Who am I to second guess God? Maybe He needed to knock me off my prideful
high horse when it comes to my health. I
blame my Mamaw Fields, or maybe my Aunt Joretta Jewel, or maybe my Dad, they
were never sick, or if they were, you certainly didn’t know it. Once I had my first baby, realizations began
flying at me like never before. I needed
to take better care of myself for that sweet, precious baby girl, to set an
example for her. Once I came to know
Christ, I knew I needed to step it up further for this ONE body He blessed me
with was the only one He was going to allow me to have. So step it up I did, and, like my Mamaw, my
Aunt and my Dad before me, you would be hard-pressed to find me sick over the
last seventeen years.
About seven years ago I began having some dizzy spells. One night, late in the middle of the night
when we lived in the precious barn we loved so much, our daughter K woke me up
in the middle of the night and said “Mom, I have a nosebleed”. My Momma-bear instincts woke me up
immediately. I jumped out of bed and ran
up the stairs to her bathroom to help take care of her. As I helped with her bleeding nose, the room
swirled and down I went. Was that what
fainting felt like? I had never fainted
before so it all seemed so crazy to me.
The next day the doctors diagnosed me with anemia, not, “Here take these
iron pills and you will be ok” anemia, but the type that had them saying,
“Blood transfusions for eight weeks and you will be good as new” kind of
anemia. I guess this would be a good
point to tell you that I am pretty much against modern medicine for my own
family, so I was actually grateful that what I heard was pretty much a natural
solution and I would not have to take anything.
I did ok for the next couple of years, but then had to go to
my doctor for yet another issue. I was
forty. I exercised all the time, I ate
healthier than anyone I knew, and I was gaining weight like it was THE thing to
do!!!! And I guess THIS would be a good
time to tell you, I do not think I am fat.
So I don’t want anyone reading this going, “Oh yes, we know how hard it
must be to be a size four and gain 8 pounds!”
The problem actually has nothing to do with thoughts of being fat, it
has everything to do with being 5’1.
When you are 5’1 and you gain 8 pounds, you feel it…in your back, in
your knees, everywhere. So even though
your body doesn’t outwardly present any type of obesity, my body was saying to
me, “This hurts! Can’t you get rid of
it?”
So I asked my doctor, you know, the one that diagnosed me
with anemia. The reply? “Well, you know I have some bad news for you,
you are forty now. This is your
life.” I think I have written about this
before. That was the last day I ever saw
a conventional doctor. Instead I began
running tests on myself. I eliminated
foods and reintroduced them until I could tell what was causing me to gain
weight and what wasn’t. The culprits? Wheat and sugar. I could only have them in moderation, once or
twice a week, a special occasion maybe.
This in conjunction with limiting carbs and BOOM! Eight pounds gone AND I felt like a new
person to boot! Life was good.
Fast forward to a little less than a year ago when suddenly
just thinking about exercising would exhaust me, but I pushed my way through
anyway. A few months later I noticed
there was one day a month where I literally found it almost impossible to get
out of bed. I had to redo my already
strict diet just to stay at 132 pounds.
I felt like day in and day out, all I ever could think about was what I
put in my mouth, how much I exercised, and how completely exhausted I was. Did I mention I don’t nap? My mom says I never did (lucky for her I was
a well – behaved child otherwise that whole no nap thing could have been rough
on her!). So any day that I would lay
down and sleep for twenty minutes, I would be super worried in the back of my
mind that something was wrong.
Then we moved. And a
day and a half after we moved my husband had to go back overseas. New state, new town, we only know our two
dear friends thirty minutes away. No family, no friends. Just me and the kids, day in and day out,
doing the best we could. And with each
passing day, my fatigue grew and grew and grew.
Now instead of that one day a month that it was difficult to get out of
bed, well, now I just couldn’t get out of bed that day period. When it was that time of the month, I
realized it was taking my body at least a week to recover, then I would have a
week of feeling great, and then by the next week my body was already feeling
weak again as it began to start the process all over again.
I closed my eyes, threw a dart at the listings on the
internet and randomly picked a holistic doctor to try. Ok, ok, let’s be honest,
I picked him because his competition was charging $400 an hour and he was
charging $65. I hit the jackpot! Dr. John Cassone in Old Town for any of you locals reading this! He listened to me for a half an hour and said
“Severe Adrenal Fatigue”. So let’s back
up, that anemia I had, it probably wasn’t really anemia, but the very
beginnings of my adrenal fatigue. Back
then, I probably had what was considered mild adrenal fatigue. Let’s hit rewind again..that impossible
weight gain despite the healthy eating and exercise? Moderate Adrenal Fatigue, the next step up, where your body can not handle wheat and sugar. But since it went five more years undetected,
it has now hit the Severe stage. Don’t
get me wrong, that sounds bad. Severe
Adrenal Fatigue is not serious so much as it is a royal, royal pain in the butt. It’s a daily annoyance like a mosquito
buzzing around that you just can’t find to kill. It’s the frustration of not being able to get
out of the chair when you know your house needs cleaned and dinner needs
cooked. Praise GOD that my kids are
older and can semi-take care of themselves, though I take a lot of pleasure in
doing things for them, being there mom while they are still here for me TO BE
their mom.
So Doc has me on supplements, plant based supplements. No conventional medicine for this gal. I am actually allergic to most fillers that pharmaceutical
companies put in medicines anyway, so I am more than happy to go the holistic
route. He does acupuncture every week,
and this past week, he realized I was actually much worse off than he thought,
so he mixed up the nastiest herb concoction you have EVER tasted, and I take nine
teaspoons a day with one and a half cups of bone broth. It is truly, truly nasty. A conventional pill would be easier, quicker,
less painful to my taste buds, but it would only do what modern medicine does,
treat the symptoms. Doc is treating the
cause.
I also found this great product that is apparently known for
treating adrenal fatigue (and many other issues)and all of the problems that come with it. It’s called Plexus . I researched them before I began taking them
and they seem like a fabulous Christian based company and this is holistic in
nature as well. To be fair, I had begun
Doc’s concoctions about twelve days before I began Plexus and only seen little
results each day. I am now five days
into the Plexus and for the past two days I have felt like a normal person for
the first seven hours of the day before I hit the wall I would normally hit at
9 am! It is so wonderful to feel so much
hope!!!! Don’t be fooled by the “SLIM”
on the package. I can’t stress enough
that I am NOT taking this as a weight loss product. There are multiple, multiple benefits from
taking this and I will get into all of that on future blogs! Until then, feel free to look at all the
different things they have available.
It’s a pretty interesting company and I know I feel better already. I am so excited to see what the next few
weeks bring! If it happens to bring
weight loss as a side effect, I will be thrilled with that because I would
really like to get out of my older jeans and back into fitting into my
daughters! Lol!!! But I just want to feel better, and so far this is helping more than anything!
So I will be updating you on this journey as it goes
along. Until then, I would love to hear
from any of you that have been diagnosed with severe adrenal fatigue. I feel so alone on this journey, like it is
an excuse if I call someone and say “I can’t meet you today because I am too
tired to move”. I would also appreciate
your prayers, like I said, I know this isn’t a serious disease or anything, but
if you know me, you know I like to go, go, go and this has hit me like a brick
wall. My comments are hit or miss on
this page, you can try to leave one, however if it isn’t working for some
reason feel free to message me on Facebook or at missylampert@hotmail.com! I would love to hear from others suffering
from adrenal fatigue!
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