*VIDEO* Seeking Healing Through Christ

I made a new video on my "health" channel talking about what it is I have been doing for the past year. This is the first time I have gone completely public with this unless you are of course a blog reader. I felt it was time to talk about it and deal with the naysayers as they come.

Believing that Jesus is a healer today of our physical needs is extremely controversial. I know that most churches preach against this and come up with very peculiar reasons why they don't believe in it.

If you just read the Bible and never step foot inside one of the churches, I don't think most people would be able to come up with these teachings on their own. Scriptures are taken out of context and aren't applied right. Many churches would fail a reading comprehension test. hehe

The church today should look like what is written in the book of Acts after the Holy Spirit fell upon them.  All of this is available to us today because, ⁸ Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever. Hebrews 13:8

Here's the link just in case the embedding breaks. That seems to happen A LOT with blogger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kSpZiTFzdTc

Debbie Downer for Being Sick of Being Sick?

Fall is definitely here! The leaves have already been changing! :) I woke up today and it was actually cold and I needed to get a jacket. :)  Usually I feel better in winter, but last winter was really rough on me. I got strep and then erythema nodosum....Ouch. I hope I do not have a repeat of that.

I am already noticing that my heart has been racing a lot more. I have been getting periods where it just takes off for no reason. It has me concerned but what can I do about it? It's not like I can flip a switch and be better... I have been getting worse and worse this year despite my efforts with supplements, natural treatments, detoxes and rx drugs. Nothing has been working...

In real life, I don't like to talk about my problems with people because no one wants to hear things like this...What's the point when there is no end in sight? It's not like there will be a cure for POTS in 5, 10, 15 or even 20 years. As I get sicker, it is becoming increasingly harder to cope with. Most people are only interested in hearing about illness for a short time, but when an illness has been going on for years, they don't really want to hear about it anymore. You are old news and annoying.

Because of that, Facebook and this blog are the only places where I can vent and talk about what I am feeling with complete honesty.

On FB the other day I was accused of no longer listening to God's word and that I must have stopped going to church because I was being a debbie downer in my posts...Huh?...This does not make any sense at all to me. I am NOT about to be condemned for feeling and living sick. I do not subscribe to any theology that blames sick people for being sick. God does not give us sickness to teach us lessons.

Some people really need to get a grip on themselves. You see someone hurting and in sickness and all you have to offer is condemnation and some lesson on the Devil? How about having some compassion, love or even offering to pray for them?

On FB, I usually post random things about health, cats, weather, God, songs, etc. The last few weeks I have been posting links to some interesting threads on DINET that I could relate to and I shared some stories for Invisible Illness week. I normally don't post about stuff like that, but I thought there were some good things out there. I like posting about the emotional struggles we face when one suffers from a chronic illness.

Oh and I've also shared this amazing KittenCam on Youtube. OH MY!! Check it out. You will be addicted. :)

One of my "debbie downer" status updates was written after going to Kohl's and suffering with terrible symptoms.

I really needed some jeans. I haven't bought a single pair of jeans for more than 3 years. We are going to a Christian healing meeting and conference coming up in October and I realized I did not have enough clothes to wear to a conference for 3 days...haha! Normally I wear the same clothes over and over again because I don't make public appearances very often and I'm not seeing the same people. I figured showing up in the same old, worn pants might be a bit weird.

I hate shopping because of my health problems. I can't even remember the last time I went to a mall. I think it's been about 3-4 years. The only shopping I do is grocery and necessity shopping like getting cat litter, cat food, prescriptions, toilet paper etc. You get the idea. I don't go on day long trips where I come home with bags and bags of jeans, shirts, shoes and other stuff. All that walking, stooping down, reaching up for items, standing in line is awful.

Before we got to Kohl's I looked online to see which pants might work, so I knew where to start... There was no way I could walk around Kohl's, trying everything on I could find, so I had to narrow it down to 2 or 3 styles. That's all my body can handle.

