Welcome to Oshi Patient Stories, an interview series where we hear from the real people who have found lasting relief from digestive symptoms with Oshi’s virtual gastrointestinal (GI) care.
Micah shares his experience with Oshi Health.
What brought you to Oshi?
I am a musician from out in Wisconsin and I’m fortunate enough to travel a lot and play a lot of music. I’ve been in about 6 different countries in the last 6 months, and it’s just been awesome. Unfortunately, when you bounce around to that many countries and continents, the GI has a tendency to have some issues. At least it does with me. I developed something fierce and I don’t know if it was the food, the water, whatever happened to me, but I tried to handle my symptoms on my own for about 2 months doing everything over the counter you could imagine, Googling all these answers. I’m trying to figure out how to solve it and nothing worked. Then I heard about this program. So I signed up not really knowing what to expect, and over the course of my treatment it’s been amazing. I love the team approach that they have. They hooked me up with so many specialists and offered testing and medication, everything I absolutely needed, and now I’m completely symptom-free. I’m playing music, I’m doing what I love, getting ready to travel again. So I just owe you a big thank you for everything you’ve done for me and getting me symptom-free. I really appreciate you.
What tips or strategies have you learned while working with Oshi that are helping you live a better life today?
The biggest thing that I learned through being a part of this GI program is that it takes a team, and they do that so good here. They referred me to so many different specialists, offer so many different testing, medications, everything you can imagine. They referred me to that specialist and it was absolutely awesome. It takes an entire team to heal you the fastest and most proficient way, and they did that so good and that’s what I learned.
The second thing I learned is that the internet can’t fix all your problems. I know we all sit on the internet and try to get responses and answers to all the problems, but nothing is going to replace a human medical staff working with you. It’s that simple because they are able to relate, they know your symptoms, they’re able to work with you. Things that AI and Google searches can’t answer for you, so nothing is going to replace a human medical staff.
The third thing that I really learned and a strategy that I’m going to take with me is that it’s not embarrassing. It took me a while to get involved with it because I was kind of embarrassed because who honestly really wants to talk about the GI symptoms or problems you’re having? I thought it’d be super embarrassing. It wasn’t. They made me feel extremely comfortable. There was not one embarrassing moment through the entire process. They are great down to earth people that handle my situation so professionally, and I’m very proud to be a part of this program and The results are just absolutely amazing, and I think that in itself speaks for itself.
How would you review your Oshi experience? What would you say to a friend who’s struggling with similar symptoms?
We’re talking to friends about this program, because at some point we all kind of struggle with GI symptoms, in my opinion. And the first thing I tell them is they take a whole healthcare team approach. It’s not just they assign you say some medications to say good luck. I mean they referred me to a dietitian; I work with the dietitian to make sure my diet is great. We also worked a little bit on medication and just everything all encompassed into one and it was great. It’s not just one person telling you to try things and see if it works. It is an entire team that’s literally dedicated to getting you healthy, which is awesome because not one person knows it all. So it’s a beautiful team approach.
I also tell them that I love the visit summaries. At the end of every session, no matter who you meet with, you get a visit summary in text, and it is awesome because I know a lot of times when you go to a doctor’s office, they are rattling so much stuff off at you, you can’t remember half of it. They give you a nice little bullet point of everything you talked about and everything you need to do so that you can use that as a reference, so it makes it very easy to understand and follow, which helped me out tremendously. And even though that I’m better, I’m still having follow-ups just to make sure. That’s how much they care. I’m still going to see follow-ups even though 100% just to make sure that I’m still on the right track and everything, and they are willing to do that, and that is absolutely awesome.So it’s not just they fix you and throw you to the side, they stay with you and they maintain to make sure you’re where you need to be at, which I really love.
They’re also very easy to contact, so you may have a week or so in between appointments. If you have an issue, awesome, shoot them a message, they get right back to you. These people are right there messaging you and it is absolutely incredible. Not one time was I embarrassed or they made me feel incompetent. They are truly on your side, which was amazing. And lastly, I know my work pays for it, so a lot of times it’s free. So you really can’t beat free. It’s literally that simple.
