Getting Well

Earlier this year I shared that I've been working with a naturopath in order to solve the mystery of why I wasn't really experiencing a high level of health/wellness even when I was putting forth a lot of effort to eat really well and exercise.  She had several observations and suggestions for me, all of which centered around the idea that my thyroid, adrenals, and parasympathetic nervous system needed a lot more support.  All of that made sense to me, so I got started on some Standard Process supplements (some thyroid support and some iodine and something else I can't remember right now), tried to follow the lifestyle suggestions for helping burnt-out adrenals to heal (everything from no sugar and no caffeine --easy because I don't caffeinate-- to no stress  --hahahaha-- and going to bed early and sleeping in til 9am --again double, triple, and quadruple HA to all of that).  She also suggested that I start going to a specific chiropractor that uses the activator method and has the type of thinking process and approach that she felt was going to really benefit me.

The kicker to the chiropractor was that he is an hour away from me.  And he is out-of-network for my insurance.  And he would want to see me multiple times a week for quite some time.

Can you hear my groans???

And of course, there is nobody else that does his special brand of what he does anywhere closer.  (only one other one in the state, in fact)

Well, I was told to do this in April.  But then we started taking some of our kids to brain training 5 days a week (2 hour minimum chunk of our day each time we go) I didn't think it was possible to fit in anything else.  But by the end of July I had decided that somewhere in all of this crazy, busy life, my health had to be supported as well.  After all, just about everything runs on Mom Power around here, in one way or another.  Looking toward the upcoming school year and many exciting but challenging possibilities for the year, I wanted to be experiencing a much higher degree of energy, health, and vitality.  So off to the new chiropractor I went.

It has now been probably 6 weeks or so since I began.  It has not been easy to scrape the time for this out of my schedule.  But you know what?  It's helping!!  My terrible lower back problems are fading off into the distance more and more each week.

I used to be just about crippled every time I would get out of bed in the morning.  It would take me about an hour of getting going in the morning before I felt like my back could do things like bend over to unload the dishwasher, bend over to tie my shoes, carry laundry, etc.  There have been times when I have wondered how I would even get myself and all the kids out of the house safely if there was ever a fire or emergency at night if my husband wasn't home.  (yes, these are the things I think about)

Now almost every day I wake up without any back pain or weakness.  I am regularly hauling around laundry right from the time I wake up, with no problems at all!  Not that I had big dreams of slinging laundry from dawn til dusk for my whole life, but it is really great to have so much more of my back strength working!

The other great thing is that I really think my parasympathetic nervous system thing is improving too.  I used to be tired a lot.  My body could not recover from exercise or exertion very well.  Where all the "other people" would exercise and then sing praises of their increased energy and wonderful mental clarity, I would never, ever get that.  I would just feel zapped, hungry, and needing a nap.  (I didn't have time to take the naps, mind you, I just wished I could!)  Exercise had become such a zapper for me, hijacking whatever energy I had for the entire day's supply, that eventually I just took exercise off my list because I couldn't spare the energy for it and still homeschool my boys and run the rest of my life as well!  (Yes, I gained back all the weight I had lost from all of my exercise diligence, but at least I didn't feel as awful and I could manage my life fairly well.)

Since getting into the chiropractic care, I have had one really interesting and consistent improvement, and that is that my body is waking up early almost every day.  I've not ever been an early riser by nature.  My default preference (if I could live like a teenager) would be to stay up late and sleep in every day.  Of course, The Life of Supermom cannot accomodate this option most of the time.  It has just been really, really, REALLY nice to have my body rest and then wake up and say, "OK, I'm good.  Let's go get some of this stuff done!" With all of the many, many things that I have going and that I'd like to have going, this is a big, big blessing!

I don't know if I can count on this early-riser thing to keep going, but I'm very pleased with it for what it has been.  See?  Today I woke up at 5:30, and now YOU get to read this blog post!  ;)