A long journey from sickness to health

I have posted about my fibromyalgia journey a couple times before, but I really wanted to re-write my post, in part as an update, and in part to give some better information about how I managed to get well.

My fibro journey started in 1999.  I was living in Tucson and I was not being kind to my body.  I was a party girl.  I had just lost my mom to leukemia in 1997 and I did not handle it well, so I started some serious partying.  I drank, I smoked a lot of pot and I didn’t really care much about food.  My weight was very low, only 98 pounds.  I was the poster child for unhealthy.  Sometime in 1999 I started to get sick.  I didn’t know what was going on, but I was scared.  I went to the doctor and had some tests done.  They tested me for Mono, Lyme Disease, Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis, even HIV.  Everything came back negative.  It was about this time, my world went completely out of control and I decided it was time to leave Tucson and be close to my family, so I moved to Atlanta where my dad and one of my brothers lived.  I ignored my sickness for a while thinking it was probably just depression from all the trauma, but I kept getting worse.  I started seeking medical care again and my new doctor ran all of the same tests over again and everything came out negative.  That led to the diagnosis.  The doctor told me that he thought I had a condition called fibromyalgia.  I had heard of this, but I thought it was a made up disease.  I was in total denial.

For those of you who don’t know what having fibro is like, let me tell you.  It is a constant state of exhaustion.  My joints ached.  I had headaches.  My skin would burn and feel bruised.  Sometimes my skin hurt so bad, my clothing was painful and I didn’t want to be touched.  This was just the earlier stages of fibro.  I’ll get more into that later.

In 2003 I met my husband and we married a year later.  On our first date, I told him about my fibro issues and he had this attitude that it was not going to be a permanent condition and I tried agreed with him.  It was hard to agree though, especially when I finally had to quit my job because I just couldn’t do it any more.  

For the longest time, I was going to doctors, but all they ever wanted to do was give me pills.  They wanted to put me on antidepressants, anti-seizure medicine (I don’t have seizures!), I had to take a pill for my digestive issues and a pill for my headaches and very often a pill for anxiety.  I finally adopted the mindset that this fibro would go away, it had to.

In 2007 my husband and I moved to North Carolina.  We have loved it here, but I kept getting sicker.  The fibro seemed to consume my entire body.  I had no energy, at all.  The pain got worse.  Some days I felt like I couldn’t even move and my energy was so low that breathing was a chore.  My digestive problems got worse, I was completely depressed and I was running out of hope.  I noticed that my hair looked dry and thin and dull.  My skin was chalky and blotchy.  I looked like I was aging rapidly and to make matters worse, I was gaining weight, a lot of weight.  What was going on?  I fell into this sort of desperate acceptance.  That probably doesn’t make any sense, but basically what I mean is that I desperately wanted to get better, but I just felt like it wasn’t going to happen.  Doctors kept telling me to take pills and rest.  I didn’t want to take pills and rest!  I am a young woman who is used to living and doing!  I read some books about fibro, but really, they were garbage.  They were basically just a list of drug options and I still refused to replace a set of symptoms with another set of side effects.  I was sick enough already!  

Sometime in early 2010 I got a friend request on Facebook from a woman named Susan Ingebretson.  When I looked at her profile, I noticed she wrote a book called FibroWHYalgia.  I thought this was a catchy title and after reading some of her posts, I decided to buy the book.  The book just sat on my shelf for a while until one day when I felt led to open it up.  I turned to the chapter called Eating for Wellness and read:

Initially, I improved my diet, hoping to drop a few pounds.  My results exceeded my wildest expectations.  My pain levels dropped along with my weight.  The more veggies I ate, the more I craved.  Crisp, fresh cucumbers, snow peas, broccoli, spinach, and green beans tasted good to me.  Before, I thought salads were for bunnies.  I began to think of them as meals.  I added goodies such as nuts, beans, veggies, and fruits.  My salads hopped from the briar patch to the dinner table.

Shocking bonus:  The more good stuff I ate, the fewer cravings I had for the bad stuff.

Prior to taking charge of my health, I was nutritionally illiterate.  As I re-evaluated what I thought I knew about nutrition, I discovered the destructive role my misperceptions played in my health.  Once I’d kick-started my healthy eating program, I knew this for sure:  the better I ate, the better I felt.  Eating nutrient dense, healthy foods reduced my dizziness, pain, and fatigue.  I was onto something.

