Happy Holidays!

It's been a great holiday week together! 

We've been staying at Luke and Leanna's apartment while they are in Colorado. 

We've been staying busy going to the clinic almost everyday. 

We went to Waco to spent Christmas with my Grammie, aunt & uncle, cousins and a whole lot of my cousins' kiddos. It was a very merry time with family. 

We ate yummy Korean food last night at a fancy place called Il Song garden. It was a fun date night. 

Tyler is quite the runner now! He is very disciplined with his half marathon training. He has been running out at the clinic property while I have my treatments. He ran 7 miles today, which is about 22 laps around the looped road! I'm so proud of him. 

We've been invited to a poker party for New Year's Eve at Michele's house. Looking forward to saying adios to 2013. Bleh. What a year. 

I've really turned a corner with how much better I am doing. I've noticed a big change in my energy level and how much better my back is doing. I am no longer disabled. I can help carry in all of our stuff when we move from place to place. I can stand and have conversations without my back locking up. Up until today, I have only been able to walk a third of the way around the loop at the clinic. Today I walked a full lap! It's only ~.33 miles but it's still a huge milestone! My energy levels are exponentially greater. I can go and go all day. It's crazy to remember how horribly fatigued I used to be. I am able to travel, it was a big deal for me to make the trip to Waco! It's taken 3 months to get to this point! I take nothing for granted. I was filled with such gratitude to be able to take a 1/3 mile stroll with my Tomtom. There are so many little things I have been too sick to do for years now and I celebrate every little achievement on this road to wellness. 

I'm still detoxing. I still feel like I have a mild flu most of the time. I've had a flare up if headaches this week. I've had a couple nights of insomnia this week. I have pain and soreness in my ribs near my liver. It's all still bearable though. 

We are so grateful for all the support and generous Christmas presents from friends and family. I have my next hyberbaric treatment tomorrow!

Christmas fun with my cousins' kids:

Digging into some yummy kim chi pancake:

Too much food, lol:

Tyler cooling down after his 7 mi run today:

My fortune cookie fortune, very applicable!! Excited to ring in a new year full of positivity and gratitude!

A Miracle

Monday morning, I woke up with a whopper of a headache. The last time I had one of this magnitude was back in September. That headache in September, sent me to the ER and inspired my very first blog post, "Rock Bottom".

Normally when one of those freight train headaches hits, I am in panic. The pain is through the roof, I am pacing, screaming, crying, and banging my head into the wall, trying to interrupt the explosive pain. I scarf down as many drugs as I safely can, desperate to abort the headache. What always happens, is despite all the drugs, I wind up at urgent care or the ER.  Then they give me more drugs and send me home, incredibly hungover and woozy for 3 days. 

Yesterday was different. 

I got up and called Melissa and told her I was in bad shape. I did a coffee enema and took a magnesium bath before driving myself to the clinic. I don't know how I did those things in that much pain. 

When I got to the clinic, I had two colonics and four more coffee enemas. I took a lot of calcium, magnesium, omega oil and potassium. I rested in a dark room with Tomtom all afternoon. They took great care of me and never left me alone. I was terrified I would do something out of painful desperation to hurt myself. 

The headache was gone by 6pm. GONE. I stayed at the clinic for their Monday night meeting at 7 then drove myself home at 9. 

I still can't believe it. It is truly a miracle. They aborted my "unstoppable freight train" cluster headache with minerals, a supplement, enemas and colonics and a lot of faith. I did not take ANY headache medicine. I still can't believe that. 

Luke was standing by to come pick me up at any time and take me to urgent care. At any time, I could have popped a Maxalt or Vicodin or phenergan or Zomig or pentazocine or...... 

Though I was in horrible pain most of the day, something kept me there at the clinic, instead of giving in and going to urgent care. That same intuition kept me from reaching into my purse and begin desperately popping the pills. I have come this far, why would God abandon me now? 

I'm still trying to process what happened Monday. Normally the headache aftermath is full of deep depression and wondering why my life is worth living. This headache's aftermath is one of shock and astonishment. I am finally free. I feel like Edmond Dantes running around on the beach after tunneling out of Chateau d'If. I have been freed from the prison of pain, drugs and doctors. I'm no longer getting sicker and sicker but better. 

Thank you God. 

9 Weeks Done...bam.

I've completed 9 weeks of treatment today! BOOYAH. 

I have been feeling pretty good since Friday, so that's 4 good days in a row. Whoa. Can't believe it. 

I still have fatigue and pain but it's bearable, not excruciating. 

Something that helped me a lot was doing a hyperbaric oxygen treatment on Thursday. The treatment forces oxygen into all of your cells through increased pressure. It promotes healing and helps your body purge toxins and parasites. It took 2 hours and I was under 3 atmospheres (like scuba diving 66 feet under the surface) of pressure. I read and listened to music to pass the time. I plan on having a second session this Thursday. 

I am feeling more and more like myself. Since I am slowly gaining more "good days", I have able to do more things that I enjoy like read and watch movies. It's a very good sign that I am feeling bored more and more! It's a crazy feeling to start living again instead of just coping all of the time. 

I am so so grateful to the friends and family who had to talk me down numerous times over these past 9 hellish weeks. I wanted to quit so badly. I am so glad I didn't :)

I miss home. I miss Athens. I miss my hubby. I miss my Huckledoodle. I miss my friends. It's been hard to be away this festive time of year. Our 7th wedding anniversary is Monday. I hate that we will be apart for the first time on our anniversary. Very good news is Tyler's coming back here for Christmas on the 21st so we can celebrate then. I just keep telling myself, "This is temporary and this is so worth it."

I have been learning from Michele's book and the Monday night meetings at the clinic about how poisoning negative thoughts are. They poison our minds and our bodies. Negative thoughts are as detrimental to my health as the toxic metals I am detoxing! The physical pain literally increases when I entertain negative thoughts. You cannot put new wine into old wine skins (Matt 9:16), it will ruin both! I am changing, being made new and healthy and happy from the inside out, starting with my heart and brain.