Chronic Fatigue Syndrome - My Journey To Recovery
*THIS IS MY STORY AND WHAT I’VE BEEN RECOMMENDED AND ADVISED BY MY MEDICAL PRACTITIONERS. PLEASE TAKE THIS POST AS MY VIEWS AND ENSURE TO CONSULT YOUR DOCTOR/PROFESSIONAL BEFORE STARTING YOUR OWN RECOVERY JOURNEY.
There are so many different types of chronic illnesses. Some leave individuals suffering in silence and others are a more common and talked about more frequently.
I’m struggling to place Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) into one party. I think it can be thrown in a bit of both. This is not a story of how I got this unfortunate illness that I don’t wish upon my worst enemy - I’m going to save that for another day.
This post is about coming to terms with it and doing my best to fight it off once and for all. In a few weeks, it’ll hit two years since it struck me down like lightening. It’s painful both physically and mentally, and emotionally, can be very challenging.
But I’ve found just in the last week being open about it has connected me with people who were in my life that I didn’t know were suffering too. It is a silent disease. It’s not a silent killer, but one, for me anyway, that I didn’t realise I was struggling to come to terms with.
It’s not that I’m embarrassed in any way by it, that’s not the problem. The issue is that I tend to feel not worthy of being able to complain about it. If you have CFS you’d know that the biggest symptom is feeling tired. But everyone feels tired - you get my point? I don’t like having a ‘poor me’ attitude especially when I know there are so many people out there suffering 100x more than I am.
Just a quick background, CFS tiredness is a completely different feeling of exhaustion. It’s complete exhaustion even after having slept 12 hours. It doesn’t matter how long you rested - it doesn’t go away. And like any other illness, some days are better than others.
Today, my pain is primarily in my left wrist, right index finger and my left ankle. Tomorrow, the pain will probably be somewhere completely different. But when I stop to reflect on this, I just think how incredible that our bodies work in such a unique and beautiful way to alert to the fact that something is wrong through the only way it knows how, pain/illness.
If you watched my latest YouTube video, you’d have an overview of how I hit rock bottom with it for the second time a few weeks ago. It’s a scary moment in time where you do feel somewhat helpless and lost as there’s no actual cure for it.
So where are we now:
After my breakdown, I found Dr Whimsey Anderson. She was super sweet, a recommended and reputable practitioner with a lot of experience dealing with CFS and mono.
I’ve only had one session with her at this point and have undergone various new health tests e.g. for Adrenal Fatigue. She’s also put me on various (so so so many) vitamins/supplements which I’ll list below.
Adrenal Health HP-Axis || 3 Capsules || Before Breakfast, Before Lunch & Before Dinner
B Complex || 1 Capsule || After Lunch
Monolaurin || 2 Capsules || After Breakfast & After Lunch
Elderbery Syrup || 1 TBL || Before Food
Zinc || 1/2 50mg Capsule || After Dinner
Vitamin C || 1 Capsule || After Lunch & After Dinner
Medicinal Mushrooms || 3 Capsules || After Dinner
Cats Claw Elite || 2 Squirts || Twice A Day
Triphala || 3 Capsules || Before Bed
So that’s my medicinal plan at the moment. Hopefully by the end of the year I’ll be able to cut down on the medications and slowly my body will be able to utilise these vitamins found in food naturally.
I’m also trying to take it easy as there’s a possibility that my mono/glandular fever has returned and subsequently has caused my spleen to rupture. Yes, that’s a lot in one sentence, but that’s where we are at this point in time.
I just wanted to document this process and say if you’re out there with similar struggles, you’re not alone, we’ve got this.