I decided my last blog post was pretty disjointed and that isn’t fair to my readers. I prefer the material to be interesting and informative at the same time while showing a glimpse into my journey with Autoimmune issues, so I just want to apologize because although most of my posts are stream of consciousness I try to make them read fairly cohesively.
Anyway, this is a time in my journey that I feel there will
be a crossroads in the next year of my life with respect to my health. I feel
it in my bones. I believe they refer to this feeling as intuition. Call it what
you will. I’m 40 now. I celebrated
my birthday on September 28th with friends and family and though I
received some very lovely gifts, the best gift of all was being surrounded by
wonderful friends and family whom mean so much to me. It is their love and
support that gets me through some of my most difficult days. I try my best not
to burden them with my health issues, partially because most people that don’t
have autoimmune disorders don’t have the capacity to truly understand what is
going on, (Mind you I’m not implying stupidity, but let’s face it, our own
doctors don’t understand it for the most part.) and partially because being
with them is my time to enjoy the peace I have while in their presence, because they are my net when I fall. The few
times I’ve really talked about the symptoms and what is going on with my body,
the few times I’ve needed to reach out they have been there for me and haven’t
made me feel like less of a person or like I’ve put them out by telling them a little
about my experiences. For that reason, I really try to limit the information I
share because I respect them and would never want it to become a burden to
someone else that I care about and love. A good support system is so necessary
as I was reminded this week by my psychotherapist… I was reminded because I’m
still on this crazy roller coaster that I cannot ever stop… perhaps we can slow
it down a little bit or maybe even a lot and that is what I’m hoping for in
this decade and maybe even over the next year. I hear that 40s are great.
My roller coaster seems to have been on a fast track
downhill with symptoms galore for the past few months and my practitioners and
I are putting our heads together to find the right brakes to apply to this
crazy ride. This comes as a surprise because inflammation is supposed to reduce as the gut heals and my gut healing protocol comes to an end today. My energy has really been suffering and so I’m kind of along for
the ride right now as much as I need to be actively involved, I also don’t need
the additional stress of worrying about it. I have a good team that I trust to
figure this thing out. It is the time it takes for most measures that is
sometimes so painfully frustrating… Patience please be with me in this moment.
All this inflammation just needs the right water so to speak to put the fire
out.
The Th1 and Th2 challenge was a flop for me. My body reacted
negatively to both challenges. It was a huge bummer for me. I had a lot of hope
that one would help me to start feeling better, so instead my Naturopath is
trying to modulate the Th17 cells in my immune system with Cordyceps. Information in Th17
I’ve only been taking Cordyceps for a couple days now, but I
have to say that I think it may be helping, but part of me feels it may be too
soon to tell. Cordyceps is a Chinese mushroom that has been used for many years
to help modulate the immune systems in Cancer patients and there has also been
recent success among the Naturopathic community in treating their patients with
Autoimmune disorders. Information on Cordyceps
Cordyceps has also been shown to help with Adrenal fatigue.
We believe that I have been experiencing Adrenal fatigue for a while now and
that may be why I’m struggling with so many symptoms and so much inflammation.
I just sent my Adrenal Stress Index (ASI) Panel to the lab this week and should
have some answers back in a couple of weeks as to the status.
I will also complete my Lyme Disease testing in the next
week or so. I suppose this is the one I’m the most nervous about because I’m
not only aware of how difficult it can be to treat chronic Lyme, but I am also
very aware of the political controversy surrounding the treatment of chronic
Lyme. I’ll go into further detail about this if I am in fact diagnosed. I also
know how much worse things could be if chronic Lyme goes untreated. Testing can
also result in a false negative, but the lab we are using for testing is the
best one out there for now. My labs will be run through Igenex. Stay tuned.
I’m reminded with each appointment how fortunate I am to
have the wonderful team of practitioners that I have. It is not only on the
ride up that I appreciate their hard work and diligence, but it is on the out
of control downhill roller coaster ride that I appreciate them the most because
I know they won’t allow me to become derailed and I know they will eventually
find the brakes to slow this crazy ride down.
So, put your arms up in the air, let your hair fly and
scream until your lungs hurt! Try it. I dare you… It might be just what will
get you through today.
Let me know how you are doing with all that screaming. I'd love to hear from you.
