Don’t Give Up

The last six years have taught me to never give up. Progress might be slow, and it often may not feel like you are improving, but don’t give up.

This post is a little different than my normal recipe or kitchen tip post. Today, I am sharing a little bit about my health and the difficulties of the last six years.

It is more personal than I normally get, but I thought it was a good time to share a real-life update.

Back in October of 2010, I shared that after I started eating gluten-free in 2009, and my asthma was better under control, I was able to run for the first time in my life.

By 2011, I had finished the Couch to 5k program and had fallen in love with running.

I was never a marathon runner. I was more of a 5k runner. Four to five days a week, I ran 2 to 3 three miles. The most I ever ran was 4.4 miles. My body always did best at 10-12 miles total per week.

In 2019, I was in the best shape of my life.

My health was better, and running was such a great stress relief for me. I began to realize why people say they could run off a bad day.

Then, in February of 2020, I got really sick. Our whole family actually got incredibly sick. All five of us were sick for weeks. Several of us never fully overcame that sickness.

Looking back, we now know it was COVID.

I realize now that I never fully recovered from 2020. I thought much of how I was feeling was due to the stresses of life in 2020 and 2021 and also going through menopause, but I now know it was more than that.

In July of 2022, I got COVID again. Once I had a confirmed case of it and felt the exact same way I did in early 2020, we knew it was the same thing.

In September of 2022, I got COVID again. I then had it in March and September of 2023.

That means I had COVID four times in fifteen months. And all four times were awful.

My breathing tanked, and I had to take a huge amount of steroids and breathing treatments to keep my asthma and breathing under control.

On top of that, in 2022 and 2023, I started to have severe heart rate and blood pressure issues. My heart rate was often over 150 just walking around the house. It often spiked to over 170.

My blood pressure was running 70/52.

My primary care doctor could not believe I was not passing out.

Between my breathing issues, my low blood pressure, my high heart rate, and chronic pain and muscle issues, my body was a mess.

Plus, I kept getting all kinds of sicknesses. My immune system could not fight anything off.

After seeing multiple doctors and specialists, I was diagnosed with Long COVID and Autonomic Dysfunction.

Most days, I struggled to get basic life things done. I got out of breath walking around the house. My heart rate and breathing issues were definitely not in a place where I could exercise regularly beyond slow walking.

But I was determined not to give up. I knew I might never get back to how I was before I got COVID, but I was willing to try hard to at least improve as much as I could.

The Health Issues I Had Post-COVID

I have had asthma and allergies since I was a kid. I also had severe endometriosis and probably undisagnosed POTS pre-COVID, but post-COVID, my health was so much worse.

• My airway was damaged, and we could not get my asthma under control.
• I developed Autonomic Dysfunction that affected my blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar, and body temperature.
• I developed a rare allergy to Ibuprofen and any other NSAID.
• I became much more sensitive and had reactions to medication.
• I developed weird allergies to food that I never had before. I am now mildly allergic to chocolate, chicken, and a few other things. ( I had no idea you could do a regular allergy test for chocolate, but yes, you can do an allergy test for chocolate. After realizing that I felt bad after eating a lot of chocolate, my doctor tested for it.)
• Muscle pain and overall full-body pain.

What I Have Tried

Over the last few years, I have tried so many things to help my health issues, especially when it comes to my Autonomic Dysfunction and breathing issues.

The breathing issues just took time and medication. The medication helped, but I think it also just took time not getting sick for my airway to heal from the damage COVID caused.

I am not a doctor, and this is not medical advice. I just wanted to share a little bit about what I have been through the last six years and what worked for me. What worked for me may not work for everyone.

• I worked with a dietician on ways that I could change my diet, which would help my Autonomic Dysfunction. This included eating high protein.
• I worked with my doctor and dietician on supplements that would help some of the issues I was dealing with and help improve my immune system.
• I started taking large amounts of electrolytes and salt to help my Autonomic Dysfunction. I take water and electrolytes everywhere I go.
• I started working with a trainer to improve my leg strength. I think this made a big difference with my high heart rate and low blood pressure issues. Strengthening leg muscles is one of the things many recommend to improve circulation and help Autonomic Dysfunction, and it has helped me a lot.
• I started taking two medications for my Autonomic Dysfunction and one to help with the pain and muscle issues I developed post-COVID.
• I had acupuncture done. Which I honestly don’t think did much.
• I regularly get dry needling done by a physical therapist to help with my pain and muscle issues.
• I wear both an Apple Watch and an Oura ring to track my heart rate, sleep, and health. This has helped me know when I need to rest and when I can push myself to do more. It also helps me track what things affect my heart rate and sleep.
• I worked to improve sleep. I have never been a great sleeper, but the last few years, it has been worse. I knew sleep was important for health, so I really worked on a nighttime routine and supplements that helped improve my sleep.
• I walked when I felt well enough to. Sometimes this was just around our yard, sometimes it was down the street, and sometimes it was a mile or two on the treadmill. As I gained strength and my airway and heart rate improved, I slowly increased my walking, breaking it up so that I walked multiple times a day.

The Improvements That I Have Seen

Over the last year, I have finally seen some improvement in my health. Last summer, I could tell I was finally starting to feel better, and I was able to do more and start doing cardio for exercise again.

Over the winter, though, I had a bad flare and also a reaction to a medication. I lost most of the progress I had made over the summer.

Then, in February of this year, I saw a huge improvement in how I felt. It felt like all the time and money I had spent on overcoming this was paying off.

I was able to stop taking two of the medications that I was on, one for pain and one for my Autonomic Dysfunction.

In March, I finally started running again. And by running, I mean doing run-walks. I started by running a quarter-mile, walking half a mile, and running a quarter-mile.

I gradually built up to longer runs.

I ran 2 miles straight for the first time since 2019, a few weeks ago. On the weekends, my husband and I often do a four-mile walk-run, where I run around three miles of it.

I may never get back to my pre-2020 self, but I am finally feeling like I might overcome a lot of the Long COVID issues and live a more normal life again.

I have learned so many lessons over the last six years with all my health issues.

I have learned to be patient and not to give up.

I have been reminded that God is in control.

I have also been reminded that my worth is not in what I do or what I accomplish in a day.

I have also realized that getting healthy often feels like a full-time job that costs a lot of money. I have been blessed to have the resources and time for those things. I know not everyone has that.

And I have been reminded of how thankful I am for the online work that this site and From Our Bookshelf have given me. My very flexible, part-time online job has made the last few years so much easier.

I am very thankful for you and your patience over the last few years, as I have not shared as many recipes and tips as I used to. My plan is to get back to more regular posting and sharing over the next few months.

If you are going through something hard, I encourage you not to give up!