Topic: How many of you became sick at the peak of your physical fitness?
seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
How horribly depressing this thread is. I realized no one on here ever got their abilities back. It really makes me wonder why bother? Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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posted
I was absolutely in the best shape of my life when this happened. I was actually helping to train a couple of friends.
I did also have a period of high stress around the same time.
I sometimes think there was a perfect storm of stressors.
Posts: 322 | From Venice, CA | Registered: Sep 2008
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btmb03
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posted
Seekhelp - sorry you feel this is such a depressing thread, why do you suppose so many replies?
'Cause we're all looking for answers - many people can't run like they used to ..but they can walk, and shop, and [try] to enjoy life the best they can even at a different level.
Perhaps the reason we got sick (type A, driven,) is the very thing that keeps us going and staying positive..and perhaps in the future regaining *some* part of our past lives..not running marathons!! (figuratively speaking)
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Keebler
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Member # 12673
posted
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Rather than depressing, I see validation that caution is, indeed, required so that we don't cause further harm.
Yes, this can and will get better - but only if I learn more about how to take care of myself at this crook in the road and honor my body's need - whatever that is - even if I would rather be out on the hills, running free.
I no longer mind a stroll (or a ride) as long as I can escape my four walls.
Sometimes, working smarter - not necessarily harder - is called for regarding physical output if a body has some systems that have gone kapoot (sp?).
Although this requires more patience than I think I may have, if I fortify myself with information and shift my plans a bit, I still see a chance for a fulfilled life.
And, even amid all this, fulfillment might just still sneak up on me along the way.
posted
Keebler, Tabers, excellent posts, I hope everyone will be able to read your words of wisdom.
Tabers - a big congrats to you - wow, I've been to Mt. Washington and trust me it's no joke, ...patience is really a virtue in this illness, excellent advice!
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posted
Tabers, your post is heartening! Mt. Washington is a fabulous race, and it's great to hear that you're still running (even *racing*) it post-lyme diagnosis. Your words about patience are wise...we competitive athletes want results NOW - my LLMD always teases me about this.
-------------------- Increasingly ill over past 10 yrs; treating since October '08. Posts: 180 | From Philadelphia, PA | Registered: Oct 2008
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lymeHerx001
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Member # 6215
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quote:Originally posted by seekhelp: How horribly depressing this thread is. I realized no one on here ever got their abilities back. It really makes me wonder why bother?
Most of us feel the same way! I will tell you one thing, when I take doxy I become suicidal. Its because my brain swells.
Have you considered taking less abx?
Posts: 2905 | From New England | Registered: Sep 2004
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btmb03
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Don't want to speak for seekhelp but I believe he's not on an abx at the present time but I may be wrong.
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posted
I was at the gym 6 days a week-pilates, yoga, weights. I did this for about 10 months and then got sick even though I was infected 18 years prior.
Diana
Posts: 202 | From vancouver, canada | Registered: Jun 2005
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seekhelp
Frequent Contributor (5K+ posts)
Member # 15067
posted
I'm not on Abx. I just meant it's tough to hear how many have lost what they used to have on this board. Very few people here have stores like Tabers where they did what they used to. Most seem to be a shell of what they once were physically.
It's so damn frustrating a disease can steal it all away that no one even believes in. It makes us all look like nutcases to docs. It's not like AIDS, cancer, etc. where people have sympathy.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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lymeHerx001
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I am a shell!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I went to the gym yesterday and after I couldnt walk and had burning in my feet.
What gives?
Ive been living off ADVIL!!!!!!!!!!
Its either me or an bleeding ulcer. Somethings gotta give.
Posts: 2905 | From New England | Registered: Sep 2004
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Lymeorsomething
Frequent Contributor (1K+ posts)
Member # 16359
posted
I think that physically fit people push themselves even harder at times. Two years ago I was working, exercising, and finishing grad school and I came down with mono. Since then, I've never been the same. Lyme came out to play (I think).
-------------------- "Whatever can go wrong will go wrong." Posts: 2062 | From CT | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
I got bit and got sick when I was very active. I'd run my first (and so far, last) half marathon, and was gearing up to run a full marathon. I was rock climbing and backpacking almost every weekend. I felt stronger than I had since being a teenager. I also already took very good care of myself, eating well, etc. I don't know that there was a connection, but I wasn't a couch potato anyway. One effect tho - when I started feeling the lyme, I tried to run through it. I wonder if all that aerobic exercise helped it get into my brain, because I had neurological problems very quickly.
Posts: 227 | From Northern CA (bitten in Illinois) | Registered: Jan 2008
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posted
I've had Lyme, misdiagnosed, for 25 years. I contracted it when my daughter was in kindergarten. She turned 30 last year when I was finally diagnosed with Lyme.
Since they told me all that time it was fibromyalgia, and there was nothing they could do about it, I've always had the mentality that I'd have this illness for life, with no help.
Perhaps that has given me a unique perspective. It is human nature to want our lives to just go back to normal, for those who can remember what "normal" was.
