A New Beginning

Wow! This is exciting. I have never had my own personal blog but I wanted a way to keep up with how my health is improving while eating Xocai "healthy chocolate" and this seemed to be the new age way of doing things.

There was a time when I never thought that I would be "old". I can still remember that day? Everyone else was older than me. I was invincible. Then something happened. Yes, I remember that day to... I was at my obstetricians. I was pregnant with my 5th child and I noticed on my chart the great, big, circled letters, AMA. They were even in RED. I asked the nurse, the same one that had been logging my chart for over 4 years with my 3 previous pregnancies, what it meant. In an embarrassed and hushed tone she said, "advanced maternal age" and then she apologized.

OK, so I was going to be 40 when I delivered this child. No big deal! I felt the same as I had in all of my previous pregnancies. But then one day, early in my 2nd trimester, things started to change. I was more tired than usual and my body was starting to ache. I kept writing it off to age and the fact that I had 4 other children at home; three under the age of four. Then one evening while reading bedtime stories my words started to slur. This frightened me, but I still wasn't ready to let on to my fears. The next day I had a well-baby appointment with my 1 year old and while I was explaining to my pediatrician how I was feeling, I started to slur again. (Now I was frightened.) I called my husband on the way home and he called his sister who is a RN. I also called my OB and spoke with his nurse. It was unanimous, they all felt I should go to the ER. I spent 7 days in the hospital. I had various levels of slurred speach and respiratory distress and I found that certain facial muscles were unresponsive. What was funny was that with sleep, the symptoms seemed to recede. Well, we all know when the doctors come in to visit and check your symptoms, right? Yep, in the early AM. Everytime the doctors were in, I was able to speak clearly. Thank goodness that the nurses were able to log my inability to speak, eat and even spit my toothpaste out. Now there's a sight: a grown woman with a mouthful of toothpaste and no ability to spit. It was really quite funny, at least to me. I learned to throw water into my mouth in order to rinse.

The night I first entered the ER, the doctor's had given me three possible options of what I was experiencing. They were MS, myasthenia gravis (MG), and something else that I couldn't pronounce. They ruled out MS first. That left the other two and since I didn't have any idea what they were, I wasn't feeling very relieved. Well, the bottom line when I was finally released from the hospital (after a week of much needed rest) was that I probably, most likely, had MG and it appeared to be a mild case. It was treatable but there were no real stats on the effects that it would have on my unborn child. Probably (optimal word here) nothing noteworthy. I spent the rest of my pregnancy getting as much rest as possible. If the kids were asleep, I was asleep.

It's been 3-1/2 years. I've gone through various levels of fatigue. I still suffer occasional respiratory distress and when I'm tired, I have a heavy lisp. In the beginning we had to put the children in daycare. There were days when I just wasn't able to truly care for them and my husband would have to stay home from work. I have learned that sleep needs to take priority in my life. Again, if the kids are asleep, I need to be asleep. I did start taking the meds to help control the symptoms of MG. At one point a year ago, I had to go off the meds for three days in order to take some muscle response test. At that time, under the observation of my neurologist, I decided to stay off of them. He agreed that there had never been a real diagnosis. The meds that I take only treat MG, so my logic was that if I could stay off of them and not have my symptoms return with full force, maybe I was misdiagnosed. My neurologist agreed that it was possible. It only took me 10 days without my meds and I was unable to speak without sounding drunk and my repiratory distress way pretty extreme. There it was, my diagnosis. I got back on my meds, spent 10 days in bed and got back to what seemed to be the future of my health if I was lucky, there is always the possibility that it could get worse.

Enter, Xocai...

On July 12, I hosted a "chocolate tasting" for my best friend. She had been trying to get me into it for months and I wasn't paying too much attention. I mean, really, eat chocolate and get healthy? Who's going to believe that? Well, I listened to her presentation and I tasted the chocolate. After all, that's what you do at a chocolate tasting, right? You eat your girlfriend's chocolate. Something that you'll never catch me turning down. lol The testimonies were unbelievable. People were seeing improvements with all sorts of things: diabetes, lupus, their eyesight, weight control, energy levels...you name it, there was a testimony. Needless to say, I signed on that day. I placed my order and I waited for my chocolate. On July 17 I started my first full day (3 servings) of Xocai. I had ordered the nuggets and the omega squares and I would alternate between the two, always before a meal. After the first day, I was already starting to feel more energetic. Now, mind you, I am a skeptic. Was it the chocolate or just the hope of feeling better and the adrenaline rush of it all?

It's early August, the 6th to be exact, and I'm still feeling better. Most days my energy level is thru the roof. It seems too good to be true. I won't lie, there have been a few days when I was tired. Those days have been few and since they came with other "symptoms", I'm adding them up to being "hormonal".