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Health Rising’s Recovering/Recovery Story Series Continues

Geoff’s Narration

The GIST

The Blog

 

Melody

Melody had been on oxygen for two and a half years before she found help.

Health Rising’s recent Recovery/Recovering Series continues with our first chronic fatigue syndrome/ fibromyalgia plus long-COVID recovering story. Getting sick early in the pandemic, Melody, a physician’s assistant, was hit hard: barely able to breath, she was hospitalized with double pneumonia, and told that her lungs like looked like cracked glass.

Melody was on oxygen and either bedbound or homebound for the next 2 1/2 years. She found her answer outside of the traditional medical establishment and reports she is now living a near normal life. Hers is the first Zoom recovering/recovery story for Health Rising (see below).

Talking with Melody about her ME/CFS/FM and Long-COVID Recovering/Recovery Story

Please note that there are things in the talk that are not in the blog and vice versa!

 

THE GIST

  • Melody was busy, busy just before she became ill. A physician assistant since the 90s, she was also a school board member of a large school district and had adopted 3 children, one of whom had a serious illness. She was busy indeed, and over time, her health started failing and the diagnoses started piling up in 2018 (Sjogren’s Syndrome, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS, hypertension, Vitamin D deficiency).
  • Her fatigue, she said, was enormous, but then came the big blow – COVID-19. Infected early in the pandemic, with her pulse oximeter readings dropped into the 70s, she ended up in the hospital where she found that she has double pneumonia, and that her lungs look like “cracked glass”.
  • She was diagnosed with POTS, hypoxia with oxygen dependence, serious brain fog, developed severe sleep apnea (2023), vertigo, multiple arthralgias (definitely COVID magnified x 1000), insomnia, heart palpitations, hand tremors, fractured ribs and spine, multiple herniated disks; headaches. Over time, her list of specialists grew to include regular visits to a pulmonologist, cardiologist, rheumatologist, and ophthalmologist. She was on 13 prescription drugs.
  • They provided little help, and after being bedbound for six months and homebound for 2 1/2 years and still on oxygen, she struck out on her own. After watching Lorrie Livingston’s Online Summit, hearing that “every chronic disease has a hidden infection inside it”, she takes Lorrie’s course.
  • She called a modified keto diet – which allows no fruit, no sugar (both of which she is told feed the parasites in her gut), no grains, nuts or seeds plus a product called “CellCore” (which requires a doctor to order it) to get at the parasites inside us the “rock stars” of Lorrie’s protocol. Within 4 days of being on the diet/CellCore protocol, evidence of a worm showed up in her poop. After that, they started pouring out. (The biggest one was 38 inches long.)
  • Within 3 months, her heart issues disappeared, and she was off oxygen. By six months, she was reading 3-4 books at a time and had dropped all 13 of her prescriptions. Her pain is now down to a 1-2 (out of 10) most of the time, she now gets 7+ hours a sleep a night at least 5 nights a week.
  • She also benefited from pacing (beditations – forced rest), nebulized hydrogen peroxide (infections), the ARC microcurrent device (healing), augmented NAC (oxidative stress), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) (calming), a grounding mat (sleep), vagus nerve stimulation with a tens unit (autonomic nervous and immune system regulation, red light therapy (mitochondrial enhancer), infrared sauna (detoxification, healing) and methylene blue (mitochondrial enhancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory). She suspects the methylene blue, in particular, may have helped her get off oxygen. (See the blog for links to blogs on some of these).
  • Melody reports that she leads a near normal life, is walking a lot but cannot engage in intensive exercise, and is still slowly improving. She requested that people with these illnesses, Please, please don’t give up. Fight for yourself. Find somebody. It may not be Lorrie. It may be somebody else, but find somebody that can help you, and will listen to you.
  • An interview with Lorrie on her story and approach is coming up.

 

Melody was busy, busy just before she became ill. A physician assistant since the 90s, she was also a school board member of a large school district and had adopted 3 children, one of whom had a serious illness. The stressors built up over time and the diagnoses started piling up. By 2018, she’d been diagnosed with Sjogren’s Syndrome, fibromyalgia, ME/CFS and hypertension.

