple prescription drugs did nothing, where maximum strength Immodium did nothing, etc. I feel so much better than I have in weeks that I'm keeping myself restrained as I know I'll probably overexert and make myself sick again otherwise.

Morale of the story is my mom is smarter than a hospital full of doctors and I'm an idiot for not going to her first.