Trying on and putting on clothes has always been a major trigger for POTS. When I get dressed in the morning, it takes all of my effort not to collapse. It's not that my BP drops, but I feel like the life within me begins to fade away.

So I start trying on jeans and immediately knew this was not working out well. I felt terrible. My heart was in the 170's. I had to rest on one of their mannequin displays. ;) I had shortness of breath, began to tremble, shake, sweat profusely, felt wired and thirsty yet had to pee all at the same time... I could not do any fine motor movements at all. Texting on my phone was impossible. I kept smashing like 5 keys together. Everything was so unsteady. The first 2 pairs of pants I had tried on were a bust, so I had to keep pushing through and looking. I started to slouch, sighed a lot and was even dragging my feet as I walked. I looked sweaty in the face as if I had been running a marathon. I have to believe marathon runners feel better than this because I don't think they would keep doing them otherwise! HAHA!

I finally did find pants that I liked, but I was too sick to try them on and compare, so I just bought them. I got home and realize I probably needed to try the smaller size and compare...NOO I have to go back now!?! I was considering of bringing my video camera along next time to show people how much I suffer while trying to do normal things. I dunno if Kohl's would allow it, but I think I'm gonna try.

So after that entire experience, yes I made a FB status update that said,
"I went to Kohls today to get some jeans and I felt terrible. Made me realize just how sick I really am. :("

I can't pretend I don't have POTS! When someone suggests something along those lines, I have to assume they don't believe you are really that sick. Doesn't that already mean I'm doing a good job at pretending? lol I also feel like you cannot possible be feeling compassion for what I am going through. No one would ever tell someone with cancer to pretend they did not have cancer. No one would ever tell a blind person to just think more positively, so he might be able to see! That is completely absurd....

After coming home from Kohl's, I was wrecked for the day. I had massive head pressure and a headache that did not go away until I went to bed that night.

One good thing did come out of it, as I was walking around, feeling dreadful, I started to have flashbacks to times in my youth where I felt the same exact way. It was as if I was being reminded that I have been sick for a very long time as early as age 5. My mom used to do day long trips to malls and I hated it. I would lie down on the ground, cry, scream and throw fits.  I thought I was just a brat, but walking around Kohl's the other day, I knew it was just POTS showing itself...

I'm not entirely sure where to leave this post, but for the past 7 years I have been doing the mental gymnastics to keep myself going. The 5 years before that, that I graduated from high school, went to college and worked full time. I'm not a quitter. I'm not someone who just gives up and pouts. The reason I'm not in a wheelchair or lying around in bed all day looking more sick is because of my willpower.  I struggle with POTS in every aspect of my life and have made as much good out of it as I can. Is it wrong to want more and be upset with where I am right now? I don't think so.

For 12 years doctors have told me I was faking, crazy, lazy, just anxious,"too stressed", that I needed to get a job, was a drug addict, needed to just start having babies and all of these horrible things. To then have a friend tell me that I was letting the Devil win by having debbie downer posts, it is really not very caring or compassionate at all. I can't just pretend POTS away...Don't you think I would have done that, oh I dunno, like 5 years ago when I started this blog? lol

My hope for healing and recovery is with God. I know that he is my Healer. He has already shown me with what happened with my cousin was not my fault. God is healing me right now in ways I cannot even explain here. I believe that the physical healing will happen too. And when God finally takes this illness away from me, then Glory be to Him. No one will be able to stop me, from shouting it from the rooftops!

Graphs of Heart Rates During Tilt Table Tests

I wanted to share with all of you a graph of my vitals during my TTT's. I'm not sure how to get BP's to work, but if I do, then I'll post those alongside the HR's so you can see how that correlates (or does not correlate in my case...hehe).

Cleveland Clinic

UPMC Passavant

At the place where I have marked Nitro, they lowered me back down briefly and gave me half a sublingual nitro pill. I thought it was going to kill me. I will never ever let any doctor give me that drug again! Ugh!

Heat Intolerance: It's Too Darn Hot!

I made a video talking about some of my struggles with it.


Admittedly I was doing a lot better in this video I made 8 days ago. Things got bad really quickly for me.

