The Other Me
‘Looking For Answers’ ii. The fructose test involved breathing into a meter which measured the level of fructose in my stomach, drinking a glass of fructose, and then breathing into the meter every half hour for the next three hours to see how my stomach reacted. If, at any point, the reading was over that initial base reading by a factor of twenty, it meant my stomach wasn’t absorbing the fructose, and thus I must be fructose intolerant. I brought my laptop to the little clinic where the test was performed, breathed into the meter, and got an initial reading of 4. I then downed the glass of fructose, a…
The Other Me
‘That Same Old Feeling’ iv. New Year’s eve, I was invited to a get-together at a friend’s. The day was like most others: I woke in pain and feeling low. I caught up with a friend, and for a bit was able to forget everything going on – or at least push it from the forefront of my mind. After my friend left, I was going up to the house when a massive surge of anxiety and imbalance hit. This wasn’t a panic attack. It felt like something had gone wrong inside my body, inside my head, and the anxiety was a response to that. I called my friend, saying…