Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Exploring the sweet healthy way of living!

The first post of any blog is supposed to be monumental! It is a day like no other! ...anyways dramatics aside I am so excited to be starting this blog. I feel like the world of organic, natural, non-toxic, healthy things is so convoluted with politics and money! I am just a simple human being and I want to do good things for my body now so that I will be able to live a longer and happier life! It is a simple goal, but yet the reality of that goal is really hard when faced with an onslaught of products and food filled with things that could potentially harm us! Now I would never want to sound like: "IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD...MAKE A RUN FOR IT!" But I think it is really important to know what we are living around from day to day. 

I really want to help other people and because I don't plan on becoming a doctor (I am completely right brain! Kudos to those who love math and science!) 

I thought I would share my story really quick... well as quick as possible!

Three years ago when I was 18 years old I didn't really care what I put into my body. I was extremely depressed, anxious, and beginning to gain weight because of it. In November and December of that year ('06) I began to feel so tired and began to have weeks on and off where I was lethargic and just felt horrible. I went to the doctor and she tested me for mono, but it came back negative. I began having feelings of my heart racing and a heaviness on my lungs when I would stand or walk. A very kind pulmonologist walked me around the lobby of a hospital and had a heart monitor attached to it. My heart rate got up to 160 bpm. He said that was definitely not normal for my age. He said he barely got up to that when he was working out!

These symptoms just got worse and by April of '07 I had my diagnosis...POTS (Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome http://www.dinet.org/pots_an_overview.htm) which they found out after they did a tilt table test (I am telling you this is just like a form of medieval torture! http://www.medicinenet.com/tilt-table_test/article.htm). 

So I was faced with the possibility that I would have to live with that for the rest of my life. I would sit in a chair watching TV barely able to do the things I used to do before. Simple things like standing in line at a store or taking a walk were like torture. God seemed so far away to me and I began to question my existence. Was I only here to be put through pain? A very woe-is-me attitude, but at the time it was the way I really felt. In November during the week of Thanksgiving I developed a cold and so I took Walgreens cold and flu medication and went to bed. A couple of hours later I could not sleep because my heart felt like it was racing out of control. It kept getting worse and worse until my parents called 911 and requested an ambulance. I lay on the bathroom floor with my head in my mom's lap feeling as if I couldn't lay down flat enough to help my heart stop pumping so quickly. It was the beginning one of the worst experiences of my life. I went to the ER and finally my heart rate slowed enough to where they thought I was ok to go home and get checked out by my heart doctor.

The next day I went to my heart doctor and he put me in the hospital because I still felt miserable. Then I began to experience what I can only call waves of adrenaline and a slight electricity going down the back of my neck which did not hurt but were miserable to experience. Most of the doctors looked at me like I was nuts. I felt like I was nuts. We left the hospital Thanksgiving day with no answer as to why the sensation was happening. 

Several internists, another two trips to the ER and one to another hospital, and a neurologist later we decided to make the trek to Florida's Mayo Clinic. Several internists and a neurologist later we were still left with hardly any answers and I began to withdraw into a shell. I felt like a zombie. God did give me one gift which was sleep. I could sleep without the strange feeling going down the back of my neck (this turned out to be my nervous system, but when I would wake up I would begin to have those symptoms again. I wanted to die. I really did. I know there are a lot of people out there who have no answers and feel the very same way (I am so thankful that my situation got resolved fairly quickly) if you are one of those people I wish I could give you a hug. I'm going to say something extremely corny. Don't give up hope. I did. I describe it as holding on to the end of my rope by my pinky finger. I let go, but Jesus caught me. 

A kind friend had told us about an alternative to Mayo which was something called Electrodermal screening. Now if you look it up on Quackwatch you'll get that it's bogus and i'm sure many many many of them are, but the one my friend told us about wasn't. As a last try my mom took me there. It was now the middle of January. I walked in thinking: "Yeah right whatever I'm sure this is crazy." I sat down next to the lovely woman who owned the practice and I asked her one question before we started: "Will this hurt?" She told me no. I figured if it didn't hurt, and a lot of the tests I had really hurt, I would give this a try. 

Now a year and almost a half later I am a really happy 21 year old! I have gone through periods of detoxing and yes that wasn't and is not pleasant but compared to what I had been through I can handle it! My POTS is 98% gone. I can exercise without my heart racing and the nervous system issue rarely give me trouble!  

Through this period I have learned so much about the human body and what I used to eat (I shudder to think!) and what I am around all the time now. So I hope this blog helps someone with their journey to having a healthier body! Its actually really fun to take good care of yourself! Oh and a special treat for those who do follow me I will be doing giveaways in the future!!

-Kate