These Symptoms Are the Reason I Made This Blog

This video contains the very reasons why I started this blog back in 2007. Here I am in 2012 and still suffering from the same issues. Everything I've done in the past 5 years hasn't helped me much. haha!

Heat intolerance and rapid heart rate upon standing. This is my life in the summer.

**New VIDEO**New Heart Rate Monitor Watch and My Garden!

I made a new video showing off my new watch! This video also demonstrates what my POTS is like for me and I gave you a nice little tour through my herb "garden" and flowers. :) Enjoy!

Be sure to subscribe to my youtube channel for more video updates. I'm hoping to make this channel more personal. I find making videos has been a nice release valve for me! It is much more personable than writing blog posts and you can see my goofiness and craziness come through too. haha!

New Health Youtube Channel

I finally decided to start a new youtube channel talking about POTS and other health related topics. This is my introduction video about POTS.

I plan on making videos showing me struggling with POTS. I also plan on talking about what I've tried over the years too.

Waiting on Echo and Holter Results

I decided I'd head up to the hospital medical records and request the Echocardiogram and Holter results ahead of time. They will be mailing them out to me when they get them, so now I won't have to worry about bugging the cardiologist's office.

Ever since Monday, I have been feeling terrible. I feel like a bus has hit me and I cannot get enough rest. Monday was the day I wore the holter monitor and I beat the hell out of myself to get good readings on the monitor. At this point, I'm not sure why I feel so terrible still. Part of me thinks the strep is coming back. I have a few new red spots on my ankles and the old nodules are starting to hurt again. It is not severe, but this makes me worried.

In unrelated things. I read on a health forum of some woman who had major improvements in her POTS when she took the fat soluble form of B1. I happen to have that in my house ( I tried it a few years ago) and decided to give it another go. I couldn't remember if anything bad had happened to me when I took it, so I just thought I'd see. Sure enough, it took 3 pills (1 a day) and the PVC's are back... I cannot even make this stuff up any more. I do not understand why my body immediately decides that all B vitamins are bad for me. So I will probably stop taking it and move on.

New Cardiologist Was Great!

After a lot of contemplation, my husband and I decided I should make an appointment with a new cardiologist. Even though I started to feel better, my better half convinced me it was worthwhile to just make sure everything was OK. I dug through my records and it's been like 3 years since my last echo, holter and EKG. The first nightmare office cancelled my echocardiogram on me at the last minute which was a blessing in disguise. They wanted me to re-schedule, but I just cancelled everything with their office. I am not about to go back to some lady who had no respect for me at all. It was maddening.

I wasn't expecting much with this new doctor because why in the world would I let myself down again? Well everything went so much better than expected. First off the doctor was male and younger, which sadly I think usually helps me. I think in the very least they feel empathy. I don't normally do so well with women doctors.

Heat Intolerance Is My Top POTS Symptom

There was an interesting post on dinet.org the other day. A poster asked us to list our top 5 POTS symptoms that cause problems for us on a daily basis. I was certain everyone would have tachycardia on their list, but that was not the case. How can you have POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) and NOT have tachycardia or heart symptoms on your top 5 list... Am I missing something here?

If you were to list your top 5 symptoms, what would they be? Fatigue? Pain? Gastrointestinal issues? Let me know what all of you are going through. I am very curious to see how different yet how similar we are too.

My top 5 symptoms are as followed:

• Heat intolerance
• tachycardia with shortness of breath (when standing of course)
  
• anxiety, "crazy" wired feelings
• shakiness/tremors
• exercise intolerance

I do not know why the heat is such a problem for me, but cooler weather or air conditioning makes all the difference. In the winter I feel pretty normal and most of the other symptoms listed go away. I still have tachycardia but the heart rates are not nearly as high and the anxiety is never as bad either. Unfortunately exercising is bad because that makes your body temperature increase, so it goes back to the heat intolerance.

Now many people would insist that I have adrenal fatigue and need to go on "adrenal support". No you are wrong. I will continue to repeat this as many times as I need to until I am blue in the face.

