What is wrong with Doctors in America? What I learned from almost dying.

I have mixed emotions writing this blog. I am 50% angry and 50% relieved, and to be honest, just shocked at how unbelievable these last 10 months have been. I want to share my story because I hope that it will give you the courage to be ruthless with your doctor when you have a health issue or when all the doctor seems to care about is which medicine to prescribe you.

Let me give you some facts before we begin.

• I am 39 years old.
• I have never smoked.
• I drink occasionally.
• I eat healthy.
• I work out 5 times per week and I am very active.
• I have never had any type of health issue.
• I have never had any type of mental issue.
• I had my discharge physical with the Navy at the age of 23, and had not even been to the doctor once until the age of 38 with the exception of the occasional steroid shot for sinus infections.

On Father’s Day of 2021, (3 days after the 2nd Covid Vaccine coincidentally) my entire life changed. I can’t even begin to tell you how difficult this ordeal was. My wife surprised me with a hotel stay and a visit to the waterpark with our 4 year old daughter. It was a day like any other. Family, Friends and Fun. We swam, we ate, and at the end of the day, we went to our hotel room and I was exhausted.

Then something crazy happened. The exact moment I would fall asleep, it felt like I was hit with a defibrillator. The best way I can describe the feeling is imagine you are almost asleep, and then you hear someone break into your house. You jerk awake and your heart is pounding. This happened for no apparent reason. I would calm down, get tired again, and the second I doze off, I would jerk awake so hard that it would cause a panic for a few moments. This scared the shit out of me. This happened the entire night. And the next night. And the next night. After 3 nights of ZERO sleep, I booked a doctors appt. asap. They didn’t have an availability for 2 days so I booked it anyway and then went to urgent care.

Urgent care did blood pressure, EKG, and told me all was normal. They recommended melatonin and other useless shit and told me to see if that worked, and if not, tell my doctor.

2 more nights of ZERO SLEEP. By day 5, I can’t even describe the feeling. Depression, Hopelessness, Exhaustion, Worry, etc. I couldn’t even function and just sat on Google all day trying to figure it out on my own. “At least I had my appt. with my doctor,” I thought. I get to the doctor, and he acts surprised as if he had never heard of something like this before. I asked if it could have anything to do with the Vaccine I got a few days ago, and he quickly laughed it off and said no. He took some blood for blood work, and then he immediately started talking about sleep meds. He said he’d prescribe Hydroxyzine. I was shocked at how fast the appt. was, but hopeful the meds would work.

Nope… Day 6 I book a same day appt. and told him that I can’t go another day with no sleep. It’s literally messing with me mentally. He doesn’t say anything other than Ok, I’ll send a prescription for Ambien. I picked it up, and finally on the 6th night I slept. The blood work came back clean and that was that. No desire to try and run more tests or to dig deeper. Just keep taking Ambien and let me know how it goes in a couple weeks.

I was pissed so I started calling holistic doctors. I found one in Nashville that was ran by an ex-surgeon and booked an appt. I was sleeping now with Ambien, but still not a normal sleep. I would wake up several times and only sleep 3–5 hours, but at least it was something and I wasn’t jerking awake.

I went to the Med-spa, and they took tons of labs to test for Cortisol, heavy metals, mold, etc. I explained the situation and the doctor was like, it might be because you have low testosterone. I had never heard of that and so they checked. I was ignorant then, but now I know that this place makes their money getting EVERYONE they can on testosterone. They aren’t bad people, and my levels were a little low, but they are more in the business of selling testosterone than trying to identify why an issue might be happening.

I started taking testosterone and although it didn’t improve my sleep, it did drastically improve my sex drive and my workouts. I also started growing hair on my back for the first time in my life…

For 4 months the Ambien worked. Not amazing, but I slept at least a little most nights and it knocked me out. At this point, I am still trying to figure out what the hell is going on because who wants to stay on a Hypnotic drug that could lead to Alzheimers?

After 4 months the Ambien stopped working completely. Even a double dose did NOTHING. By now, the symptoms had changed. I wasn’t jerking awake anymore. Now I just couldn’t go to sleep at all because my heart was pounding when I would lie down, and I could feel it pounding in my stomach. It was uncomfortable, I would get really hot, and I would be up all night. It seemed to only do this when I would lie down. During the day, I could run 5 miles or box and be fine. My heart wasn’t beating fast… It just felt like it was beating HARD. It was heart palpitations.

I go back to the doctor, and the appt. was less than 15 min. He recommended changing the prescription to Trazadone. An Anti-depressant that has shown to help people sleep in lower doses.

What the fuck! Now I am on Anti-depressants? I ask the doctor is there anything else we can do or tests we can run? He just assured me that my heart looked normal and that If I wanted, I could do a sleep study. I know I don’t have Sleep apnea, I don’t even snore, but said ok in desperation. Only problem… they are booked out for 4 months.

Let me fast forward and save some time here. Just one week ago from writing this, I had spent over $25,000 on doctors, ER visits, testosterone, weed, cannabis oils, Liposomal Melatonin, and every thing you can possibly imagine.

