My Journey Pt. 2
Do any of you have intuition about things? I often do. My gut feels most things. They aren't lying when they say it's our second brain. November 2015 I find out my dad has another brain aneurysm. I mean seriously, what? But don't be alarmed Ashlee.. everything is going to be okay. Then why did my heart sink and I feel a pit in my stomach? Dad opted to do the surgery to get a stint put in. One where they use a tiny little robot that makes it's way to your brain to fix it. This was going to happen in January 2016. I was assured that they do this procedure a lot and I should not be alarmed. Mom and dad were chill about it. I was not. The alternative was to do nothing, so that wasn't a good option either. I calmed my nerves and we celebrated holidays together. Before we knew it, Violet was 1! We celebrated her big day. Dad was there, happy as can be. I still remember that day... I had one of those moments where I just stared at home for awhile. He's always been the same to me. But as I looked closer I saw he had actually aged a bit. I don't mean that in a bad way at all. That's what people are supposed to do. My parents both have good genes and have aged very gracefully. Dad also got the gene of great hair. It's hard to come by for most men. I just realized that day that we're always so busy just doing that sometimes we aren't even really paying attention. I really went on a weird tangent here.
We all know where this story goes. Dad has his surgery. Hops out of the hospital the following day almost as good as new. I still felt unsettled. Why wasn't I relieved? I talk to him briefly that week. He said he felt good for the most part. That Saturday I'm with my friend Lindsey and our kids at Bounce Town and we get the call. Dad is in the hospital in New Ulm, they think it's a stroke. I'm in shock not knowing what to do. Do I leave or do I stay? I stayed. Decided to wait until we heard more. They were taking him to the Cities by ambulance. Ben and I made plans to go up the next day.
And now we're going to fast forward...........................................
................... I'll probably write more about this another time........................
........................................................................................................
Dad passed away. I think I was in shock/denial for quite awhile. I cried everyday for at least the first month if not more. Visits home got harder, but I still wanted to be there. Mom seemed good. God is her superpower. I'm sure there are bad days that I don't know about. So spring was weird, work was stressful, and I just kept going. I had a 3 yr. old and a 1 yr. old. They were my light. And Ben was my rock.
By summer I was in a world of pain. Headaches everyday and neck/back pain that wouldn't melt away. My main chiropractors left the practice and the gal I could get in with told me I wasn't improving and should go to Advanced Pain Management. So I went. They scheduled an MRI. I did that... it's an extremely long time to lay still. The results came back and there was nothing crazy going on. A slight bulge, but not really anything to be concerned about. So they said I could try a steroid injection. Did that... felt amazing for about one day. At least that one day was when I was on family vacation :) Then it all crept back again. He said it was likely I was experiencing facet joint pain which signals the nerve endings (nerve theme). What they could do was burn the ends of the nerves so I couldn't feel it. This could last maybe a year. In order to get this approved by insurance I had to do 2 trials of numbing to see if I felt better. Now let's keep in mind I was there for a second steroid.. in gown and all. Then he was like ya that's probably not worth doing. Then says I can do this. I'm there.. I honestly have hardly a clue what he's talking about.. and definitely didn't have time to research. But I was in pain.. so sure, let's do it. You have to lay extremely still.. they numb your neck a bit then stick a large needle into each joint area. Since this was just a test it did give temporary relief. Apparently some people don't handle this procedure very well. So he told me I was amazing. I'll take any compliment I can get ;) I did this a second round then it was sent to insurance for approval. So I waited. Since the wait took long enough I did more research and started to become a bit weary of getting the procedure done. Some people had great success with it and others had burning pain from it. And I just wanted no pain. I went with my gut and didn't pursue it.