POTS is not adrenal fatigue. POTS is not adrenal fatigue. POTS is not adrenal fatigue. POTS is not adrenal fatigue. POTS is not adrenal fatigue.

/Rant on

Do some POTS patients have symptoms that mimic those with adrenal issues? Absolutely, but it does not mean we all have adrenal problems and need hydrocortisone, florinef or "adrenal support". It is simply a THEORY that has been repeated so many times, that people have started to believe it as truth. Those who perpetuate the THEORY usually have never ever had POTS, yet they speak about it as if they are an authoritative source of information. Ugh! :( Believe me when I say it does not go away with some salt, florinef, and hydrocortisone. If it did I would not be here anymore writing on my blog.

/Rant off

Heat Intolerance is a major problem for me in the summer.

Now that it is summer, I really have to be careful outside or even in the house. I get heat exhaustion so very easily compared to most normal people. Today I believe I woke up with the beginning stages of heat exhaustion simply because we did not have the A/C turned on in our bedroom last night. I woke up with a mild fever, headache and nausea. This is one of the reasons why I do not pay any attention to basal temperatures or even daytime temperatures. For me it varies according to the room temperature. Have any of you ever noticed an increase in temps during the summer? If so you likely have body temperature regulation issues too.

When I wake up in this crisis state, it is very difficult to pull myself out of it without intervening with ways to cool my body down as quickly as possible. Cold baths, ice cold water and air conditioning is the only thing that helps. Once my body finally cools down I am good. I feel completely normal and can go about my day. I know that sounds really weird and perhaps I am an usual case, but I always tell people I really do just have POTS. I do not have chronic fatigue syndrome or hypothyroid. If I fixed my POTS, I'd be nearly 100% better.

This summer has been better than previous years, so I am thankful for that. However I still have a long way to go until I will consider myself recovered or cured.

Update 8AM July 4: Things did not go as well as I had originally thought when I made this post. I continued down the heat exhaustion path for most of the night. At one point I was shaking, had goosebumps, throbbing headache and felt terrible. My temperature was running 99.6. I got an ice cold bath, drank lots of ice water and I still was having trouble getting my temperature down. Finally now after many hours after becoming increasingly worried, I got my temperature down to the low 99's, then high 98's and now it is about 98.4. I still have an awful throbbing headache and that likely will not go away until I sleep for the day. I hope I staved off an ER trip. That would be 2 holidays where I made an appearance. Let's hope all of this corrects itself today. Yes we are running the AC tonight too!

Here's a few other posts I've made on this subject.
2012- Heat Intolerance: It's Too Darn Hot!
2011- Getting Through the Heat Intolerance

Getting Through the Heat Intolerance

Heat intolerance can make summer miserable.

As it starts to warm up I have been becoming increasingly concerned with how I will make it through yet another spring and summer.  We do not have central air conditioning in our house, so it can be quite unbearable at times.  Where I live it is not uncommon to see 90 degree days with very high humidity, so fans just do not cut it.  We put in window air conditioners, but they only do so much.  It is not quite like having an entire house with air conditioning.

With severe heat intolerance, I am constantly in the beginning stages of heat exhaustion.  With POTS this is just something you have to deal with I guess.  Not many people have been successful in treating their heat intolerance.  I am hoping chelation will help me, but I do not expect to see any results for at least 6 months to a year.  If I were doing IV's then I would likely see improvements much quicker, but for now I am sticking with oral DMPS.  I am still a little nervous about IVs and I don't know of any doctor who does them in this area. 

The beginning symptoms of heat intolerance are all too common for the POTS patient.  Here's a list of symptoms from the website medicinenet.com.  It is linked above if you want to read more:

* heavy sweating (not the case for a lot of POTsy-we do not sweat enough)
* paleness
* muscle cramps
* tiredness
* weakness
* dizziness
* headache
* nausea or vomiting
* fainting

The skin may be cool and moist. The victim's pulse rate will be fast and weak, and breathing will be fast and shallow.

