Many of you know I struggled with my health recently.
The struggle became real when I became seriously sick and was hospitalized for 9 days.
It wasn’t a Lupus flare. It was a serious condition called pancytopenia.
Pancytopenia is a condition where all three bloods cells, the white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets become low.
It’s also a condition that’s common with Lupus flares. So when my blood count was trending this way for weeks, my rheumatologist assumed I was having a Lupus flare.
But the problem was that I kept spiking a fever despite the medical interventions, and I kept feeling tired.
I tried to brush it off and mentally push through, but the fever kept persisting.
I ended up in the ER. They found I had a dangerously low white blood cell count, and so began my hospital stay.
They also verified that I had a staph infection in my blood with no white blood cells to protect and fight against the pathogen.
So started my antibiotics. It took 6 different types of antibiotics until my body finally began to respond.
Sick Care vs Health Care
I speak a lot about the state of healthcare today.
But I must say, from my ER doctor to the specialists who oversaw my sickness, this team did an amazing job.
They saved my life and I am so thankful for them.
I will be on antibiotics for weeks. It’s a necessary evil for my sickness and while I was unhappy about this, I knew it was exactly what I needed.
I was so sick and in pain that I couldn’t process what was happening.
To go from being healthy to sick so fast was super hard to adjust to.
Up to this point, my Lupus flares seemed so minor compared to what my body had to overcome in the last few weeks.
Limitations of Sick Care
I don’t think I was born with genetic advantage as I have a twin who is as healthy as they come.
I’ve always been a health nut, and my twin, not so much.
This is evidence that for me, I’ve always had to work to create health.
Typically, medical intervention is toxic and the Doctors don’t give you an after care plan. They get us from sick to stable and it’s on us to figure the rest out.
The problem is that after an event such as the one I just experienced, your body has weakened from the meds and infection.
It’s a great idea to incorporate Functional Medicine to make sure to follow up with a good lifestyle plan to fully recover from such trauma to the body.
Because if you leave your body to recover from an infection in such a way, it can trigger another symptom or disease process in such a way to affect your whole life.
And when you do have symptoms years after such events, in sick care medicine, they don’t really put the two together.
Rather, they treat the disease that the patient currently presents with.
Health is Wealth
I’ve never been so sick in my life. I got so close to a point where I felt I had to get my affairs in order in preparation for the worst case scenario.
The pain was excruciating and I was debilitated for days.
Many thoughts crossed my mind, and I’m sure it will take some time to process for me.
But what I can tell you is that we all tend to take health for granted.
So if you are reading this blog post, please don’t ignore the symptoms that you maybe having. Especially symptoms that have been bothering you for quite some time.
Health is something you must commit to creating.
I’m glad to be back in the office today and I hope to see all of you over the coming weeks.
Your One Stop Wellness Center
The inspiration for Alkaline Wellness Center comes from my personal health struggles.
I saw a gap between health care and sick care. I wanted to create a place where you can come and apply the Alkaline Method to help you live your healthiest life.
We’re more than a Yoga center. We believe in Mind Body Medicine and want to bridge the gap between health and sickness by showing you what to do daily to enable you to protect your health.
Life is fleeting. It’s so great to attend a class and breathe with intention, and to create room in your day for self care, self exploration, and introspection.
I’ll share more insights that maybe of benefit to you, but I wanted to personally thank you for taking the time to read this blog.
Come visit our center and try a class. In the least, I’d like to simply provide you with inspiration that triggers you to act.
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Talk to you soon.