Helen Beats Fibromyalgia and Shares Her Story

HeIen From Alabama Overcomes Fibromyalgia Working Personally With Dr. Murphree In A Get Healthy Program And Shares Her Story

I really had got to the point where I thought that I would never feel any better. I was having a lot of joint pain and stiffness, I couldn’t sleep at night, get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep at night. I had a headache almost every day. I would have a full-blown migraine, ended up in the ER a couple of times and had them give shots for it once or twice a year. That had been going on about the last 5 years.

After I met you and we went through all the testing, we found so many things that explained why I felt like I did.  You just gave me so much hope, you gave me the courage and the willpower to follow through your protocols. It’s just been unbelievable what success I’ve had, and I just can’t thank you enough. I’ve had 3 headaches in the last 6 months and I didn’t have to take anything for it. That was a life changer there.

Helen Beats Fibromyalgia and Shares Her Story

Helen:

I had really over the last 5-6 years had a lot of stress going on in my life. I’m a positive person so I just tried to ignore the fact that I felt so bad. I think I finally got feeling so bad, that I couldn’t ignore it any longer. I was having a lot of joint pain and stiffness, I couldn’t sleep at night, get maybe 2-3 hours of sleep at night. I was having trouble breathing.  I gained 4-5 pounds a year over the years and I just could not no matter what I did get that off. I felt like that was part of my problem but I just had so many other things going on … I was borderline with high blood pressure, I had some lumps come up on my thyroid and had to have those biopsied. They were benign.

They said my TSH levels were within normal. I was having a lot of lung issues and allergies. For the last 4 years, I had had pneumonia or flu or both every winter. I was a principal at school and it seemed like every time something went through the school, I had it. I knew my immune system was very low and I felt terrible all the time. I was a very active person and was always outdoors doing a lot of strenuous work, but I couldn’t do that anymore. I could do hardly anything but go to work and come home.

I really struggled and got pretty depressed about it. My husband was affected by it also. I was going to a massage therapist here in Coleman, a good friend of mine and she was telling me about her issues. She said maybe I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and told me about her going through your program. I talked to my husband about it and he said, “You think it will help? If it would help you at all, let’s do this.” With his support, I came down and met you and answered all those questions you asked. I was surprised at how in-depth that was.

The things you asked, I hadn’t even really thought about. It really made me see how serious it was, my health. After I met you and we went through all the testing, we found so many things that explained why I felt like I did.  You just gave me so much hope, you gave me the courage and the willpower to follow through your protocols … the foods I had to leave out and the diet I had to be on. It’s just been unbelievable what success I’ve had, and I just can’t thank you enough. It’s really made a difference. I turned 60 a couple of weeks ago, I have 3 daughters and 4 grandchildren … my children were asking me what’s it like being 60? I said it’s a whole lot better than being 50, because that’s the way I felt. I feel so much better now than I did during my 50s. That’s where I am now and where I’ve been.         

Dr. M:   One of the things that was such a welcome relief was to get rid of your headaches. Tell me about your headaches.

Helen:  I felt like it was it was allergies and sinuses. I had changed jobs, I had moved from one school to another. It was in an older building and I’d gone from a new school. I started having a lot of problems and I felt like it was mold other things like that. For the last couple of years, I’ve also felt stressed. I had a headache almost every day. Every other month, I would have a full-blown migraine, ended up in the ER a couple of times and had them give shots for it once or twice a year. That had been going on about the last 5 years. I really couldn’t remember, it was very few and far between when I would have days without a headache. It might be a headache I didn’t take anything for, it was just a dull headache that was there all day or it might be a headache that was so bad I’d have to leave school, come home and take something and go to bed.

I’ve had 3 headaches in the last 6 months and I didn’t have to take anything for it. That was a life changer there. The other thing that was so serious with me was joint pain and stiffness. If I sat down on my desk or on the couch at home for 15-20 minutes, when I started to get up I could hardly move. It would take me a while to limber back up and get going … that has completely gone, and I can’t believe it’s really gone.

Dr. M:   You had a lot of issues with your sleep. Your sleep is doing great now, right?

Helen:  Yes. I made excuses for everything. In my job, I dealt with a lot of children and parents. I always worried about my children, I’d bring it home and I’d lay awake till 1 or 2 in the morning. I’d go to bed with my husband, he would go right to sleep and I’d lay there. After about an hour, I’d come back to the living room and read or do something else. I would end up going back to bed maybe at 3, and having to get up at 5 to get ready and go to work. For months, maybe 2 nights a week I’d get some sleep but most of the time, it was 2-3 hours a night. Now I go to bed and honestly I’d say within 5-10 minutes, I feel sleepy and I sleep all night. I remember you asked me what did I want to get out of this? My reply was, I want to wake up feeling better than when I went to bed. When I would wake up in the morning, I would always feel worse than when I was going to bed.