At some time or another I've had all of these symptoms while bathing or simply sitting in my house doing nothing.  I do not sweat enough when I am hot.  I think that might be part of the issue.  However  I do sweat profusely if I am having a norepinephrine response to stress of some type or become extremely tachycardic upon standing.  Apparently these are controlled by two different parts of the CNS, so that actually make sense.  

I guess walking around in my bikini, keeping cold wash clothes on my head and getting cold baths is really all I can do.  The summer time is hell for me and I can not looking forward to it at all.

For those of you who got to the end of this article and think all of my symptoms sound "adrenal", think again.  I am so sick and tired of hearing about how I need adrenal support.  I am on adrenal "support" and it does nothing for POTS, nor heat intolerance, nor exercise intolerance, not the lightheadedness etc.  Sorry but I am just sick and tired of hearing this.  STTM and the adrenal yahoo group have both polluted all health forums, so everyone considers themselves experts on adrenals.  No you are not! Wake up, there are other body systems out there other than adrenals and hydrocortisone is not something you should be messing with unless you have real adrenal failure.  Period.

I made the mistake and listened to all of these armchair forum doctors for years.  No more!  /Rant off

Ride My Bike Every Day

I want to get more active and try to feel a little better about myself, but I have to be realistic. With POTS or any chronic health problems, self-esteem and self-confidence goes out the window.  How can you be happy with yourself when you cannot do anything normal with your life? 

I have decided for the rest of the month of March, I will ride my recumbent bike for at least 5 minutes a day.  I know this sounds truly pathetic.  I am 26 and can only do 5 minutes of bike riding? WHAT? I CAN do more, but I have to keep this time very low so I do not injure myself or overdo it.  I used to ride my bike for MILES and MILES on a daily basis when I was in my early teenage years.  I was known in the neighborhood as "the girl who always rides her bike".  When my family would vacation at Pymatuning State Park, I'd bike ride at least 10-15 miles a day easily and I loved every moment of it.  Even back then though I was suffering from POTS, however it seemed more easily controlled.  Having the wind in my face while riding always helped to keep me cool.

5 minutes should be doable... Just have to keep motivated.

Feeling Odd, DMPS and Robins

I have been feeling out of it these past few days.  I cannot put my finger on it, but something is not quite right.  It's like low cortisol symptoms but taking more doesn't do anything.  Blah!    It also feels like low blood sugar, but that does not seem right either. 

I'm getting this weird achy pain in the front of my head.  Typically a mild headache mean low cortisol for me and I take an extra 2.5 or 5mg and I'm all better.  Not this time around.   Was it the extra 40mg I took that has my body messed up now?  Was it just the surgery itself because I could have been exposed to some mercury?  I have no idea.  Or maybe it's because my sleep schedule is sooooo messed up!  Perhaps this is more likely the case because I'm trying to switch my schedule around, so I am not taking my HC at the same time each day.

Well whatever it is, I hope it begins to pass.

In other news, I think I'll be getting DMPS from this local doctor.  I had to basically beg him.  Interestingly I had him take my BP while sitting and standing to let him to see what happens.  My bp was like 145/90 sitting and as soon as I stood up he said my heart rate went insane but my BP didn't change at all.  I was just glad he got to see it in action in his own office.  I was sweating soo much and was feeling completely insane during that appointment.  My norepinephrine goes through the roof when I'm engaged in deep conversation, which would raise the BP quite a lot.  It can be unpleasant and I'll profusely sweat with pit stains and everything.  That's so attractive!

Completely unrelated--I noticed some American robins are back in the area scrounging for food in the yard.  I guess spring must be closer than I expected which is scary for me.   The warm air is going to kill me this year.

First Walk of the Season!

It was still chilly yesterday but my husband and I went for our first walk of the season.  It was beautiful because there was still ice on the lake.  I should have brought my camera with me, but did not think about it at all. 

We did not walk the full loop, but did about half way around and I decided it was better to take it easy.  Since it was our first walk, we are out of practice and I didn't want to collapse after ward.  haha!

