With Caution

I'm (likely, still might cancel?) going to see a naturopath next week.

These are medical folks with training who tend more towards the alternative side instead of the heavily western medical side. (Did I put that politely and carefully enough?)

I went to one years ago but found her recommendations overwhelming and not realistic for me and my lifestyle so I didn't keep going.

But a couple of months ago C-Dawg went to this naturopath, mainly to talk about peri-menopause and all the things that might be springing up from that and she spoke very highly of her and so I figured I'd give it a try.

I'm not about to buy a whole bunch of supplements, I already buy a lot of supplements and they're expensive and I don't have the budget for more, quite honestly.  But I do want to have someone look at where my hormones might be and talk to me about how I might be able to improve some aspects of my life.

I'm having some surprising guilt, however, that I'm not going to my regular doctor for this.  I'm one of the very very lucky people who actually have a family doctor in this town right now and I'm not trying to take business away from her or anything so I'm not quite sure why I'm going to this person rather than going to my family doctor and being like "talk to me about hormones and aging"?

I guess I'm maybe looking at it like a bit of a specialty.  And I do have coverage as it's a private pay thing (rather than a family doctor) so it hopefully will be mostly covered from my benefits.  Nobody says I HAVE to go or have to return if I do go.  I think there's also an aspect of maybe forcing myself to deal with things I've been half ignoring (being a woman over 40....) and looking ahead to the next "phase" of my life (50 is weird for me in really triggering age and aging fears and worry and stress) and wanting to try to be the healthiest I can be going forward.  

I see my parents in their 80s and how relatively healthy and well they are and compared to other folks their age or YOUNGER, I know that being older can be very different depending on how you take care of yourself, as well as the genetics (and so far it seems I've got a good head start on the good genes thing!)

So yeah, I know naturopaths can have a not so great rep/rap and so I guess I'm putting it out there that I'm not going in blind and naive and I'm cautious and not really even wanting to go and I think that if C-Dawg hadn't spoken so highly about the whole thing I'd likely be continuing to avoid and put off all this stuff.

But yeah, I'm nervous about it, that's for sure.  (Even though I've been to one before.  Odd.  But times and feelings do change.)