That September my friend told me about a chiropractor she just started seeing and highly recommended her. So I went. She was the best. I'm pretty sure I cried that first visit. I guess at some point we put down our shield. She was going to help me and I was relieved. She adjusted me and gave me some supplement recommendations that she thought would also help. That was the first time anyone had done that. I started improving a little bit but needed more. So she recommended me to an acupuncturist in town. I had tried acupuncture in the past but it wasn't successful. But I was willing to give it another try. After a few weekly visits I started to notice a change. I was doing better. During that time I also found shiatsu massage. Which is a similar approach as acupuncture but with massage and pressure points. The good part about all of this was that they all had the same type of mindset. It was suggested more than once that I try eliminating dairy and gluten to help with inflammation. I finally went for it end of 2016. By this time my stomach had started acting up again and the metamucil/miralax had stopped working as well as it had. The goal was to get me off of those. I got a good probiotic and worked on my diet. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard. I loved yogurt and all things gluten. It got better as I went. I tried a lot of new things and started to enjoy them. My chiropractor has a ton of allergies, so she helped me a lot with recipes and food recommendations. I'll throw in here that I also was having a lot of anxiety from a multitude of different things going on. So I started taking an antidepressant and also got a therapist. I'll be honest, I knew in the first session that she probably wasn't my best match. But it was my first experience and I thought I better give it a few sessions. It was okay. Felt good to talk everything out. I think I went for four or five sessions. I felt meh about it. But I wasn't worse because of it, so that's a win!
With the diet changes my digestion improved for awhile, but I was not feeling any better. My neck/back had improved, but now my gut was a hot mess. I was doing all the right things, why wasn't it helping? I took a food sensitivity test I took through an online site. Because of that I cut out even more food. And the thought was that I maybe had leaky gut, so I added in more supplements and was on a really restricted diet. I made an appointment with my GI in case things didn't get better. You know.. because it takes at least a month to get in with a specialist :/ Anyhow after about three weeks I was still miserable.
I'm not sure why at that point in time I decided I should get a personal trainer, but I did. Since my neck and back were doing a bit better I wanted to take the opportunity to strengthen it so that hopefully I wouldn't have so many issues and could stop going to the chiropractor, acupuncture, and massages all the time. I also got a nutritionist, because well.. because it was obvious I needed help. I was losing weight, my skin was a weird color, and I was a lost puppy in knowing what to even eat. Everything made me feel sick. I was living on.. I'm not even sure. I was going to say rice and oatmeal, but I'm not sure I was allowed to eat that at that point. I went to my GI appointment and he suggested switching out the metamucil for citrucel or something like that. But he said he'd do a test for SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth). I could sense he didn't really feel like there was anything wrong. But I was happy there was something I could test for at least. A SIBO test involves eating chicken and white rice for 24 hours beforehand. Then drinking a sugary liquid and breathing into a tube every 20 minutes for three hours. The nurse told me right away that day that I did have overgrowth in my intestine and a lot of it. So she gave me an antibiotic prescription slip and sent me on my way. Said to just call if I needed anything. I left thinking, "that's it?". I don't meet with the doctor or schedule a follow-up. Should I know anything else about SIBO? This is NUTS! The only reason I didn't put up a fuss was because I knew I had a nutritionist to help me. If I hadn't I would have been even more pissed at the situation.
I did my two weeks of antibiotics and checked in with my nutritionist once a week. Each week we'd slowly add more foods into my diet. I'd keep a journal and track what I ate, how I felt, and when I'd have BM's. Things started getting a little better, but I was still feeling so run down. All this nutritious food and I felt malnourished. She was about to have her baby and I was doing okay. I was having issues with my menstrual cycles. There were out of whack and there were more symptoms that would last longer. This was not her expertise, so she suggested finding someone else to help with that. Now we're to July. I'm technically stronger from two months of training. I'm eating some food, but still feeling awful. My hormones are a mess. What's next? My sweet chiropractor was still with me. I cried in her office one too many times. I had to stop doing training. I couldn't physically handle it anymore. I finally realize I'm so depressed. It didn't hit me until one afternoon when I was with the kids and I didn't want to be there/here/anywhere. I told Ben. Which means I basically scared the shit out of him.
