FIbro

Getting relief from chronic pain

by Crystal Lucas

As the ache of pain has subsided in my life, both the chronic pain I have lived with and the fierce pain of a shattered heart, I am discovering a new person in my skin. One with drive and passion and a sense of adventure. A friend says let’s go and I say yes instead of “if I’m having a good day”. That in itself is amazing, but the why is even more amazing!

Back in December of 2018 while my world was crumbling I took a leap of faith and joined a gym. So outside my comfort zone that I didn’t know if I would continue, or if I would even accomplish much. I mean I still have fibromyalgia and there are still pain days, but I had to do something different. I couldn’t sit by on the sidelines of life anymore… Wondering… Dreaming… And hoping for something better to come along. I had to take control and do it! I had started taking CoreAo on the 31st of July, the infussion of anti inflammatory properties helped my body so much that it gave me movement back. So I was primed and ready to go. I also hired a personal trainer, and my first trainer was amazing, guiding me through motions that were completely new! Her schedule got busy as she entered a competition and I switched trainers. I opted to switch to my friend who also has been cupping me to help with problem areas. She is learning all about fibro in a very detailed way. Learning some of the insane ways that fibro reacts and what causes more inflammation and what to avoid. Let me tell you folks, don’t let fibro hold you stagnant. It’s the kiss of death. Moving hurts, doing to much hurts, being still hurts.

The start of the journey in healing

As I have progressed on this journey I have found that my emotional torment of an unfaithful husband who was controlling and manipulative contributed a good deal to my physical pain. It magnified how much pain I was in and how my body responded to pain on any level. The body has a natural fight or flight response and stress is a trigger for that response. However when you are living in a bad situation that maybe you mentally aren’t acknowledging your body still has the triggers and is storing the response which is then converted to pain.

When we start living more authentically and relieving the stress we find the pain starts to daminish. Pain receptors are tied to fascia, and fascia is our bodies first response in the fight or flight trigger. Fascia is a connective tissue that is throughout our bodies. In every person I know with fibromyalgia they have bound fascia. Bound fascia triggers pain.

As I have worked through emotional triggers, and worked on fixing my fascia, my inflammation through out my body and cleaned up my diet I am down to manageable pain levels. I have an average pain day of 2 on bad days and they are few and far between. I now am working out lifting weights building muscles, and working on my fascia every day. Not a day goes by that I don’t work on something with my body.

I’m down from a size 20 to a size 12/14. But even more importantly I’m feeling free. I’m free of pain, free of weight, and building muscle and feeling like a whole new me. I laugh easily now. I have more energy to do the fun things and less desire to be home bound. I love exploring and doing something new with my new found energy.

The knowledge I have gained combined with my coaching certifications are what is propelling me to help others in the kind of pain I lived with for to many years. If you suffer chronic pain and want a coach to help get you on track get in touch with me.

Healing isn’t linear

by Crystal Lucas

As a fibro warrior I am constantly tweaking my diet to see what I can change to improve my health.

I gave up gluten 3 years ago. As it turns out this was the best thing I could have done both for my health and my fitness goals. This picture shows the change clearly. The only thing in my diet or life that had changed at this point was the absence of gluten in my diet. Removing gluten was the first thing to reduce the puffiness. One of the biggest things I have found with fibro is inflammation chronically causes more pain. Gluten causes inflammation.

So the last few weeks I have been so busy working that I hadn’t remembered to order my supplements, the CoreAo, smart and balance spray I have been using. I’m even running low on my magnesium and my vitamin d. While most people would be in a panic I decided to hold off on ordering after the first week. I had two CoreAo stiks and 1 smart stik set aside so I could experiment some.

So it’s been about two weeks now without the CoreAo and while I am still functioning and not in drastic pain or worse flaring after working, going to the gym to work out, coming home and working on finishing projects I am noticing inflammation in areas. For example for the last two weeks I have had swelling that I thought was my knee. But it turns out it’s really coming from my hip, the hip keeps slipping forward, this causes the hamstring and the quad to over compensate working to hard and not properly. My personal trainer had given me stretches to do and things to balance it out but it wasn’t fixing the problem. The last two days I decided to go ahead and take my CoreAo and that with the stretches has finally reduced the swelling and the muscles are back to normal. No more pain and discomfort.

