I can’t take it anymore! I move my eyes too quick, my brain hurts. I hit a bump while I am driving, my brain hurts. WTF!
I stand too long, it hurts. WTF! I scroll down on my computer, it makes me dizzy. WTF! Someone wears a striped shirt or a shirt with a pattern, it makes me dizzy. WTF!
What’s happening? I work all day long helping people. This is something that I see all the time. But this time these symptoms, this problem, is not a typical case. The patient is me!
WTF! Why The Failure? What did you think it meant? I need to fix the failure.
The Beginning of the Failure
When did things start? Were there any early signs? Do I have a tumor? How can this be happening to me? I take way too good of care on my body for this to be happening to me!
Okay, think. When did this start?
Well, a year after Natalie and I got married, I painted a bathroom using a paint called Kilz. The next day we were in church and suddenly I couldn’t see out of the sides. I had tunnel vision. Then, my fingers, toes and tongue went numb. Followed up by the worst headache I have ever experienced. I took a nap and then I was good.
I had never had a migraine before but someone told me that is what happened. That was the only time I had ever experienced anything like that. I pray that I never have to deal with that again and I have huge empathy for those who suffer with migraines.
Was this an early sign of what was happening in my brain now?
Fast forward about 10 years, with no other signs or problems, we had company stay with us who drink Diet Coke. When they left, there was about a dozen left in our fridge. I started drinking them and got to the point where I was drinking about one a day.
Lying down in bed one night, I started to feel some dizziness. The room wasn’t spinning but I felt like I was falling. Not really, it was hard to describe but I didn’t feel right.
I wasn’t sure what was causing it but the only thing I was doing different was drinking this diet Coke. I stopped drinking it. It was pretty much all gone anyway. The feeling went away almost immediately. What a relief!
Kilz is Nasty (Round 2)
A few years later, I needed to paint with Kilz again. This time I made sure I was in a well-ventilated room. No problems the next day. Great!
Two days later though, I was in a morning meeting at work. We always meet at the front desk. The lights at the front desk are fairly bright but they had never bothered me before. Right after the meeting, I was not able to see. Everything just looked super bright. You probably have experienced before on a bright sunny day. You glance at the sun and after you look away all you see is the sun for a few seconds.
Of course, I didn’t tell anyone. I’m a guy, I can fix this brain problem myself.
The problem though, I couldn’t see. How was I going to work on patients? I know my way around my adjusting room very well, so I just started working with the first patient. As I worked with him, the brightness went away and I could see again. That was scary! Do I need to be worried? It went away, I’m good.
Note to self, never use Kilz again.
I Continued to Decline
Over the next few years, I had little signs that there was a problem. I would notice that if I spent too much time in the sun, I would not feel good. Almost like my energy was being drained. I didn’t think too much of it but something was just not right… I didn’t know what.
Unfortunately the “blindness” from bright lights returned. I was working in my office at home, talking to my wife. There was a window behind her and the bright light caused it so I couldn’t even see her. This is not good. What could have caused it this time. We did have some pizza the night before. Was that it?
During this time, I was taking a functional neurology course. This opened my eyes to the fact that these were early signs of poor brain function and could lead to some very serious brain problems.
When I started the neurology course I noticed that I would get super tired after about 30-45 minutes of lecture. I also noticed something that seemed very strange to me, I could not write the letter n, r or m. I could go up with my pen but to try to bring it straight down was almost impossible.
This is crazy. I take such great care of myself. How could this be happening to me?! What is wrong with my brain?!
The symptoms seemed to be somewhat random and they weren’t really interfering with my life. More of a nuisance…. until August 2018. I will never forget this day as things really started to go downhill.
The Day That I Won’t Forget
We went boating with some friends. It was beautiful day. We were on Lake Waconia. We had great company, great weather, lots of laughs and good times. There could not have been a better day!
Every time I went in the lake though, it felt like my ear was filled with water. You know the feeling. It is normal to happen once in a while, but this happened every time. It was super annoying. I would shake my head and it would clear up but it just kept happening.
We finished the night by going out to eat. I had one drink with my meal of steak and veggies. Aside from the drink, it was a very healthy meal.
That night, I was sleeping and suddenly woke up, feeling like I was falling out of bed. The room was spinning like crazy. I literally grabbed my wife to stop myself from falling out of bed. The feeling eventually went away, but the next day I noticed that every time I turned my head it caused the room to spin.
Having taken the functional neurology course, I knew what the problem was (or at least I thought that I did). I had peripheral vertigo, called BPPV, where one of the crystals in my ear moved to a canal and was causing me to think the room was moving.
The solution is to do a movement called Eply’s. I performed this on myself again and again. It would help for a little while but then it was back.
This went on for about 2 weeks. It did get better each day but it took a while. The problem, however, was it switched from the room spinning to feeling like I was the one moving. This is called central vertigo.
This sensation was not constant at first but it became more and more frequent until it was constant. What is going on?! WTF?!
I’ll Fix My Brain Myself
I had worked with patients who had come in with similar symptoms and because of my training in functional neurology, I was able to figure out the problem.
One gentleman had central vertigo caused by gluten. No one had been able to figure this out, but I knew within minutes what his problem was. He had gluten ataxia. He went off gluten, repaired his gut, I worked on the subluxations in his neck, and he was good to go in about 28 days.
Perfect, all I need to do is go gluten free. I was already doing things to keep my gut healthy and getting adjusted regularly. Simple enough… I don’t really care for bread or pasta anyway.
