Helping others really helps ourselves.

My wife and I are currently volunteering at a christian organization that helps men after recovering from addictions.  I want to give back for the years when others were helping me.  I have always wanted to help others even when I was so sick myself.  One way I have been able to help others is to just listen to other people that have fibro/cfs.  With the internet we can chat, e-mail, answer questions in an online support group from our homes.  I have been doing this for over 17 years now.  I have learned so much from others and feel that I may have helped them cope with these illnesses.  It really does take one to understand a hidden illness like fibromyalgia or chronic fatigue.  As this blog states, I started my recovery from fibro/cfs in January 2011.  By the first week in September 2011 we were out volunteering at this ministry. 

We have known and helped support the director and his wife for many years through our church.  But to be able to help in a physical way is very rewarding.  God has used us in many ways over the years but then we were kind of sidelined when my fibro/cfs became incapacitating.  My wife took care of me for many years because I needed 24/7 care.  Now that my fibro/cfs is in recovery we are physically able to do more for God. 

As I started my recovery last year I was able to get my drivers license back after 16 years.  I left my wheelchair behind and got off most of the drugs that had been prescribed.  I had done support work through the Internet for many years and saw many people that appreciated my efforts.  Last fall we started a new phase in our service to others when we came to www.cvmutah.com to help.  We have grown and been blessed by our service to others and seeing these men develop and grow in the Lord is wonderful to be a part of this experience. 

We continue to come here in the mountains to help as needed.  We are currently serving a couple of weeks so the directors wife could go and visit here daughter and grandson.  My wife cooks and I help the men with vocational training and daily living learning.  We spent a day north of here helping to finish an auditorium and entry for a church.  I was able to install much of the drop ceiling during a long day.  We teach the men that are here about many vocational experiences through helping others.  Last fall we helped a man that had part of his home burn in a fire.  This ministry gives helping hands to many other christian groups along with individuals.  Through our labor we teach the men physical work that they will take with them the rest of their lives. 

We spend time in bible study each day with the men with a desire to teach them not to do things only for themselves but for others.  Learning how to do it "the right way" the way the boss (staff that have more experience) is tough for men to learn because they have lived their adult lives pleasing themselves.  We hope to teach that our way is not God's way.  By serving others we help ourselves grow and become useful.  Have you volunteered lately.  Even from your home you can serve others through the Internet.  Be the example that God wants you to be.

I have a website called www.recoveryfromfibro.com that has many articles that are beneficial to people with fibro/cfs or people that love them.  There is also a place to ask questions that may concern you about fibro/cfs and the recovery that I have had.  I also have a facebook page called http://www.facebook.com/#!/recoveryfromfibro that also has lots of info for fibro/cfs people.

How my faith helped me with my chronic illness

(This is an excerpt from my book “OUT OF THE FIBRO FOG” which will be out later this year.)

I have been blessed with a strong faith in God that has helped me through my long illness.  I have had Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue since 1975.  This illness is one that is very hard because others can’t see it and question you all the time.  I have found that there are those who can see in my eyes the pain I was in and understood, but in general most people don’t understand.  I have been supported by my wife how loves me and knows that I would not just quit working and take to a bed if I didn’t have to.  Both my, now adult sons, suffer with fibromyalgia as well.  They have also been supportive and helped in any way that they could, especially our youngest son, who has always lived near us. He has taking me to doctor’s appointments and helping with thing around the house that I could not do.

It’s really hard when family and friends don’t understand and are not willing to help in any way.  Depression is a big part of any chronic illness and when you are ignored by those you need most it hurts in many ways.  I have to admit when the pain got overwhelming I did consider ending my life several times, but my faith in God and my love for my family keep me going.  I have chatted with lots of others over the years encouraging them, even when I didn’t have any hope of feeling better.  I have had over a dozen people tell me that just being there for them keep them from taking their lives.

I have seen the ugly side of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue over the years.  I lived on morphine for many years because of the intense pain.  I never understood why God allowed me to go through this illness till last year.  I now believe that he allowed me to suffer so that I could understand what others have to go through.  

I created this blog because I saw a way that might help me overcome my disease.  I wanted to let my fibro friends see what life was like before I started this treatment and all along the way.  