One week ago, I was on Zoloft for anti-anxiety because the doctor kept thinking it was anxiety. “Now I am on fucking Anti-anxiety AND Anti-depressants,” I thought. Not only that, but 4 weeks ago, the sleep issues started manifesting into some insane indigestion. I am highly allergic to seafood and I get this weird feeling when I eat it. It’s like I need to throw up and can’t stop burping it up for hours. Well now, everything I eat is making me do that. I go to the ER twice because of this, and because I can sleep hardly at all. Some weeks I won’t sleep for 3–4 days while on all the meds, and now whatever I eat is causing this weird feeling all day.

10 FUCKING MONTHS. This issue has been all encompassing. I went from a healthy, positive, and extremely active 38 year old to someone who only thinks they might be dying. It had messed me up mentally, I couldn’t focus on work, and when it starts to get dark outside and I know it’s almost time for bed… I would almost get panic attacks. I got my will done because I have 3 kids and want to be prepared in case my heart stops or some other issue occurs.

15 Doctor visits and other than basic tests, ALL THEY WANT TO DO IS TO KEEP CHANGING MEDICATIONS.

I wasn’t being lazy either. I was doing my own testing. I gave up Coffee thinking maybe it was that. I stopped taking Afrin for sinuses because apparently it causes Heart Palpitations, and I went on a strict anti-inflammatory diet. I was doing all I knew to do.

At the ER I was so pissed that I commanded they book me appts. with every specialist there is. Cardiologist, GI Doctor, Sleep Doctor. I will pay. I don’t care. I can’t keep doing this. The cardiologist was the same as everyone else. I explained the issue, he looked at my EKG, listened to my heart, and then proceeded to tell me that he is pretty positive it isn’t heart related. His guess… Anxiety. He starts asking me about my work and family life and I am just defeated. Maybe it is anxiety. I don’t really have stress, family life is great, work life is easy, but maybe because I am coasting, it’s causing regret and anxiety. I start to convince myself that this is it. But why am I getting digestive problems now?

2 weeks ago I had an idea. I started feeling like shit after I ate and so I was like… You know what, let me do a food allergy test and see if I might be reacting to something.

THIS CHANGED MY LIFE.

On April 19, yes, 8 days before me writing this, I went to Cool Springs Allergy and got a Food allergy test done. At this point I am numb to it all. I don’t expect shit. I don’t get any hopes up. I am just waiting for another “your all good” from the doctor.

Then it happens. She brings me the sheet and shows me all the food I am allergic to. Most of them I knew. Every type of seafood. Now for the shocker. I was highly allergic to RICE, BROCCOLI, AND EGG YOLK.

I had eaten at least one of these foods EVERY SINGLE DAY. I am half middle eastern. We eat rice 5 nights a week every week. I eat eggs 4–5 days a week and broccoli 2–3 days per week.

When I got the test, for a brief second I felt like Nicolas Cage at the end of National Treasure just before he found the treasure. “COULD IT BE THAT SIMPLE,” were his exact words before putting the pipe in the hole, turning it, and discovering the Billions of dollars of treasure.

I refused to believe it. I have been eating these my whole life! No way this could be it, but immediately cut it all out asap.

8 days later I feel like a new person. I have slept better than I have in almost a year. Not perfect every night but almost. I have 5 times the energy during the day. I have mental clarity like crazy. I stopped the Indigestion medicine, and the Anti-anxiety meds.

So here I am. Just shocked really.

• Shocked that general doctors seem to have no knowledge other than prescribing medicine.
• Shocked that nobody thought of doing an allergy test.
• Shocked that not one doctor took an interest in discovering the root of the issue.
• Shocked that specialists were all 2–4 months booked out when I had a serious issue.

You watch shows like House MD, and think that most doctors have a genuine desire to help patients get better through detective work, only to realize that they are just blazing through patients as fast as possible.

The lesson here for you and me?

1. Find a doctor who cares. Not all are bad, but I was so shocked at how many different doctors I saw that were just indifferent. If it wasn’t a quick fix, they were stumped. Ask for referrals, drill them with questions, and don’t be afraid to interview them.
2. Pay attention. In hindsight, I feel I could have gotten an allergy test sooner, but I was so busy focusing on heart and head that it did not occur to me.
3. Be as blunt as you have to with your doctor, in order to get the attention and referrals necessary when you have an issue. I was always just trusting and passive because what do I know….They are the expert… NOT ANYMORE.
4. DON’T LET SOMEONE CONVINCE YOU THAT YOU HAVE SOMETHING YOU DON’T WHEN YOU DON’T FEEL RIGHT.

In conclusion, I am not saying all doctors or dumb or bad. What I am saying is that it’s really crazy how the industry as a whole is set up. Pill for this, pill for that. You hear horror stories but never really think something like this could happen to you. When it does, for the amount doctors make, you would expect an inquisitive and deep dive conversation. When it’s as simple as let’s prescribe you this, you just feel kind of hopeless and out of options. Maybe this is just my experience, but regardless, i felt the need to share because deep down, I feel like I didn’t have to suffer for the last 10 months the way that I did. I hope it never happens to you.