That's the Spirit!

About a month ago, I was still finding myself very tired and my "up" and "down" moods seemed to continue to be pretty intense.  I was finding it very hard to get out of bed each day.  We have a serious shortage of doctors here in Nova Scotia.  Our family physician left months ago and, while there is no replacement yet, if we want to see a doctor then we need to go to an after hours clinic where typically we need to wait 2-3 hours to talk to a stranger.  After weeks of thinking about doing so, I decided I would do this, as then I could get routine blood tests done and then take that info to a local Naturopathic Doctor.

On the evening of Friday, April 27th, when suddenly I found myself with some "free" time because my son no longer needed me to take him to school like I anticipated, I decided to go to that walk-in clinic.  Not sure about you, but I'm not good with new people, and so I found it hard to explain my situation to the stranger in front of me, but I managed to walk away with a form to get blood tests done on Monday morning.

The next Friday, I went back to that clinic to hear the results and was relieved to have the same doctor there.  You cannot always count on that at the walk-in clinic - usually it's someone different every time.  The doctor told me...  "You have elevated liver enzymes.  Do you drink?"  Of course, I don't drink at all, so that explanation was ludicrous.  He wrote up another lab request form, and told me I need to go again for a repeat test of my GGT levels in a month to see if this changes.  I asked him what causes that and he seemed to brush me off.  I asked him if it could simply be temporary from stress and he said, yeah, that could be it.  He said my cortisol results were not in yet, so I should check back in a week about the result of that test.  He didn't take the time to explain further.  Instead, I felt very rushed out the door.  Sure felt the doctor shortage on that evening!

Well, what does a computer geek do when she goes to a doctor and is left with questions about a blood test?  She goes to our friend "Google", right?  You're all cringing now, aren't you?

I looked up "elevated liver enzymes" and here's what I got:
https://www.mayoclinic.org/symptoms/elevated-liver-enzymes/basics/causes/sym-20050830
I didn't sleep very well in the past few weeks.  I was a bit unnecessarily freaked out ;-)

Now, after a few weeks of waiting, that last test result finally came in, and so this Saturday I found myself in that clinic again, with another 2 hour wait to see another doctor I had never met before.  This turned out to be a blessing.  This doctor took his time.  He explained that my cortisol levels are in the normal range, which honestly surprised me because I feel extremely stressed out most of the time now it seems.  I pressed him further on all this...

Turns out my liver enzyme levels are only "mildly" elevated.  I was a bit surprised to learn that some employers could actually look at a test like mine and reject me as an employee for fear that I'm an alcoholic.  That seems rather harsh and unfair, especially to a non-drinker!  Will have to keep that in mind if I choose to apply somewhere else someday...

He went on to explain further though, thank goodness!  It's likely I'm in menopause.  The "on edge" moods could all be explained by that simple "change" that we women must deal with.  I should get used to this, as it is not likely to get better for a while.  Far better than what "Google" was telling me - LOL!  I'll still go see the ND because I have observed her helping others in this time.

Now, Sunday was interesting.  As I said, I've been REALLY tired lately.  Still, I find that going to church is good for me, and so I ensured I made it there.  During children's time, our minister talked about "ruach"...  Did you know that in Hebrew there is a single word that means "breath", "wind" and "spirit"?  Google corroborates this, too ;-)  https://www.gotquestions.org/meaning-ruach.html  He had us do some deep breathing, and there was extra singing, and I walked away from the service reminded of the days when I used to meditate and that did a world of good for me.  I was totally energized!

Yesterday was a beautiful, sunny Sunday.  After a few years of living with a kitchen ceiling with a hole that I tried to patch, sand and prime a few times and gave up on, I finally found the energy to try again.  Last night, I was SO happy crawling into bed realizing that FINALLY I had patched and primed that ceiling.  Today, it was beautiful again.  I hauled our deck furniture out and then spent a good part of the holiday sitting on our deck reading a book.  Thinking about that word "ruach", I can't help but reflect now..  maybe "That's the Spirit!"

I will have to ensure I do that deep breathing and meditate more often!

Hope you enjoyed your weekend, too.  If you are in Canada, Happy Victoria Day!