ME, CFS, PVS & Fibromyalgia
Recovery Stories
BRB's - CFS Recovery Story (Lightning Process)
I spent three days in London in July 2008 with Russell and six other people. I had heard about Russell from a colleague who’s sister had spent most of the past two years in bed because of fatigue, unable to take care of her children. After three days in Wales with Russell, she had recovered from the disease and was back on her feet again. My colleague could not explain what had made her well, but she knew the three days had changed her sister, and that she could take care of herself and her family again.
Working in the academic world, I would normally look for scientific proof. I did not this time. I do trust my colleague and I had been on sick leave for a year, which means I would loose my wages if I didn’t manage to go back to work. I had surgery due to an old fracture in January. The pain prior to the operation forced me to almost a year on painkillers. I was always exhausted. After surgery I was going to physiotherapy three times a week. I had to rest in bed prior to and after the physio. I had to spend most of my time in bed on the days in between the physio. This was my life this spring.
My friends and colleagues would ask me if it was boring not doing anything all day. It was not boring. I did not have the energy for anything else. Some people would tell me that they were tired too. As I know tired, there is a huge gap between tired and exhaustion. It is almost like trying to compare a mosquito bite to surgery without painkillers.
I tried to talk to my physiotherapist and the hospital where I went for check-ups, about my exhaustion. They tended to look into the air, answering that they never heard of anything like this happening before. My g.p. said that I’d been working too much for a long time, and that the pain and surgery probably pushed me over an edge, and that I needed to rest and not push myself to anything that felt wrong for my body.
I felt so lucky that Russell allowed me to enter the course in London. As well as teaching the Lightning Process, he instructed us in other techniques including focused breathing exercises and acupressure tapping techniques. I found these to be very helpful and continue to find a benefit from them. The course itself is about half a day each day. I spent all my time during the rest of the day doing homework and exercises given to us by Russell. It was hard work. I needed to spend that time with this focus only, in order to get the reward I got. I could feel my energy coming back during my first day.
After coming home to Oslo, I had another week before starting to work. I spent it on practicing all I’d learned, and making LP, tapping and focused breathing a part of my daily living at home.
My friends tell me my voice sounds different and that I walk with more bounce than I did in years. I feel so grateful being able to do full time the work that I love doing. I’m so grateful that I had Russell as my coach, because I think he has a gift not only on how he presents his knowledge, but also because of his way of meeting the people he works with.
I’m so full of energy now, that I need to focus on not taking too much on. I’m back in aerobic-class at least two nights in the week and next week I’ll be starting learning a new language – the bella Italiano!
BRB - Oslo, Norway, September 2008.
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Based upon our findings, we have formulated a theory of sustained arousal in CFS, which seems to correspond quite neatly to the theoretical considerations underlying the Lightning Process.