Photo of me from 2016 maybe - on a hike, my favorite pastime.
I follow some people on YouTube. I am not entirely sure what the appeal is, except I think it could be the interest I have in the mundane in people’s lives. Yes, some of it is staged, like any good reality show but, some of it appears to be real. Recently someone I follow decided to use ChatGPT to diagnose her symptoms. There are a lot of opinions about this. However, I land on the side of it certainly cannot hurt anything. Yes, there is the warning that this should not be used in place of medical advice.
I decided in 2025 I would not go see a doctor. Part of it was I wasn’t happy with my health care and the rest is that my insurance changed and none of my doctors are seeing patients in the systems I was using anymore. I would have to start ALL over again.
It is hard to switch from people who know you, your health, your history to people who are trying to help you but literally have no idea what you have already done. That is what it was like to move from Washington State to Ohio. Starting over again. I thought maybe I could start all over again. Maybe all of the things that are happening to me aren’t really happening. I have a lot of symptoms. They can happen in a void or all of the time.
I am overweight.
I know it, the scale knows it - but why? I started gaining weight in 2018 and steadily gained until I plateaued at about 2023 - at first I had not really changed anything about the way I ate - and then my activity tanked because I kept injuring myself. I should say, I am not an athlete or athletic and yet I was experiencing injury after injury without doing much to really put myself at risk. Just living life. If you compared the way I ate in 2004 to the way I eat now - it is RADICALLY different. I probably eat healthier than I have in most of my life (except all of the crazy food diets I went on trying to figure out what was wrong with me in 2013-2017). Yes, I felt like crap when I was thinner too.
Two nutritionalists told me that IF I was truthful about what I was eating, they could not see why I wasn’t losing weight. Unless, maybe, I wasn’t eating enough.
Of course there is more to the story - check out my previous post here if interested.
I decided to put ALL of my symptoms into ChatGPT and see what came up. Chat GPT definitely tells you it isn’t to be seen as a replacement for actual medical care BUT, it did say there is a real possibility of a systemic issue…and it recommends investigating the following:
Autoimmune Disease
Thyroid Disfunction
Diabetes
Electrolyte Imbalance or Adrenal Issues
Perimenopause/Hormonal Imbalances (which most doctors agree this is over?)
Mast Cell Activation Syndrome or Histamine Intolerance
Then it gives a list of things for me to ask for from my doctor including types of tests and monitoring that would help rule out or give additional information.
Now, I have had a number of these things done for which I was told I was in the NORMAL ranges by a regular physician and ABNORMAL ranges by a Naturopath.
Chat GPT recommends I INSIST on a full workup, keep a symptom journal, and if I don’t feel heard, get a second opinion. Oh, and I love this - “Your symptoms are REAL and should not be dismissed.” Seriously the most compassion I have had from anyone in a long time about my issues.
What I love about this is it offers to give me a PDF or a worksheet to fill out organized by symptoms and tests to give to a doctor AND gives a template for tracking symptoms in the meantime.
Now, all I need is to find a doctor who is serious about helping me. Not just taking my money, not just giving me prescription drugs, not just telling me to lose weight, not just saying there is nothing we can see that is wrong with you, not just saying now that I am a woman of a particular age, this all seems super normal, not just saying I need to just eat leafy greens and lean proteins and all will be well (spoiler alert - it doesn’t).
What I am walking away with is - I am not crazy. Things are not okay. I CAN work on some of the things suggested. Thankfully this isn’t my first rodeo and there are so many things I can do without the assistance of a licensed medical professional. I am going to start logging again. I think it will be helpful. I am my own science experiment.
Maybe someday I will have the courage to go through a doctor’s doors and try again.
Photo of me in 2023 or so?