Drugs and recovery

Been a while since I posted here. That's a good sign, it means I haven't had any setbacks!

It's true. No setbacks. I signed up for the BASI Pilates Teaching Certification Course (Pilates has saved me, how could I not decide to become a Pilates teacher??) which started two weeks ago. Part of what's required is to learn all the exercises, of course, which necessitates practice. Lots and lots of practice. I wasn't sure that I'd be up to the physical challenge, but since Pilates typically makes me feel better (only makes me feel worse when I don't listen to my heart rate monitor!) I figured I was just gonna jump in with both feet and see what happened.

For the last two weeks I've been doing Pilates 5 days a week. That's quite a jump in activity level from where I was even two months ago. I'm wearing my heart rate monitor and resting between exercises when I need to, but for the most part it's non-stop Pilates. And I'm thriving. This is the best I've felt since this whole craziness started. Is it all the lateral breathing (breathing into the sides of your ribs)? Low-heart rate activity? I don't know. I don't care. It just feels great to be active again.

And all without drugs. Any drugs. I admit in the beginning it was pretty scary. But I was more scared of the drugs than of my lungs not working. Asthma drugs didn't work on me, so those were never a temptation. My only option was prednisone, a steroid, and I just wasn't going to go there, way too scary. Steroids are immune suppressors ferchristssake, they give it to organ transplant patients to treat organ rejection. Incredibly powerful drugs, steroids. I rather like my immune system, thank you, I think I'll keep it. Read the potential side effects of prednisone on wikipedia. It should scare the hell out of you. Scares the hell out of me. Side effects like euphoria and mania? Sound far out, right? No. Happened to someone close to me after one single dose. One dose.

Yes, it's a pain in the ass to do things the natural way. I have to eat right. I have to meditate. I have to take garlic, and remember to make myself ginger tea. And not work out too hard. And yes, it's frustrating and sometimes scary to have a setback. But if I was on drugs, would I feel the setback? Would I know that I needed to take it easy? Think about that for a moment. If you're on drugs that make you FEEL good you're much more likely to push past your natural boundaries.

The past 8 months have been long, admittedly. But I've learned a great lesson. Listen, listen, listen to your body. Give it what it needs and let it do its job.