Paul’s 2020 Journey

 

Happy Monday,

The countdown to Christmas is here. If you are looking for a gift of health, please get in touch with us to organise a voucher for either our fitness camps or personal training services. A great gift for either yourself or a loved one.

We have limited hours over the Christmas/New Year period, being closed Christmas Day (of course) and boxing day, then we will open on Wednesday 30th for a 0630 fitness camp session, then again closed New Years Eve and Day, and will reopen to normal hours from Wednesday 6th Jan.

We wish you all a very happy Christmas, and a fantastic 2021.

On to today’s newsletter:

As most of you will be aware, Paul has been unwell for a while now, and fortunately on a positive journey forward. Paul will be back at Results from January training. He wanted to share his experience over the last nine ish months with you.

MY STRUGGLE

For the last 7 years at Results we have written a reflections and life lessons post at the end of each year. It’s been a hard year for many. This year brought Covid, lockdowns and many political issues. To me (Paul) I feel like the world has gone crazy.

This year I have been dealing with a personal struggle. I have been in a near 10 month battle with my health. As someone who has made a career out of health and wellness I cannot express how much it feels like I have had the rug pulled out from under me.

Let’s rewind back to the beginning of April. One day I was perfectly fine, I felt good, I felt strong, I felt well. Yes I was a little stressed as a business owner in the midst of lockdown but who wasn’t? The next day I woke up to what I thought was some kind of urinary tract infection. Initially I didn’t think too much of it, but after a few weeks and a lot of discomfort I thought I better go to the Doctors.

I was given antibiotics but still got worse. Back to the Doctors for some testing but everything came back negative. I was then referred to a Urologist who suspected I may have a prostate problem. I was given more medications but still my condition continued to get more aggressive and painful.

Testing revealed that my prostate was fine and I was told to take more drugs and sent on my way with a ‘everything will settle down soon and you will be fine’

But still I continued to get worse. The pain was beginning to become unbearable. I went back to another Urologist for a second opinion. Again I was sent away with some different medication and told everything was going to be fine. The medication gave me some mild relief but the side effects wore horrific. I had severe memory loss, daily panic attacks and shaking that left me asking “are we having an earthquake”

Still nothing was getting better and I was continually going down hill. I made the decision to step away from coaching at the gym. By this stage I was in a horrendous amount of pain and discomfort and getting to the end of the day was challenging enough.

The pain was with me 24 hours a day with no let up. I have always considered myself to have a high pain threshold, I have broken many bones, been punched and kicked (martial arts), fallen from trees, run double marathons on no training and missed many landings while on a snowboard. But this pain was something I could never comprehend. Severe nerve pain in the groin and bladder.

To tell the truth I had some really dark days. I honestly wasn’t sure if I could make it through. After much pushing I managed to get further testing in the form a cystoscopy but again nothing was found.

At this point with my symptoms the way they were – it was suggested that I may have a pretty scary prognosis. I was utterly devastated. My mind raced with what will the future look like and will there even be a future. I am grateful that I had lots of help from counselling, psychologists and good friends. I shed a lot of tears.

I took on a health coach who trained under Dr Terri Wahls see TED talk here and she has been great. I highly recommend Dr Helen Cross The Health Engineer for anyone who is struggling with some sort of autoimmune condition.