I can't remember if it was before or after this realization... but a friend of mine found a therapy place in the Cities that looked promising for helping people who were also dealing with health issues. I called right away and set up an appointment. They matched me with someone who they thought would be a good fit. After my confession to Ben he was really wanting to help in any way he could. So I took him with to my first few therapy appointments so he could understand better what was going on. First session.. loved her! Now that is what it's supposed to feel like when you find your match. She got me and gave me helpful tips. Not ones that I wanted to roll my eyes at. It was all the way in Maple Grove, but I didn't care.
I was still struggling to do much of anything. I just felt sick. I did the best I could to be there for the kids and still have somewhat of a social life. Work had gone through so many changes by that point. I kept going. I upped my medication and decided to try out the naturopath in town. She was also recommended by my chiropractor. Do you see how amazing she is? Always helping me. I should add that I was also starting to see my family practice doctor regularly too. She is also very compassionate and understanding. Yes, I had a very widespread Ashlee care team. It literally takes a village.. like all of Mankato... and apparently some of Maple Grove too ;) With my naturopath she first wanted me to do a detox protocol. I wonder how often she gives that list of foods to people of what they can eat and they say "I'm already doing most of this". I wouldn't think many. So I was already pretty good to go with the food plan. There were a few more restrictions, but at that point I didn't really flinch at it. Then along with that I had to drink some shakes and take some supplements. My body didn't react well.. or it didn't react how it was supposed to. So she had me stop the protocol after a few days in. I already felt like I failed. So I went back and we decided to just jump right in and treat a few things. So we focused on balancing my hormones and getting my gut in a better place. For my hormones she wanted to start out with a gentler therapy to see how I responded. So I was to start seed cycling. I've found that most people have never heard of this (I hadn't either). It involves ingesting certain types of seeds and supplement during the first half or the second half of your menstrual cycle. The second thing we were going to do was constitutional hydrotherapy for my gut. I had to come in once a week for 6 weeks to do that. It's nothing fancy or complicated. You rotate out hot and cold packs on your abdomen and back while being wrapped up in a wool blanket, like a cocoon. I rather enjoyed it. One hour of peace just laying. The hormone therapy.. took me a few days to get my mind in the right place for it. I knew that once I got into it it would be fine. But it's just so many things all. the. time.
The seed cycling did help clear up my skin, which I was so thankful for. By this point we're into September. I had about two good weeks in there and I thought.. omg maybe I'm in the clear. And then BAM! Hit like a ton of bricks. I couldn't get out of bed for almost three days. I hurt everywhere. It felt like I had the flu and I didn't know why. Everything really blends together.. I can't imagine why? ;) But I had been going in every week for my hydrotherapy so I was filling in my doctor regularly. She ordered a hormone panel so she could check more things. It took awhile for the results to come back. But I had finished up my hydrotherapy and set up an appointment for when they came in. Based on everything going on she said it aligns with fibromyalgia, but she wanted to find out what the root cause was. Basically I got the sense she feels it's a garbage diagnosis. But whatever, just fix me... please. My progesterone level was almost non-existent. So she wanted to do more aggressive hormone therapy to see if that would get me back on track with my cycles and help with the symptoms that came along with it. I don't think most women know this, but you're not supposed to be in pain during your period every month. And definitely not for half of the month. I know I could have just gone on some birth control to get my cycles back on track, but I felt it was just masking the problem and I didn't need to put anything synthetic in my body. And I'm not about to deal with any more side effects from a medication. She had also checked my thyroid (which I have done multiple times in my life), and those were a bit off too. So I had some hypothyroidism going on. Yay! Okay, let's fix these things and then I'll be all better! If I got a dollar for every time I felt a new wave of optimism I'd be rich by now.
