| Mandi Smallhorne 2006-02-23, 11:28 am |
| Dear all,
I have had a real miracle in the last two months, and I'm not entirely sure
why.
Middle of last year I was feeling blue and thought back to the last time I
felt healthy - some 12 years ago. At the time I was a vegetarian. So I
decided I would go that route again. At about the same time, my sister
persuaded me to try a treatment new to me, called Body Stress Release (this
was developed in South Africa, a means of releasing deep-seated and
long-held spasm). Suffering from treatment burnout, I was reluctant, but
went along anyway.
There was some improvement in pain (my condition is chronic pain disorder -
pain diffused throughout the body, combined with fatigue) after about five
treatments. So I continued. Then in November, I developed pneumonia and was
put on antibiotics, I forget what now. They had little effect, and the doc
told me that was because I had atypical pneumonia, so I went on another,
longer course of a different antibiotic.
In December, on our holiday, I succumbed to temptation and went for a
twenty-five-minute walk in the gorgeous KwaZulu-Natal countryside with the
dogs. Next day, I was OK - no exhaustion, no bedrest needed. It's been years
since I could do that! So I did it again... and again... and again... in the
days ahead. On my last triumphant day I climbed a steep hill at the end of
my half-hour walk and waved at my husband below!
I am now up to 45 minutes a day, with ten minutes of weights thereafter. I
still have aches or pain most days (after all, I have skeletal damage), but
the deadening underlying fatigue and the I'm-bruised-all-over-feeling have
abandoned me (for the moment - I am constantly aware that I could relapse).
What do you think is behind this? I suspect that a bout of tickbite fever
set off the chronic pain, and wonder if the antibiotics accidentally cleared
the residue of infection. I do feel much better for being vegetarian (better
digestion and bowel function), and I believe that the Body Stress Release
has done its job, releasing spasm in core muscles and allowing blood flow to
improve in consequence - I always thought that it was deep-seated spasm
which caused the bruised feeling.
I am rejoicing in newfound energy and health - and have lost about ten
pounds into the bargain!
Mandi in South Africa
PS: On the issue of depression, I very strongly believe that our conditions
trigger depression, and depression then feeds the condition - after all,
mind and body are a unit. So treatment for depression will help (to
alleviate that part of the problem exacerbated by depression), but as I can
personally testify, it will not do a thing to get rid of the physical
problem. So nuts to that doctor who told me he was putting me on an
anti-depressant because "I think you're in pain because you're depressed"!
No, honey, I was depressed because I was in pain and exhausted, and I was
bloody well entitled to be!
----- Original Message -----
From: "Rita Joy" <rita.gacon@NTLWORLD.COM>
Newsgroups: alt.med.cfs
To: <CFS-L@LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG>
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 7:04 AM
Subject: Re: Hi there anyone...
> Hi Bobbie and Sagefox, and all,
>
> Just to prove it ain't all easy for me, I am still awake at 4.18 AM.!
Did
> not mean to make you all jealous for me having long sleeps. They are long
> overdue.I was ecstatic when I woke in the first few days after the start
of
> my experiment, but have slid into chaos again. Now, here we could start a
> dialogue on what is CFS and what is ME.?
>
> I grabbed the chance for any medication to help with the hot flushes due
to
> the cancer drugs. Trouble is, if you take a pill for long enough, you tend
> to forget how you felt before. I was in a daze for 18 months, and the side
> effects, in the end, did not warrant taking them. Some docs here were
> pushing antidepressants, tricyclates, quadcyclates, in the hope they
would
> help the immune system. I am talking 20 years ago. I always declined.
> Thanks, but no thanks.
>
> Any person with CFSD/ME is entitled to feel fed-up at times, but you say
to
> a doc that you are depressed and out comes the scrip pad. Until you have
> this illness, nobody can understand it, as it is extremely bizzarre.
These
> drugs you both talk about, I don't understand the brand names. They have
> gone all generic here in the U.K.
>
> I reckon I had Coxsackie B virus, as I woke paralysed in September 1977,
> inflamation of the spinal column and brainstem, and went downhill from
then
> on. Five relapses, with inflamed muscles and tendons, and neuralgia and
> neuritis shooting up and down my limbs, to a degree that it was so painful
I
> could not breathe. I shall never forget that pain. Seven months in bed
the
> first time, two long convalescent holidays in Florida - on Longboat Key -
> (that'll make you jealous) - and after 6.1/2 years I just caved in and
> retired. ME depression is something to do with the hyperthalmus, or
> pituitary gland in the brain? - (don't quote me at this time in the
> morning), and they go askew ? If I am "feeling sorry for myself", and
have
> a few uncontrolled weeps, - that is what I term depression, and it can
last
> 3 days or 12 days, and then, hey presto - wake next morning and feel
> better!! Bizzarre. This has happened 3 times in ten years. Always the
> cock-eyed optimist, I think will lay off that poison. One trick I have
> learnt, is to rest for 40 mins after taking painkillers, so that they are
> allowed to kick in. Relax with long deep breaths. One of my ME friends,
who
> was a nurse, reckoned the local psychiatric hospital was half full with
> people with ME/CFS, and the docs did not recognise the illness!! This is
> also talking 20 years ago. I hope this London Symposium is well attended
and
> will teach the sceptical docs a thing or two. I have told my docs in
three
> hospitals to get down to London.!! "Teach your staff how to engage with us
> and treat us". I look the picture of health, but feel a wreck. I say to
them
> "stick me in fron of a thermal imaging camera, and I will show you pain"
!!
>
>
> Gota got - upstairs to fairyland wiv me hot choc and another pill !!
> Regards Rita U.K. P.s. I did not have swollen lymph glands nor body
> rash, or Glandular Fever - Epstein Barr.
>
> <Sagefox@AOL.COM> wrote in message news:
<12a.6edf1e57.312cf577@aol.com>...
with[vbcol=seagreen]
> found it
> sudden
> (but
after[vbcol=seagreen]
> onset of
themselves[vbcol=seagreen]
> cure
> kill
> hours
> games
> builds
> and
>
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