This started as an instagram post, but got a little too long and so I’ve decided to turn it into a Blog!
I talk a lot about how I help others recover from their fatigue health challenges, but haven’t shared much about my own recovery lately. So here’s a bit of a story…
I was diagnosed with ME/CFS in 2010, but it clearly started the year before (and I suspect I was starting to ‘slide’ into it over months/years prior to that). I won’t go too much into my journey - check out my ’About me’ page if you want to find out more! But let’s just say it wasn’t much fun for a few years.
I’d met my boyfriend (now my husband!) a year before I was diagnosed and was very keen not to lose him! I knew he was a keeper. And I’ve talked a bit about the fact that he was the thing that motivated me the most to do all I could to recover. And so although I was effectively housebound for a considerable time, and very restricted in what I could do for the first years of my journey, we’d daydream and plan the things we’d do when I was better. It really helped us to feel as we’d have a great life together - I wanted him to feel that life would be bloomin’ exciting once I was back and that it was worth him sticking around!
In 2015 Pete came into a bit of money when the internet startup that he had formed with two of his university friends back in the 90’s (the 90’s!) bought him out. (The business is still going and is called www.Ents24.com if you want to check it out - use them to buy your entertainment tickets, folks!)
We’d talked about buying a place abroad in our retirement - we love travelling (and being warm) and this felt like a fun plan for our later years. However, as my health journey progressed we realised that life is for living NOW! And that we shouldn’t put things off, we should do them when we can. So Pete used his modest windfall to buy a little casa in Spain. It’s only a small little townhouse but we love it!
Back in 2015 when we first started visiting Spain, I was two years from considering myself fully back. I had a good semblance of my life back, but it was far from ‘right’. I could walk fairly good distances, but I remember clearly that the 3km walk to our local resort and back seemed an impossible task. Over those final months and years of my journey, though, my level of wellness started to return at a lovely pace and I realised that I could walk further and further. And in 2017 I was so thrilled the first time we both walked down to the beach and enjoyed a vino tinto on the seafront.
(blog continues below this photo!)
The picture I’m sharing here is of the pool in our little complex. It’s around 12 metres long. I remember very clearly that the first time I used it I’d swim no further than a couple of very slow lengths. And I’d often experience post exertional malaise as a result. Swimming really didn’t seem to work very well for me!
This morning, I swam 50 lengths in it.
I will never stop being grateful to have my health back. To be able to exercise, to be able to be spontaneous! And to be able to travel and live life to the full again. Pete and I have fulfilled many of those daydreams that we’d plan in the early stages of my journey - in 2018 we spent three months travelling around the world…an absolute pipe dream back in 2010!! And we do what we can to keep ourselves healthy and fit.
I’ve learned so much from my health journey, and still know when I need to take it easy. There are often nights when I’m in bed by 9pm! Not because I *have* to, but because I have no other plans and having an early night every now and then keeps my whole system nicely rested and resilient. I still give enough thought to ‘pacing’ my days and weeks, and do what I can to stay calm and positive even when life’s throwing me curve balls!
And now I’m helping others achieve their ‘life rescues’ too. I get such joy from supporting and guiding people who are feeling as lost, scared and bewildered as I was back in those early months. And by guiding them towards the most helpful approaches as quickly as possible, I often help them reduce their journey by a considerable amount of time. After all, many of us spend those first months or years wasting a LOT of time due to not having a clue as to what to do.
My recovery journey didn’t involve any extreme treatments or approaches - it was mainly about pacing, mindset management, healthy eating - and a few helpful alternative therapies along the way, such as reflexology and craniosacral work. I figured out what worked for me, eventually, and then it was a case of sticking to that every single day until I didn’t need to anymore.
It really is possible to get back to a good semblance of life - and many, many people manage a complete recovery. You just might need a bit of help, and I do what I can to provide that. My Four Week Fatigue Rescue programme is one of the most accessible fatigue programmes out there (£175). I could price it much higher but I keep it at this level because I want everyone to be able to access my help. Not everyone has the funds to commit to 1:1 coaching, and I want to help as many people as I can.
I’m forever grateful to be back and doing what I do every single day. Let me know if you want me to help you achieve the same?
Take care,
Pamela
www.pamelarose.co.uk