The test results have come back normal.
The doctor says nothing is wrong, and you couldn’t be more disappointed.
At first glance, this seems odd! Who wouldn’t want to be told that they’re healthy?
I understand that there is a little more going on than meets the eye.
Perhaps it has been weeks, perhaps months or even years. You can’t quite remember when you started feeling like this, you just know that it’s been a long time.
You try the occasional diet plan or supplement, blaming yourself for not feeling 100%. It’s in a moment of exhaustion, wide awake at 4 am with a racing mind and aches and pains, that you finally work up the courage to go to see a doctor and admit that you really don’t think you’re very well.
So that ‘normal’ test result? Does that mean that feeling tired, achy, stressed and blue is just the new normal for you?
Absolutely not.
How can you move forward if the test results aren’t answering your questions?
Doctor Says Nothing is Wrong: But Was It The Right Test for You?
The first thing we need to talk about?
Understanding what our doctors are there for.
Modern, western medicine is a little bit like a firefighting team. The system works as follows:
- Patient feels unwell
- Doctor analyses symptoms
- Doctor gives treatment according to the symptoms
- Symptoms are relieved (sometimes!)
When you come and see a doctor with a fully-developed disease or infection? The body is full of signs. When are firefighters called to a house? It’s already on fire.
You aren’t feeling well, and you have decided it’s time to do something about it. If you go to the doctors and the tests are normal? That doesn’t mean your health is optimal! That means that your symptoms aren’t bad enough to show up on a scale that would diagnose you as ill.
Does this make sense so far?
Take your ‘normal’ test results, and know that you aren’t yet at the ‘very sick’/’house is on fire’ end of the spectrum.
You now need to consult someone who can take more detailed, different tests, and create a much larger picture of what is happening in your body right now.
That person is a functional medicine specialist.
If Western medicine is about diagnosing disease, then functional medicine is about preventing it.
Just because the doctor says nothing is wrong? Doesn’t mean that you wouldn’t see amazing results from taking more detailed tests, and building a strategy to get your health and well-being up to a far higher level.
Oh, but if the doctor says I’m fine then I must be making a big deal out of something small. I should just keep going and stop complaining.
If this is your thought process right now, I want you to acknowledge it and toss it aside!
Understand that just because the doctor’s tests say you aren’t currently afflicted with something, that doesn’t mean that you’re making things up.
Listen to your body – it’s trying to tell you that if something is wrong, even if it isn’t yet wrong ‘enough’ to show up in a test used by a primary medical care specialist to diagnose illness.
What about imbalance? That can make you feel pretty rough, too.
Take a deep breath, and let’s talk about doing the right tests for you at the right time. Let’s talk about all the things that slip under the radar of a ten-minute doctor appointment. Let’s figure out exactly what’s going on in your body, and together, we can write a plan to support and improve your symptoms.
This kind of preventative health care isn’t self-indulgent, it’s smart. In the workplace, you wouldn’t choose to ignore the problems which are building up.
Don’t do it with your health.