Jenny is a medical doctor who has struggled with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Dysautonomia, and Sensory Sensitivities since 2018. She had to move back in with her parents so they could help care for her. Her symptoms were so severe that she was bedridden before discovering DNRS.
Over the first 5 months of practicing the exercises taught in DNRS, she provided updates in the Global Community Forum.
In her own words (lightly edited for length and clarity) here are Jenny’s updates on the trajectory of her recovery over 5 months.
What Started it All
I started getting symptoms in March 2018. It was a sudden onset of headache and severe fatigue. I figured it was due to a stressful life situation with full-time work and part-time studies at the same time.
I was able to continue working part time at 50% speed for about 6 months and then I had to move to another city for a new job. I started my new full-time job in December 2018 and that was when I totally crashed.
I was so fatigued I could not take care of simple things like cooking or cleaning my apartment. I had friends and family help me but I only got worse during the coming year and in December 2019 I had to move to my parents house to have more assistance.
Just Existing Was Exhausting
I got so sensitive to sounds I needed hearing protection most of the time and I struggled with cognitive stimuli like reading or watching television. I could barely take in any information at all. Any kind of physical exertion was more than I could tolerate, I had to use a chair to be able to take a shower because I could not stand up long enough. I lost 13 kg (29 pounds) in mostly muscle weight and I could not walk far enough to leave the house. I got a wheelchair to use if I had to leave the house for doctor’s appointments, but I could barely sit up long enough to use it.
I spent 75% of the day laying down resting and only managed to sit up for meals. I had dysautonomia leading to episodes of heart palpitations and tachycardia. I had a fluctuating low-grade fever and I developed Raynaud’s phenomenon (cold feet with following pain and inflammation). I got an increased thirst and developed a sensitivity to low blood sugar.
Worst of all, I had no energy at all and I could not tolerate any activities. Just existing was exhausting. I lost my whole active life and what was left of it was burning, feverish fatigue and trying to find anything that could help.
In July 2022, 4 years after the onset of illness, I finally got diagnosed with ME/CFS. But the doctors did not know how to treat me. Luckily by then, I had already started with DNRS and was recovering at an amazing speed.
Small Big Steps
The last weeks have offered so much progress and I am so grateful to know I am on the right path to recovery 🙏 I have challenged myself every day and been able to extend my walking distance by a couple of meters every other day. The distance is still quite short but it is doubled. And I know I can double it again and again until I am finally out hiking and trekking wherever I want again! This is such a wonderful insight. It is the biggest blessing and gift to know I have the tools to recover now.
I am slowly, one day at a time, adding small shores and different routines. Each step may seem small from the outside but I can feel the greatness of these little victories. They tell me my brain can relearn to handle activity again and I try to cherish every bit of it — every added meter to my daily walking distance, every social activity and household shore. Writing this first blog post is a kind of celebration. There was a time I never could have imagined progress like this and I am so excited to reclaim my life and be able to enjoy it like never before! 🥰
Sending love and trust and motivation to anyone reading this! Know that DNRS will change your brain and let you create the life you wish for and deserve 💖 One small big step at a time.
Dinner at my sister’s place
This weekend I visited my sister for the first time!! I can barely believe it. It was amazing. We had dinner and I stayed for hours. I can feel the old carefree, happy, social me slowly awakening again from somewhere deep down. Still dazed, but definitely coming back. It is beyond what I could have dreamed of just months ago.
DNRS is the thing. I am breaking boundaries every day and I am just stunned. There are so many “firsts” I can barely wait to experience again. And knowing they will be possible again makes me happier than words can say. It means I will get my life back. It means everything.
Annie’s response to Jenny’s update on the Global Community Forum.
My 3rd Month: Future Visualizations Are Coming True
I have made so much progress during the last week! I have had lots of sleep issues in the past. Just weeks ago the possibility of sleeping in the same room as someone else felt so far away. Now I spent my first night sleeping in the same bed as my boyfriend! 🥳 I also spent 4 days with him in our apartment, new record! I am so looking forward to being able to move in with him and have our own independent life (I have been living at my parents’ house for years since I fell ill).
What’s more, I not only spent some days there, I was more active than I would have thought possible! We even went out for dinner at a restaurant nearby! First time in in years that I have been to a restaurant and I felt so wonderful and alive 🥳 We also cooked together, talked all night and even built our first piece of IKEA furniture together 🤯
Life is coming back to me one bit at a time and I love it!! 🤩 What used to be far off future visualizations, like going to a restaurant and staying in our apartment doing normal activities together, now just happened for real. I am so grateful and so excited about everything good that will come out of this training, I am ready to start a new life at this second chance 🙏
Taking new steps into the unknown, letting my limbic system know she can trust me and is safe, is amazing and frightening at the same time. I feel like doing that jump gets easier and easier and I am so excited about every new conquest 🥳
Hitting 5 Months And I AM LIVING LIFE AGAIN!
Hi dear retrainers,
I haven’t checked in with you in a while for the best reason possible – I HAVE BEEN BUSY LIVING MY LIFE AGAIN!!! I started from zero, living with my parents as caregivers, not being able to leave their house or barely walk to the bathroom. But, these last 5 months have TOTALLY changed everything and DNRS has given me my life back.
I still have retraining to do, next steps for my incremental training will be traveling and then to address my work life, but for now I am still focused mostly on rebuilding my body. I have already gained many kilograms in muscle weight. All this is just a miracle I would never have believed was possible just 5 months ago.
I am tearing up now as I write this as I realize that I am one of those success stories like those I used to read. Recovery used to seem so far away – but now it is my reality in just 5 months of retraining. I am so grateful as one can be for getting to live life again, for getting to rebuild my body, my health, my life, my relationships. EVERYTHING I dreamed of for years and thought I might have lost for life is coming back and I am enjoying it to the fullest.
This truly is like rising from the dead, like getting a second chance at life. And this chance I am going to take the best possible care of!
List of WINS
Just to mention some of my wins last months, they are all HUGE (and I think that you are exactly the right people to know that 🙂
- I MOVED from my parents’ house into an apartment with my boyfriend and I TAKE CARE OF MYSELF!!! I cook, I clean, I go shopping, I do dishes, laundry – all those household chores I couldn’t do that left me depending on my parents are not even a big thing to do for me anymore!
- I have started EXERCISE! I literally go to the gym again, I go climbing, I go swimming and I take long walks – oh what a dream and joy it is to do this again! I could barely leave my bed 5 months ago and now this week I hit a new walking record of 10,000 steps in one day!!! I can barely believe it myself, it is nothing short of a MIRACLE! I am out exploring my new neighborhoods and the city and enjoying the spring sun, and I just LOVE life again! I just got my bicycle fixed and yesterday I went for a ride and I felt like I was flying, so amazingly, wonderfully free to go anywhere again!!
- I took up contact with friends that I have not even been able to call for years. Now they come to visit, we go out to restaurants, we talk. I even attended my best friend’s birthday party and stayed for hours socializing and playing billiards — and, of course, on this streak I am on now I even won the game! I feel so alive and I am back again – able to be the happy, energized friend I once used to be.
I still do my full hour of DNRS exercises every day and I keep practicing the 5 pillars on a daily basis. There is limbic system resistance every now and then to new activities or to unexpected things, but I always come out stronger for every incremental challenge. I feel like anything is possible again.
If you are where I was 5 months ago just know that everything is about to change and that DNRS works. All that you have to do is just to do the training and give it time and it will be oh so worth it!!!
These are some pictures of me RECLAIMING my life and loving it like never before!
Photos of Jenny reclaiming her life after 5 months of DNRS.