The smart I have held out longer. I know that I am functioning better but I can see the lack of focus and the bits of brain fog creeping in some days. Especially on days when I have to work a register and focus on money. Just one smart has already cleared the foggyness.

I am also using CBD oil and wanted to see if that alone would make a difference. I notice that it helps as well but alone it can not do the job of all the things happening in my body. It’s a good addition but not the only thing.

In the past two weeks I have noticed a difference in my sleep as well. I’m waking up more tired and needing to sleep longer.

So my experience tells me that the supplements are helping my body heal and I need to keep up with them.

Yes I am functioning but slowly noticing pain coming back and I am tired of living with any pain. Healing my body is my top priority and I’m getting there slowly.

If you suffer from chronic pain and want help getting a handle on your pain so that you can function more normally I am just a message away.

Fighting The Fibro Beast and Finding My Health

by Crystal Lucas

Over the years I have found myself feeling so badly that I often struggled to complete daily tasks.  The pain of fibro is never easy, and often debilitating.  I found every day chores like doing dishes or folding laundry exhausting and painful. In the last few years the pain was so frequent that I would have several flare days in a row. Days where I would spend in bed unable to even get up to do anything significant beyond going to the bathroom.  If I did anything that I enjoyed such as a short hike or even working on remodeling projects or crafts I would wind up down for two days in flare mode.  For someone who doesn’t understand chronic illness or what a flare day is I find it easiest to describe as the feeling of having a bad flu combined with feeling like someone is constantly sticking hot pokers into your body or rubbing you in glass all day.

As a mom and a wife it was devastating to not be able to do all I was accustomed to doing with my life. I was limited in everyway. If I pushed through on good days and did something fun with the kids or created something for them out of love I often found myself having to make up for it the next day or two or three. This is often referred to in the chronic illness community as The Spoon Theory. Where you only have so many spoons a day and you struggle to decide what has to be done each day and what can wait until another day, and on really good days you borrow spoons from tomorrow so that you can accomplish more.

Looking back I think some of the pain was deferred from the emotional pain of living with someone who played mental games with me for decades. Things I never noticed like the manipulation of guilt when I felt bad, or the barrage of questions about why I couldn’t do xyz and how it must be nice to lay around.  In public or around his friends it was always “She’s so great” or “She did all this herself” But behind closed doors it was always a different story.

I spent my lifetime taking care of kids, being their teacher, cooking cleaning and doing all things domestic. I paid all the bills and took care of all the errands. I managed a household on whatever budget he made and did it as gladly as anyone who loves their family. I found a job I could make a few extra dollars at selling candles. Then we moved across country and I let that business go because I didn’t have a car and was stuck at home. A few years down the road A friend convinces me to try this product that went on your nails. Part of fibro is having multiple chemical sensitivity, so I had given up using nail products. Jamberry offered a non toxic product I could use. I loved getting to have pretty nails again. So I jumped in and started selling this product. 2 years later and Jamberry was bought by a company called M.network. Their products were health related. I of course was hesitant to try but after reading testimonials from so many people about how it was helping them with similar health concerns I decided to give the anti-inflammatory antioxidant product called CoreAo a try. This little stik is mixed into water and drank. I bought one box and figured for 44.95 it wouldn’t break the bank and if it helped ease even some of my pain it was worth it. One week later and I realized I hadn’t had even one flare despite doing a million little things that ordinarily would have put me into flare mode. A month later and I was feeling stronger and more flexible.  Then Hurricane Florence happened and I had to evacuate with my kids our animals and two cars. Still no flare! Then we returned to find damage and mold had spread throughout the house. The damage was caused by a broken pipe not by flooding but the results were much the same. Two weeks of clean up and still no flares!

Stress is a huge trigger for fibromyalgia and living in a stress filled life has caused me to be in a constant flare mode cycle for more than 2 years. Removing my ex from my life helped but didn’t eliminate flare days. I had gone gluten free 3 years ago and that helped but didn’t eliminate flare days. For the first time in my adult life I am accomplishing tasks, feeling stronger and healthier and being able to do more. I have been using CoreAo for just 3 months now and it’s been a game changer in my world. I may still get sore and achy but nothing that a massage doesn’t help. I don’t struggle the day after I complete a task and I am able to function on a daily level! I know that my health is improving and I am able to complete tasks without feeling like I wrestled a giant for two days after the fact.

