From bedridden with ME/CFS (PVFS) to fully recovered

Eleanor's recovery from bedridden with  Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) / PVFS using ANS REWIRE  Transcript:

Eleanor's experience with post viral illness

Eleanor: Hi there, this is a message for anyone that's considering doing the ANS REWIRE course. I just want to tell you a bit about my experience of ME/CFS and, how amazing the program was for me in recovering my health and, revolutionizing so many aspects of my life. So, yeah. So my name's Elena, and I grew up in the UK, but I currently live in Nairobi, Kenya.

And when I first moved out here, I was working in development, mainly in Somalia, in governance and peace building. And after that, I set up an artisan jewellery company with my sister. And I am currently working on a musical and a writing project. So, yeah, quite diverse background. So, I first started noticing there was something wrong with my health back in 2007.

 It was following a viral episode. My immune system just seemed to be compromised in some way and I never seemed to get back to the level of health that I'd always had before then. So this continued for about six years, six and a half years. And after that point, I experienced what I now consider to be the first flare up of ME/CFS symptoms.

So I had very sudden onset of fatigue, and a feeling of adrenaline and jitteriness, almost like a wide electric feeling in my body. Especially around my head and my neck and my arms. And they felt very, very heavy and sort of like they were weighted down by something. So, I had various tests and things done, MRI scans, and I never got any sort of, diagnosis for that.

Becoming bedridden with ME/CFS

 But these episodes then just continued to happen for the, for the years following that initial one. And they got more frequent, and the symptoms got worse, more pronounced. And by January 2018, they had got very severe and I actually became bedridden with ME/CFS in January of 2018. And, new symptoms also came, which included, severe pain, both sort of muscle pain, the feeling of muscle pain and also nerve pain.

And sensitivities to things like light and sound and, touch or any sort of movement and, and some cognitive difficulties as well. So leading up to the program, I hadn't actually tried anything in particular because I didn't have a proper diagnosis for so long. So I didn't really know what to try.

My symptoms became so severe that I was bedridden, that I started doing more research and found out that what I was experiencing was ME/CFS. And, I actually came across Dan's book, CFS Unravelled think it was called. And I read that and I was very clear from reading that book that, This was what I was experiencing and that he knew what he was talking about basically.

Breakthrough with ANS REWIRE

When it came to what I was going through as well. So, so I had started to kind of look, to incorporate some of the things that he, he talks about in the book. Like, supplements and, sleep hygiene and changes to my diet and things like that. So I had started to do those, but it wasn't until I started the program that, and started the REWIRE technique specifically, that I saw very dramatic improvements in my health.

And that was in May of 2018. So by the time I started the course, I was pretty much 100 percent on board with it. I had read the course. Dan's book and everything in that made sense to me. It was the first time anyone had ever really said anything to me that made sense about what I was experiencing.

 And within, I would say, a week of starting the course, I was able to walk again for the first time, in three months, I think. And yes, I just saw a sort of exponential improvement in my health. Pretty much straight away, and by the end of the course, I'd say I was at sort of 80, 85 percent better, just in terms of the capabilities of what I could do, in terms of my strength, in terms of my mental resilience and cognitive function and, energy and all that sort of thing.

And then, I would say that it took a little while after that for me to we gained that last sort of 20, 15, 20 percent of my health. And it was about in February, February, 2019, February, March, 2019, that I could say that I was fully recovered from ME/CFS. So just in terms of what my life is now, like now, compared to how it was before, In the worst stages, obviously it's night and day in terms of what I'm able to do.

 I can function completely normally in every aspect. I can work on things that I'm really passionate about. It's also just changed me so, so, in so many ways, so positively. It's really hard to express in a quick video, but it's just all been Life changing and truly amazing for me and also for my partner.

 I'll actually, I can actually just get my husband to join me and talk a bit about his experience and how it's impacted me. He, we did the course together, when I was doing it, he did it with me. So he could talk a little bit about his experience and how it's impacted on him as well. Hi again.

Partner's perspective on recovery from being bedridden with ME/CFS

So here I am with my husband, Tom, and he's going to talk a bit about his experience of my being ill and looking after me and going through the program.

