14

I feel overwhelmed. So much happened last week that I just didn't have time to write about.

I'm working from home this week. I really have to say how supportive my company and my coworkers are. This is the first place I've worked where employees are not treated as resources. My productivity has gone down significantly, but they are letting me take time off to go see doctors and take care of myself. Now, they gave me a company laptop so that I can work from home and continue to get paid. If I go on disability, that puts me into a negative cash flow (assuming I'm eligible - there is no diagnosis). There is no way I would have had the same support from management at my previous company, and because of its remote location in Langley, getting out to see a doctor would have been a day off rather than a few hours off.

At my parents' insistence, I went to see a naturopath last week. Naturopaths don't really deal with hard facts, but after seeing him, he thinks that I have a virus. He can't identify what the virus is, but after doing his tests, believes my pancreas is a problem. He suggested an IV vitamin C, which will kill off viruses. He seems very confident that he can reverse the problem. My faith in naturopaths is very low, but when the genetic test result came back negative on Friday, that gave me a bit more faith in what they do.

I also now have someone helping me with my diet, who I met while at the naturopathy clinic last week. He put me on a smoothie diet, with a bunch of supplements to make sure I'm getting all the nutritional value I need. They taste quite good and are very sweet from the natural sugar in the fruits. I'll probably get sick of smoothies very soon though.

I did a Vitamin C treatment yesterday and also lied in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. The chamber is supposed to help regenerate my nerves. It makes my fingers tingle. I will give the alternate medicine a week or two to see if it helps. My mother is so insistent that naturopathy is the way to go because "people die in hospitals."

The doctors at the hospital want to admit me as an inpatient. They are worried that I might fall and break something in my body. If I do and it puts me in a bed, then my muscles will atrophy faster since they would not be used at all. They can also do their tests more effectively, since they can order the test and get the result back right away, instead of making an appointment in a few weeks and waiting another week for the result as an outpatient.