God spoke to my heart and told me that this treatment would work.  I waited till my wife was ready for us to do this together.  She had become sure that nothing would work for me and was concerned that the money would be wasted.  I just prayed that if this was what we were to do she would have peace like I had. That day came and we made the trip to the clinic. 

God has been so good to me in the year 2011, because of this treatment I no longer use a wheelchair, am able to drive again, don’t need all those medicines just to exist.  Ninety percent of my symptoms are gone and I am able to live a near normal life.  Am I cured NO but I will take how I am now any day over the way I was.  I have often though of Paul in the New Testament who was afflicted with a medical problem.  God didn’t cure him either, just to make sure he didn’t forget, but God used him in a mighty way.  I am no Paul, but I believe God has some great plans for us in the next few years.  

We started volunteering at two different Christian ministries within seven months of my starting treatment.  We are regulars there now and plan to build a home near them so we can be of more help to them. 

I now work even more to get the word out that there is life after fibro.  I was told that I was the worse case that this group of clinics had ever seen.  Yet with God’s help I made so much progress in a very short time.  They made sure that anyone from the home office saw me when they were in town.  I have had the opportunity to meet and talk to some wonderful people because of this.  Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum has been a driving force in fibromyalgia/chronic fatigue treatment for many years.  He developed the SHINE protocol (see earlier post or articles on my site for more info).  He has helped me create my website (recoveryfromfibro.com) so I can help others with these chronic illnesses.  Because Dr. Teitelbaum has suffered with chronic fatigue he does understand what we have gone through.  He is now the medical director for Chronicity Inc. (the group of clinics that I went to).  He spends his time teaching other doctors how to treat these chronic illnesses and doing research into the treatment of fibro and chronic fatigue. 

There is life after fibro/cfs and with some effort on your part you don’t have to see your health deteriorate like mine did.

God Bless you

Jerry

A Recent Update

Well we are over a year since I started my recovery from fibro.  Life is so much different now than when I started.  If you have not read my story, take a look at the oldest post and see how difficult life was for me.  Now God has given us new purpose in life.  As my body has begun to recover from fibro/cfs, I have been able to do things that I never though would be possible for me again.  I am volunteering my time to help others not only with physical problems but emotional and spiritual as well.  We have been working since labor day weekend at a ministry that helps men that have live a life of substance abuse.  We volunteer at at Vocational Residential facility that teaches the men to become responsible and productive members of society.  Because I can now get around I have helped in all phases of this work and am right at home teaching life skills, like how to balance a checkbook and how to use a computer. 

My wife loves to cook so she does the cooking and helps with that side of the work.  We also are helping put together a boarding home for teen boys that are at risk of making some of the same mistakes.  I am doing the wiring for computers, phone lines, television and a security system.  I have other men that do most of the heavy work but I am able to plan out these systems and help install them in this new facility. 

I am still seeing the fibro doctor as needed but am able to manage my own on-going treatment because of what I have learned in the last year.  I am often asked if I am cured, I say "NO" but I live with only 10% of the symptoms and medical problems that I had only last year.  I continue to not "sell" anything because I want to help others and we all have had others try to sell a cure.  I do have a new medical support website that helps others with fibro/cfs do the same things I did to start their recovery from fibro.  BTW: That is the name of my website; RECOVERY FROM FIBRO.com.  If you are interested in learning how to start your recovery, just start reading then come to my website and see what advice is available there.  I have many articles about the most important topics for people with fibro/cfs.  I also have a place there that you can ask questions.  I will research the answer and if it's not available to me Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum will answer your question.

The year of 2011 has been amazing for me, I went from being very sick to having a wonderful life.  It was expensive, but I would do it again if necessary.  Spend some time reading and see what life was like for me before I started this recovery.  I had a friend ask me "So how is what your doing working for you?".  Most of us could say that it isn't working, if you are like I was, it was a downward spiral.  But because I was willing to try something different and out of the normal mainstream medicine, I have a amazing life again.

Jerry

See my new website dedicated to help others with fibro/cfs find their RECOVERY FROM FIBRO/CFS.