I've had 6 treatments of 10 pass now and I'm waiting to see the effect of treatment number 6 over the next week. For the last 2 months since doing ozone therapy I've been living in a world I'd tried to stop hoping would ever happen.
I've gone from years (6 years continuously and 20 years on and off) of managing life in a mostly horizontal position. I'd got to a point where I felt OK as long as I didn't do anything physical or anything mentally simulating. I've tried countless things to get well but also tried to live life as best I could given that it was getting less and less likely I'd ever get well. I'd adapted my life to be good although I couldn't walk more than a few metres or sit up more than a few hours a day. I used to love long distance walking, and mountain climbing and gardening and swimming in the sea and dancing and lots more that I tried to forget about.
Now I'm able to walk further and further and cycle slowly for miles on the flat and be upright and look like a normal person. I can walk around shops and blend in with everyone else. I'd not been in a shop without my mobility scooter for years. I carried the shopping home in a bag, walking last week. I can walk through the school to my children's parents evenings like a normal parent. I can stand around chatting with people like an adult without having to be at 5 year old height on the scooter or sitting or lying on the ground like a lemon. Or leaving the room because I can't take the noise. I can walk side by side with my partner and alongside my children. I tried swimming four lengths today but that was too big a step and I paid for it. I think I could have done one length and still felt good though. I've got my eye on Castle Hill that's 2.1 miles and 653 feet above me. I think I'll walk there in another few treatments. I walked half that height and distance last week very slowly and was still normal at the end of it. With my partner who always wished I was the hill climbing type but stuck with my partner who always wished I was the hill climbing type but stuck with me even though I wasn't ever likely to join him.
I thought after the first treatment that maybe I wasn't one of the people who ozone would help. I just crashed in a four day ME crash and berated myself a bit for getting hopeful. But I talked to staff and they gave me hope that it'd be worth carrying on and by the third treatment I saw a noticeable improvement. And had the best holiday I think I've ever had in my life. We went to the Scottish summer hut we always go to but instead of sitting or lying outside the hut all the time with occasional trips to the beach where I can't actually walk any distance onto the sand, I walked to the sea. And across the sand when the tides were out.
And across rocks. And sat up in boats for hours and still felt good afterwards. And swam 5 strokes in the sea after figuring out my new limit. I got on a bike and cycled for 5 minutes on the flat.
I keep getting new ideas that I might be able to do again. I might go into the office and meet the people I work with in real life. I might take my daughter swimming. I might get well enough to go with my mum and sister on one of her long distance walks. I might be well enough for it to be worth going overseas on holiday with my partner and walking. I could go dancing. I am sanding the roof of our boat with my friend ready for painting.
I'm just very thankful that my partner bumped into a friend who'd had this treatment and got well. And I'm very thankful that when Dom and Nic got ill and found this treatment that they've set it up for others locally as affordably as possible. And I always have a really lovely time talking to Sarah who gives me the treatment and answers loads of my questions about it.
I might walk to the shop now and buy chocolate!
AMB