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Trivedi retreat helps me once again. Yay!

Four hours ago today I returned home from Chicago. I left home last Thursday night, went to the retreat with Guruji Mahendra Trivedi, stayed for 3 days with friends, and drove home today. This blog describes my excitement at how good I feel tonight!

Every retreat I've attended (there have been four total, and I've gone to every one of them) has raised my energy a great big notch. I've written about my experiences and results in detail in these posts:
http://cfsmethylation.blogspot.com/2010_06_01_archive.html (June retreat in Chicago)
http://cfsmethylation.blogspot.com/2010/08/im-feeling-fabuilous.html (July retreat in San Diego)
I didn't write anything about the March San Diego retreat, because I felt strong and healthy there -- danced with no PEM the next day, even took a 20 minute walk -- and got very sick with 12 hours of reentering my house. I was so bummed out and angry by the dramatic decline, caused my sub-micron particles released into the air of the entire house from David's enthusiastic cleaning of the cold-air return in the living room), that I couldn't bare to write about it. I was also an emotional basket case, which would have led to a few pages of whining, venting, and self-pity.

I've been improving gradually over the last two months, as I reported in April and May, due to the intensive cleaning of our house (cold air returns cleaned only when I was away after that March experience), and the removal of every spot of mold and nearly all books and papers that could be harboring fungal spores, mycotoxins, dust, or bacteria. (Whew!) You can't eat off the floor yet. Next week we'll be ready for that!

A week before I left on this trip, I discovered that our new 100% natural rubber latex bed with organic cotton and wool cover has been making me sick. No prior history of latex allergy, but just to be sure, I asked my local doctor to do the RAST test and my results were negative. The bed store said they have had 4 other people who react to the latex fumes during the decade or more they've been in business selling these beds. The beds are advertised as healthy for the environment and safe for chemically sensitive people with no outgassing. Consequently, when we brought it into the house in late October, and my health rapidly deteriorated (see postings in November and December 2010) I disregarded my initial hunch that the bed was at fault--which turned out to be a good thing in retrospect (albeit a painful drawn-out lesson) because I discovered many valuable things with the help of my doctor. Among those discoveries

my genetic sensitivity to mold and other biotoxins
the said state of my basement
the various triggers and symptoms created by dust, papers, books, invisible, odorless mycotoxins in the walls of my mothers house
that I definitely have Lyme disease
that I had salmonella infection, most likely in December
that Coxsackie virus A and B strains are still actively infecting my body
that I can add Mycoplasma pneumoniae to the list of opportunistic viral infections previously active (the others are EBV and HHV6)

Consequently, it is all the more AMAZING that, after a seven hour drive in the car today alone, after waking at 6:30 am and doing things like showering and packing the car this morning, I was able to unpack my suitcase, open the mail, read my e-mail, and still have energy to wash the dinner dishes and start blogging! Wow!

The retreat was fun, the energy transmissions abundant and long, Guruji's discourses wonderful, his stories funny (albeit repetitive), the people I met wonderful, loving, joyful individuals, the hotel luxurious (Westin O'Hare), and the blood tests before and after annoying (because I get so many of those damned test. BTW, I wanted to participate in this voluntary study to support Guruji's mission to discover how this energy helps people, and to see whether the 2 days of blessings is able to raise my DHEA or lower my high MCV.)

But at this retreat I didn't experience a dramatic transformation in the lessening of symptoms or increase of energy as I had in the three previous ones. I had a little bit of emotional detox, and a tiny bit achy one afternoon. Perhaps the changes seemed unnoticeable because I was already feeling substantially better; or perhaps because I arrived at the hotel extremely dehydrated and was constipated for two days and forgot to bring my supplements and danced vigorously Saturday evening and was allergic to something in the hotel room, I left the retreat on Sunday feeling joyful but with a swollen gland and dehydration. The next two nights I woke congested from something in the bedroom at my friend's house, and the two nights after that, slept on the hard floor on some blankets in a room that did not trigger my allergies. I also ate nothing but delicious vegetarian Indian food in contrast to my normal diet of animal protein and mostly low glycemic vegetables.

In sum, from last Thursday night to this Thursday evening, I had lots more physical stresses of nearly every imaginable kind. Yet here I am, feeling fine, at 8:45 pm! 13 hours of activity without a rest...including some standing and some carrying of heavy things.

I am so grateful for these energy transmission in my life. Guruji calls them blessings, and they truly are blessings for me. My spirit feels bathed in divine love during the blessing sessions. I feel joyful and optimistic afterwards, and the more Guruji talks about the way this energy connects us to our purpose on this earth by strengthening our inner voice and our courage to act on that inner knowing, the more I understand that it is helping me make the choices of thoughts, feelings, actions, and medical treatments which are bringing me closer to the goal of a vibrant health.

The great news for all of you is that Guruji announced a new program for low-income people which he hopes to initiate this summer. In the meantime, the Trivedi Foundation has already set up a commercial arm under the name Trivedi Master Wellness, and this month (July) begins a somewhat low cost program called the Monthly Enhancement Program which offers participants a monthly group blessings for $50. Since everyone of the MEP is required to have prior experience with the blessings, the energy will be stronger than on the introductory group calls.

May all of you find your own path to wellness. I'm starting to think that even if ME-CFS turns out to have a single etiology, treatments will have to be individualized, as we all develop different sensitivities and differing infections. Participating in blessings, as Guruji likes to say, is like turning on your GPS so that you head in the right direction and know when and where to make turns.

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JanisB
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