Looking for Support, this is my story.

Karliemyalgia
Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
in Motivation and Support
Hi everyone, my name is Karlie. :)
I am looking for supportive friends on MFP.
I wanted to share my story, albeit embarrassed to be sharing body pictures as I typically don't do that. But I've been exhibiting pre-diabetic symptoms encouraging me to make changes faster than I was intending. Please feel free to message or add me as a friend if you're on your own journey and a supportive person.

I am married and not looking for dudes trying to pick up.
I'm sorry I've got to say that but MFP feels like a pseudo dating site on some parts of it.

This here below is my story. If you are sensisitve to sad situations then continue with caution. However this is my life, these are my limitations as I have MFPDS that makes my movement very painful from morning to night and use modified aquatic exercise to facilitate my movement.
At 19 I was diagnosed with MFPDS (myofascial pain disorder) and fibromyalgia (a central nervous system dysfunction that causes the brain to interpret signals as pain, and heighten pain sensitivity). The combination of these two conditions has been detrimental to my life. I lost my ability to move without pain and do anything repetitive without risk of debilitating myself. I became suicidal and lost my familial support system as my father tried to attack me physically over a conversation about my diagnosed conditions.

I lost job after job, not before each one provided me another muscular injury as I now have chronic tendinitis in all extremities (elbows, wrists, ankles, knees, including individual fingers) as well as my face masseter muscles, so smiling, laughing, singing, eating, have all become pain inducing activities… because of all of this it became impossible for me to sustain work and had to file for bankruptcy to pay off my college that I never got to physically participate in because of my developing medical problems.

Over years of learning to cope I gained 50lbs. The strain on my body is evident and it is not healthy for me. I want to feel better and I know I can't give up. Yes it hurts, it always hurts and hurts more when I move but I must endure short term additional pain for better health. I'm 27 now and still learning my ever changing limitations that change from day to day but I am mentally prepared to get back to being healthy. I want to live well. Last year I quit smoking, this year I will become better.

I work closely with my doctor for my weight and medication and with a background college education in physical fitness and health I am cognizant of what I must do. A healthy weight for me is 120lbs. I am 179lbs. So I have 50lbs to go. Even 10lbs overweight can increase the load on your knees by 40%. My body is already struggling I should not be keeping this extra weight on and make it struggle more. I am ready to live better.

While I cannot exercise like I used to, and cannot exercise like normal people I have found using the pool to be extremely beneficial to me and I can exercise in there with little problems. So aside from trying to lead less of a sedentary lifestyle by regularly using the pool to help me move, I will be monitoring my eating habits, at this point especially sugar as I am exhibiting pre-diabetic symptoms which is no surprise to me really, it runs in my family AND I’ve been doing a very poor job of eating well, overindulging and being sedentary. I don’t need any more health problems. It hurts to move but it’ll hurt more if I don’t move atrophying is something I want to combat.

Anyway I wanted to share my story, I’m a little embarrassed to be honest to post alongside pictures of myself I typically use very good angles but this is the real deal and I appreciate all support for me in this endeavor. Please refrain from telling me not to change, from telling me my body is perfect, from trying to avoid insulting me by being disingenuous that is a huge detractor for my personal journey and does not do me and my health any good. Changes must happen and I am ready.

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Replies

  • amyn73
    amyn73 Posts: 241 Member
    I wish you the very best of luck. Dealing with chronic pain is very difficult. I hope that exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating might provide some other sort of health benefits and may possibly provide a key to some relief from your pain. Feel free to add me as a friend!
  • cathipa
    cathipa Posts: 2,991 Member
    Have you considered eliminating pro-inflammatory foods from your diet (i.e meat, dairy, eggs) and eating more whole food plant based meals? In addition to weight loss this may also help with your multiple medical conditions (or should at least not make them worse). Best of luck to you!
  • Une_Poire
    Une_Poire Posts: 58 Member
    Good luck to you, I'm glad you have found a form of exercise which works for you!
  • maureenkhilde
    maureenkhilde Posts: 849 Member
    I am so sorry to read all the burdens you are carrying. The thought of all that tendonitis blows my mind as I too have some, but compared to you a drop in a bucket.

