RECOVERY AT A GLANCE
Shannon, a writer and mother from Florida, describes an illness that developed around a major medical emergency and eventually included severe fatigue, burning nerve pain, brain fog, migraines, sensory sensitivity, digestive problems and autonomic symptoms. A rheumatologist diagnosed fibromyalgia, and after a later deterioration, she was also formally diagnosed with POTS.
She started ANS REWIRE in January 2018 at roughly 30% function. Her recovery was far from linear: several months later she had a severe POTS episode requiring a five-day hospital stay and became profoundly limited again. She gradually returned to the program, says the POTS symptoms resolved over roughly six months, reached around 80% recovery about 16–18 months after starting, and ultimately described herself as fully recovered around mid-2020 — approximately 2½ years after beginning ANS REWIRE.
Explore This ANS REWIRE Recovery Experience
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This page shares one participant’s personal experience with ANS REWIRE. Individual experiences and outcomes vary. ANS REWIRE is an educational and training program and is not medical treatment or a substitute for diagnosis, advice or care from a qualified healthcare professional.
Watch The Video of Shannon Sharing Her ANS REWIRE Experience
What she did to heal from CFS, Fibro & POTS Transcript:
Shannon's onset of CFS, Fibromyalgia & POTS
Hi, my name is Shannon and I live in Florida in the United States and I'm a writer and a mom. And I just wanted to take a few minutes to share, how the ANS REWIRE program helped me heal from CFS, fibro and POTS. So my story started about six years ago. I had a medical emergency that was kind of the catalyst for me getting these illnesses.
One day I just woke up and felt like I had the flu and I never recovered. So my doctor ended up sending me to a rheumatologist and, cause one of my main symptoms was burning nerve pain in my legs and hands. And he diagnosed me with fibromyalgia, but didn't really have any advice on how to deal with it other than keep exercising.
Shannon's Symptoms
So some of my other symptoms were severe brain fog, sound and light sensitivity, daily headaches that turned into migraines, inability to digest solid food. My body had a hard time regulating blood pressure, blood sugar and body temperature. And at my worst, I had tachycardia. and POTS symptoms, which is your heart rate shoots up when you try to stand and you basically black out.
Unsuccessful Attempts to Heal from CFS, Fibro & POTS
For the first four years of this illness, I tried a lot of different things to heal. And some of the things I tried helped alleviate some symptoms, but nothing was leading me toward healing. Like I went to a functional medicine doctor and she did figure out that my body can't process B12 from food.
So she put me on a methylated B12 and that helped my headaches. But then in 2017, I had a major setback. I had another medical emergency. And so I was back on, you know, bed bound. My symptoms were a hundred times worse. Again, I was basically back at the beginning of my. So, you know, I spent four years trying to heal a little bit at a time and this just brought me back to the beginning.
So to say I was devastated is an understatement.
Shannon's Breakthrough to Heal from CFS, Fibromyalgia and POTS
But luckily in January, I discovered Dan's ANS REWIRE program and I had been watching his recovery interviews for years. There was something that kept me hopeful that I could heal and I knew that he had also recovered from CFS himself. So I was actually really excited to try this program.
So what I did was I just made this program my full time job. I, I put everything I had into it and it worked. 18 months after I started it, I was about 80 percent healed. And then by May of this year, I was fully recovered. So I'm back to living my life. I'm back to writing full time. I'm back to, like, I can walk my dogs.
I can go to the beach with my kids. Like basically just participate in life again with my family. And I can push myself physically without crashing. I just get tired, like a normal person. So I'll tell you the difference between the ANS REWIRE program and other programs I tried. Is we know that at the root of these illnesses, it's a nervous system dysfunction.
And we know that our thoughts affect our nervous system, our thought processes affect our nervous system, and our body postures and actions affect our nervous system. So what this program gives you are the tools to heal those relationships. And another big part of what I loved about this program is When you're going through the modules, there are conversations happening below them.
So you can talk to people that are go that are in the same place as you. And also, Dan, you can ask questions, and Dan comes on and answers those questions. And also, he's available for one on one consultations. So you are not doing this alone. So, I guess, What I just want to say here is, you know, Dan has put his life, his energy, his work into helping people heal.
And I'm so glad that I'm one of them. So thank you, Dan, for giving me my life back.
Full Recovery Story & Diary Entries Along Her Journey
You can listen to Shannon's full recovery story HERE and learn more about the ANS REWIRE program below!
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