Her fatigue, she said, was enormous, but the big blow came with COVID-19. Infected early in the pandemic, she ended up in the hospital with her pulse oximeter readings in the 70s, with double pneumonia, and her lungs looking like “cracked glass”.

Put on oxygen, she had a “respiratory code” triggered when she tried to stand up and walk around (but was never intubated). After three weeks, she went home on oxygen.

She was diagnosed with POTS, hypoxia with oxygen dependence, and serious brain fog; she developed severe sleep apnea (2023), vertigo, multiple arthralgias (definitely COVID magnified x 1000), insomnia, heart palpitations, hand tremors, fractured ribs and spine, multiple herniated disks and headaches. Over time, her list of specialists grew to include regular visits to a pulmonologist, cardiologist, rheumatologist, and ophthalmologist.

The oxygen kept her alive, but little else provided much help. Two years of hydroxychloroquine produced nothing but headaches, Toradol helped with sleep but not with pain, and Temazepam didn’t help with sleep (but may have helped with pain).

She was mostly bedbound for the first six months after COVID-19, was in enormous pain, frequently fell into walls (vertigo), and slept most of the day. Improving a bit, she went from sleeping most of the time to sleeping little, and remained homebound for the next 2 1/2 years. On disability and still dragging her oxygen canister around the house, she still couldn’t read and was in significant pain. When her rheumatologist – whom she respected a lot – made it clear that he had nothing more for her, she was devastated.

Unable to find help from the traditional medical establishment she saw a functional medicine doctor who told her (she’s a long-time vegetarian) he’d never seen anyone recover who didn’t eat meat. Reluctantly, she started to eat meat (and grows to love bacon!) and her joint swelling and pain lessened, but she was still on oxygen.

Something said (“every chronic disease has a hidden infection inside it”) during Lorrie Livingston’s Online Summit struck her, and she took Lorrie’s course. (Lorrie how has an online version of her course.) Check out how Lorrie’s Online Summit helped another ME/CFS patient, Patrick, with his recovery journey.)

The first thing she does is go on a stricter diet – Lorrie’s version of a modified keto diet – which allows no fruit, no sugar (both of which she is told feed the parasites in her gut), no grains, nuts or seeds. Plus, she takes a product called “CellCore” to get at the parasites, which Lorrie believes play an important role in these illnesses (CellCore requires that a physician request it). Within 4 days of being on the diet/Cell Core protocol, evidence popped out, so to speak, that something was happening – a worm showed up in her poop. After that, they started pouring out. (The biggest one was 38 inches long.)

It took time, but the approach started to work. Within 3 months, her heart issues disappeared, and she was off oxygen. By six months, she was reading 3-4 books at a time and had dropped all 13 of her prescriptions. Ten months later or so, her pain is now down to a 1-2 (out of 10) most of the time, and she now gets 7+ hours a sleep a night at least 5 nights a week. Melody reported that she leads a near normal life, is walking a lot but cannot engage in intensive exercise, and is still slowly improving.

Melody feels that the diet and CellCore were the “rock stars” of the protocol for her. She also benefited from pacing (beditations – forced rest), nebulized hydrogen peroxide (infections), the ARC microcurrent device (healing), augmented NAC (oxidative stress), Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) (calming), a grounding mat (sleep), vagus nerve stimulation with a tens unit (autonomic nervous and immune system regulation, red light therapy (mitochondrial enhancer), infrared sauna (detoxification, healing) and methylene blue (mitochondrial enhancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory). She suspects the methylene blue, in particular, may have helped her get off oxygen.

Check out some blogs on these topics. (A blog on red light therapy is coming up.)

Nebulized Hydrogen Peroxide – Harm or Help? An Inquiry

A Methylene Blue Boost? Could a Blue Dye Help with ME/CFS, Long COVID and Fibromyalgia?

Flo Stops the Leaks in Her Boat at Last: Her Long ME/CFS/FM Recovery Story

 

Melody requested that people with these illnesses:

“Please, please don’t give up. Fight for yourself. Find somebody. It may not be Lorrie. It may be somebody else, but find somebody that can help you, and will listen to you.”

An interview with Lorrie on her story and approach is coming up.

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