I have just had a positive meeting with my doctor for my 6 monthly med review. Last time she saw me I was on 40mg citalopram, 40mg amatryptaline, 8-10 30mg cocodamol, and 6 gabapantin a day. Quite a cocktail.
I am now on 20mg citalopram, 0 amatryptaline, 2-4 8mg cocodamol ( with the 30mg reserved for bad pain flare ups), and 0 Gabapatin.
What has changed?
My diet and exercise regime.
I reached a point, 3 months ago where I knew I had to put into action all the research, experiences and specialist appointments with holistic nutritionists, acupuncturists, reflexologists and everyone else over the 8 years since I was diagnosed with endo. I have all this info at my fingertips yet my pain and exhaustion was so bad I was spending 4 days a week in bed.
Now, don't get me wrong, life is still a struggle and I still have a long way to go. Maybe this is the best I can be, I don't know, but at least I am off 50% of the medications which have their own demons and side effects.
I exercise when I can, and have bought yoga heavily into the mix too. I am a firm believer in cutting out the CRAP (caffeine, refined carbs, alcohol and processed foods) and eating a high raw, organic diet. More on that in other posts, but this has gone a LONG way in making me feel so much better. I hope it gives you some hope too, just the notion that in between waiting for Pain Clinic appointments, gynae appointments and all the rest of the limbo that goes with endo, you CAN take some control.
I am planning a health and well being coaching programme as part of Project Endo, and I am lining up some great experts to help our journey.
In the meantime, I want to share with you a post I wrote on my good friend Bangs and a Buns' fitness site Spike and Heels, about training with chronic pain. I was blown away by the responses and comments on the blog and on Twitter.
To complement that, I loved this post on Mind Body Green about knowing when to exercise and the importance of rest and slowing down. Us warriors need to fine tune our output as our bodies need to keep some reserve and it's all about balance. Mind Body Green is a great site to bookmark as it has some fabulous experts sharing their knowledge.
Stay well today, and do what you need to do to look after YOU.
(Endo warriors can sign up for my Project Endo emails on the site and follow us on Facebook).
I cannot believe I have found you & your blog, I'm so happy I could cry !
ReplyDeleteIn December (having struggled with my health for at least the past 18months) I was diagnosed with endometriosis and in the same duration my running has got v poor to virtually non existent which I am so sad about :( . See to my surprise and amazement I took up running a few years ago (at the most unlikely time in my life) and I got ok at it (completed my first 5 & 10k's in 2011 - something I thought I could only ever do in my dreams) and I really love it, it's like a natural anti-depressant and so much more for me, it gave me so much.
Since my diagnosis and the more I have read the more I have feared that I am just going to get worse with this endometriosis and perhaps the running will just have to be a distant memory. I've been searching for other girls/women who have endometriosis but who can still run. I was looking for hope I think and I think I've found you. I'm so excited to be reading your blog. Hope to chat soon.
Many thanks, Jo :)