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. In today’s interview, Sophie talks about how Oshi has given her tools to feel more confident during the holidays.
Sophie shares her experience with Oshi Health.
What used to be the hardest part of managing your GI symptoms during the holidays?
So in the past, the hardest part about the holidays when it comes to my GI issues has been, worrying about what food will be at the gathering, especially at Thanksgiving. There’s a lot of hearty meals and stuff, and then always worrying about, “if I eat this, am I gonna need to go to the bathroom right away?”.
That takes time away from family, which is the whole point of getting together. So, it’s always kind of frustrating, the pain that I would get. And the symptoms that I would have around the meals, around the holidays when stress is really bad. And I’ve traveled with family all the time, so car rides can be a little, a lot sometimes, but, it’s gotten better.
How does Oshi help you approach the holidays differently? What’s one thing you’re excited to experience this year that you couldn’t in previous holiday seasons?
So in the recent years, when my symptoms started, I would just not eat very much because I either had a list of things that I knew would not go well on my stomach, or I wasn’t sure because my stomach and GI is very iffy. Sometimes things affect it and sometimes they don’t. So it’s always very scary when I’m eating something and decide to risk it.
But with Oshi and the gut brain behavior specialists and the people I’ve been working with, they have been helping me. Do some breathing exercises to calm my anxiety over food and over stress in general. Um, and that. Surprising to me, surprisingly, um, has helped my symptoms some, and so when I am at Thanksgiving in 2 days, I will be definitely trying those techniques and taking my meds to hopefully have a good meal.
How has Oshi helped reduce your stress around food or gatherings during this time of year?
Oshi has helped me reduce my stress around food in particular, by understanding my issues more and my symptoms more, by having medicine that can help control it, even if it’s not 100% cured. Having some options to help contain the situation or calm symptoms down has been very stress relieving for me and makes eating less scary and makes holiday gatherings a lot less scary.
If someone dreads the holidays because of GI issues, what would you tell them about Oshi?
What would I tell someone if they dread the holidays because of GI issues? I would say, me too! The holidays are so stressful in general, so I would say that calming some of that anxiety and stress does help. Your whole body is connected, and if you’re stressed, then other things can happen. I would also say before, leading up to the holiday, or gathering, I would say to try to learn the symptoms, do research, ask questions. The more you understand it, the easier it is to go about solving it or dealing with it.
I had several doctors the last couple of years who didn’t believe me, didn’t have any clue of what was going on. I’ve had multiple tests done and gallbladder removal and all that stuff. Oshi is the first group of people, the first thing to have actually, really listened and understood and had solid tools to help out. I wish I would have tried it sooner, because it’s been a very frustrating and stressful past couple of years, which has then led to more symptoms. So I would definitely say for someone struggling to try it. It’s not gonna hurt anything.
