Hi, I’m Maria, and I am 44 years old. I got chronic fatigue syndrome when I was 28 years old. It started with a typical flu-like illness, the Migraine, vertigo, nausea, stomach pains. And I’d had it for about seven to 10 days before I decided that I should go to the hospital, because it didn’t seem to be getting any better. It really seemed to be getting a lot worse. And so, my mom took me down to the hospital, and they checked everything out, and their diagnosis was, “You’re just having a really bad flu, you need to let it run its course and everything should be fine in a couple weeks,” but I was pretty concerned at the time, because I was supposed to start a masters program in physical therapy in a couple weeks.
And I knew that it was going to be a very intensive program, and I needed all the energy I could get. So, the idea of coming in not a 100%, made me a little bit nervous, but I waited it out, and it never got back to normal ever again after that, and even though I did start school, and it was about 40 hours a week in class, and then a good five to six hours more a day, of studying after class. But in the 27 month program, I really did struggle a lot with chronic illness. I seem to go through a lot of phases where things would start to get a little bit better, and then I thought, “Maybe this is getting better finally,” and then I would get another illness.
And it could be something like the flu, or a cold, or basic exhaustion, just … I remember it was the feeling that my arms weighed … I would tell people it feels like my arms weighed a 100 pounds. I feel like lifting my arm is the most difficult thing I could possibly do. I had episodes with Migraines. There was a point in school where I had a Migraine for 77 days, and I went to the Migraine center at the school that I went to, and we tried about six different medications, nothing that really worked. The last one really just put me to sleep most of the time, which was tough during class. And eventually, I think, the Migraines just went away. But it wasn’t because of anything that I was taking.
It was a lot of nausea, a lot of anxiety, I noticed that I was often sicker after school, or on weekends, or on vacations I would get a really bad illness. It was almost as if I was using all my adrenalin to get through the day, or through a week, or through a semester. And then, when I would relax, everything would fall apart. My body would finally let go, and I would end up spending days to weeks on the bathroom floor. It was a very challenging period of my life, and I did receive a number of different diagnoses while I was in school. Different physicians, or practitioners had different ideas for me. In the course of those 27 months, I did go to student health 44 time.
And partly, suggestions from them, and partly suggestions from other people outside the school, I tried a number of different medications, a number of different diets, which I’m sure a lot of people out there have tried. I did a Candida diet, an all raw food diet, I did an all cooked food diet, the no flour, no sugar, no caffeine, no alcohol, which really is … That’s a beneficial one, but it didn’t cure me by any means. I think it was probably, that was just a smart thing to do. And actually, in that timeframe, when I was going to school, those were some of the things that I really relied on to get me through the day. Caffeine and sugar were my two go-to things to just get me through.
And so, I think when I did have those breaks, it was why my body fell apart, because I was using these artificial things to get me through, and it was putting me in a worse situation after. A lot of supplements that I tried during that timeframe, but really, nothing was helping me for more than one to two weeks at a time. And I remember one time I went in to student health, and the nurse practitioner had suggested that maybe I had Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. And this was in the late 90s, and I did a little bit of research on it, and everything that I could find at the time was really disheartening.
There was no cure, there was no test to find out if I really had it for sure. There was nothing I could about it, even if I did have it. I noticed that there was a lot of public ridicule, a lot of controversy about the illness. And I just didn’t want it to be Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I think the idea of it was, “It can’t be this, and what I have is so much more severe than Chronic Fatigue. It must be something more horrible than this, it must be a tumor,” which I also had them look for. I was sure I had a brain tumor. But of course it was not that.
And so, I really, I put that idea on the back burner, and continued to pursue the other things that I thought it might be, that seemed much more scary. I managed to make it through school, and graduated. And then after school I got my first job, and after three weeks, I had another setback, another flu-like illness, and it was so severe that this caused me to become bedbound for 10 years. And it was a real exacerbation of my illness, and I was unable to ever come back and work at that job again. So, at that point, I became largely home bound, moved back in with my parents, and they took care of me full-time.
I was unable to have a job, I was unable to get out of bed most days, except for the necessary things. It was extraordinarily difficult. I was completely disabled at that point, for about 10 years, and I tried Chinese herbs, I tried acupuncture, I tried a daily intravenous therapy of vitamins, different supplements that they thought would help. More diets, physical therapy, psychotherapy. I did a clinical trial of some drugs. I tried everything, and there were all these things that everyone else seemed to be responding to, and I think I was just that one person, and I was really convinced I was that one person that nothing ever works for.
So, at this point, my doctor told me about an international conference for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Reno, and we decided that we would go to that. But I got so sick that I didn’t make it through. And he made it through, and he met Ashok, and when he came home, my doctor told me about the treatment that he had learned about by speaking with Ashok. And I did some research online, and with my science background, reading, and seeing what he had on his website, for the first time I thought, “This makes perfect sense. This is absolutely going to work.” And even though I still had those fears of, “I’m going to be the only person this doesn’t work for,” I decided that I was going to give it the full six months to do it, and in those six months, I wouldn’t make any judgments, I wouldn’t evaluate my progress, I wouldn’t put any pressure on myself.
I would just start day one, and then in six months I would see how I had done. And, I wanted to make sure that I started it when I was definitely ready, and in a good place to make that commitment to really doing the program, and really doing all of it. Not just doing it half way. And for me that meant that I had to do as much as I was capable of doing, not what was easy. Because it was definitely … There were challenges, and it wasn’t a path like this, it was a path had some ups and downs, but was always going up. And I have to say that, I had my moments, there were a few times where I was doubting myself a little bit, doubting this could possibly do something really lasting
But after six months, I noticed a huge improvement, and after a year, I thought, “I feel really great.” I felt like I was about 60 to 70% better, which was huge for me, and I know in the DVDs, Ashok had said, “Once you start feeling better, give yourself a year to live a normal life, do some things that make you happy.” And I did that, I spent a year really embracing the health that I had gotten back, and I had more gains to make. After that year, I was about 80 to 85% normal. And it was at that point that I actually started working again, and I worked three to four days a week, I was standing the whole time while I worked. That was part of my job, and I was able to then move into a managerial position a year later.
And I’m happy to say that it’s now been about three and a half, four years. And my health is about 85/90% of my normal, which I would have taken on any given day. I live a normal life, I’m very active, I work, I raise kids, and without Ashok’s therapy, I wouldn’t have had any of this. I am truly grateful to Ashok and for the treatment that he developed. And if there is any tips I could give to you out there, that if you’re thinking about it, start the treatment when you are at a point in your life when you can dedicate yourself to fully doing this treatment. Be committed to it, give it a full six months, and really do it all the way. Do as much as you physically are able to do.
Don’t do it halfway, because I think your result will also be half. If you want a 100% out of this, you need to give it a 100%. And do all of the exercises in the handbook, that was extremely helpful to me, and the more time and effort that I put into it, the more I got out of it. And seeing where my potential challenges were going to be, was one of my favorite things about the workbook. And so, when they came up, I actually knew how to deal with them. So, I have to say that, this really was the easiest treatment I did in 12 years. The other treatments that I did were … Sometimes they were painful, sometimes extremely difficult, A lot of side effects, or they took out a lot of joy in my life.
But this treatment was non-invasive, and was actually helpful to me in a way where I actually do feel like a better person now, having gone through this, then I would have I had never gotten sick and had this program in the first place. So, I wish you the best, I think this is the best thing that you can do for yourself, it’s a very healthy option for you, and I wish you great success. If you choose to do this. Thank you. -Maria