My Fibromyalgia Recovery Story – From Chronic Pain To Full Health
Like most people in the health industry, I’ve had my own experiences with health that led me to my career in nutrition. Growing up I was always healthy, apart from the occasional cold or tonsillitis I didn't really have too many issues. In my late teens and early 20s I seemed to be able to get away with eating what I wanted, doing lots of partying and burning the candle at both ends.
I was working in London in a very high stress job when I started to experience pain in my feet. Initially I was told I had plantar fasciitis which I accepted at the time. Then I had plantar fasciitis in both feet and often walking was extremely painful. One day the pain started to move up the back of my legs and sometimes when I was walking I felt as though my muscles were being pulled in different directions. I went to a doctor an explain my situation and he said that maybe I had torn some ligaments and advised that I wore Crocs all the time. Keep in mind this is not at a time when Crocs were in fashion like they are now!
I had started to feel really fatigued, I was having difficulty sleeping, feeling anxious and having a lot of difficulty around my period. I went back to the doctor and asked for some blood tests to find out what was going on. He told me that I looked so healthy and he couldn't understand why I was feeling the way that I did Because all my blood tests were normal.
I carried on wearing my Crocs and trying to understand what was wrong with me but because I've been told that everything looked normal I was trying to accept that maybe everything was normal. But then one day the pain started spreading and I started experiencing pain on my hands, arms, upper legs and even on the side of my face. It felt like my skin was on fire, I had such an extreme sensation of burning that meant even a bed sheet was painful against my skin.
I was really scared I had no idea what was going on, at this point I was sent to the emergency room where more tests were done which also came back normal. I was seen by a neurologist and countless doctors as they try to understand what was going on with me. part of the process was ruling out conditions, my family and I waited while I was tested for things like cancer HIV and MS.
In the end they couldn’t diagnose me with any sort of condition, just that I didn't have anything life threatening. I was offered antidepressants another medication to try and manage my pain. At this point my fatigue was so severe that I had to take time off of work and temporarily moved back to my parents’ house said they could take care of me.
As a last ditch effort, I decided to try changing my diet to see if it would make any difference. I couldn't believe that in such a short period of time, less than one week, from cutting out processed food and sugar my pain levels were drastically reduced. This was the start of my interest in health and well-being.
I started researching more and more although it was difficult because I didn't have a diagnosis at this point. At times I was on such a restricted diet that I felt completely frustrated and confused with all the information that was online. There were times when I had no idea what to eat because certain food seemed to be making me feel so much worse. I know now that part of the problem is that I was just cutting foods out but not actually dealing with the root cause of my symptoms.
Eventually, through my own research I came across a condition called fibromyalgia. I asked my doctor about it who agreed that it certainly did seem as though that was what I had. This was later confirmed by a rheumatologist.
Once I had a name to the condition, I was able to start researching more and more about what to do to feel better. In time I learnt that I needed to get down to the root cause if I was ever going to make any strides in my health that we're going to last beyond following a dietary model.
It wasn't easy and it did take a lot of focus and determination but through working with my hormones, nervous system, food sensitivities, gut health and making big changes in my lifestyle I was finally able to get to a point where I was truly symptom free.
It has now been years since I've had any symptoms associated with fibromyalgia. I don't need to follow anywhere near as strict of a diet as I did when I was unwell, and life has certainly given me a few opportunities where a relapse would have made sense in times of extreme stress.
My body does keep me busy however, with managing a hormone condition called PCOS which affects one in 10 women.
When I look back on the time when I was so unwell and was trying everything I could, desperately trying to get better I wish that I had known that someone in my job existed at the time. It worked out for me in the end but I did do everything myself and it was extremely stressful which I'm sure added to my fatigue!
Now I work one to one with people who are in a similar situation to I was all those years ago. I love helping people understand what the root cause of their conditions or symptoms are for some it might be their thyroid or for others it could be their nervous system or hormones or perhaps a combination of all of these areas.
Most of all I love helping people being able to say what I get to say now - ‘I used to be sick’