Wait… what do you mean my favorite chocolate chip cookies have gluten in them?! It turns out that it was going to be harder than I thought.
After cutting out gluten, I did feel better in some ways, but not 100%. At the same time though I started having new symptoms. I was noticing that I was having slurred speech. I could say many words but words with S’s, they were the worst. I now knew how Sylvester the cat felt.
Being a doctor and one that takes great care of themselves, I really did not want anyone to know what I was dealing with. Many of the symptoms I was having were fairly easy to hide, but the speech thing may give it away. To cover it up, I would avoid using those words. This was not easy as I would have to think of words I could use instead of words that started with S.
Oh well, as long as people wouldn’t find out that my health wasn’t perfect, it was worth it.
I also knew that eggs can cause cerebellar ataxia. No!! I don’t want to give up eggs. I have eaten eggs for as long as I can remember! A dozen a day at some points in my life!
When you feel crappy though, and taking eggs out of your diet may be the answer to feeling better and improving your brain, you try it!
And I did feel better. But still not 100%.
Continuing to Dig
I started digging deeper on my own, still not getting help from anyone else. Why would I? I’m a trained doctor. I’ve worked with others who have this problem. I have taken extra courses in brain health. I’ve got this!
This is a very dangerous attitude to have. They say that doctors and nurses make the worst patients because we already know everything and we know what is wrong. I was worse than that because I wouldn’t even go and see anyone else. I wouldn’t even allow myself to truly be a patient. Still, I plugged along trying to fix it myself.
What’s Next? I Need Help! I Can’t Go on Like This
I quickly realized that I was not as strict with gluten or egg free eating as I thought I was. I was eating less gluten and eggs but not complete avoidance. I decided to get serious and avoid it 100%
More improvement. Good… but still not 100% better.
I have had health problems in the past but any time I have ever had one, the health problem either resolved itself or I got help and it went away. This was not going away. It started consuming my entire day. I would wake up and first thing I would think “What is today going to be like? Am I better? God, why am I dealing with this? Is this what my life will be like for the rest of my time on earth?”
It became very draining and frustrating. If this is my new normal, then I am not sure I want to live a long life. I can finally see what people struggling with chronic health conditions must face and I can see why they may just want to give up.
Finally, I swallowed my pride and got help.
I was telling myself that I had tried everything but that was far from the truth. I hadn’t even seen another practitioner. I hadn’t ruled out that it wasn’t something more serious such as a tumor or a vascular problem. I was being 100% self-reliant and it wasn’t working. I was not practicing what I preach!
The most obvious person to start to see was my co-worker, Dr. Rob Lindsey.
Dr. Rob is specially trained in functional medicine and functional neurology. He has seen many cases of people dealing with chronic health issues including weird brain symptoms like mine, even helping a patient who had been told he only had months to live. He discovered that the patient had parasites in his brain, and helped resolve the problem!
During the time of trying to fix it myself, I ran a few tests on myself such as comprehensive blood panel and a genetic panel that looks at underlying potential genetic predispositions.
He looked at those and performed other testing, FCT testing. FCT testing is unconventional. It tests energetic frequencies to determine what is wrong. Dr. Rob also uses muscle testing to determine if a person is dealing with deficiencies or toxicities. I was dealing with low magnesium.
Adding magnesium really helped but again not 100%. He also gave me FCT remedies that keyed in on some infections I may be dealing with as well as some remedies that help with brain function.
I’m Healed! Actually… I’m Not
I would love to say that I am healed, but I am not. I have actually held off from writing this article for some time. I wanted to wait to write it until I was healed. How could I share this with you while I am still in the struggle? But then my wife said something the other day that changed my decision to wait.
We were in church and heard a testimony. It was a great testimony, but she made the comment that we always hear testimonies of people when their life is on the other side of the struggle. When everything seems to be “fixed.” People rarely share a their story while in the middle of it.
While I would say I am so much better, I am not 100%. Many people fault the church in that we seem to always present our life is the perfect picture. As Marilyn Manson would call us, “The Beautiful People.” It’s not just the church, it’s human nature.
It’s winter in Minnesota as I write this, and I see many people in our office who have slipped and fallen on ice. I always ask what is the first thing you did after you fell. Nine times out of ten, the number one thing they did was look around to see who saw them fall.
We hate it when people see our failures. We put on the “life is perfect face” so others don’t know what’s going wrong in our lives.
As a doctor who promotes health and healthy living, I hate it when I get sick. I hate it when I am dealing with a health issue. The last thing I want is for people to know that I am struggling with my health, but I am.
A Look Into the Future
My encouragement to you though, if you are dealing with an ongoing health issue, is to get help. God created us the way he did to depend on others, not to be all self-sufficient.
My goal moving forward is to solve this health problem. I want to feel like I did before I had this. It was so nice to just wake up, feel good, not think about the words to use or walking down a hall and not feel like you are falling to one side, to not have to prepare for a bump on the road or many of the other things that I have been dealing with.
Now, most days I do feel good… but then there are days that I don’t. Many times, I have no idea why some days are better than others.
I will continue to work on improving my health, but my attitude has changed. I want to live a long life, even if it isn’t with the same degree of health I once enjoyed. I won’t ever give up working on improving my health but at the same time, I will be content with the health that I have right now.
I believe that we are here on this earth to serve others, to reflect God’s love and to share the reason for the hope and joy I have in my life. I am grateful each day to have that opportunity, even if I don’t feel 100% while doing it.