During all of this I also met with my primary care doctor. There's no way to really test for fibromyalgia. There isn't a fancy blood test you can do. But she checked all my tender points to see if I felt pain when she'd apply a bit of pressure. I think I hit all 18 of them. And with all the symptoms she agreed it was a fit. There isn't a magical medication for fibromyalgia. There are things that can help certain aspects of it, but not a one size fits all. And even with the few medications that can help with things.. all people react differently with each person. So she said there's three things to manage that can help... depression, sleep, exercise. I was already on the right anxiety/antidepressant, so step one was complete. Sleep.. best to get like 8.5 or more hours of sleep if possible. Sleep is harder when you have fibro because of the pain and a number of other things. And exercise.. finding the right exercise and the right amount of time each day that works for your body. Everyone knows that I enjoy being active, but it was getting really hard to find something that worked that didn't leave me feeling like death the next day. So there was a medication option to help with sleep, but as soon as she said that I should make sure someone else was able to wake up with the kids if need be.. I was like nope, not doing it. And another one that might help with pain, but one of the side effects is constipation.. nope, not doing it. My gut is so sensitive and after all the work to fix it I'm not messing with it. Because your gut affects everything!
My gut was in a better place. I was eating more food. I was starting to look healthier. I did all the things I was supposed to be doing and still coming up short in feeling better. I had been on FMLA since August. I'm thankful I work for such a caring and understanding company. It was the end of October and I felt that maybe I just needed a recharge. I was running on empty and in a constant fog. So I took a two week leave from work. During that time Ben and I went on our anniversary vacation. It was a good blend of relaxation and fun. But I still can't shake feeling sad about all the things I couldn't do. But hopefully someday we can do a redo. I know Ben would go back in a heartbeat ;)
So we got back, I returned to work shortly after. At some point I emailed my naturopath and said THIS EFFING SUCKS! okay I didn't say that, but I filled her in on how I was still feeling. So she suggested I try HOCATT therapy. I'll probably do a separate post on this at some point. But it involves a pod machine you sit in to get ozone therapy and electrotherapy to super detox your body. Get rid of the bad so it can take in all the good and function properly again. That brings me to today. I still have a few more treatments left and I've still been feeling like horseshit. The nurse asked me how I was doing Thursday and I'm not even sure what I said, but something along the lines of still being fatigued and in pain. It was a brief statement. But yesterday my naturopath emailed and said she thinks it's hypoadrenalism. The adrenal gland takes a long time to heal, but it CAN heal. So I'm now taking supplements for that. So there's a few more dollars in the pot!
This was long. I tried to summarize best I could. If you read it all.. you're awesome.
Love, Ashlee
We all know where this story goes. Dad has his surgery. Hops out of the hospital the following day almost as good as new. I still felt unsettled. Why wasn't I relieved? I talk to him briefly that week. He said he felt good for the most part. That Saturday I'm with my friend Lindsey and our kids at Bounce Town and we get the call. Dad is in the hospital in New Ulm, they think it's a stroke. I'm in shock not knowing what to do. Do I leave or do I stay? I stayed. Decided to wait until we heard more. They were taking him to the Cities by ambulance. Ben and I made plans to go up the next day.
And now we're going to fast forward...........................................
................... I'll probably write more about this another time........................
........................................................................................................
Dad passed away. I think I was in shock/denial for quite awhile. I cried everyday for at least the first month if not more. Visits home got harder, but I still wanted to be there. Mom seemed good. God is her superpower. I'm sure there are bad days that I don't know about. So spring was weird, work was stressful, and I just kept going. I had a 3 yr. old and a 1 yr. old. They were my light. And Ben was my rock.
