Paul: Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, Fibromyalgia, and Multiple Chemical Sensitivities

https://youtu.be/h2HE876X5D8— Talking really badly. Full-time mask. Only time I left my house was to go to a doctor’s appointment.
I mean, I tried to go out…but my symptoms, you know, I literally have to wash down. My face is burning, my skin is burning. I literally slept on either packs of ice, ice cubes all night because my neck and my shoulders were so messed up.
I’m on Tylenol three’s with coating. I’m on Fiorinal.
I had no energy. I didn’t want to do anything. I didn’t have the energy to help my wife clean up around the house. I didn’t have the energy to cut the grass. To go upstairs because I’m tired and lay down for a nap on a Friday morning and wake up three to four days later.
My job was my career– I built houses. So,a big Reno job in ‘84. My episode started four months after that. I didn’t know any better. Kept building and building and building, not only for other people, but every two years we built a new house. And had no idea what VOCs were off-gassing…mold. All the windows are closed. All the doors. There’s no ventilation, there’s no fresh air blowing through. Two days before I moved in, all the oak trim was stained. And I mean, you walk in, that’s a smell, that’s a strong smell. Didn’t bother any of us.
My kids are sleeping in brand new beds, brand new carpet. The stain is still off-gassing. I had no idea. I was in a car accident in 2003–major whiplash, blew my shoulder out.
Unfortunately, it was my left shoulder and that’s my hammer hand. So, three years later, I still couldn’t swing a hammer.
Everybody starts with their family doctor. No idea. So then the search starts: chiropractor, naturopath, homeopath, any old path. The wrong path. Allergy specialists, you know, driving to these big cities, going to acupuncturists, taking ginger to calm down the gastro, primrose oil. And the list just goes on and on from vitamin B12’s to vitamin B12 IV’s, sauna therapy and infrared then it’s sweating, detox, everybody talked about liver detox. 25, 26 doctors later. Almost $600,000 give or take. It’s pretty close. And over fourteen years. It’s crazy what you’ll do and how much you’ll spend to get better. What pills you’ll take, what things you’ll try.
Decided I’m not finding anything on Google. So I’ll try YouTube. Type in ‘multiple chemical sensitivities’.
Up it comes. Pictures, faces, people, DNRS systems. Right below it was Kevin’s testimony and then below it was another lady and then another one. So I just clicked on Kevin’s and I’m sitting there watching it. And Sydney’s sitting right there and I’m watching it and I’m going this is me. This really clicked when up came brain injury. Uh, it’s a trauma to your brain.
It’s not your head. In a way it is. It’s in your brain and your brain controls everything. On the drive down there, I was a passenger, my daughter was driving me down and dropping me off and I mean, if you can be excited and kind of nervous at the same time. Being in a group was a little leery at first. It was kind of unique in that you’re excited and I’m looking at all the people’s faces and then just there’s some really you can feel the lostness. Not.. I don’t know with sadness, but lost. But once you get into it and you start meeting the people and realizing they’re coming from the same place you came from and everybody just there’s no judgment. Everybody’s just open to everybody else and sharing and supporting already like instantly. And it just carried on, day and day and day and it got better and better and better. I mean, it started out the course, I can remember waking up happy. I’m not tired like I have been. My muscles want to go. The energy is just off the charts. So the very last day everybody is sitting there and I’m sitting in my chair and I’m scanning everybody and I’m looking across at everybody’s face and I am seeing I told my wife this because it just blew me away. I’m seeing this go to this or this without even talking about anything. The joy was coming out. People were seeing, right? And the support you can feel. But the faces. I mean, I get the eyes, the smiles, the body language. It wasn’t this. It was everybody was up and and into it and smiling and excited and uh, it really, really it hits you because the change is five days. It’s a cool moment. It’s, I’m growing so fast. I can’t even believe myself. I mean, I am, but I can’t get.. it’s hard sometimes to get a handle on it. I mean,
Well, the other morning I woke up, I’ve been home what, three days. And I jumped out of bed and it was… I came downstairs and I’m down here and I’m kind of walking around and then II said to my wife Sydney, I said, this is crazy.
It didn’t even click. Because what do you mean? I said, I didn’t put my slippers on at the bottom of the stairs when I got on the tile. I don’t have my slippers on. I’ve been wearing slippers for seven years because of the pain in my feet on the cold tile.
I don’t know what it is. Arthritis. I don’t have that. I’ve been walking around for two days now without my shoes on and it’s…I didn’t have to do my daily routine before I get out of bed, which is to adjust my lower back and I have uh, my hips. I always have to pop them and adjust them and stretch. I didn’t do that. So that’s two things just in one morning.
I’m smiling. So, I go and fill up with gas. I said to my wife, you stay in the truck. I’m doing it this time, for the first time. I’m not even going to see which direction the wind’s blowing. And I did it. I did it. It’s unbelievable to experience this and uh, I’m dreaming again. I want to say there’s, you know, the search is over. I’m living proof to be smiling, to be happy, to be excited. What I felt when I found this was beyond what I thought I could feel then where I’ve come in
nine days, five days at the course, four days home is uh, life changing. It’s amazing. I wish I could go back all the way around the clock and all the doctors and go back, back, back, rewind back to the first thing and find this on YouTube and say there it is. It would save a whole lot of time, suffering, money. This is if I can say it, Annie Hopper. You gave me my life back. Thank you.