These few paragraphs would change my life.  I started to take a very honest look at my diet and what I discovered was that I was continuing to be unkind to my body.  True, I don’t drink or smoke or party at all anymore, but nothing I ate was real food.  I ate nothing but processed food, I was hopelessly addicted to sugar and I drank soda.  It was time to do what Sue did and take control of my health.

I started slowly, (in August 2010) eliminating the bad here and adding the healthy there.  I did a lot of research of my own, just like Sue did and as I kept researching and learning, I made more changes.  In the first couple weeks, I would say I felt pretty bad.  The detoxing my body was experiencing was a little rough.  It didn’t know what to do with all of this real food.  Eventually, I noticed that I had more energy.  Wow!  Then I noticed that my aches and pains were reduced.  And, I got brave one day and stepped on the scale.  I had lost a few pounds!  That inspired to me to keep at it.  More research, more eliminating the bad and adding the healthy.  The result:  more healing AND more weight loss, less depression and anxiety.  Wow!  I started daring myself to get rid of more bad stuff.  How long can I go without that handful of York Peppermint Patties after each meal?  How long can I go without eating several handfuls of baked potato chips while waiting for my dinner to cook?  How long can I go without that Pepsi?  And, I started asking myself, “what do I want more?”.  Do I want to be sick and fat or do I want to restore my health and get my life back?  The answer was becoming clearer and much easier to handle.  The cravings eventually subsided and my body stared to feel clean and energized.  Then the really amazing part, the inner health started to show on the outside as well.  My skin cleared up - no more blotches and I had a nice glow.  My hair was full and shiny and my eyes were bright and clear.  Wrinkles started to be minimized and my finger nails were stronger.  Everything changed for me.

As of today, January 22, 2012, my health is restored and I have lost over 50 pounds.  I still love my fruits and veggies.  I have also added beans and nuts with the occasional animal products.  Sometimes I do like to indulge, but I don’t like the achy feeling I get when I do eat something unhealthy.  

So, what is a typical day like at my kitchen table?  Breakfast is almost always minimally processed, plain, old-fashioned oatmeal (not the sugary crud in the packet, the real deal).  I like to add lots of fresh blueberries, flaxseed and a touch of organic peanut butter and cinnamon.  Lunch is usually a pile of raw veggies with some sort of protein like tuna or beans.  I like to eat lots of spinach, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, celery.  Lots and lots of veggies.  Dinner is usually centered around veggies as well, my whole diet is plant-based.  I like to have butternut squash or a sweet potato or a salad, it varies quite a bit, but as long as I have lots of veggies, I know my body is happy.  I finally enjoy eating because I know I am restoring my health and I no longer have any digestive problems.  I have finally gotten the toxic chemicals out and replaced them with nutrients - lots of nutrients.  

I have recently taken to juicing as well.  I love to mix up a batch of yummy fresh fruit/veggie juice for a meal or an appetizer.  People think I am crazy for loving my juices, but it is the most effective way to deliver a massive amount of nutrients to your cells.  I love the boost I get from it, and they taste much better than they look, I promise.

There are a few sources that I really want to give a huge thanks for helping me with this journey.  First is to Sue Ingebretson for her book, FibroWHYalgia, that started it all.  I am also grateful to the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead.  I learned more about healing and juicing from the amazing stories of Joe Cross and Phil Staples.  If you have not seen it, I highly recommend it.  It is on Netflix.  I also love the wisdom I have gotten from Joel Fuhrman, M.D.  His books have taught me a great deal and I continue to turn to them often.  My husband Del has stood by me, prayed for me and always believed in me to get through this.  Without him and his love and support, I would not have been able to do this.  And above all, I give my thanks to God.  I prayed for years for a way out of this mess and He got me through it.  He restored me and all the praise and the glory goes to Him.  

Finally, I want to share a couple pictures of me - my before and after.  In addition to the changes in my weight, take note of the changes with my skin and hair.  You can see the improved health shining through.  I want to share all of this with you not to brag about it.  Instead I want to help you and inspire you.  YOU can beat this problem.  YOU don’t have to live this nightmare any longer.  Can I pray for you?  Can I answer any questions?  Do you just need someone to listen?  I’m here to help and inspire.  God blessed me with this miracle and I know He will bless you too.

After

Before