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"Bouncing Back With Guai."
When I was 13 years old I took a fall off a horse. Head First! I was air
vacced from Benson Hospital to TMC in Tucson Arizona. I had a skull fracture
on the left side of my head with a “sub-dural hematoma” (bleeding inside of
my brain) the size of a 50-cent piece. The doctors were debating surgery,
but due to the fact that I did not show any symptoms, they chose to watch
and wait. I still do not remember any details of the accident. I only know
what I have been told by witnesses. I do know that I was riding DOUBLE on my
horse without a helmet (big mistake) with some friends from school. I woke
up in the hospital. I believe it is better that I do not remember the
accident. It is hard enough dealing with what I do remember. Five days
later, I was released to go home. I had a hearing problem and headaches for
months, but it seemed that I had miraculously come through without any
problems.
The following year was my freshman year at high school. That was when I
began to notice what I had lost. I had always been able to memorize plays
and long dramas, but when I went back to school I realized I could not do
this anymore. This was very difficult for me to handle since I already
struggled with dyslexia (learning disability). Being able to memorize had
allowed me to learn and compensate, but now this was a new battle. I
enrolled in my first Spanish class. I noticed that I was not able to learn
what the teacher was teaching and became very frustrated. I ended up having
to drop the class. I also noticed that I had developed a short fuse. Things
that did not bother me before really got on my nerves and I was easily
fatigued. I would come home at 3pm, sleep until dark, wake up, eat dinner
and return to bed. I had a terrible time waking up in the morning, would
miss the bus, and fall asleep during my classes. Then my life took an even
bigger turn.
I have identical twin brothers that are only 2 years older than me. One of
the twins accidently shot himself. I was in the house when this happened and
prayed helplessly as his life slipped away. My family was close and was
devastated by the loss. I stayed in school, but could not stay awake at all.
I slept on the bus, in all my classes, and could not wait to get home to my
bed. I found myself in class, lost, “almost like daydreaming”. I would come
to, when one of my friends would wave to make sure I was still on earth. I
would not have heard a word that ANYONE had said. I even noticed that in a
serious conversation or talking about something of my sincere interest, I
would blank out and when I would realize, I would not even know what they
had said or were even talking about.
I started having difficulty physically too, and when I exercised I would
shake really hard or get sick to my stomach. I was prone to passing out
easily when I stood up and when I would faint I would have seizures.
I had all sorts of tests that were all normal. I was treated for depression
and did not get better. I was sent back to the neurologist, who performed
some tests. Nothing showed up. He sent me to a cardiologist who diagnosed me
at the age of 15 with, “Neurocardiogenic Syncopy”. This means my resting
heart rate stayed around 36/min (beats per minute) and when I stood up from
a laying down position, my heart rate would shoot up to 170/min or sometimes
faster. This resulted in poor oxygen to my brain, which caused the fainting
and seizures. I was put on a very low dose of heart medicine to slow down my
heartbeat. It did help me. My heart would not race when I stood up, I would
not pass out, but I was still falling asleep.
I was finally sent for an EEG, where they found no seizure activity, but
inadvertently discovered that I was going into a REM sleep pattern unusually
fast which was abnormal. They scheduled me for a sleep study and diagnosed
me with narcolepsy at 16yrs of age. This is something that I was told had no
cure. You do not sleep correctly and so you never get sound sleep, making
you feel like you are always tired. Because your body is not sleeping
enough, you are always trying to make up for that sleep loss. This means you
are falling asleep even with your eyes OPEN. The more stress you are under,
the worse it gets.
So, I was put on another drug called Ritalin so I would not fall asleep
until I was in bed. Sometimes they prescribe this drug to hyperactive
children, but if you are not hyperactive, then it has the reverse affect on
you. This made me feel great! I was go go go until the med wore off in four
hours, then I felt even worse than before I had taken the pill. CRASH. I was
Up and down, Up and down, and extremely irritable. I did not want to be like
that, forever. Eventually, I was switched to a new drug called Provigil.
This was made specifically for narcolepsy. I did well on this combination of
heart medicine and Provigil 400mg. I was going to high school, attending
Pima Community College, and working at Robertson’s Horse Sales. I struggled
through and managed to graduate high school early, Salutatorian of my class.
After graduation, I continued pursuing my degree at Pima Community College,
where I continued to get straight A’s.
I was on all of these drugs until at 18 years I decided to get married. We
were planning to leave for Australia, where my husband would go to college,
and I would continue my education. There was one big problem, no insurance.
Being married caused me to be taken off my parent’s insurance plan. The
heart medicine was about $60.00 a month and the Provigil was around $230.00
a month. We could not afford that so I had to go off of all of the
medication. It felt like starting all over again because my problems came
back. Besides the dizziness, I noticed that I was not able to follow a
conversation. I had taken off one semester of college for the wedding. This
really worried me, if I could not follow a simple conversation, how could I
stay in college and listen through a whole lecture?
My mom was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in 2001. Before she was diagnosed, I
had been going with her to many doctors. Finally, they decided she had FMS.
Reading books on FMS and listening to the doctors speak with my mom, caused
us to realize that I have some similar symptoms. Fibromalgia is hereditary,
so we began to realized that many of my problems were actually a result of
the FMS and not necessarily due to my head injury.
I love my mom, she is my best friend, but I do not want to go through the
pain and many other awful symptoms of FMS that she has!!! I was in denial.
With all my other problems, I did not want to add one more, especially such
a dreadful one as fybromyalgia.
One of my mom’s worst symptom is “fibrofog”, so she was getting where she
was unable to concentrate well enough to drive. One day I took my mom to Dr.
Penniston’s office for a mapping. He and his staff were very helpful and
explained about guaifenesen and how it reverses FM. While we were in the
office my mom “told on me”, that she thought I had FMS. Dr. Penniston
checked me also and found that I had the FMS, too.
Guaifenesin is so inexpensive I decided to try it because I could afford it.
More than any other reason that is why I began the protocol. I have been on
guai for five months, 200mg morning and night. It has helped me
dramatically. I did go back to school, where I am taking four full time
classes. My mind has cleared up. I can follow my professor’s lectures, I
drive myself from Benson to Tucson, and even get up at 5am to go to class.
My heart does not go into a beating rampage whenever I move or even when I
exercise. My depression has lifted and I am much less irritable. I know guai
is safe over a long period of time, so my liver will not be shot when I am
older. I plan to have children in the future and I know that it will not
give any of my children birth defects. It seems so wonderful that I only
have to take this one medication with no side effects.
I still have to come right home after class and take about an hour nap,
sometimes longer. There has been some minor lifestyle changes. You have to
stay away from all salicylates, which are aspirin and plant products. A lot
of makeups, body lotions, and soaps have them in it. That was the biggest
problem, giving up all my sweet smelling soaps and changing makeup, but
there are a lot of products that you can use. Most of the products that you
can use are very inexpensive, and it was fun picking out all new makeup.
Explaining it to my friends was not that great, but when I gave them the
stuff I could not use anymore, they did not complain. You quickly learn what
you can and cannot use, and reading the ingredients becomes second nature,
and now I don’t even realize I do it.
I am no where near as bad as my mom is, but because I am starting now and
already getting better I won’t have to suffer the way she did. I love my mom
but I sure do not want to feel bad like she has. It is so incredible to have
my mind and life back, I can hardly believe it.
Megan Oros
October 22, 2002
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