Part Two of what not to say to people with chronic health problems!

I asked one of my clients with multiple health issues if she had anything contribute on this topic and she instantly responded: "Suck it up."

I am grateful I haven't heard this one myself! This one is pretty rude and inconsiderate. I mean our only option while in a health crisis is to suck it up so do we really need to hear it from others? I clearly remember one day last month I was in so much pain and had such a terrible week that I was begging my doctor to put me in a coma and just wake me up when I was better. The last thing I would have wanted my doctor to say is "suck it up" and I definitely wouldn't want to hear it from loved ones either. 

Let's see, what would be a better choice of three words. I would go with "I love you" or if that is too strong, "I care about you." Have some compassion. Speak from your heart. Listen with the intention of understanding not responding. Communicate your concerns or...

 Part One of Four

I know the world can feel hard to navigate these days without offending one person or another so I don't want to add to the list of people you need to take into consideration BUT I think when you love and care for someone going through a health crisis, you want to be there for them in the best way possible.

Not everyone knows what to say or do in these situations so I thought I would share what I have experienced on the receiving end and you can at least see the inner workings of my mind. I think there are already quite a few lists out there on the topic but I am going to do this one slightly different. This will be a weekly series of two things not to say and what you could say instead because I know people want to be supportive and once I tell you all the things you probably shouldn't say, you are going to wonder what the heck you CAN say!

"Well, you look great!" I hear this all the time and I do honestly try to take it as a compliment so it doesn't...

This is my least favorite part about being sick. People that have never experienced fatigue can't even comprehend what it feels like. Most healthy people confuse fatigue with being tired. Let me tell you, I am not tired. Tired to me means sleepy like I want to go to bed. Fatigue means every cell in my body is traveling in slow motion at a rate that feels painful, moving my body feels like air has turned to peanut butter hence every step I take feels like a huge effort, and I am not sleepy - my brain is going to be wide awake as I lay in bed suffering and uncomfortable. Some days I feel like a prisoner trapped inside my pain/fatigue body.

 

 

I have no solution for fatigue. I can drink a quadruple shot of espresso with absolute zero change so caffeine is useless. I haven't found a food, a supplement, a routine, or any natural remedy that helps with it but I have found three things I take comfort in on my fatigue days.

One: Resting in bed with some upbeat...

 

I recently started treatment for Lyme disease and have been working closely with a functional medicine doctor. Part of my routine now is to go in twice a week for highly concentrated Vitamin C IV's and glutathione. I would like to say only at first I was skeptical, but it has been a month and I am still a bit skeptical!!

I have definitely felt a drastic difference after getting the IV's but I have also had three sessions that I didn't notice any difference at all. The last couple of weeks my body has been really slow to absorb the IV's and they have taken three hours instead of the 90 minutes they tell me to plan for. This week has been pretty rough because I came down with a chest cold on top of everything else so they decided to double my IV bag today. I had plenty of time allotted so I figured I may be laying on the BioMat for 4-5 hours and much to my surprise, it only took two hours! I am thinking this meant my body really needed it and was just...

This past month has been pretty killer. I had a pretty good January and was feeling back to my normal healthy self. I would only have nerve pain on very cold days and I only had one or two days with fatigue. Then at the end of January everything fell apart. First, I got food poisoning and then four days later my nerve pain increased severely. After five days straight I finally broke down and took two gabapentin. The pain went from a 9/10 to a 3/10 within the next hour. I instantly felt a little silly for waiting so long and then the brain fog I experienced the next day brought full clarity to why I waited. The following day after the brain fog my arm was finally feeling like a 3/10 without any...

 

 

I clearly remember sitting around a table discussing our weekend plans when Monty said that he would be taking me to a tree to pose naked that evening. He said he knew I didn’t care if I was body painted or just butt naked. In my head I laughed a little and was quite nervous to go down to the beach and strip naked at a popular sunset spot! It is not that I don’t care but that I have realized my once conservative beliefs on nudity are rather silly and have no basis. 

But here were my next thoughts while contemplating if I was up for the task. There is no aspect of my life that I strive for the approval or acceptance of others so why should I follow societies beliefs on nudity when I don‘t even know where they come from? To me being nude is our natural state and there is absolutely nothing wrong with it. It is not “perverted” or “dirty” unless that is what YOU have...

These are my five favorite books I listened to in 2017. If you haven't read them yet, I strongly encourage you to! 

Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod

This book is a complete game changer. Every person I have shared these principles has benefited from putting them to use. I tend to be a morning person but I think this would be super helpful for people that drag themselves out of bed in the morning. Hal has a super interesting life story and the morning routine he created is absolutely wonderful. One of the best parts about it is that you can really customize it to what resonates best with you. He also has a ton of free resources on his website.

The Five Second Rule by Mel Robbins

This is the best audio book I have ever listened to. Mel is a passionate, motivational speaker so listening her did not feel like listening to an audio book at all. She has a great TED talk if you want to use that as a preview! The five second rule is all about counting backwards from 5 to 1 as motivation...

 My last blog post was close to a year ago. I have had a slight aversion to say the least. I titled it "Is The Journey Over" and less than two weeks later I ended up back in the hospital with Guillain Barre Syndrome again and unable to walk. My question about the journey was quickly answered as my healing had to start from scratch. My first hospitalization was in July and it took about four full months to start having good days again, this time it followed a very similar pattern. The first time fatigue was my biggest issue, this time both fatigue, numbness, and seizures have been problematic. The fatigue started to lift about four months later but I had to stop working out and start working even less too. Listening to my body and not pushing myself has been challenging - it's hard to battle your true nature.

Now that I am getting close a full year of recovery I feel like I am seeing the light. I can start making plans again and most...