I have found out one very important thing about myself. When something goes wrong and I need the support the most, that is when I pull away from everything and everyone.......

Hello Conquerors! Well.. it has been rough to say the least. But I'm starting to really gain some awareness of what is going on. So basically my body doesn't pump blood effectively. So any traditional advice for building stamina actually unknowingly made my condition WORSE 🤯 I am currently in an autonomic crash. There was a couple of days that I literally could not speak. My system completely, involuntarily shut down. While this is all very shocking and confusing and scary etc, ironically it also gives me at least a bit of hope. This is not a virus I can get "better" from. This is a condition I have to permanently manage. In a way, my body works opposite of most. So instead of feeling groggy when I first get up, and then getting more energy as I "wake up", I have the opposite. As soon as I stand up, there is a countdown going before my legs give out. This also explains for me why I was so extremely against driving.. my system KNEW that the feeling of lights going out (terrifying) was literally dangerous. This is also why I have instinctively always preferred being upside down or submerged in water. That is probably how normal bodies feel all the time. One way I can describe it is that if I am a fish- then sitting with legs elevated is my water. And anytime I'm not doing that, I am a fish out of water. So when I take a bath or sit with legs elevated, I am not "relaxing". I am stabilizing. Now, how come before I could do "more"? It wasn't that I could do more. It was me burning through my energy. Without realizing it. This is why my walks became shorter instead of longer. This is why I gasp for air. Just so many things. The reason my legs turn blue and purple. So that being said, this REQUIRES lifestyle changes. And I'm really going to have to change my mindset from the typical. With my condition, I should be doing recumbent exercise. So as I'm laying down. Not because I'm weak but because this way my heart isn't wasting precious energy just trying to constantly keep me from passing out.

Hi Conquerors. How is everyone doing? I am out of the hospital. Trying to recover. A couple things I learned is that my heart rate is low and vitamin d is really low. It has been a rough couple of weeks but grateful I am at least starting to find pieces of the puzzle.

Hi Conquerors. I am in the hospital. I am ultimately proud of myself because as uncomfortable as I am (and I am😅), I needed to rule some stuff out. I'm sure it's happened even before this, but since last Thursday I have had severe weakness in my legs. I think I will be released tomorrow after the MRI. I'm hopefully going home with a walker so I can be safe as I gain strength back. Just wanted to give an update. It has been extremely hard for me to keep up with all the different doctors and multiple people coming at once etc. But I'm doing my best.

Good morning Conquerors! How is everyone? I am definitely going through it.. but wanted to share a couple strategies I created honestly out of pure desperation 😅: This came to me this morning, after passing out yesterday: SIMPLE and SLOW Meaning, EACH step for my brain right now needs feel simple and I NEED to give myself permission to do it SLOW The shower protocol- when I do it, it totally works. So that needs to be a non-negotiable whenever possible. Even this morning, I started crying in shower but then because the timer was set and because music was playing, I felt safe to release it a bit. And the 5 minute protocol: Figure out how much chronological time you have to get ready. Break it down into how many 5-minute chunks that equates to. Assign one step to each 5-minute chunk I did this this morning. Instantly my brain relaxed and I felt less frozen. I'm even still doing it now. But since I'm pretty much ready to go, I can type this (but I still have timer set so that I STAY aware of the time). I am truly fighting to not go into a deep depression. So this morning as soon as I woke up, I had my earbuds upstairs so I immediately put earbud in and set 20 minute timer to get outside and turned on the uplifting music. And went downstairs quickly made protein shake and got the heck outside on my little walk. I do still make myself turn around after 10 minutes. There is a huge part of me saying what is the point? Etc. But.. I HAVE to try. I just have to. Otherwise, the bullies win. Does NOT mean I'm doing anything confidently to say the least. But my motto is Don't Give Up. And I can honestly say that I haven't given up. Love you guys! Hope something in this helps! Just sharing from my heart 🥰