My Health, My Responsibility

I’ve been contacted by yet another person, fairly new (in the grand scheme) to the whole world of ME. After years of visiting various specialists in order to eliminate everything possible, they’re now on a waitlist that is FOUR FREAKING YEARS LONG simply to get into one of the two ME clinics.

Brutal!

Even then, the support will be extremely limited. I have seen the advice given out by this clinic. I was impressed and pleased beyond measure to see I had arrived at the exact same list of things on my own, through my own research.

I quickly learned in my health journey, that my health is MY responsibility and mine alone. Nobody cares about me or my health as much as I do. Nobody has as much to gain or lose as I do. As soon as my diagnosing doctor uttered the words, “There is nothing more we can do for you.”, I thought surely there has to be something that can be done. I knew I could not go on like that for the rest of my life and knew I could not accept his doom and gloom.

I am stubborn like that (so I’ve been told 😉 )

I had young kids at home that needed me and I figured any improvement was better than where I was. Reducing the severity of my symptoms was what l set out to do.

On that day, I took over control of me. I started researching for myself. I talked to other people who had my disease, paying special attention to those who had improved. I ignored and steered around people who called me “anti-science” and shot down my “alternative” (to them) methodologies. Today, I simply shut them down. The proof is in the pudding and there is an abundance of proof of how well these things worked.

Most people today don’t realize how sick I was, how hard I have worked, how hard I continue to work and how far I have come.

During that time though, life still went on. As I mentioned, I had kids at home. We were homeschooling and that needed to be continued. We’d just moved to a new province, we had bills to pay and mouths to feed.

We continued homeschooling. Many days from my bed but we continued on.

While I had started my business in my previous province, I had to start it all over again in my new province. I needed to learn the regulations, both for businesses and food handling. I needed to be a registered business and inspected kitchen, so that needed to be researched, complied with, applied for and inspected. I needed to search out new suppliers as well as new sales venues. I needed to update packaging, advertising materials, social media and my website.

This whole journey was never easy. Many days it was (or at least felt like) two hundred steps back and one forward. I did not give up though and today I am grateful I persevered. I am grateful I took charge of me, my health and my health plan. I am grateful I continued on with my business. I am grateful I continued on with homeschooling.

I had a fulfilling and successful business, working with chocolate – designing and creating many unique pieces (favours, centre-pieces, chocolate for everyday cravings). It was rewarding to work with people to make their events unique and stand out from others.

Homeschooling finished strong. The older two are in successful careers while the youngest is in the middle of this process.

My health, my responsibility. Absolutely. I am thankful I realized this!!