Supplements

When one's health falters, and the doctor their insurance plan will pay for can find nothing wrong with them, many patients seek alternative treatments in the hope of finding something, anything, that will take their ailments away. There is no shortage of snake oil out there, plenty of people selling the "cure" to Fibromyalgia. But they have only made us doubtful and bitter. People aggressively insisting that if you don't try their product you don't want to get better. It is extremely unpleasant to deal with this. There are many other options folks may try. Vitamins and supplements, hormones and injections, to name a few. Acupuncture, chiropractic, massage, really too many to list. When I became disabled from CFS and Fibromyalgia I searched for a support group, a network or association, anyone that had been through this and knew what on earth to do! I talked to one woman who used to run a CFS support group and she described her symptoms to me. My first thought was OhmyGod another person on this planet knows what I am feeling! But as she went on and I went through my list of questions I realized that over the last 15 years she had kinda just let this overtake her life.

I asked her about The Fibro & Fatigue Centers my internet research kept turning up. She brushed it off, saying it was just a bunch of supplements and costs a lot of money. As I drilled her for answers, something to do to start to get better, anything to change the hell I was imprisoned in, she fell very short. For she was sitting and waiting for modern medicine to fix her. So I went to the specialty clinic, and oh my soul, supplements galore! So many supplements! And this one can be taken with food but this one on an empty stomach and this one 2 hours before you can eat for the day and that other one that was specifically between lunch and dinner and this one over here you have to take, then eat 30 exact minutes later...oh it was maddening! But I did that for about 6 months, putting myself into significant debt as I actually started to feel better enough to return to my retail job. Then we did the anti-virals and anti-fungals and anti-biotics and I really started to feel better. And ever since then I have been a complete freak about taking my supplements. Religious, almost to a fault.

They are a lot less complicated and significantly less expensive now than they were back in the early days. My immune system is properly supported with vitamins, minerals, amino acids and a minimum of herbs. But I still spend enough on them that when money gets really tight sometimes I have to lapse. And that happened a few weeks back. I went without my supplements for a good 2 weeks and was in  horrible awful misery. I hurt. I was angry and emotional. I did not sleep well. Did I mention I hurt? Exercising was grueling and that EBV, oh it just waits for a break in the protective barrier to sneak up on me! Achey, sore throat, swollen glands, sinus pressure, headache, you know, the good ol' fashioned afternoon flu! Cold-sores all over my mouth, thwarted by the anti-viral I had to go on. But payday gratefully came and I placed my order and once I was back on them for about a week I felt better again. Much better. So I guess I am not wasting that money. I sure wish I could spend it on a pedicure or massage, or even an overdue bill for crying out loud! But as we all know way too well, you really can't put a price tag on health.

Thanks for joining,

Leah