My Revealing Visit With Dr. Frank Lipman

November 14, 2012 Health

To say that there has been a lot going on this past few weeks would be a total understatement.  Between a catastrophic hurricane and the re-election of our incredible president we have had our hands, hearts and minds completely full.  While all of that has been going on in the outside world, my inner world has continued to focus on my health and healing.  I mentioned a few weeks ago on Facebook that I was going to visit , an integrative medicine doctor who I have heard wonderful and inspiring things about for years.  Although I have seen countless doctors from all over the world, the idea of working with someone who integrates and understands both the philosophies from the east and the west seemed to be the one possibility I hadn’t explored yet.

You see my condition is pretty severe so after much trial and error, I finally understand that for the time being my body does need medicinal support.  I currently take a medicine that I have to inject in to my thigh every other week.  Although I wish I could go without it, the medicine literally took me from not walking to skipping down the street within two short weeks.  However, as I mentioned a few weeks ago, the medicine has begun to loose efficacy over time and therefore my Psoriasis and Psoriatic arthritis are beginning to resurface.  That’s where Dr. Lipman comes in.

I walked in to his office at 9:30 AM on October 18th with my love-entourage by my side.  My amazing mom drove in from New Jersey to be with me and one of my dearest friends, Jill Brack came to lend her loving support.  You see, I hate going to the doctor.  I know that might sound totally wimpy and lame but it’s true.  I have been poked, prodded, examined, biopsied and more for 21 years and sometimes up to four times a week.  It’s a lot and it honestly isn’t much fun.  After I filled out all of the paper work, I waited anxiously for my appointment to begin.  Countless thoughts racing through my head but the main one that continued to surface was “I hope he can help me.  Dear God, please let him help me”.  Finally we meet and our appointment begins, my love entourage flashing huge smiles of encouragement as I walk to his office.

We talked about my history with eating, with medicines, my emotional well-being and what might be causing stress in my life.  He had already heard about me from our mutual friend Terri Cole who had told him he “better take care of me” like a true member of the love mafia.  It was a wonderful exchange between us actually.  I felt really understood and the biggest thing I felt was that he really took the time to listen to me.  He didn’t act like he knew it all or that he already had me figured out based on the condition I happened to have.  He heard all my stories, looked at my condition and allowed it all to settle in before deciding how to take action.  As someone who has seen my fair share of doctors where they steam roll you with assumptions, I truly appreciated that.

So what course of action did he go with?  He put me on a 30-day personalized cleanse, specifically targeting the intense inflammation in my body and gave me a list of supplements to be taken twice a day.  The cleanse allowed me to drink two (actually delicious) shakes a day and have two small meals.  The meals needed to be mainly soy, egg, dairy, gluten and sugar free along with a few other items I needed to eliminate.  He also gave me his personal email address and asked that I update him and the nutritionist, Jennifer, at least once a week on my progress.  That was new for sure.  Most doctors barely speak to you at the appointment, let alone want to hear from you afterwards.  My love entourage (Mom and Jill) were with me when I was told all the steps I needed to take.  They were so incredibly supportive and it literally brings me to tears to think of how blessed I am to have them in my life.

It has now been 28 days since I started this process and I have noticed some exciting changes.  First of all, I have lost a bit of weight which I always felt was from an imbalance, so it feels really healthy to have that normalizing after illuminating a lot of foods that don’t agree with me.  As far as my Psoriasis goes, I have noticed that my skin is a lot less inflamed.  The patches are still there but the severity of them have decreased and that is awesome.

The other thing that I have experienced throughout this process is a tremendous awareness of self-love.  I feel like following this cleanse and taking my vitamins was a huge “I LOVE YOU” to myself and that has been really emotionally healing.   I have tried other cleanses before, and they were all great, but the difference this time is that I was truly ready to do whatever it took to help my body heal.  It has also allowed me to continue my practice of letting go and not forcing an outcome.  Would I have loved for everything to be totally gone after drinking some shakes and taking some vitamins for 30 days?  Of course!  But I need to remember that this might take more time then I think it should and that does not mean that anything is wrong.  My body has been dealing with this illness for 21 years, so it might need more then 28 days to heal, don’t you think?

Are you working on healing a certain area of your life right now?  I know I have been talking a lot about healing and acceptance in my last few newsletters, but Beauties I really believe that these two things are the cornerstone to accessing the life of your dreams.  That life, that body, that relationship and more are all waiting for you right beneath the surface of whatever pain, frustration or trauma you are carrying around with you every day.  So please answer this question in the comments below, “What would your life be like if you chose healing over feeling pain?”

I believe in each of you so much and as always, we are in this together and together we will heal.

Thank you for reading.

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