None of my heart monitor watches work anymore, so I could not check my heart. Sometimes I think it is better that way... We walked up a steep hill and my heart immediately went insane.  Probably 140's, so I know this summer is going to be rough. 

I am so nervous about tomorrow (oral surgeon).  AHH!!

I'm still here

Just wanted to check in and say that I'm doing well. The weather has cooled down so I'm just enjoying life at the moment. I've been working a lot, like 16 hours day for my husband and his business. Things are good though! Sure I feel my heart rates are up, but with it being cooler I'm like 75% better. I don't have the shortness of breath or the "I feel like I'm dying" feeling.

I always forget that fall/winter I am actually somewhat normal feeling. :)

Here's a quick update on what I've been doing though. I started following the McComb's Diet plan about 3-4 weeks ago which is supposed to be for candida. You are probably think...OMG has Birdlady lost her mind!? Yes I am doing a candida diet even though I've made fun of them before haha. You can read about the diet at the doctor's own website, which is much different than most "candida" diets. I realize that I was mostly following the plan any way but had to cut out a few more things (all sugar, all dairy, all nuts).

At first, I really didn't want to do it because I knew I'd have to be on my feet more to cook every meal. You also have to get rid of butter which I've never done before. It's really hard to eat some foods without butter like squash, potatoes, rice etc. In addition to this diet, I've also stopped supping with salt. I lost 4 pounds in a week. I'm so sick of POTS patients being told to use salt like it's even doing a damn thing for us? DUMB!

In addition to the diet, I am also taking THorne Research Formula SF722 which is 10-Undecenoic Acid. I take 5 Gelcaps 3 times a day away from food. I have no idea if it's doing anything, but I'm just going to stick with it.

Overall I've lost 7 pounds now. I am absolutely LOVING it! I am finally back in the 120's which I haven't seen for a long time now. Now if I could get my heart to chill out when I try to do leg exercises, I'd be soo happy.../sigh I still cannot exercise and I have to keep myself cool at all times. If I am going out to a store, I wear tank tops underneath my coat so I can cool down fast if I start to overheat. So far this has been working really well. Some days I just wear shorts around the house to stay as cold as possible.

This post is all over the place, but I just wanted to let everyone know I'm doing well!

Woohoo! My hormone doc ordered Mito labs!

My hormone doctor has agreed to order mitochondrial tests for me. The mitchondrial doctor I talked to on the phone a few weeks ago gave me a few tests I could have done to see if this issomething I should pursue further. She did warn me though that even if all of these tests come back normal, it doesn't mean I don't have a problem....haha She just said that if these DO come back high, then we know without any doubt there's an issue. If that is the case, then I'll need to figure out a way to get my butt to Atlanta, GA...One thing at a time...

I just gotta call around and see what hospitals even do them. The one has special handling, so I can't just walk into Labcorp or Quest and get it done.

Pyruvate (Pyruvic acid)
Lactate (Lactic Acid)
Creatinine Phosphokinase (CPK or CK)

Then I added a few of my own to just see what's happening:

Homocysteine
Serum Copper
Ceruloplasmin

I also have to call the insurance company to see if any of these ARE NOT covered...

Still Nothing From Cleveland Clinic

This really is just unbelievable to me.

I called on Thursday and got the secretary. I thought, "oh good" just the person that I've been playing phone tag with. Well sort of. To play tag you need the other person to try calling YOU back, which wasn't happening. I told her that I was trying to be as patient as one can be, but I've been waiting and calling for the past 6 weeks asking WHEN I'd get my report. 5 weeks ago I was told it would be finalized the next day and then sent out probably over the weekend. Now I call and I'm told the same thing each and every week. I want an answer NOW as to when my report will be in my hands...

She looks me up in the system. "oh..um...I guess there must have been some kind of oversight. I don't know why your report wasn't finalized". I told her that I've been told that same thing for the past 4 weeks and nothing has been done about it. "I will have the nurse call you when it is finalized". Okay so when should I expect the report to be in my hands, so that I know when to call and complain again. "I don't know" Well here it is Monday and no report, no phone call. NOTHING. What in the HELL does one have to do to get a damn report from Cleveland Clinic. This is not acceptable.