I have since introduced CoreAo to other’s that I know suffer with pain and inflammation.  Here are two testimonials from some new found loyal customers;

” After seeing how much improvement Crystal had with the CoreAo drinks I sent her a message! I was desperate for relief from my chronic pain and brain fog. I placed my order and within a few days I noticed I was already doing more, and feeling better. This has been life changing!” – Rachel

” CoreAo has given me my energy level back! I have energy well after dark which is unheard of for me. I don’t feel jittery or have any toxin releases after using it. I have had zero Neuro issues and feel great!” – Wendy

“I wanted to try CoreAo as I have 2 knees that need to be replaced and have arthritis in my back. I sit for long periods of time but have had to be on my feet a lot fixing up our place. My knees have still been bothering me but it’s not been crippling pain. I noticed a big difference when I stopped taking it. I didn’t realize how much it was helping my back!” -Meridith

 

CoreAO stock photo

The Journey Begins

by Crystal Lucas

My name is Crystal and I hope that you will join me in the telling of a tale full of woe and joy, as many good stories are. This story is my own Journey through what I thought was an average marriage, and now an average divorce.

I will share my laughter and my tears. As well as perhaps a few funny stories along the way.

In the beginning everything was as it should be, young couple deeply in love get married and start a family… Somewhere along the way we lost sight of who we were individually. I don’t even rightly know where his mask fell away and I started making excuses for his poor treatment of me. His lack of involvement with the kids, or his complete lack of communication on matters that are important in a marriage.

I went along raising my kids and doing the best I could trying to make a failing marriage work.  I ignored many of the red flags of a classic narcissist and attempted to keep life normal for my kids. We went on field trips alone and created co-op’s. The adventures we had alone, my 4 kids and I were amazing! Then I would come home and listen to verbal abuse or worse the silent treatment at night when I would come to bed.  I would internalize that it must be something I did, or worse wasn’t doing.  I see myself as a strong woman who has overcome a lot of adversity in my lifetime, I never saw myself as an abused wife. I didn’t see the mental abuse as abuse. I didn’t notice the gaslighting, or the million little ways he controlled my thinking. We always walked on egg shells trying to make sure to not set off the barrage of negative that would stream from him. The few good days in between all the bad made me believe that we were getting through and surely everyone must have hard times in a marriage.

In public and to friends and coworkers he always talked about how much he loved me, how great I was, how fantastic he thought it was that I stayed home with the kids and homeschooled them. He always talked about me to everyone else, just never to me. He didn’t want me he wanted a paper cut out puppet who did what made him look good.

I remember the first time I discovered his infidelity and I thought I must not be meeting his needs, that’s what we women are taught. If we don’t do enough for the man he will stray. It’s never about him and his insecurities or his lack of integrity, only about us and what we must not be doing for them. The truth is I went above and beyond in every aspect. I ignored my own health, the red flags and the constant decline of different areas of my body until it got to be so bad that I sought advice form my chiropractor. 8 years ago she told me I have every classic symptom of Fibromyalgia.  Fibro is a beast and there are so many different ways people suffer with this disease. I began reading. I tried to understand because at least that would give me an idea of what to expect. It made it worse. I felt bad physically and was emotionally so exhausted that I never had a moment’s peace. He did nothing to help, if I needed a massage he grudgingly would rub for a few minutes and then he would either want sex or roll over and say he was tired and was going to bed. He never attempted to lighten my load of “mom” work, or ease the daily struggle of homeschooling through the pain.

There are days I find myself angry at all I allowed in my life. I am working towards healing, towards forgiving. It’s a journey full of tears as well as new hopes and dreams, one I look forward to sharing with anyone who wants to read it.

I am learning to let go of my fears and embrace my new life. This summer I met my brother and we camped together. I was just starting on a journey that would make me feel like my old self, before fibro set in. I have had a life long fear of heights and I avoided doing things because of it. My brother helped convince me I could climb down this mountain to see this beautiful waterfall, Soco Falls. There were ropes to give you something to hold onto but the ground was slick. I was terrified but did it! I kept going. Each foot in front of the other, slowly until I was at the bottom. Standing there looking around I was in awe. I managed to climb down this mountain to see this beauty. During our camping trip we ventured to two other falls, each beautiful in their own way but none as monumental as this one.  This is my inspiration now, and the first picture on my blog is of this climb. I now know I can do anything, one step at a time and I hope to encourage you to do the same.

 

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton

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