When my life turned upside down!

 

At the age of 51 I was poisoned by accidental carbon monoxide.  Several months of sickness, sleeping, infections, followed until I fell into a deep sleep not being able to stay awake more than a few hours a day. After a couple of months that changed to complete sleeplessness.   I had to leave work on short term disability until they could find the reason for my issues.  Then my heart was attacked and I had congestive heart failure which was severe.

Soon pain started in one shoulder, intense pain, which led to my elbow, wrist and fingers.  Down into the hip, femure, legs, knees and ankles.  Then it proceeded to do the same on the left side of my body.  Fevers started daily, fatigue so intense I walked around like a zombie.  It never changed and never left me.  Today I am 61, it’s been ten  years, and I still remain ill.  It aged me so much in just a few years it was amazing.  My hair turned all gray, I went through menopause also during the first few years.  Potent, high dosage meds put forty pounds extra on me and I began my life as a recluse, a disabled old woman who just a few years earlier had been full of life, ambition, drive, determination.  But this I could not fight.  Stress majorly caused relapses and this is how it behaves.  Slight improvement for days, weeks, even months.  Just when starting to feel half way normal, BAM!  I knocks me down again, hard, heavy, ruthlessly tearing up my body, my mind, my hopes and dreams.  It is called “The Monsters Within” and is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Disease.

There still is no known cause for these diseases so hope is fleeting.  The FDA, CDC, NIH and DHHS are not spending adequate amounts of money on these diseases to find causes and cures.  Why they are not is beyond me.  Do you know how many millions of us there are around the world with these ailments?  And most of us cannot work to provide a living for ourselves.  I met and married a good Christian man just a few years ago who now takes care of me in every way.  Lost revenue from no taxes being paid into the system by employed people results in their using your tax money to support us.  Yes!  Millions and millions of dollars.  And we suffer.

Some say I have withstood the test of time and illness quite well while I say it’s taken its toll on me bigtime.  On top of these neuro-immune disorders are all of the auto-immune diseases like lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.  Many of us eventually develop cancer.  Our immune systems are majorly compromised along with many other organs and systems in the body.

I do, however, have God with me and Jesus gave me the miracle of sleep when I quit taking my sleeping pills after four years.  I haven’t had to take one in five year now.  Still take nine pills a day but working on getting that reduced too, if my body allows.  Gotta keep on trying…Later peeps!  Enjoy your good health and to those of you out there that suffer in any way, may God bless and keep you safe.