Support Kat's Healing Fund

This time last year I called out for help, to raise money to see a medical specialist, get tests and pay for treatment to move forwards along my journey to healing from chronic back pain and chronic fatigue syndrome which has been going on for nearly four years.

For a rundown of what has happened in the last year please see the paragraphs at the bottom of this description.

In the last few months I have been on an intensive gut-healing program, using a special diet and nutritional supplements to enable me to get the energy I need from my food and strengthen my whole immune system in order to heal the two suspected viral infections that my doctor has pinpointed (cytomegalovirus and mycoplasma) as likely root causes for the chronic fatigue syndrome.

During this process the initial funding has run out and I have put another $1000 or so into it from savings which were destined for firewood and other life costs. So... I am appealing for some more help from my friends. If you can spare even a simple $5 or $10 then it will all add up and help towards the ongoing costs of the gut-healing program and nutritionist appointments which will take some more months, plus further treatments for the deep viral, root cause stuff that I am working with my doctor on. None of this is mainstream stuff: though the doc is also a GP, he specialises in integrative health and there is a lot of what is available for treatment that just isn't covered by government subsidies or benefit system support - a regular doc would just diagnose Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and tell me it's incurable and that wold be the end of it ...

So I humbly ask again for help and support, and welcome discussion with anyone who wishes to know more about the journey I am on and what I have learned so far.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.

___________________________

Further information about the last lot of funds....

I was blown away by the generous support from the last campaign and thought that the funds raised would far outweigh the costs that would be required but I was so so mistaken, it was a real shock actually! During the last year I have very carefully put that money to use. The money has gone into appointments with various specialists, some blood tests, and a nutritional gut-healing support program which is one of the most major aspects of this whole picture. I ended up choosing not to put it towards the original tests I thought i needed because once I'd had the first appointment with the original specialist I was planning to work with he wanted to run tests that would've used up all of the money and more, and left nothing for further appointments or treatments. It was a difficult few months with a fair bit of unease as I worked to decide what was the best thing to do (i didn't just want to run tests that I'd come to learn may not even show anything useful and then have no money left for anything else).

So my journey was to find the right people to assist me as I accepted that this original specialist was not the right person for me for various reasons. I have come forward a long way, and now have an amazing healing team with a new doctor who is a GP and integrative health specialist with years of experience helping chronic fatigue patients, plus a clinical nutritionist who is also trained in mind-body medicine. This picture is also supported by psychotherapy, physio and massage.

My back pain is actually at a level now that is really manageable and though it is still always there, it is far less hindering than it was (though my physio says my pain threshold is very high!). My energy levels are also higher and more stable on the whole and I am feeling more vitality in my whole being than this time last year. But i am still too unwell to 'work' in the conventional sense. I often think that part of the reason for me, a historic boundary-pusher, hard-worker, perfectionist, over-achiever etc, to be experiencing chronic fatigue, is precisely because my energy output had been too high for too long that the balance needed redressing.

It's a complex journey that covers many levels not just the physical, and from my research that really is the only way to heal this stuff! The psychological, emotional and spiritual work is a huge part of this, and even the pain specialists will tell you so, it is neuroscience! I am a healer, and this is my full time job. I believe I already am offering the gifts of my learning through this experience as insight and inspiration to others, and I hope one day to be able to offer this in a fuller way, to reach a place where I am not needing to spend so much time alone, resting, sleeping, taking care of myself, recovering, and therefore able to offer my gifts more freely.

Thank you for sharing this journey with me.