Tom: Yeah. All right. So I think, it's always important to think about. Partners in these situations that are very difficult and trying. And, certainly from my perspective, when illness symptoms really deteriorated when we were here in Kenya, it was, it was very shocking initially, very, very scary, a lot of fear, a lot of apprehension, uncertainty, and a lot of anxiety as well.

And I think it was almost like she was feeding off sort of my anxiety and vice versa. And then as we discovered a bit more about what was going on and went back to the UK, there was a period in which I pretty much became like a full-time carer for about two or three months. I stopped working. I chose to stop working to prioritize her health and it was very difficult, emotionally, physically.

It was tough. No one really outside of us knew the extent of what was going on, although family was there to support. Only really we could understand, like, fundamentally what was happening. And then when she discovered Dan online and she purchased the book, which When she started reading it, she told me that she thought this was sort of really getting to the heart of what was going on and offered a quite really positive message.

So we read it together and I could just see a lot of things making, making sense and some of the realizations we'd started to have, were laid out and explained really well in the book. And, and I was, yeah, very much on board with her doing the course once we had sort of exhausted some of the other potential diagnoses with, in the healthcare system in the UK.

And I chose to do the course with her lesson for lesson, activity for activity, really kind of supported each other through it. It was just incredible to see the difference so quickly. I mean, it was just an overwhelming feeling of hope and a level of understanding what she was experiencing that I think was really, really helpful for anyone who's a partner wanting to be there for their other, other half going through this, but not really fully understanding what is happening.

And the course explains that really well. And I myself, I think benefited hugely from doing the course. I didn't expect to, it's not aimed for people who aren't suffering ME/CFS, but I think there are lessons in there for almost everyone in the modern world. How you deal with your potential anxieties, how you come to understand certain thought patterns that you have.

And it was a very powerful life changing experience actually. And I would really recommend to other couples who are out there to, to do it together, if you at all can, or do as much as you can together. I think it's a really, really rewarding process and some of a lot of what we've been What we experienced through the course and through the recovery process will stay with us forever and really change our lives to the point where I really look at what happened as a, as a blessing.

And where we are now and where we'll continue to be on our sort of mental and physical health trajectory. I couldn't, I couldn't recommend it enough.

Importance of Structure for Recovery

Eleanor: Yeah. So, thanks for sharing that and, in terms of, the program itself, Tom's spoken a bit about it, but I guess from my perspective, it was really great how everything was broken down day by day, having something structured to follow.

When everything else was quite chaotic, and, and feeling out of control was really great. And the way that everything was explained in terms of the science of what was happening in the body, was fantastic because it, it made you really understand the processes that were dysfunctional and why the things that we were doing in the program, we're going to address those issues. Yeah, so it was just, it was great the way that it was structured and the content of it from my perspective, definitely.

Tom: Yeah. And I guess, the, the meditations themselves, I think were really excellent, really well put together. We used those for a long time, even after the course had finished as it was, it was fantastic.

The, the, the content and quality.

Eleanor: So in terms of what recovering means to me, it's very difficult to express it really. Going from being completely bedridden to being in the best health of my life is sort of physically and emotionally, is just completely night and day and so incredible and I'm so grateful to Dan for his experience and what he went through, and for his sharing it with us, and me specifically, and, Yeah, I'm so thankful.

Tom: Yeah, likewise, very grateful for Dan and what he did and the hard work he put into everything he, that's out there and his, and the continued engagement he has with, with people who are doing the course, and, you know, after the course as well, the support that's there. And just having that level of someone who really understands, and it's, it's a very traumatic experience, it was traumatic for me.

And actually, elements of the course really helped me deal with that. So that, you know, for a long time it was emotionally painful to even think about what happened and talk about it. And, you know, now, you know, it's no issues at all. super grateful to Dan.

Eleanor: Yeah. So for anyone out there that's thinking about doing the ANS REWIRE course, really can't recommend it highly enough.

It was absolutely amazing for me, had the most incredible impact on my health and my experience of life really in general. I think not just for me, but also for you as well. So just go for it and really wish you all the best for your recovery.

More ANS REWIRE Success Stories: