An Integrative Medical Doctor
Bear with me here - I'm going to take you on a journey....
After experiencing a mild case of Covid-19 back in May of 2020 there were lingering side affects. Here's how it has played out:
May 16th:
Day 1 - Extreme fatigue, sleeping 12-hrs a day.
Day 2 - Extreme fatigue, bad bad headache (I don't get headaches), bad cough, difficulty breathing - couldn't walk from my bed to the kitchen without stopping to rest and get more "air", a sore throat and oddly enough my temperature dropped to 96.2.
Day 3 - Beginning to feel better, still tired, but no cough, headache gone,
Day 4 - Gallbladder became "majorly" inflamed. Unfortunately for me... I have this bad habit of tolerating pain and not getting help right away...sigh...
Day 18 - I finally contact the same surgeon that removed my appendix in 2018 and began the process of scheduling Gallbladder surgery.
Day 36 - June 29, 2020, Surgery was a success and the pain was gone.
So for 36 days - I just dealt with the GB pain thinking I could take care of it by being restrictive and ultra healthy with my diet. That somehow I could make the gallbladder well again....Nope.
Post surgery, the gallbladder was sent to the lab. No pathology. No stones. No sludge. Just an originally healthy gallbladder that had been inflamed for so long that it fused itself to my liver and was surrounded by scare tissue. Surgeon's comment: "I have never taken out a gallbladder so badly inflamed with no other pathology."
By the time I went for surgery I tested negative for COVID. The pre-surgery tests that I had were all negative. Yet, there was no other explanation as to why a healthy gallbladder would suddenly go south the day after COVID.
After a couple of weeks recovery from surgery, I was back to my normal routine of doing a 3 mile morning hike 5 days per week (mostly). Life was pretty normal. I felt good.
Then November 25th, 2020, fatigue returns. After a couple of weeks (again thinking it will just go away) I call my primary doctor and we run blood tests. Results? Perfect. Next he puts me on a heart monitor for 7 days. Results? Perfect. Next I order a Vitamin D test and it is on the low side of normal so I up my Vit D intake. No change.
Eight months post GB surgery and 9 months post COVID, the fatigue was not as bad as it was, but still I required a nap during the day and still had mild pain in my side, but not enough to break my stride. Then January 15, 2021 I am so fatigued that I went to bed at 7:30 pm and didn't wake up until 6:30 am. I slept for 11 hours straight - and still needed a nap that day!
So January 25th I'm back in front of my primary care physician complaining of the fatigue and chronic pain in my side. Ok!! This is REALLY getting old. His diagnosis was Fibromyalgia. He tells me that this is my new "Normal". The Brain now accepts chronic pain and fatigue as "Normal". I'm told it can only be treated by being on anti-depressants the rest of my life. By the way, I am NOT depressed. In addition, I will need to continually increase said Meds as time goes on....Say What?!?!?
Ok, um....NO!!. However, I did experiment and tried them for 3 days. Yes, I felt pretty good and the pain was gone. Odd that an antidepressant works that way, but they did. However, it did make me a little bit irritable...(Just ask my husband - 😊) Nonetheless, off I go searching for a permanent and more natural solution.
In the past with post surgery pain I learned that I absolutely cannot take opioid's due to an extreme reaction to them (that's a story for another time). So I would either tolerate the pain or if the pain was bad then I would use a CBD tincture at night which worked well. I also use a CBD oil when removing any skin cancers with the C-Herb which can also be very painful depending on the size and location. (I'm working on a book about that)
So, I visited the Medical Pharmacy and a formula was recommended. Five drops is all it takes; works like a charm and doesn't knock me out or make me "high", not addictive and does not have the horrific side affects like the opioids. In my book its a win/win.
However, it's expensive and the chronic pain and fatigue still needed a more permanent solution. On a recent visit to my awesome Chiropractor Dr. Godfrey, he recommended I go see Dr. Sabiha Pasha, M.D. because she has additional education in natural methods of helping the body to heal.
Okay, so long story...I'm sorry...I know, but I wanted you to understand how I got to this point. Dr. Pasha put me on a nutritional protocol specific for an inflammatory condition that she feels is a lingering side affect of COVID. Things are changing for the better. I am back to a normal 7 - 8 hours of nighttime sleep with no nap required during the day. Energy is getting back to normal and the pain is subsiding. I'm finally confident that I will beat this pain/fatigue thing for good!
Thank you for your patience and I hope something I have shared will be helpful to someone that may be reading this.
All the best to Y'all 💖