I once read that people go into the healing profession with an altruistic mindset to help others heal. But on a deeper level, they are on a journey to heal themselves.
A three-year-old presented with constipation. She had to force her poops out with difficulty.
Her mother said she got sick easily since she contracted whatever bug was going around. She also had a lot of bellyaches and difficulty sleeping, often with nightmares.
Clinically, I was expecting her fascial web to be tight, but it was surprisingly loose. There was some moderate strain in her neck, but nothing in her body that was commensurate to her symptomatology.
When a child like this one presents in your office, you need to think out of the box. Sometimes mold in the house or Lyme disease can create similar issues.
But in this case, I felt that dairy products, which can create a lot of mucus for some children, created these conditions. I suggested to mom that this child needed to be 100% off of dairy for two weeks to see if there was a significant change in her physiology.
An odd thing happened when I took a second look at my notes describing her conditions. I suddenly realized that I had the same issues when I was her age.
One of my earliest memories was bending over my mother’s knees getting an enema. I was also a sickly child, especially during the cold winter months in New England.
I had bellyaches, too. Something that I have not thought about in over 70 years was that I also had bad nightmares where I would wake up screaming.
I still have a vivid memory of waking up in a hospital at seven years of age after my tonsils and adenoids were removed. My reward was eating as much ice cream as I wanted—OUCH.
Fortunately, I stopped eating dairy products completely by going vegan 45 years ago. I know that everyone screams for ice cream, but I have been more than happy to have abstained from dairy products for all those years.
I have often told patients that if I had ten minutes to live, I would have a bowl of ice cream. I just do not want to deal with all of the health issues the following day.
When the clinical findings do not match the patient’s symptomatology, the provider needs to look at other possible root causes.
