Hi my name is Karen.
I'm sixty-two years old.
I live in the Wellington National Park on the East Coast of Australia.
I would like to share my story and give this testimonial in the hopes of inspiring and
giving some hope to those suffering from Adrenal Exhaustion or Adrenal Fatigue.
My problems started many years ago, about thirty years ago, when I had chronic fatigue
syndrome.
I lived with that for many years and had a lot of symptoms throughout my working life.
It was probably eight or nine years ago now that I first noticed my symptoms were changing.
I did think that these symptoms were related to chronic fatigue at the time and I sort
of did not take any notice of the symptoms, I just pushed on regardless which I now know
was a big, big mistake.
My symptoms started back then with periods of dizziness like I was going to pass out,
heart palpitations, I had increased sensitivity to chemicals and sensitivity to drugs - being
a nurse, that was difficult.
So these symptoms gradually grew worse over the years.
I could tell my system was changing, I was becoming
a lot more allergic in general.
Once again I did think this was part of my previous medical history, and did not take
any notice.
I really started, symptoms started to get worse about two-three years ago.
Heart palpitations got worse, started to have slight panic attacks, I started to feel like
I couldn't cope.
I started to have other, more frequent episodes of migraine headaches and a few other symptoms
as well.
I just at that time virtually slowed down on my workload and cut back a bit until I
felt a bit better, and that usually did the trick - I improved, and on I went again.
It came to a point back in 2014 I went to the doctor because I wasn't feeling well at
all, I was working full time, I had some blood tests done and the results came back that
I had Adrenal Exhaustion.
I didn't know what Adrenal Exhaustion was, I had never heard of it, I knew nothing about
it.
I was put on a form of cortisone, which I had a very adverse reaction to it, and after
a stressful event that happened to me at that particular time my health slid down very,
very quickly to a point where I was lying in bed a lot of the time.
I would get up to do certain chores, I felt so ill that I would go back to bed.
The migraines increased, the sensitivity increased - at this stage, I knew that I was in big
trouble.
I started doing the doctor rounds, spent a considerable amount of funds trying to find
out what was wrong with me but couldn't really get any concise answers rather than take it
easy and go home.
I tried all those things, I tried different therapies, I tried vitamins, so I was virtually
self-navigating to cure myself of something that I knew absolutely nothing about.
I then had some treatment at the end of 2015, or near the middle of 2015, which did benefit
me quite a lot and I did start to improve slightly but I was still very, very ill and
still could not find out any answers.
I was very, very frustrated because I felt, 'What is wrong with me'?
Nothing worked.
I can remember thinking, 'I'm trying so many things, and nothing is working.'
My family at this stage became very, very concerned for why I lost a huge amount of
weight, to note it was a lot - I lost about seventeen kilos in a matter of about six-seven
months.
Along with that I lost muscle mass as well.
I felt shaky, I felt weak and I found it difficult just to get through each day.
At this stage I really thought that I was going to die.
My family, my sister came across Dr. Lam online on the internet and she suggested that I get
in contact with him which I did.
I had my first consult with Dr. Justin at the end of June 2016 - this year.
After that consult which lasted about a fair amount of time, I felt much more inspired,
I felt relieved because I now knew that this is what was wrong with me.
He gave me hope, an incredible amount of hope.
He gave me information, he gave me plenty of reading material, which I never regretted
and read and I still read it now.
I still review that material and continue to read it.
I still read Dr. Lam's book because it helps me - every time I read it, it helps
me.
It gives me some sort of hope I suppose, some sort of benefit I get from reading his book.
He changed my treatments a little bit, I was taking vitamin therapy at that time.
He changed that around a little bit, he didn't reduce it drastically, he did cease a few
of those.
I notified my doctor all the way along what was happening and my doctor was very supportive
of Dr. Lam so it was good that I had two support systems and now I could move ahead hopefully.
I first noticed at the end of two weeks a little bit of improvement and I thought no,
this can't last.
I was having severe crashes approximately every two weeks - which were a lot of the
symptoms that I had previously only about fifty-percent worse.
So I was in a bad way.
So after a couple of months, or probably a little bit less, I noticed that I was coming
up in levels I was getting a little bit better.
I thought, no, just wait.
Hopefully this will last.
Guess what?
It's been seven-eight months that I have been on Dr. Lam's program and I continue to gradually
improve, and I cannot tell you how absolutely thrilled I am.
I feel a lot more like my old self, I've actually gone back to work two days a week.
I can't go back to the previous work that I used to do, I don't think that I could cope
with that just at this time, but I am absolutely very, very happy that I've gone back to work
even the two days a week.
I can spend time with my grandchildren, can cope a lot better with my grandchildren where
I couldn't before.
Three of them - two boys and a girl.
They're very active and I now can interact with them a lot better.
Socially I have picked up my old contacts, I'm getting on with life, I'm really enthusiastic
about life.
I've taken on a little more interest but I do have to caution myself at times because
that crash is a part of it, and is just around the corner, and I am aware of it.
So Dr. Lam has taught me how to manage that, how to avoid those big crashes and I must
admit that I have not had a major crash now for probably about five months.
So I can only put it down to management, watching the signs, and my gradual recovery program
is progressing.
So that's my story, I do hope that it has helped someone because that is what I want
to achieve from doing this testimonial.
I cannot stress how important it is to not let Adrenal Fatigue get to the stage that
it got with me.
I know that at my age I've got a tough climb but I'm taking each days as it comes.
I did suffer also from severe heart pounding which still continues but I have learned to
live with that, learned to cope with that, as I have learned to cope with many of the
other symptoms that are now slowly reducing I am happy to say.
As I said, that's my story.