Maia Well Being

Autoimmune diagnosis, 2013

MY DIAGNOSIS… ON MY 34TH BIRTHDAY… and I was told… “Take medication for the rest of your life”… Ah, a big problem, my first thought was, I would never remember to take medication every day for the rest of my life, that is just who I am, so this was not going to work…

SECOND THOUGHT… I had already decided that it makes no sense to rely on anything made in a lab, anything “scientifically proven” or anything shipped around the world in a plastic container. Having stopped taking pharmaceuticals (at all) around 2006 and only minimal over the counter medications. Around 2010 I also began cutting back on supplementation, which I had been convinced was improving my health.

THIRD THOUGHT – I AM ILL! At 34 I was on the rough end of 6 years of not sleeping due to constant urinary tract infection (UTI)… which I was managing, by drinking water in near toxic amounts and peeing every hour! That was one symptom I was putting up with, and thinking it was normal.

WHAT HAD HAPPENED – Late 2013 There were a few big changes all at once (house, car, tv, fridge) and I developed a raging urinary tract infection that I couldn’t manage, I couldn’t sleep due to tingling hands & feet, I was in pain, my back ached, my head was fuzzy, my throat felt like it was being boiled from the inside when I was near a phone, computer, the TV, fridge, there was indigestion, heart burn, tachychardia, headaches… and I went to the Doctor.

WAS I WORRIED, SCARED? Of course I was, I was at the doctor because my body was failing, I knew this because I could feel myself, I hurt, I smelt gross, I wasn’t functioning, I was exhausted. I was sensitive to sugar, coffee, alcohol, mobile phone, refrigerators, tvs, cleaning products and people etc etc…

WAS I DESPERATE? YES, I was wanting/trying to have children, that wasn’t working, and how could I have a child in this state? One year into my marriage, and I was clearly broken, embarrassed, feeling less than I should on every level.

Did the diagnosis help? YES… I had a starting point, I had information handed to me to help me make sense of what I was feeling. Whilst I was diagnosed with a lifelong issue, it also took away a large amount of the unknown. BUT, the thyroid hormones were barely out of range, so I requested a printout of the results so I could have a quick google & read some of my books (don’t get caught up in Dr. Google, just get information you can use).

Below are my test results showing the readings… very simply explained, when the bacteria that eat old/dead thyroid cells (a necessary part of you being healthy) are so far out of balance, it tells you that the thyroid cells are not healthy… but why? This doesn’t ‘just happen’.

Why then, were my levels so out of balance… because there was very limited circulation in my throat due to subconscious muscle tension. Subconscious muscle tension is created by you, your experiences (good bad, trauma, emotional, psychological, physical or otherwise)… which means!

Subconscious muscle tension can be released by you!!! You can improve circulation when you release tension… you release tension by creating physical safety that your nervous system recognises, and this you can do on the move, once you have an understanding of what it feels like to be physically aligned, once you have felt this in your being, this is yours, this is your innate intelligence returning to consciousness to direct you to better choices.

Did I do what I was told by the expert? Well, no, I find ‘experts’ are limited in their view. I am my own expert because I want to feel my being, I know that everything I can feel is connected to everything I am experiencing, there is no isolation within us, but for the experts/specialists focus. So, due to my career path as a massage/bodyworker, I had enough understanding to know that the Thyroid (or any part of your body) does not work, or fall apart, alone.

Here is where it gets interesting… I politely declined the prescription the GP gave me, as I wanted to explore other options, and find out what I was doing that had caused this. This diagnosis being Graves Disease or overactive thyroid, remembering the diagnosis is lifetime. However, I did agree to return 3 months later, for followup tests, and the doctor, reading my results started discussing symptoms associated with Hashimotos or underactive thyroid. OK, so I had swung from one lifetime disease to the opposite lifetime disease. There is no way you can have both of these at the same time, and I wonder how taking the prescribed medication would have impacted this?

Here’s where I got annoyed… I wanted to know about the anti-thyroglobulin count. Recommended level <60 and my count 1800 1st test, 1900 followup. WTF, that one is concerning! Doctors response was, ‘that is not really important’, you just need the medication to correct the hormones.

More concerning… 4 years later, another doctor told me why my concern was correct THAT’S CANCER… Oh OK… I had nothing to say to that… and it was certainly irrelevant by that stage, but doesn’t that raise a few more questions???

Nearly 7 years on since the first diagnosis, I am not medicated by anything, nor do I rely on any superfoods, supplements or dietary restrictions… I eat everything, I enjoy massage, osteopathic/craniosacral treatments, acupuncture – but I do not need them (like I used to) – they are helpful to keep learning about myself. I wake in the morning free of aches & pains, any pain I experience during the day is now a message that how I am moving is not working, so I slow down, feeling for the limit to my range of motion which is where I can create a new more comfortable experience… I end the day at least how I started, often better than…

I am comfortable & free moving from when I wake in the morning, to when I go to bed at night.

I do not do any exercise, fitness building, strength building, stretching, core strengthening… my body is in balance, the skinny bits are now plump, the areas where I was retaining a buildup of subcutaneous tissue (fat) are now slimmer… I have a wonderful, fluid body, in balance, with circulation free flowing through all my tissues, my strength comes from my bones, my muscles move them effortlessly, lifting, gardening, bending without restriction or effort.

I do not need support from the latest shoes, chairs, beds, pillows… I do not subscribe to any identity or modality as an answer, I find these are all about control, and where in nature, or universal energy do we find control?

And how you can find this within yourself is what I am sharing. Maia Movement sessions are concept free, guiding you to find the Universal Principles within your body. Unravelling postural tensions built around looks and health, cemented by the nervous system which makes subconscious muscle tension when there is repetition…

Please forward me any questions, or comment, and keep an eye out for the next blog which will go into the symptoms & what caused all this.