    I am a full on type 2 diabetic. And what I have found that has helped me far and away the most. Is a low carb way of eating. I do not follow a Keto diet, as I do not go that low on carbs. But I have found for me staying away from white rice, flour, all pastas, and starchy vegetables has helped me control my blood sugars close to normal ranges. And at same time, seems to have assisted with some of the inflammation I was experiencing through out my body. I am not saying that would work the same for everyone.

    There is a Lower Carb Formum group here on MFP you may want to take a peak with all the posts and see if you think it would assist you.
    Even with low carb, it still all comes down to burning up more calories that we take in, the old CICO.

    If you do not have one, the single best thing that helps is buy a food scale, weigh everything you eat. It is amazing how much packages, and even measuring cups are really off for food and serving size. And many people log all of the food they eat as well. I know I do, and it has been a huge help.
  • Katmary71
    Katmary71 Posts: 7,082 Member
    Hi Karlie! I'm sorry for all you've been through, physical disabilities are tough to deal with and depression can be a real issue. Try to be gentle with yourself. I deal with chronic pain but it doesn't sound as bad as yours. Losing weight and increasing activity, while hard, has improved my mobility. I'm glad you're working out in the pool, it's a freeing place and feels so good to be able to move more in water, especially saltwater pools. As for pre-diabetes a lower carb diet is usually best to avoid sugar spikes. I got my diabetes A1C low enough to go off medication through weight loss, diet, and exercise and have had to up carbs as my blood sugar is too low. I wish you the best of luck!
  • Karliemyalgia
    Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
    amyn73 wrote: »
    I wish you the very best of luck. Dealing with chronic pain is very difficult. I hope that exercise, weight loss, and healthy eating might provide some other sort of health benefits and may possibly provide a key to some relief from your pain. Feel free to add me as a friend!

    Thank you for your well wishes, that is very kind of you. I definitely think that the weightloss, exercise and healthful eating will help make managing a lot of the difficult parts of these things. You're right on! Provide some relief, the body can't heal itself if I'm pumping it full of crap lol!! Thank you, I will add you :)
  • Karliemyalgia
    Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
    cathipa wrote: »
    Have you considered eliminating pro-inflammatory foods from your diet (i.e meat, dairy, eggs) and eating more whole food plant based meals? In addition to weight loss this may also help with your multiple medical conditions (or should at least not make them worse). Best of luck to you!

    Thank you! Yes I have talked with my rheumatologist about inflammatory foods, I struggle with that aspect. I will not be switching to any diet that is solely plant based, however she talked about grains and gluten being items that can be contributing to more inflammation. I think that at this point I am focusing on not over-eating and not indulging in junk food and keeping my sugar intake low before making any other big sweeping changes. If I make too many changes too fast I'm just going to relapse back into bad habits as has happened in the past. But definitely great suggestion, removing pro-inflammatory foods and bringing in more antioxidants and healthful choices :) Thank you!
  • Karliemyalgia
    Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
    Une_Poire wrote: »
    Good luck to you, I'm glad you have found a form of exercise which works for you!

    Thank you hun! It took many years of trying, failing, trying, becoming injured, trying again, injured, going past limits, injured, trying again, debilitated. It was very frustrating as I used to lift weights and do cardio no problems. Thankfully, as soon as I hit the water (with an aqua belt, my body cannot even consistently swim for me to feel comfortable with it) it was like a dream come true! Jump, twirl, dance, jog, tread without causing too much issue.
    I recommend to anyone struggling to find exercise that works for them because of pain, or too much load on the joints, that the water might just be their safe haven! The buoyancy is great.
  • Karliemyalgia
    Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
    maureenkhilde wrote: »
    I am so sorry to read all the burdens you are carrying. The thought of all that tendonitis blows my mind as I too have some, but compared to you a drop in a bucket.

