I’ve been complaining about joint pain and fatigue for years. I’ve had every blood test in the book. It seems I’m completely healthy. But I’d limp out of bed in the morning, head straight for the ibuprofen and pray that I could make it through the day. Some days were truly a challenge.

Last time I went to the doctor about this, I actually broke down and cried. I was too desperate to be embarassed. They put me on Cymbalta. It really helped after two weeks of hellish fatigue. I began to lose weight ( I had gained 35 pounds!) and feel energentic, less overwhelmed, etc. but Cymbalta is $40/month with insurance. I won’t have that insurance long as I will be self employed again in the near future. So I decided to use my burst of Cymbalta energy to find other answers and found this test online. It was extremely enlightening, as the test results are more like a chart than instruction on how to feel better. But I did see that I was “off the charts” for Candida Cluster. Huh? Also, it appeared as though I might have glucose intolerance. Hmmmmm.

That, of course drove me to more research and I found a lot of conflicting information. One thing I felt certain of, I had systemic candida overgrowth. The symptoms of which are often misdiagnosed as fibromialgia. I also learned that people who have had a lot of antibiotics and are glucose intolerant have created the perfect environment for harboring these voracious critters throughout the digestive tract. I was so happy to have an answer that rang true inside that I dove right in to the candida cleansing diet, which meant eliminating refined sugars and other foods from my diet entirely.

It’s very late, so I’ll write chapter II soon.

Technorati Tags: candida+overgrowth, self, care, systemic+candida, candid+albicans, fibromyalgia

Everyone knows that there’s a health care crisis going on in the United States. And just maybe we’re barking up the wrong tree to get it solved. I am certainly not comfortable putting my health and welfare in the hands of any government. It’s time to take back control and use the power of community to share resources, knowledge and stories that can help us all take better care of ourselves.

I’m getting a little older now, and it seems that issues continue to crop up every so often. I have yet to be satisfied that the treatment I am getting is the best for my body/mind. I have turned to friends, internet research and my own inner voice to help guide me to more effective answers than those I’ve been getting from the clinics I’ve tapped to little or no avail.

This blog is NOT meant to bash western medicine, the government or any individual who has misdiagnosed, mis-prescribed or have otherwise misled us on our path toward enhanced health and wellbeing. This blog is about solutions, resources, hope and sharing. In fact none but positive entries will make it onto the blog. My belief is that there are many doctors, PA’s, RN’s etc. that are just as frustrated with what has become of the care “business” and would love to participate in addressing issues in a more holistic way, using a broader group of resources than those available to the medical community.

All ideas for enhancing health and wellbeing are welcome here. We will hopefully have content about diet, exercise and meditation as well as overcoming pain and disease of all kinds.

I hope you will share and participate and that together we can create something that may benefit us all!

Keep coming back to watch the site grow and feel free to share your ideas about what you’d like to see here. This is an evolving project and your participation is essential to its success.

À votre santé!

Carolyn