Little did I know that 2017 was about to change everything for me and I was unknowingly hopping on a rocket ship that was about to launch.
“Phillip, the tests are back, we need to talk.”
This was the voicemail I received last November from Dr. Kyle Chavers, my new functional doctor. In the early fall of 2016, I underwent a torrent of tests with Dr. Chavers to determine what was going on in my body that may have caused my Achalasia.
Worldwide, the question of how people develop this disease has doctors vexed. There isn’t even a known genetic link. My doctors at Johns Hopkins and The Mayo Clinic threw up their hands and told me: “it is what it is.”
These doctors see hundreds of patients a week. The pressure is on to treat one patient and then move on to the next one. If you find yourself depending on them to do anything proactively, then you should probably adjust your expectations. I get it now and I’m not resentful about it — just smarter.
Once I understood this, I knew I had to do more work on my own. Interestingly enough, after hours and hours of research, I found a huge clue that rang right and true…