Sick? No way…

In my adult life I don’t remember being off sick for more than 3-4 days due to something like the common cold or an upset stomach. My upbringing involved balanced healthy eating (yes, salad and veggies were always part of lunch ??), health checks, sport, dance and painting to relax and the creative mind, exercising the learning mind and a nurturing social environment.

Being healthy is part of my mindset. My Body behaves as such as well.

The past months have been a learning experience for me in at least two ways:

a) as an owner of a human body which decided to make a point,

b) as a non-native German navigating the Public German Healthcare system.

What started as just one or two days in a month of my body trying to tell me something was not right, evolved to having difficulties on a daily basis. My mind tried to ignore it, until finally a friend made me realize: “Isa that’s not ok. Please go to a physician”. My general physician closed the practice due to COVID-19 burnout (yes, this happens around us everyday now!), so the first appointment I could get with a new physician was earliest 2 weeks later.

What seems like a simple symptom involved an odyssey of various meetings across different clinical specialties and facilities. Primary physician, Ear-Nose-Throat physician, Neuroradiologist in Germany, second opinion from Mexico (my home city), an Orthopedist, an Ophthalmologist, a Neurologist, a Cardiologist. Each had to give their view to complete the picture: how are the blood chemistry levels and blood pressure, how are the brain structures, how are the involved organs, how are the nerves connecting those organs, how are the arteries and how are the muscles in this area.

Going through the process to get to a diagnosis is itself stressful. Even with my knowledge of patient experience, self-awareness, breathing techniques, journaling, social support it has been a rollercoaster. And not only figuratively – I did measure my physiological stress levels in many points throughout the process ?? (my geeky side). In more than one occasion, I had to stop on the path to recharge some days before scheduling or facing the next talk with the next physician.

Being educated and passionate about physiology and the human body, I love understanding how my own body ticks. However, my education has also added another layer of challenges for physicians and me. I come into 15-min meeting slots with MRI images, lab and other test printed in paper from their colleagues, my own research and questions, and my notebook ready to write down their comments. The clinical specialists reactions have been varied: I “looked healthy”, “possible diagnosis untypical for my age”, or simply answered that it must fall into another specialty.

My learnings: I had a “common” symptom, it is difficult to detect the exact physiological reason, it’s a “strange case”, and there is limited “reported” medical research. The treatment is another story. In summary it is all going now better and - although slowly – happy to share that the body is recuperating.

What have been the costs of the process?

• Weeks of stress, frustration and sick time going from one clinical specialist to the next with an “inconclusive diagnosis”
• Physicians challenged to determine in an extremely short amount of time a diagnosis for such a symptom which involves various disciplines of the current medical system
• Diagnosis of unneeded medicines “to test and see if that somehow helps” – medicines which have also tremendous side-effects
• Worry of friends, family, colleagues
• Colleagues dealing with additional workload unexpectedly

My amazing discoveries:

• The public insurance I have, in Germany, has an awesome online and telephone service where they schedule for you an appointment with any physician, specialists, intervention, radiological test. And much faster compared to when I did it on my own. This relieved pressure and gave me more time. I stopped looking up in Google, getting recommendations, calling directly and beeing frustrated for the long waiting times given to me.
• The importance of a primary physician as a guide or companion through the complex system of clinical specialists, and with whom there is trust and an open honest communication.
• As a patient it is important to be sensitive to clinical specialists’ stress, language barriers and sometimes limited cross-discipline knowledge.
• Beyond a set of organs, our bodies are One and it reflects how we treat it. For example, the challenges of “home office” might become triggers or contribute to health-detriment: how we sit in our home-office environments, how far our eyes look throughout the day (only short distances or also far beyond), nutrition, how much movement we do, how much work vs. relaxation we give the body.

I am deeply grateful for the support I have received from all around me. Be it with responsibilities, with work, with guidance on how to communicate, with advice, words of encouragement, sometimes even shared silence or positive thoughts (yes, I can perceive those as well ??). Please feel appreciated and make sure to appreciate your own body ?? when you read this. My direction is now back to the path of health and balance.

?We only have one physical form to accompany our passionate minds and souls.