By summer I was in a world of pain. Headaches everyday and neck/back pain that wouldn't melt away. My main chiropractors left the practice and the gal I could get in with told me I wasn't improving and should go to Advanced Pain Management. So I went. They scheduled an MRI. I did that... it's an extremely long time to lay still. The results came back and there was nothing crazy going on. A slight bulge, but not really anything to be concerned about. So they said I could try a steroid injection. Did that... felt amazing for about one day. At least that one day was when I was on family vacation :) Then it all crept back again. He said it was likely I was experiencing facet joint pain which signals the nerve endings (nerve theme). What they could do was burn the ends of the nerves so I couldn't feel it. This could last maybe a year. In order to get this approved by insurance I had to do 2 trials of numbing to see if I felt better. Now let's keep in mind I was there for a second steroid.. in gown and all. Then he was like ya that's probably not worth doing. Then says I can do this. I'm there.. I honestly have hardly a clue what he's talking about.. and definitely didn't have time to research. But I was in pain.. so sure, let's do it. You have to lay extremely still.. they numb your neck a bit then stick a large needle into each joint area. Since this was just a test it did give temporary relief. Apparently some people don't handle this procedure very well. So he told me I was amazing. I'll take any compliment I can get ;) I did this a second round then it was sent to insurance for approval. So I waited. Since the wait took long enough I did more research and started to become a bit weary of getting the procedure done. Some people had great success with it and others had burning pain from it. And I just wanted no pain. I went with my gut and didn't pursue it.
That September my friend told me about a chiropractor she just started seeing and highly recommended her. So I went. She was the best. I'm pretty sure I cried that first visit. I guess at some point we put down our shield. She was going to help me and I was relieved. She adjusted me and gave me some supplement recommendations that she thought would also help. That was the first time anyone had done that. I started improving a little bit but needed more. So she recommended me to an acupuncturist in town. I had tried acupuncture in the past but it wasn't successful. But I was willing to give it another try. After a few weekly visits I started to notice a change. I was doing better. During that time I also found shiatsu massage. Which is a similar approach as acupuncture but with massage and pressure points. The good part about all of this was that they all had the same type of mindset. It was suggested more than once that I try eliminating dairy and gluten to help with inflammation. I finally went for it end of 2016. By this time my stomach had started acting up again and the metamucil/miralax had stopped working as well as it had. The goal was to get me off of those. I got a good probiotic and worked on my diet. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was hard. I loved yogurt and all things gluten. It got better as I went. I tried a lot of new things and started to enjoy them. My chiropractor has a ton of allergies, so she helped me a lot with recipes and food recommendations. I'll throw in here that I also was having a lot of anxiety from a multitude of different things going on. So I started taking an antidepressant and also got a therapist. I'll be honest, I knew in the first session that she probably wasn't my best match. But it was my first experience and I thought I better give it a few sessions. It was okay. Felt good to talk everything out. I think I went for four or five sessions. I felt meh about it. But I wasn't worse because of it, so that's a win!
With the diet changes my digestion improved for awhile, but I was not feeling any better. My neck/back had improved, but now my gut was a hot mess. I was doing all the right things, why wasn't it helping? I took a food sensitivity test I took through an online site. Because of that I cut out even more food. And the thought was that I maybe had leaky gut, so I added in more supplements and was on a really restricted diet. I made an appointment with my GI in case things didn't get better. You know.. because it takes at least a month to get in with a specialist :/ Anyhow after about three weeks I was still miserable.
I'm not sure why at that point in time I decided I should get a personal trainer, but I did. Since my neck and back were doing a bit better I wanted to take the opportunity to strengthen it so that hopefully I wouldn't have so many issues and could stop going to the chiropractor, acupuncture, and massages all the time. I also got a nutritionist, because well.. because it was obvious I needed help. I was losing weight, my skin was a weird color, and I was a lost puppy in knowing what to even eat. Everything made me feel sick. I was living on.. I'm not even sure. I was going to say rice and oatmeal, but I'm not sure I was allowed to eat that at that point. I went to my GI appointment and he suggested switching out the metamucil for citrucel or something like that. But he said he'd do a test for SIBO (small intestinal bacteria overgrowth). I could sense he didn't really feel like there was anything wrong. But I was happy there was something I could test for at least. A SIBO test involves eating chicken and white rice for 24 hours beforehand. Then drinking a sugary liquid and breathing into a tube every 20 minutes for three hours. The nurse told me right away that day that I did have overgrowth in my intestine and a lot of it. So she gave me an antibiotic prescription slip and sent me on my way. Said to just call if I needed anything. I left thinking, "that's it?". I don't meet with the doctor or schedule a follow-up. Should I know anything else about SIBO? This is NUTS! The only reason I didn't put up a fuss was because I knew I had a nutritionist to help me. If I hadn't I would have been even more pissed at the situation.
