Sometimes we get early warnings from our bodies, how many of us listen?

My husband developed gout several years ago.  One of the things that came with it was kidney stones.  The first one my husband had, brought him to his knees at work.  He was working in a detention center for a local county agency and it isn’t a real great place to have this hit you.  I was grateful when he was efficiently relocated to the local hospital without any incident.

He had been dealing with gout for a while but he wasn’t expecting the lively little gems tearing into his urinary tract.  He had to remove several of his favorite foods from his diet and change his lifestyle and now things have settled down so that we can have beef on the dinner table every once in a while. 

Last week, our son called; he was working on passing one of those scary gems and it brought him to his knees while he was shopping.  He isn’t yet 30 so I would actually call this a win, his body was sending up a flare.  Incidents like this are like warning beacons telling you that things need to change and if you can decipher them, it will save you a ton of suffering later.

Irritable bowl was one of those flares that I didn’t interpret correctly, turns out I had developed Hashimotos and my IBS was a signal that I didn’t understand.  20 years after my first real bout should have told me but, medical professionals and I didn’t actually communicate well and as far as they were concerned, IBS and my endocrine system weren’t related.  Sort of like my back stiffness, who knew it was Spinal Stenosis?

I guess what it comes down to is this, take the time to figure out what your body is saying.  Times have changed dramatically and now medical professionals are paying attention to how things are connected.  Advocate for yourself, even when you feel like you are too young to suffer too much.  These are road signs to other problems that will haunt you down the road.  Don’t be afraid to ask, especially if you have good medical insurance.  Good luck, I need to go sort my medications now; there are several.