Week 0 Hello everyone!

Well I thought it about time to introduce myself as I am about ready to give the SEP a whirl.

I am Lee, a 46 year old male, and have had problems with numerous symptoms for eight years now. Sorry to bore you all but here goes.

I did suffer a lot of trauma in my life going back twenty years but thought that it hadn't affected me. Then one week I had a cold. My Doctor sent me for a blood test. The following week he said my cholesterol was a little high and he just wanted me to have another blood test to get another reading. At this time I had a pretty bad cold and felt a little weak but another blood test, no big deal. I went to book my blood test as usual at the reception desk and a nurse said follow me. Normally it would be booked a few days later. Anyway I followed the nurse and ended up sitting in a dentist like chair. I explained that normally I like to lie down for a blood test and also that I was feeling a little groggy and dizzy from my cold. She said 'nonsense it's only a needle'. I said that I wasn't bothered by needles but just felt a little weak. She proceeded to take a full blood count and that was that.

My Doctors ( I lived in England then. I live in Holland now) was situated in the local hospital. I felt really weak after the blood test, so I went to buy a chocolate bar and a drink for some sustenance. As I walked away from the counter after paying, everything suddenly became grey and I went to my knees and then passed out. I cut my eye on the carpet (more of a burn) and cut my head open. I was brought to by two doctors and a handful of people who told me I had fainted. they wheeled me back into my Doctors who said I was just weak from my cold and then left me sitting in the wheelchair in a corridor for one hour alone. I couldn't get in touch with anyone on my mobile. I ended up walking home.

A week later I ventured out to do some shopping and I went into my local library to take some books back. All of a sudden I felt ill and dizzy and could not, for the life of me, make it back home. I had to ask the librarian to get my father to pick me up.

I was fine for months although I did feel a little nervous while out if I felt ill anytime.

I then moved to Holland and everything was fine for a year or two.

Then I suffered a bad flight in a storm to Germany and the following day I had a panic attack in Hamburg.

A doctor diagnosed me with HVS and I went on to do some breathing exercises and physio.

I had another bad experience while out and felt dizzy like I was going to pass out and had to return home. Since then I have felt off-balance and suffered flu-like symptoms and also been fearful of what could be wrong. I tried to be as rational as I could and also optimistic but I kept feeling something was wrong and a little off all the time.

The Doctor who had helped me greatly moved back to his home in South Africa, so I had to explain everything to a new Doctor and then another and then another, until after one year and ten Doctors I found my latest one who is a lovely woman. She sent me to a specialist. the specialist said she thought I was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder. I started to see a therapist and she said she thought that I was not suffering from post traumatic stress but that a switch had been flipped in my brain on that day that I collapsed at the hospital.

Each time I have had blood tests they have always been clear.

Another thing I suffer with is a stiff neck and really sore ribs (to the point of it affecting me in a lot of activities. A lot of this is due to poor posture as I am an artist and must admit I don't sit properly most of the time. I also think that this causes me to feel sick a lot because of the pain my ribs cause.

To bring you up to date I have now felt like I have had a cold since December 2013 and I can't shift it. I feel tired all the time and my ribs are sore. I went for a meal with my girlfriend two weeks ago and I suffered an uneasy sickly feeling. We had just watched a movie at the cinema and as we walked to a restaurant I felt dizzy and nauseous. it passed and I managed to enjoy the meal. But now I feel fearful of it happening every time I go out and I am conscious pf spoiling the day because of it. As for the cold my Doctor told me that it should run its course and anti-biotics won't help. I did have pneumonia when i was nineteen and was bed ridden for three months. I had previously walked around with a cold for months beforehand. So you can see why I worry about having that same feeling now. The pneumonia also left me with a weak immune system.

I'm not one to rush to the Doctors fearful of cancer or any other horrible disease like many people but I'm only human and sometimes I do think silly things like 'something must be wrong for me to feel this way' but then my rational side thinks that if anything was majorly wrong then in eight years something would have happened by now. I know many of you will know these thoughts. I really want to exercise and go swimming for my ribs but I am always too tired or feeling like I have a cold to be able to perform exercises.

This is obviously a very condensed version of the whole story but in a nutshell I saw this website and TMS seems to make a lot of sense to me. I have always thought myself that I need to reprogram my mind after that initial collapse and the SEP seems the way to go.

The reason I labelled this 'week 0' is because I am about to go on holiday to Greece and I want to start it properly when I get back without any distractions. I really hope this can help me because these annoying symptoms are controlling me at times and i want to get on with my life!

 

Welcome Ed! and if you're reading this after your vacation in Greece, I hope it was a good one! I look forward to hearing about your journey with SEP when you start up!