    I am a full on type 2 diabetic. And what I have found that has helped me far and away the most. Is a low carb way of eating. I do not follow a Keto diet, as I do not go that low on carbs. But I have found for me staying away from white rice, flour, all pastas, and starchy vegetables has helped me control my blood sugars close to normal ranges. And at same time, seems to have assisted with some of the inflammation I was experiencing through out my body. I am not saying that would work the same for everyone.

    There is a Lower Carb Formum group here on MFP you may want to take a peak with all the posts and see if you think it would assist you.
    Even with low carb, it still all comes down to burning up more calories that we take in, the old CICO.

    If you do not have one, the single best thing that helps is buy a food scale, weigh everything you eat. It is amazing how much packages, and even measuring cups are really off for food and serving size. And many people log all of the food they eat as well. I know I do, and it has been a huge help.

    Thank you for all your great suggestions! You're very kind. I will definitely keep that in mind. I'm sorry for your struggles, it seems you've hopefully been able to keep your diabetes stable and reduce inflammation, that is great!! From what I understand Diabetes can be controlled quite well through proper diet and exercise. I hope the nip this in the bud to not become fully blown diabetic. Fingers crossed.

    I am not an advocate for the keto diet, as like you said you don't go that low on carbs. I think that's a good thing, since as I've learned in my health education before that carbohydrates are the only energy source for your brain. Carbs are broken down and the brain takes that energy. Lower carbs to me = Starving your brain. However I understand some people seem to thrive on it, so good on them I suppose!

    However cutting down on starchy carbohydrates and pasta is a great suggestion. It's going to be difficult adapting different meals and such to cook, as a creature of habit we frequently have similar meals each week. Which sometimes includes pasta.

    The food scale is a great suggestion, while I know of some nutritional information being off on the packages I never really thought about the actual servings of food inside of the package not matching up. I used to have a scale in the past but it never got used at all! Thanks for all your great suggestions :)
  • Karliemyalgia
    Karliemyalgia Posts: 146 Member
    Katmary71 wrote: »
    Hi Karlie! I'm sorry for all you've been through, physical disabilities are tough to deal with and depression can be a real issue. Try to be gentle with yourself. I deal with chronic pain but it doesn't sound as bad as yours. Losing weight and increasing activity, while hard, has improved my mobility. I'm glad you're working out in the pool, it's a freeing place and feels so good to be able to move more in water, especially saltwater pools. As for pre-diabetes a lower carb diet is usually best to avoid sugar spikes. I got my diabetes A1C low enough to go off medication through weight loss, diet, and exercise and have had to up carbs as my blood sugar is too low. I wish you the best of luck!

    Wow congratulations! I am glad you were able to come off the medication you were taking for your diabetes through healthy lifestyle habtis and weight loss! I will heed your advice about watching and lowering my carbohydrate intake to a certain degree. I intake (or at least, I would intake) a lot of sugary drinks 69grams of sugar multiple times a week in a single serving drink and not pay attention to my carb intake at all and essentially just ignore a bunch of the warning signs, but this is in my family and I am exhibiting these signs and I am going to take it seriously. I used to be healthy I want to be that again.

    And YES!! Exactly!! The pool is so freeing. It is great to actually be able to move without much consequence. While it spikes my pain, short term pain for long term gain is what I have to remember, and yes... to be gentle with myself. It's difficult to understand my limitations some days are a little more, some days are a little less, and overdoing it on one day can affect the rest of the week it's a constant balancing act. It took many years of trying, failing, trying, becoming injured, trying again, injured, going past limits, injured, trying again, debilitated. It was very frustrating as I used to lift weights and do cardio no problems. Even today still I am better with my limitations but there are days I end up overdoing it, or have too much fun doing something and causes me to overdo it (hah) frustrating.

    The depression was hard, fortunately I am stable enough that I was able to reduce my medication of Cymbalta from 60mg to 30mg and I am hoping in the year or two to come to be able to reduce it even more, or come completely off of it. Who knows what the future holds :) Thanks for all your kind words! I wish you well :smile:

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