A STEP FROM MY TRAVEL BLOG

I have wanted to talk about this for a few years and when the subject came up people just looked at me.  I can see the thought.  She is always complaining,  well I tried not too.  Yes I do a lot of traveling, but I have to push myself to the limit and if I didn't I would be a prisoner in my own home.

The subject is Fibromylgia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome.  I have suffered from this, when I look back over the years, since I had an inner ear virus in the early 70's.  It got progressively worse as the years went on.  Would be fine for months then it would hit, the total fatigue and horrible pain all over my body. Hair loss, very dry skin, dripping nose,  very cold hands and feet were with me all the time. I have had a dry cough and short of breath along with the other things.  I used to think I was nuts: the pain moved, it was never in my muscles just hurt where it settled at that time.  There are 8 pressure points that the push to check for this.  More than 4 you have it.

I complained for years to my doctors, their answer was you know you are getting old and the other was: you know stress will do that to you. I loved my husband and family and we had a great life very little stress.   I have to say my husband was a saint when I would end up in the ICU with chest pain about every month for a period of time.  My kids were only around 5 so I know it scared them a lot.  The doctors never knew what the cause was, but I had every test in the book.  Stress test, echo cardiogram and even an angiogram. They put dye through your veins to see if you have any blocked arteries. Nothing showed up.  They said it was Prinz Metals Angina, again from stress, put me on all kinds of pills that made me even weaker and sicker.  They probably cringed at the hospital every time I went there. My file was really big.

One of the symptons is you don't sleep, well I have never slept well since I was a teenager so just figured that was the way it was.  No, everyone should get at least 7 to 8 hours sleep to refresh the body to give you energy.

The five years after my husband died was the worst stress that anyone could imagine and I think that put me over the edge.  Also driving my motorhome hasn't helped either, but I have learned to do short drives and stop early in the day.

As time went on I couldn't physically work more than a couple of hours a day and when I did I needed one day to do nothing except lay on the couch.  With owning a house now there is a lot of things to do and most of them physical.  I hate paying someone to do things that I should be able to do myself.

As I have said before the networking that I have with RVing is amazing.  One day a friend, who writes a weekly newsletter mentioned that a Canadian from Alberta who had Fibromylgia  had gone to a Clinic in Las Vegas. She raved about what this clinic had done for her and that she had gotten her life back.

I called her to find out just what I had to do.  She filled me in on everything including the price. The price was very expensive, but you know I didn't want to feel this way for another ten years so I bit the bullet and made an appointment.  I was coming west so it worked well for me.  After the long drive 3,500 miles I was totally wiped out and for the month of October I did nothing but lay on the couch waiting for that appointment.

It was a three day with intensive testing.  They took about 20 tubes of blood and intravenous energy boosters.  They were for memory, brain fog and energy.  I also received an iron shot.  B12 every day, women are lacking in this.  Tests showed that my thyroid was on the low side of the normal.  Still trying to figure out how they use the graph, if you are in the normal rang in Canada you are fine.  A couple of other things were low too.  After the three days of intravenous a couple of energy shots and my pills and powers, I was sent home to get started.  Oh did I mention I had three days of massages, wonderful.

Since the middle of November I can now say I can do most anything during the day and just be tired at night.  No total fatigue any more. I can hardly get to 10 at night before I go to bed.  I put that down to getting from 6 to 8 hours of sleep every night.  When I don't sleep I hurt all over the next day and my brain is in a fog again.. I have had some set backs, but they only last a day or two.  I still haven't gotten that real energy back yet, but after a day at the clinic this past week they have upped my thyroid pills.  I will try them for a week and see what happens. A higher dose will hopefully stop my hair falling out, my cold feet, fingers and my brain fog.

There is a book called "From Fatigued to Fantastic" by Jacob Teitelbaum, M.D.  If you have any friends or relatives that are having the same problems as I am, let them know about it. You can get the products at any natural food store.

Dr. Teitelbaum had Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue when he was going to University to be a doctor and had to drop out because the fatigue was so bad he fell behind in his classes.  After that he worked with different holistic and natural drugs and vitamins.  He is a board certified internist and a leading researcher in the field of ChronicFfatigue and Fibromyalgia.  All the things that I take are make personally for me at a Compounding Pharmacy.  The clinic supplies all the vitamins and energy powers.  I talk a lot of pills, but they are giving me my life back.

What I take are bio identical hormones, rest and restore natural sleeping pills (all the roots, flowers and Melatonin plus others things), cortisol, B12, release and renew (again roots, fruits and flowers).  A power called Ribose, it is a natural sugar with other natural ingredients.

When I was home in March I went to the doctor to get more of my prescriptions and I mentioned what I was taking.  Boy she said  "Oh they have not been tested I wouldn't be taking them"  I told her that if I could feel this good I will keep doing it.  I showed her my blood tests and right away she ordered more.  She was not interested in finding out more about it.  All she said was she would call me if my tests came back with something out of the ordinary.  I haven't hear from her.  We need to get this Clinic in Canada and  help anyone that has been diagnosed.

If you know of anyone please let them know about this, I guess it is a disease, I will be more than happy to talk to anyone to help.

Thanks for listening.   Would appreciate any comments you might have on any of my blogs.  Also if you click on any of the advertisements I get paid a few cents.