However, I have found that there are great things to be learned from all circumstances.
I'll never run, but I am thankful I can walk.
In my 30s I spent almost a year critically ill with heart issues, that we now realize were probably Lyme related. I learned a great deal about nutrition while trying to stay alive. (cardiologist said it was all in my head)
During times you feel well, enjoy that beautiful feeling but try not to overdo.
When you are not feeling well, try doing a low energy activity that you love, even if you have to develop one. Read, write, paint, whatever gives you joy to make a bad day better.
I guess I'm just saying that our lives don't have to be everything we want in order to be a good life. I admit it would be nice to be in less pain, but I've learned to ignore it and get on with life.
Going to the gym and running marathons aren't the only things in life. If you can't do what you used to do, perhaps there is the gift of something new that will deeply enrich you.
Develop what you can do in whatever level you are at. There are great gifts waiting for you to unwrap them, and life is full of many beautiful things to try.
It's about management, and you can direct your thoughts and life in a direction that will provide enrichment every day, good or bad.
Having to slow down may mean that we'll see something wonderful we would have missed otherwise. Look for the silver lining, and you will find it.
-------------------- Wishing You Showers Of Blessings! Lyme since Fall 1983 = Diagnosed Summer 2008 IV Rocephin 7 weeks Stopped due to drug fever Now doxycycline "For I know the plans I have for you...plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11 Posts: 430 | From Sunny South | Registered: Jul 2008
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posted
I just wanted to add another reply counter to this thread and give some hope for people who'd like to regain their physical abilities.
Based on how my symptoms presented throughout college, I've narrowed down when I thought I was bit to most likely the second half of my sophomore year of college in 2000 though it could have been my junior year. I initially had a mono-like virus at the end of my sophomore year that persisted for several weeks, then junior year I started having ear infections which I hadn't had since childhood, and by early senior year I was having daily headaches.
I was much less physically active in the middle of college than I was throughout high school and had various other things that could have reduced my ability to fight off an infection (drinking a lot, a high amount of stress from various things particularly during my junior year, the typical college diet, etc.). I didn't have a sudden onset of the disease as many here did, but over-exertion through physical activity certainly didn't play a role for me getting sick.
Now, for the positive outlook. In 2005 I played basketball a bit early in the summer until I suddenly had awful lower back pain and was unable to play the rest of the summer as I was treated for and dealing with that. By 2006, that was fine, but the combination of fatigue, feeling ******, and increasingly bad leg pain prevented me from playing a single time and was depressing to me as I feigned responses as to why I couldn't ball on a given day.
However, by the start of 2007, I was feeling substantially better in regards to fatigue, reduced headaches, and overall feeling. This was also all prior to my lyme diagnosis and the result of my being on an extremely modified diet for a year (basically a candida diet while also being gluten-free and avoiding many other foods entirely at the time until I could tolerate them again in moderation), a mostly regular sleep schedule, and trying various supplements for periods of time with coq10, a multi, and probiotics being the mainstays.
In January 2007, I started going to the gym 2 days a week. The first few months were some relatively light cardio hoping to be ready to play ball in the summer of 2007 and sure enough, I was good to go and much quicker than I expected on the court when we started playing ball that summer.
I've now been playing 1.5 - 2 hours of fairly competitive full-court basketball once a week year-round for nearly two years since then. I feel it to varying extents the next day and consequently wouldn't want to do it more than once a week, but I'm able to do it at a high level most times I play. As for going to the gym, I still go once a week in addition to ball (or twice otherwise), and do push-ups on the side. I've slowly but steadily built up how much I lift and how much cardio I do over the past 2 years and while it's nothing too extensive by any means, I feel it's been instrumental in helping me overall.
I agree with not over-exerting (though I admittedly may do so at times with b-ball), but I recommend trying something small if and when you feel capable of doing so and building up slowly with a somewhat regular regiment if possible. And if you don't feel capable at the current time, don't force it but don't lose hope that that will always be the case.
Posts: 43 | From NJ | Registered: May 2007
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btmb03
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Charlie, Melody and others...just want to let you know your posts are being read, and what amazing lives you all have led...
It is heartening to see how some of you have gotten your lives back - Charlie, congrats on getting your aerobic abilities back but you are right in that it has to be in small steps...when the time is right.
Melody, you are so right that we *have* to find happiness at whatever stage we're at, although most of us would like to be able to work out fast and furiously as we used to. Perhaps this has been a rude wake-up call for us.
I do remember a doctor telling me that there is a greater prevalence of these illness in people in the "prime of their lives" as our vigorous immune systems sometimes work against us and launch a bigger-than-normal attack on..say bacteria/viruses, often it's our *own* bodies making and keeping us sick!!
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seekhelp
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Member # 15067
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Thank you for the other perspectives. Very nice and I appreciate them greatly.
Posts: 7545 | From The 5th Dimension - The Twilight Zone | Registered: Mar 2008
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