I did my two weeks of antibiotics and checked in with my nutritionist once a week. Each week we'd slowly add more foods into my diet. I'd keep a journal and track what I ate, how I felt, and when I'd have BM's. Things started getting a little better, but I was still feeling so run down. All this nutritious food and I felt malnourished. She was about to have her baby and I was doing okay. I was having issues with my menstrual cycles. There were out of whack and there were more symptoms that would last longer. This was not her expertise, so she suggested finding someone else to help with that. Now we're to July. I'm technically stronger from two months of training. I'm eating some food, but still feeling awful. My hormones are a mess. What's next? My sweet chiropractor was still with me. I cried in her office one too many times. I had to stop doing training. I couldn't physically handle it anymore. I finally realize I'm so depressed. It didn't hit me until one afternoon when I was with the kids and I didn't want to be there/here/anywhere. I told Ben. Which means I basically scared the shit out of him.
I can't remember if it was before or after this realization... but a friend of mine found a therapy place in the Cities that looked promising for helping people who were also dealing with health issues. I called right away and set up an appointment. They matched me with someone who they thought would be a good fit. After my confession to Ben he was really wanting to help in any way he could. So I took him with to my first few therapy appointments so he could understand better what was going on. First session.. loved her! Now that is what it's supposed to feel like when you find your match. She got me and gave me helpful tips. Not ones that I wanted to roll my eyes at. It was all the way in Maple Grove, but I didn't care.
I was still struggling to do much of anything. I just felt sick. I did the best I could to be there for the kids and still have somewhat of a social life. Work had gone through so many changes by that point. I kept going. I upped my medication and decided to try out the naturopath in town. She was also recommended by my chiropractor. Do you see how amazing she is? Always helping me. I should add that I was also starting to see my family practice doctor regularly too. She is also very compassionate and understanding. Yes, I had a very widespread Ashlee care team. It literally takes a village.. like all of Mankato... and apparently some of Maple Grove too ;) With my naturopath she first wanted me to do a detox protocol. I wonder how often she gives that list of foods to people of what they can eat and they say "I'm already doing most of this". I wouldn't think many. So I was already pretty good to go with the food plan. There were a few more restrictions, but at that point I didn't really flinch at it. Then along with that I had to drink some shakes and take some supplements. My body didn't react well.. or it didn't react how it was supposed to. So she had me stop the protocol after a few days in. I already felt like I failed. So I went back and we decided to just jump right in and treat a few things. So we focused on balancing my hormones and getting my gut in a better place. For my hormones she wanted to start out with a gentler therapy to see how I responded. So I was to start seed cycling. I've found that most people have never heard of this (I hadn't either). It involves ingesting certain types of seeds and supplement during the first half or the second half of your menstrual cycle. The second thing we were going to do was constitutional hydrotherapy for my gut. I had to come in once a week for 6 weeks to do that. It's nothing fancy or complicated. You rotate out hot and cold packs on your abdomen and back while being wrapped up in a wool blanket, like a cocoon. I rather enjoyed it. One hour of peace just laying. The hormone therapy.. took me a few days to get my mind in the right place for it. I knew that once I got into it it would be fine. But it's just so many things all. the. time.