Dr. M:   We found in testing that you had a problem with your thyroid that no one really picked up on. That really helped your metabolism and helped you lose weight, but it helped your energy tremendously I think.

Helen:  Yes, it’s made a world of difference. With my doctor I had found about the lumps in my thyroid, they said my thyroid function was within normal range and I said it was like below normal … you said that’s not normal until we get the other test. That made a big difference.

Dr. M:   You had a lot of success with the diet. Tell me about the diet for you, you did real well on the diet.

Helen:  Yeah. I had food allergies so we had to eliminate those foods. Then you put me on the anti-inflammatory diet because my liver function and adrenal function was low. By the time I cross-referenced those two diets, there was not a lot left. I love to cook and one of my daughters has done Paleo for years, but she went over some things with me and helped me. I’m a pretty creative cook, so I just found a way to eat what I could and enjoy it. I ate as much as I wanted to, as often as I wanted to and the weight was like a pound a day, half a pound a day … I felt like it was melting away and there was no stress about losing weight, because I wasn’t focusing on that. I was focusing on being better. Since September, I’ve lost 45 pounds and it’s a world of difference. My husband has always fussed about how many clothes I have, but I’ve kept all those clothes I had in my 30s and 40s. Now I’m dragging them back out and I’m wearing those clothes that I wore back then. 

Dr. M:   I always say it’s really not about the weight loss, it’s about getting healthy. In your case, that was part of it because fixing your thyroid and then finding these allergies, really once you made a change in your diet … like you said, it was pretty much effortless. I need to be careful how I say it, you certainly had to work to stay on the diet. But if you stayed on the diet, you saw that it just came off and that was because your metabolism was finally working like it was supposed to. You’re eating healthy for you because everybody’s different, and that’s why the testing is so important to find out what’s right for you. By doing that, you saw your energy go up and your pain go down so it was worth it.

Helen:  I’m off a couple of medications and my blood pressure is back to what it was when I was in my 30s. I’m not out of breath and I run up and down the stairs carrying my grandchildren around. My joint pain is gone, I’m exercising again, I’ve started reintroducing foods and I’m not having problems with the ones I’m on. Even though I’m introducing those foods back, I’m still maintaining my weight and it feels really good.  I have been strictly off sugar because that is something that really affects me. Kelly was talking earlier about feeling like you were full of inflammation, that’s what sugar does to me. Stevia is such a good product that I can really use that and be very creative. I’ve made ice cream, chocolate cake using brown rice, fiber and things like that … I’ve been very creative and I have a great variety of food. I’m just careful not to put in those things that cause me problems.

Dr. M:   You’re here in Alabama about an hour north of me. You actually came to the clinic and we got to meet, but most of our consults were by phone. I work with patients all over North America and most of my practice is buy phone. What was it like working with me and my staff by phone? What was that process like?

Helen:  I didn’t really think that I would want to because I felt like I can run down to Birmingham and see my daughter while I’m there. I have one daughter who lives in Birmingham and I just want to come in. but after I had come in a few times, I had things that I interfered so I couldn’t and I had to call in. after we had done this a few times, I was like wow I don’t have to dress up to go in and I don’t have to drive all that far. You’re just so calm and you take so much time, it’s easy for me to talk to you over the phone. Then you put Juno on and they’re just so wonderful, they take care of everything so it’s been wonderful communication. I couldn’t ask for any better communication by phone. It’s as good as it was in office. You kind of scold me that I don’t have to drive to Birmingham …

Dr. M:   Yeah. What would you like to share with those that are listening tonight or maybe will listen to a replay, that are maybe trying to decide if this is something that’s right for them? What would you like to share with them?

Helen:  I really had got to the point where I thought that I would never feel any better. I had good doctors but I didn’t really communicate well enough to them how bad I felt, I think. No one ever tried to figure out what was really going on, but I knew how I felt and I knew how bad I felt. I knew that I just couldn’t enjoy life the way I was living. I couldn’t do the things I wanted to do. I couldn’t enjoy my family, I couldn’t enjoy my work and it just consumed me how bad I felt. I had so many responsibilities to family, my mother and my mother in law, wanting to help with my grandchildren … when Robyn talked to me about her success, I saw it. I had been going to her for over 4 years and could see how it had helped her. She was like I felt, where she didn’t know if she could continue doing her job. I just took that and thought I’ve got to try this. I read the book and the more I read, the more I thought this is me.

Of course I didn’t have fibromyalgia, but I did have the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It so helped me to know that all of that was not just me being stressed. Stress probably caused a lot of it, but it just wasn’t about stress. I really had medical issues that needed to be dealt with. I will never be able to thank you enough … I have a science background, I started out as a science teacher so I studied the body and how the body works. I understood when I saw my test results, I really was having these problems. I would just encourage people, whatever you need to do to make it work because it can be treated, you do that. It’s just changed my life to a life I can enjoy, and I’m just so thankful for it.

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