Four days before my 20th birthday, and I got to spend it in the emergency room.

About 700,000 people have their gallbladders removed each year, according to Everyday Health. However, many don’t get to hear the stories of the people that deal with post-surgery complications.

After surgeons introduced laparoscopic gallbladder removal in 1987, it seems it has become simpler to just tell patients they need surgery rather than seeking out other alternative options.

Since the operation, I’ve tried anything I could to allow my body to readjust after not having something with such an important purpose. Most will jump back into their daily routine within a week. I, on the other hand, wasn’t so lucky.

I’ve had to make drastic changes that ended up being counterproductive, like going on a vegan diet and making countless trips to my doctor to try medication that came with unbearable side effects. It wasn’t until I looked into homeopathic/ holistic medicine that I was able to get my symptoms under control.

Holistic medicine considers the whole body, meaning mind, body, spirit and emotion to achieve an overall balance in life. Practitioners essentially believe that if one part of the body isn’t working properly then everything is thrown off.

Controversy surrounds alternative therapy when it comes to the effectiveness, but the thought of little to no side effects was enough to convince me to stay hopeful.

It makes sense though. Why would a doctor refer their patients to another doctor that the Food and Drug Administration doesn’t necessarily approve of?

It all comes back down to profit. If billion dollar pharmaceutical companies are paying doctors to prescribe us their medication, then the FDA has no reason to OK homeopathics they’re not getting paid for.

With the large number of people having to get their gallbladder removed, there should be more research going into what really causes this issue or at least give a proper warning of what could go wrong. According to the multiple Facebook groups I’ve joined, there are thousands of people dealing with similar problems.

It’s been four months since I chose the holistic route, and I’ve had nothing but positive results from it.

Everyone is different, and I think it’s important to take that into consideration, especially when comes to health. Instead of treating all patients as protocol and just trying to get them out of the door, doctors should actually explore all possible solutions because their job is, in fact, to bring us back to health.

Veronica De La Cruz can be reached at [email protected] or @Veronica_dlc on Twitter.