Tik Tok To The Rescue…Again

It was just another day, doom scrolling (as you do). And a video of a woman popped up, where she was saying, “your body is telling you what you’re missing.” I almost scrolled away, assuming this was another if you crave carbs and pasta you have daddy issues situation, but I continued to watch.

She elaborated, “If you have this symptom, you’re likely deficient in this vitamin. This symptom is this vitamin, and these symptoms are this vitamin.”

Hey now, that’s the kind of information we’re looking for here. *like, save to favorites, check comments*

The top comment was “Ugh, of course you’re just selling something.” Well I for one actually want to know what she’s selling. I’m out here looking for anything that can help improve my quality of life. So I followed the link in her bio to this website:

https://go.enableyourhealing.com/program-info-dysautonomia

“What we find often is that patients are being treated for symptoms individually. It is important to note how much the medical community misunderstands [dysautonomia], but also how understandable it truly is. It usually takes the medical community up to 70 years to establish a treatment protocol for a condition, and this condition was only properly diagnosed in 1990.

So right now, even with a proper diagnosis of long-Covid, POTS or dysautonomia the available treatments don’t restore one back to full ability. It is not enough to simply increase your salt, rest, wear compression stockings or build up a conditioning exercise. We need to look at the body as a whole.”

Woah. There are options past simply attempting to manage symptoms??? The idea that POTS and dysautonomic conditions can be healed (not just survived), grabbed onto me. I read through all the information on their website multiple times, and signed up for the free waitlist phone call – what could it hurt?

I won’t go into all the ins and outs of my decision making process, but I will say this: I’m extremely sensitive to and wary of MLM type BS; the health gurus who have found the “magic bullet which cures everything”; and “holistic medicine” which isn’t backed by science or research (don’t, don’t drink borax, please. please). Everything that I found about this program, the conversations I had during the consultation phone calls, was surprisingly green flag after green flag.

Ultimately, I decided to register for the twelve week “Rebels Rising” program. It’s expensive, but both my husband and I felt that if there was any chance I could get myself back by doing this, it would be more than worth the money.

One friend, when I was describing the program to her said, “it sounds like you’ve joined a cult” – to which I responded “I would join an actual cult if it meant I could feel better.” And that’s what living with chronic illness for years does – it brings you to a point of desperation where you’ll try anything.

I just finished my second week in Rebels Rising, and already I’m seeing improvement in my symptoms (primarily the fatigue, brain fog, and depression). Two weeks of lifestyle and diet changes. Already this program has been worth every penny, and I am thanking the algorithm gods for bringing Mary Ruddick across my fyp.

I’ll get into more details of the program next time, but for now I really want you to enjoy the absolutely serious (and wildly absurd) things this “spiritual guru” said about carbs and dairy.

@thisismariyaofficial

If You are Craving Baked Goods or Dairy… #craving #cravings #spiritual #spirituality #spiritualtiktok #awareness

♬ original sound – Mariya

Tik Tok Diagnosed Me With POTS

Like I mentioned in my last post, the tik tok algorithm went from showing me videos about burnout, which I already knew I was struggling with, to increasingly bringing me videos about POTS.

“Things I didn’t know weren’t normal until I was diagnosed with POTS” (typically set to upbeat music with lots of head turning transitions)

• Passing out, or almost passing out, when you stand up
• Lightheadedness
• Exercise and heat intolerance
• Inability to stand for long periods of time
• FATIGUE like you wouldn’t believe
• Temperature dysregulation
• Blood pooling in legs
• Sweating too much or too little
• Heart palpitations
• ….and so on…. (it’s a very long list)

Each new video had me going, that sounds just like me.

One of the things I should mention: POTS stands for Postural Orthostatic Tachycardic Syndrome. The diagnostic criteria is an increase in heartrate, 30-40+ beats per minute, when a tilt table test is performed. (Stand up, heart go brrr.)

In an attempt to see what my heartrate was doing throughout the day, I wore my husband’s fitbit for a week. He checked the app on his phone one afternoon, and asked me “What were you doing a few hours ago when your heartrate shot from the 80s into the 130s?”

“I stood up off the couch.”

Yep, definitely sounds like POTS.

But knowing that POTS was an aspect of the chronic illness I was experiencing didn’t change anything. Even using the recommendations to increase salt/electrolytes and fluids and wear compression stockings were only making a marginal difference in my symptoms. I still could hardly get out of bed during the day, I was just too tired to manage. I couldn’t think through the mashed potatoes slogging through my brain (brain fog is too mild a term), had headaches and muscle pain, couldn’t stand or walk for more than a few minutes without getting winded and short of breath. I still had to hold on to a door frame or piece of furniture every time I stood up, vision blacked out and ears ringing, so I didn’t fall to the floor.

It was officially time to (*cue ominous music*)…………… go see a doctor.