It’s been a few months since I sat down and wrote a health update and shared what I’ve been up to.
This has, in part, been a conscious decision. After a year of writing regular updates about my health, I wanted to step away from the intensity of that and put more of my focus into simply enjoying life.
Struggling with Winter Viruses
That said, it’s also partly because I’ve been sick for the past few weeks with various winter bugs. It’s literally felt like one after the other since mid-December!
Suffering from acute illnesses made it really difficult to assess where I actually was in terms of my recovery. Which meant I struggled with what to write.
However, I’m going to try my best to now make sense of it all.
Going Back To November 2018
So let’s rewind to where I left off which was around November of last year. If you follow me on Instagram, around late November I was mentioning in my stories that I was having days here and there where I was feeling more fatigued.
Some days I had a lot of energy and could do the things I wanted. Others I felt more tired and had to go slower.
I had hoped this would be a temporary thing but as it dragged on, I decided to get in contact with Infusio and let them know what was going on.
Getting in Touch WIth Infusio
Dr Bijan explained that the recovery process after stem cells is hugely demanding on the body. Often in the final stages, patients can experience a “burnout effect” that can be due to energy issues or hormonal problems.
To find out what was happening, Dr Bijan asked that I send in some blood work. Which I did.
In the meantime, I, unfortunately, fell ill with various winter bugs! It started with a cold virus, which made me sick for over a week.
It Wasn’t All Bad
It sucked to be sick but the positive was that, although I had many days where I had to simply rest in bed, I also had days where I functioned but just felt crap.
Prior to stem cell therapy, I wasn’t able to function if I caught what I thought was a cold (that sentence will make more sense in a minute).
The really unfortunate part for me was that I just got over the cold and then fell ill with awful flu. I haven’t been that sick in what must be around 5 years!
Now, while that could be viewed negatively, the reason it’s been so long is that before I had stem cell therapy I was immune compromised.
In other words, when I was sick with Lyme my body was so compromised I never experienced a proper immune response if I caught a virus.
In all honesty, I found it difficult to tell if I was acutely sick or if I was in a flare up (hence why I wrote “if I caught what I thought was a cold” a minute ago). I’d never get a runny nose or any of the usual symptoms.
My Immune System Was Doing What it SHould
So, although the flu was utterly horrific, I was also kind of weirdly proud of my immune system. It was doing all it could to fight off these horrible viruses and I guess it was a reminder that it now works as it should.
I just wish a working immune system wasn’t such a bloody miserable experience, haha!
It was a really bad flu and I know I wasn’t the only one to suffer this year. I was lucky in that it took just over a week for the flu symptoms to resolve.
However, I was left with post-viral fatigue for quite some time after.
The timing of which, couldn’t have been any worse, to be honest. I had my first snowboarding trip coming up and I really needed to be on top form for it.
My Body Needed Support
Around this time, I got my blood results back. One of the tests came back too low and showed that my adrenals were struggling, which explained the fatigue I had been experiencing since November.
Things did pick up in the run-up to my snowboarding holiday. Mostly because I started a supplement Dr Bijan recommended to help my adrenals.
However, it’s obviously not an overnight fix and I still wasn’t back to where I needed to be in time for going away.
(N.B. I am deliberately not sharing what my doctor’s recommendation was as it was a personal recommendation based on my blood work. When it comes to the endocrine system, it’s not something to be self-diagnosing or messing around with as you can end up doing more harm than good.)
Being In Denial
But you know when you just hope everything will be okay? That was me: head in the sand and just hoping it would turn out to be fine.
It was a silly mentality because we may take a break and go on holiday, but that doesn’t mean our symptoms do the same. We won’t suddenly feel better just because we are going away.
I guess I was hoping to get through the weekend as best as possible and then face the reality when I got home. However, reality smacked me right in the face when I was in France.
I was Asking Too Much of My Body
The long and short of it was I didn’t feel great, I attempted to snowboard, realised I wasn’t strong enough and (after falling many times) gave up and had to walk down the rest of the run.
It was very disappointing and disheartening. And, to put it bluntly, utterly stupid to do in the first place as I was completely out of my depth.
I don’t know why on earth I thought I’d go ahead and try to do an extreme sport when a) I still hadn’t fully recovered after the flu and b) my adrenals were struggling.
That said, although the trip wasn’t what I had hoped for (and I had to spend quite a bit of time resting after the failed snowboarding attempt as I basically hit the wall and crashed afterwards), I did get to enjoy some parts.
Plus, I have to say, although I felt like my body failed me at the time, I now think it did well considering.
Despite placing a hell of a demand on my body when I was already struggling, I recovered back to where I was before the trip pretty quickly.
It Was a Reality Check
Needless to say, though, I’ve had a bit of a reality check.
I’m realising that I need to take my foot off of the gas pedal, respect what my body is telling me and slow down.
I got too caught up in trying to do what I desperately wanted to that I forgot about the most important factor: my health.
I’ve had to give myself a bit of a talking to and ask what’s the rush?
I have all the time in the world to do the things I want. It doesn’t have to be right now.
Why am I trying to jump ahead and be at a level that’s even pushing it for many healthy people?!
Taking Things SLower Going Forward
So for the next month, I’m going back to living the slow life. Gentle walks and yoga will be the only exercise I do when I feel able.
And, I’ll be keeping stress to an absolute minimum. I’m having to be selfish and put myself and my health first, which means saying no when I need to.
I have to continue taking my adrenal supplement for just over another month and then I will reassess how I am doing. Hopefully, I’ll get myself back on track but, if not, I’ll be speaking to Infusio again to ask for some more support.
The positive is that I seem to finally be free of all these damn winter viruses *madly touches wood*. And, Spring is thankfully just around the corner.
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