I hate to burn bridges, but I don't think I ever want to go back there. Just awful.

So...tomorrow I am calling again. I hope I get the secretary, so I can tell her that whatever it is they are doing to get the report finalized ISN'T working. I want my chart put ON TOP of the pile and it stay there until the doctor signs off on it. Period. If this doesn't work, then I'll have to call the cleveland clinic ombudsman to step in for me.

Still Not Doing Well

I was really hoping to see some improvement, but I am really bad...again. I felt decent for like 3 days as far as mood goes. But my heart has just been terrible.

I made myself go to the park today to take a short walk. My heart rate was like 150 as we were walking around, but I just made myself continue on. Suddenly it felt like someone was pushing on my throat and I told my husband I needed to sit down like NOW. We made our way to a picnic table and my HR would not go down even while sitting. I laid down on the table and immediately my heart rate went down to 70. /sigh

I felt completely out of my mind like I was watching myself watch myself.

Cleveland Clinic can kiss my ass. The autonomic department is incompetent and tomorrow they will be getting a very mean call from me. I have had enough of waiting around like a chicken with my head cut off. I want some freakin' answers as to where my report is at. They never bothered to call me back last week and now the bitch has to come out to get anything done. I'm going to tell the woman that I want a DATE that my report will be in my hands. Every single day after that report isn't in my hands, I will be calling them. Every single day until it IS in my hand.

My eye floaters/bright things are all back, so this has to be related to me feeling terrible.

I've Been So Ill Feeling

I don't know what is happening, but I've been SOO ill.


I've been researching non-stop since I got the NutrEval test back. I think I need to further pursue a possible mitochondrial disorder, but just don't have the funds to do it. For now I figured I'd just start on some of the supplements suggested and see how I do.

Well something that I started taking is making me feel terrible! I've never experienced this feeling before. I've had chronic, constant nausea. I feel hungry, but as soon as I start to cook, I can't possibly imagine actually eating the food. I've been making myself eat. My sitting heart rates are way up. I was tachying away at 122 while sitting at my computer chair. OMG!

Yesterday it was beautiful outside, cool with low humidity and I nearly collapsed at the park while taking a gentle stroll. Normally where my HR is like 118, I clocked in at 152, with shortness of breath and felt like hell.

Here's what I started taking:
Fish oil
l-carnitine
P5p (B6)
SAM-e

Today I took nothing, so we'll see how I do. I feel like a piece of shit today. Worthless. What the hell am I even doing here. I can't do anything. My sister wants me to help her buy some trellises from the store and I'll have to tell her I can't do it. What a worthless piece of shit I am. Seriously.

I'm sick of this.

NutrEval Results Are In

Here are the results! I finally figured out privacy options on photobucket, so here's a link to the album with the NutrEval results. The guest password is birdladyblog to gain access! No offense but I didn't want any of you rummaging through my personal album, so everything is locked down now. haha!!

The results are QUITE extensive. My urinary MMA, Formiminoglutamic acid and Sarcosine are all elevated, which according to wikipedia/google are indicative of a B12, B6 and B9 deficiency. I guess this wouldn't be such a big deal if I haven't already been taking 1000mcg of Methyl B12 and Folate (B9) on a near daily basis!

There are a few amino acids on the list that have me really wondering what is going on.

I have the following elevated:
a-Ketoglutaric Acid (AKG)
Leucine
Isoleucine
Sarcosine
Formiminoglutamic Acid
B-Aminoisobutyric Acid
Taurine
Methylmalonic Acid
Tryptophan
Cysteine
Glutamic Acid
Proline
Arachiodonic Acid
Docosatetraenoic Acid (DTA)

Most of the things online only talk about if your levels are low...That doesn't help me much! haha

I'm on my own to interpret this test! More to come. I'm too tired to write a whole bunch up right now.