Has It Really Been almost 2 Years?

I just can't believe how time has flown by!  It's incredible to me that I haven't written a blog post in almost 2 years.  I'm sure you're wondering where I've been...especially because, when I started this blog, I was posting every day.


Let me tell you...My life has taken a turn!  A massive turn for the good...for the amazing.  About 3 years ago I decided that I wasn't going to work with traditional doctors anymore.  I was tired of trying a new prescription medication and landing in the ER.  This happened about 6 times in 8 months.  I learned, not so very quickly, that my body can not handle prescription medications.  I turned to Naturopathic Medicine.  Once my body began to clear of toxins and my organs began to function, regularly again, I began to heal.

Just to go back a bit.  I sought out healthy alternatives, often, to try to find what was best for my body to heal.  There are just so many options out there, it would have taken me a lifetime to whittle down what worked for my body.  I was in bed 18 to 20 hours a day with pain, fatigue and brain fog.  I was losing the use of my legs once or twice a week.  It is humbling to have to have a family member walk me to the bathroom when I my legs were too weak to hold me up.  Taking a shower used up all the energy I had for the day.  I pushed myself to exercise a couple of times a week because of the adrenal rush (fake sense of energy) and because doctors said it would help.  My digestion completely shut down....annndddd...I won't go into detail about that whole 6 month episode.  Long story short, traditional medicine doctors said all they could do is surgery and give me a colostomy bag.  That was the last straw with traditional medicine.  I suffered, my family suffered and friendships suffered.  I was unable to work and landed on disability.

As someone who is a diehard entrepreneur, disability didn't sit well with me.  I just didn't have a choice because sitting, or being in bed was pretty much all I could do.  I would call that rock bottom.  I stopped fighting my way through this illness and began to listen to my body, listen to my Naturopath and be committed to a non-toxic lifestyle.

What exactly is a non-toxic lifestyle?  It is eating all organic, grass-fed and farm raised foods.  For me, it is also, no dairy and no processed foods.  In the beginning, I was boiling up a soup I call, salad soup.  Due to my digestive challenges, I am unable to digest raw vegetables so I cut up organic vegetables and added them to some grass-fed chicken broth and boiled it to death.  A non-toxic lifestyle is also eliminating any health care products that have chemicals in them.  Toothpaste, face cream, moisturizer, deodorant and make-up are some of the products I replaced with non-toxic options.

As long as I am focused and determined to keep the toxins out of my life, I feel great!  It has it's challenges...like the holidays and my sugar addiction.  They don't go well together.  After I 'cheat' I find myself sliding down the slippery slope of fibro flare.  Gladly, I know what sends me down that slope and what brings me back!

I can happily announce that I was once living with a pain level of 7-8 out of 10 on a daily basis and for the last year, I have been living with a pain level of 0-3 consistently.  The fatigue that kept me in bed for 18-20 hours a day has diminished.  I am up and about at 6am and to bed by 10pm.  I've even started working again.  A full-time Realtor!  This is my dream job and I found my way too it...through the muck, but found it anyway!!

I hope that my story can help others find their way to their dreams!  What are your dreams and how can I help you make your way to them?

Thank you for reading, forwarding and following!
Terri

An Exceptional Husband (repost)

I have to say that Fibromyalgia is much easier to manage with a supportive husband.  My silver lining is that I not only have a supportive husband, I have an exceptional husband.  Ray is easy going, laid back and hard working as well as a rock solid support for his entire family.

Just today he's exemplified the type of person each of us, with fibro, depression, chronic fatigue (did I forget to mention chronic fatigue in my last post?), etc. have to manage on a daily basis.  The type of support I get from Ray reminds me of the pet companions veterans are utilizing.  Not that he's like a pet...oh, my...this is not the direction I meant to go in.  Let me just tell you about my day.

I woke from a terrible nightmare at about 6am this morning and I remember opening my eyes but not being able to get my bearings.  It felt as though I was back in the waking world but brought the frightening storyline with me.  Just when I thought I had a handle on where I was and the awareness that it was just a dream, I was overwhelmed with sorrow and fear.  Long dream short, I lost my son in a strange town and no one would help me find him.  I burst into tears and got sucked back into questioning whether or not it was a dream.  Ray usually takes some time to wake up in the morning, but not today.  He was awake and present very quickly then wrapped his arms around me telling me over and over again, in the most compassionate voice, that it was just a dream.  I heard him tell me that my son was home safe, everyone was home and safe, including me.  I slowly felt calmed and grounded enough to open my eyes and see for myself that we were all OK.  Ray had gently guided me to become grounded again and it gave me strength to begin my day on a positive note.  I felt strong enough and safe enough to go for a nice walk to start this beautiful, sunny day.

I feel it's so important for a support person to know when to guide a loved one to feel strong enough and confident enough to move forward on their own.  It would be very different if he assumed that my nightmare was going to render me incapable for the rest of the day.  I need to feel as though he believes that I can pick up where he left off and be the strong woman who continues forward.  He sees me.  The true me.  The me that is sometimes shrouded by the greys of illness, pain and despair.  And he expects that the true me will emerge each and every time the illnesses try to push me down.  Yet, there is no expectation of a timeline.  Ray allows space and time to take its course and never forgets that the real me is underneath, somewhere, ready to bounce back.

Also today, my wonderful husband has been talking about cooking some soup and quinoa salad.  He showed me the recipes that he found online and asked some questions about the ingredients, but didn't say much more.  He enjoys cooking, but doesn't have much experience in the kitchen.  I just assumed that he was looking to gain more experience with some recipes that he liked.  I offered to go to the grocery store with him to help him find the ingredients needed and on our way to the store, Ray tells me that the meal he's making is for me.  Just because.  What!?  On his day off.  His day of rest!  He is making me dinner.  Try to understand, this is no easy task.  My diet has changed quite a bit over the last couple of years.  I eat a clean diet.  That pretty much means, vegetables, some beans, no dairy, no gluten, no sugar, no meat, no processed foods (definitely no Monsanto products if I can help it) and low carbs.  Granted, I'm not perfect and the occasional chocolate finds it's way into my day sometimes :) He took on this task with a smile and pride!  What a treat!  Both dishes were very delicious and I'm happy to say there are leftovers, so I don't have to use much energy trying to find meals for the next couple of days.

There are many stories I can tell about how my husband is an exceptional life partner but I'll share just one more from today.  As I mentioned earlier, I accompanied Ray to the store to pick up groceries.  While in the car, I asked one of my usual questions and that is how I slept last night.  This is a typical question because with pain, restless leg syndrome and some intense twitching, I don't always know these things are effecting me through the night.  Although, Ray knows and last night was no different.  He has told me, in the past, that I 'run' in my sleep sometimes.  I grind my teeth and recently my arms have been swinging, as if I'm swimming (which is the most recent exercise I've taken up to try to manage pain).  Now that I've written all of that, I'm surprised he hasn't moved out of our bedroom.  Anyway, I found out that last night I was kicking him and it must have been pretty intense because he mentioned possibly wearing one of those sumo wrestler suits to bed so he'd be protected.  I'm sure the kicking was just a long stride run, but he never wakes me.  He tells me that at times he just needs to gently, put his hand on my shoulder and I stop.  I'm glad to hear, that's all it takes for me to settle down. I must know, even while I'm sleeping, that Ray has always been and will always be there for me to comfort me after a bad dream, to cook me a healing meal and to gently touch my shoulder when I'm kicking the crap out of him in my sleep.  I'm grateful to have found a good and loving person, who I love with all my heart and soul.