The seed cycling did help clear up my skin, which I was so thankful for. By this point we're into September. I had about two good weeks in there and I thought.. omg maybe I'm in the clear. And then BAM! Hit like a ton of bricks. I couldn't get out of bed for almost three days. I hurt everywhere. It felt like I had the flu and I didn't know why. Everything really blends together.. I can't imagine why? ;) But I had been going in every week for my hydrotherapy so I was filling in my doctor regularly. She ordered a hormone panel so she could check more things. It took awhile for the results to come back. But I had finished up my hydrotherapy and set up an appointment for when they came in. Based on everything going on she said it aligns with fibromyalgia, but she wanted to find out what the root cause was. Basically I got the sense she feels it's a garbage diagnosis. But whatever, just fix me... please. My progesterone level was almost non-existent. So she wanted to do more aggressive hormone therapy to see if that would get me back on track with my cycles and help with the symptoms that came along with it. I don't think most women know this, but you're not supposed to be in pain during your period every month. And definitely not for half of the month. I know I could have just gone on some birth control to get my cycles back on track, but I felt it was just masking the problem and I didn't need to put anything synthetic in my body. And I'm not about to deal with any more side effects from a medication. She had also checked my thyroid (which I have done multiple times in my life), and those were a bit off too. So I had some hypothyroidism going on. Yay! Okay, let's fix these things and then I'll be all better! If I got a dollar for every time I felt a new wave of optimism I'd be rich by now.
During all of this I also met with my primary care doctor. There's no way to really test for fibromyalgia. There isn't a fancy blood test you can do. But she checked all my tender points to see if I felt pain when she'd apply a bit of pressure. I think I hit all 18 of them. And with all the symptoms she agreed it was a fit. There isn't a magical medication for fibromyalgia. There are things that can help certain aspects of it, but not a one size fits all. And even with the few medications that can help with things.. all people react differently with each person. So she said there's three things to manage that can help... depression, sleep, exercise. I was already on the right anxiety/antidepressant, so step one was complete. Sleep.. best to get like 8.5 or more hours of sleep if possible. Sleep is harder when you have fibro because of the pain and a number of other things. And exercise.. finding the right exercise and the right amount of time each day that works for your body. Everyone knows that I enjoy being active, but it was getting really hard to find something that worked that didn't leave me feeling like death the next day. So there was a medication option to help with sleep, but as soon as she said that I should make sure someone else was able to wake up with the kids if need be.. I was like nope, not doing it. And another one that might help with pain, but one of the side effects is constipation.. nope, not doing it. My gut is so sensitive and after all the work to fix it I'm not messing with it. Because your gut affects everything!
My gut was in a better place. I was eating more food. I was starting to look healthier. I did all the things I was supposed to be doing and still coming up short in feeling better. I had been on FMLA since August. I'm thankful I work for such a caring and understanding company. It was the end of October and I felt that maybe I just needed a recharge. I was running on empty and in a constant fog. So I took a two week leave from work. During that time Ben and I went on our anniversary vacation. It was a good blend of relaxation and fun. But I still can't shake feeling sad about all the things I couldn't do. But hopefully someday we can do a redo. I know Ben would go back in a heartbeat ;)
So we got back, I returned to work shortly after. At some point I emailed my naturopath and said THIS EFFING SUCKS! okay I didn't say that, but I filled her in on how I was still feeling. So she suggested I try HOCATT therapy. I'll probably do a separate post on this at some point. But it involves a pod machine you sit in to get ozone therapy and electrotherapy to super detox your body. Get rid of the bad so it can take in all the good and function properly again. That brings me to today. I still have a few more treatments left and I've still been feeling like horseshit. The nurse asked me how I was doing Thursday and I'm not even sure what I said, but something along the lines of still being fatigued and in pain. It was a brief statement. But yesterday my naturopath emailed and said she thinks it's hypoadrenalism. The adrenal gland takes a long time to heal, but it CAN heal. So I'm now taking supplements for that. So there's a few more dollars in the pot!
This was long. I tried to summarize best I could. If you read it all.. you're awesome.
Love, Ashlee
Comments
Post a Comment