The Best Bargain in Town

This is a story about how prayer, diet and exercise can sometimes do more than any doctors. There seem to be more and more medical conditions like then one I had, not caused by any known disease or disability, causing significant pain and distress, and beyond the abilities of the medical profession to understand well enough to cure. Mine was never officially diagnosed, but studying everything I could find about my symptoms on the internet and in books, I know that it fits the exact same set of symptoms that doctors call Interstitial Cystitis, or IC. A couple of months ago, I was spending most of my days and nights in horrible pain, exhausted, fearful for my future and terrified about what to do. Now, my health is 100% good, with only occasional recurring mild symptoms, which I have learned how to cure myself. It’s certainly a miracle to me; I will never be able to thank Hashem enough for how things turned out. If I had gone down the medical path, there is a strong likelihood things would have got worse, and I would still be in agony today. Doctors describe the symptoms I had with the name Interstitial Cystitis, and describe it as an incurable condition that normally gets progressively worse.

Would you go to a car mechanic who said there was no hope of repairing your car, in fact it would get worse whether they tried to mend it or not? Me neither. But we know that Hashem can do more than doctors, and we also know that a message of no hope is a no-good message. I have always preferred to deal with health issues myself rather than by relying on a doctor who does not understand me and my family as well as I do, and who in my experience may be too ready to offer drugs with harmful side-effects. Unfortunately, I did not follow my own advice when I became ill with respiratory problems twice over the winter, and opted to take steroid medications both times to help me breathe. Steroids have a significant effect on the body, and can cause damage in one area while appearing to do good in another. After these two courses of steroids, I was exhausted and suffering from a range of unpleasant symptoms that would not shift. As I felt more and more tired, I took less exercise, and became less strong. Worse than that, I ate and drank sugary, sweet foods for the burst of energy they seemed to provide. Things got worse.

Soon I was experiencing pain in my pelvis and bladder. In the past, I had been to the doctor with these symptoms, and been prescribed antibiotics. But my health was getting worse, and I did not want yet another course of treatment to throw me further off balance. I emailed Rabbi Lazer Brody asking what to do. A few hours later, I was in so much pain, it seemed like a good idea to go to the doctor anyway, just to ask for prescription painkillers. But once there, the dilemma returned: what if drugs only made things worse?

My husband has a cellphone that can receive emails, and he checked it while we were sitting in the waiting room. There was a message from Rabbi Brody. He wrote: “Begin an immediate natural diet with no fried, junk, refined or sugary food. Drink mineral water and herb teas only, and devote an hour a day to personal prayer.”  We walked out of the surgery and went home.

But the effects of changing my diet did not last. Even though doing this had obviously made a huge difference of some kind, my symptoms came back in a couple of days and I was as uncomfortable and miserable as before. And this experience was to repeat itself several more times before I reached my current state of good health. Through research, reading, alternative health advice and random ideas that sprang out at me, I ended up making a series of changes to get back to full health. Having done that, I can see that my poor health was a series of escalating problems: the side-effects of medical treatment, causing damage to organs, causing muscle spasms as the body’s reaction to pain.

But at the time, I just had to try things, or not try things that might help. It was impossible to know for sure what might help and how long to try it for. The only constant was my commitment to learning whatever Hashem was trying to teach me. I would be thanking Him for feeling comfortable one day, and begging for help yet again the next. The hardest thing was trying to stay happy when it seemed impossible to think about anything other than the way my body was feeling. Misery cuts us off from Hashem, and there were times when I felt abandoned and ignored. Why was He doing this to me? I had just started a new exciting job, and could hardly get to work at all most days. Did He want me to give it up? But I carried on with this unexpected journey to health, Hashem willing, which He made for me without being asked, and so many times, just when everything seemed disastrous a new signpost or a new kind of help popped up.

For instance, I drank grapefuit-seed extract to alkalinize my body which not only calmed my discomfort but gave me an instant lesson to teach my son, who was having trouble trying out new foods: it was the most bitter taste imaginable, but I went from hating it to not minding at all as soon as the effects came in. And I discovered that gentle running helped the pelvic pain, and started playing tennis with my husband. Not only did I learn more about what healthy muscles feel like, and how to maintain my body, we rediscovered our favorite way to have fun and exercise together after many months of tiredness and inactivity. I call things like that bargains- two good things for the price of one! I asked to feel better, and Hashem gave me that and also showed me how to take care of my own body better than before. I wish more people understood how much can be done this way before making themselves dependent on physicians and procedures that don’t take their individual selves into account, unlikes the way Hashem does things. Who knows what could be accomplished if we all had just a bit more patience and faith? I must admit that fear of medical procedures contributed to keeping me out of the doctor’s surgery- just the diagnostic test for IC is invasive, painful, requires general anesthetic and doesn’t actually diagnose IC at all, it only rules out other conditions.

Sticking with the path towards better health from within without having any certainty about whether the next experiment would work or even make things worse, was the hardest thing I have ever done. Sometimes, I felt that Hashem must want me to keep going and try a little harder. Other times, I just felt desperate. Fortunately there was no pressure from my doctor, only from my own often extreme discomfort. When a condition is regarded as long-term and incurable, you can often take as long as you want before seeking diagnosis-based medicine. We are so often ready to seek help for problems from the medical profession, I often wonder if we don’t expect too much from them, for instance, when our children seem to have learning or developmental problems, is that really a medical issue? I always thought that pain, especially inner organ pain, was obviously a medical issue. Now I see my previous problems as a health issue, and my health as mine to manage, with the help of Hashem, because that’s why He gave me this body for living in. And now I face the next part of my life healthier and more energized than I have ever been.

If I had not become sick, I would never have known what it felt like to be as healthy as I am now. My diet is very different, much better and more balanced, my body feels so much stronger and when I get occasional discomfort of the kind that was tyrannizing me before, I not only know how to adjust and strengthen those muscles- I know to ask myself where the tension was coming from, and what problems I am ignoring in my life. I now know that the way my body feels usually reflects the life I am living, and how conscious I am of what Hashem is trying to tell me. And I know what it feels like to walk in the dark and come out the other side, and that Hashem really can and will help you do that. Give it a try. Hashem’s medical care is the best bargain in town.

(Alice Bacchini is the author of the “Mad Housewife” blog at http://www.themadhousewife.com/)