Following Up with Darlene’s Story About Beating Fibromyalgia

Transcription of Darlene and Kent’s Video Interview

Gina:                     I’m here with Darlene and her husband Kent. Darlene, if you will just tell me briefly how was your life before you met Dr. Murphree. Tell how about what a typical day was like for you.

Darlene:              Typical day, most of the time I woke up in the morning with fatigue, pain. Still got dressed, still went to work or what have you whether I was off work. I had pain all over my body, felt like a bear was squeezing the life out of me. It’s like you weigh a thousand pounds. It takes everything you can just to walk, just to take a shower and to get dressed. It was pretty miserable.

Gina:                    And what was it like for you?

Kent:                    Watching her barely able to get through life, hardly ever able to get through the day without having to lay down and take a nap for a while, it was pretty tough. It was hard watching her having to go through these things.

Gina:                    How did you find Dr. Murphree?

Darlene:              Actually on the internet and on Facebook. I visited it off and on for actually over 3 years, and I’d see it out of the corner of my eye and I’m like “yeah right.”

Gina:                     What made you decide to take that step? What made you decide?

Darlene:              One day I was able to pull up a video. I listened to it and it was late at night – 10ish, maybe 11, I listened to it and I was like “Oh wow”. I leaned out and I told my husband, I was like “I really think you need to listen to this man. I think he knows what he’s talking about.” So he listened to it and he’s like, “This doctor makes more sense than any doctor we’ve been to.” I’ve been to New Orleans, I’ve been here, I’ve been there. I got the book in and I read over 200 pages in 2 days. I have an eye injury and I can’t read a lot, and I was wiping my eye with tissue because it was pouring water. I just was so enthralled with what I was reading, and I knew he knew what he was talking about. I just kept reading and kept reading, and I’m like “Oh my gosh, I have to try this. I have to.”

Gina:                     What kind of work do you do?

Darlene:              I’m a hairdresser.

Gina:                     How did that affect your life every day at work?

Darlene:              When I first got this, of course I had 2 surgeries back to back. I had my ovaries out and within weeks, I started having upper body pain. My back was killing me, I couldn’t straighten my back up and my whole job is upper body. I constantly was hurting in my back and my arms. A lot of times, I’d have to cancel my day or my morning because I couldn’t get my arms up to cut hair. I just did it …

Gina:                     Forced yourself.

Darlene:              I had to force myself, yeah.

Gina:                     What was your weight like before you started your program?

Darlene:              It was yucky. I was puffy, very puffy. Honestly I’ve had fibromyalgia for 19 years and I didn’t know about the ‘fibro puffy.’ My face was very puffy, I was very puffy. I had acid reflux really bad. My stomach was very puffy. No matter what I did, I could lose 6-8 pounds but I put it right back on in 2 weeks. Foods, I could hardly eat … I definitely couldn’t eat healthy. Everything healthy hurt my stomach. I’m not like that now.

Gina:                     Your days now, tell me about that.

Darlene:              Where do I begin? I cry all the time, but I’m happy. I live life every day. I can get up, I get dressed. I can take a shower, shave my legs, wash my hair in less than 7 minutes. I haven’t been able to do that in over 10 years. I would skip a shower because if you don’t have fibromyalgia, you don’t understand the pain that would be involved in just trying to take a shower. I know this sounds crazy. You would think it would make you feel better; not us. You would think a shower refreshes you; not someone with fibromyalgia. It’s a nightmare to take a shower. Even now when I take a shower and I’m busy and I’m soaping up, I’m thinking … Without it you have no idea what that feels like, something so simple as a shower. I get up, I get my coffee, I start moving and planning my day. If I’m off, my day is planned. I’m constantly, “what can I do today, what can I do today?” I cannot believe what my life is like now, and I’m so grateful.

Gina:                     Kent, how has that affected your life having her back?

Kent:                     We went from … of course I can’t keep up. She’s got way more energy than I do. We went from never being able to plan anything to planning things weeks in advance. We’ve had this trip here planned for a month, which is crazy.

Darlene:              And it didn’t get cancelled because I didn’t feel good, or I couldn’t make it.

Kent:                     Right. It’s being able to plan things and actually being able to go do those things is great. We haven’t been able to do that in many years. It’s made a huge difference there.

Gina:                     That’s wonderful. How much weight would you say you lost during your program?

Darlene:              40 pounds, over 40 inches. You know the thing of it is I want people to understand something. It’s not about getting skinny, that’s not what this is about. This is about feeling better and not hurting all the time. When I first got fibromyalgia, I weighed a whole lot less than this and I hurt really bad, so it’s not about being skinny. It’s about learning to eat things that don’t hurt your body, it’s about nutrition, it’s about healing your body and getting it to work better. It’s not about “I want to be skinny.” If you have fibromyalgia, all you want is to live and to not have this pain and to be able to do things. Yes, losing the excess fat in my body helped to get the inflammation out so that I could start my process to healing. It’s very important that I did this diet. I think this diet was one of the most important things of this whole program, because that’s what got me kicked in, got my body started and got my body back to healing. Yes, the plus is that I’m slimmer and I feel better. I feel better about myself because I’m not this big puffy, miserable individual, but the ultimate thing is that the diet helped to heal me, helped to get my body back on the right track.

Gina:                     Kent lost a little weight too.

Darlene:              Yeah, he didn’t have a lot of choice. Yeah, he’s lost like 30 pounds, 40 pounds?

Kent:                     Closer to 40.

Gina:                     Yeah, benefits all round.

Kent:                     Absolutely.

Gina:                     That’s wonderful. We’re so happy that you were able to make the trip and come see us.

Darlene:              I would not have missed this.

Gina:                     Thank you for letting us record your experience. It’s been a pleasure.

Darlene:              You’re quite welcome. I thank you all every day of my life, for the things you’ve done to help. I know it’s ultimately left up to me and it’s ultimately left up to me from here on out. But yall’s guidance and your knowledge helped me get here so I thank you.

Gina:                     Thank you. We’ve been happy to be a part of it. I’ll say goodbye for now. Thank you.

Darlene:              You’re quite welcome, thank you all.

These patients and hundreds of others who’ve worked personally with me have in fact beaten their fibromyalgia. You can read or listen to their stories by clicking the link below: