If you missed Part One, check it out here!
Biohacking
Doing an elimination diet was helpful, but I wasn’t absorbing food as well as I should. One thing I’ve learned is “You aren’t what you eat, you are what you absorb.” I knew I had to supplement my body with nutrients it needed in other ways.
I turned to what many people call biohacking: alternative therapies to optimize your health. With the help of my doctors, I researched all things biohacking. Being unemployed, I had a lot of free time outside of job searching. I was determined to spend as much of every day on things that would make me feel better. I continued to ground, spend time in the sun, meditate, journal, and sleep well, but I needed more.
I discovered Restore Hyper Wellness. The location near me offers IV therapy, Mild Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (mHBOT), and red light therapy among other things. I became a member and it was one of the best choices I’ve ever made.
The benefits of IV therapy are pretty obvious. Hydration and vitamins/minerals directly to your bloodstream. Restore offers much more than just a hangover IV bag. You are able to hand pick all vitamins put into your bag in each session. With the help of my doctors we crafted a cocktail suitable for the deep healing I was walking through.
HBOT, I had never heard of. There are two ways to receive the therapy. One is more intense, and offered at hospitals for burn victims and cancer patients to speed up wound healing. The other, is a more mild version (mHBOT) and is available at wellness clinics, like Restore. As it turns out many professional athletes have these machines in their homes to optimize recovery.
Each session goes like this: You lay down inside the chamber and it slowly pressurizes. You spend an hour inside breathing in oxygen through a canula. It is healing because it delivers pure oxygen directly to your body and the pressurization of the chamber speeds up the healing process. It’s also forced relaxation, because once you are in, you are in until the session is over. After several sessions, you really start to feel the effects. Once you learn how to relax, being in the chamber feels like you are floating. Each session compounds on itself.
This therapy is so good that an organization is actually trying to shut them down across the country. It’s no surprise that when people find a therapy that works, the medical world wants their piece of the pie. The chamber I was using was actually shutdown temporarily. Thankfully this was after I had seen considerable healing.
At the time, I didn’t have any desire to hang out with my friends. I felt isolated for many reasons, but part of me subconsciously wanted it to be this way. Looking back, it’s almost like when a caterpillar is spending time in a cocoon before its metamorphosis into a beautiful butterfly. I didn’t want to spend the little energy I had explaining to more people that I was going to be okay. Keeping my family from worrying was enough. I knew I was doing what I needed to do. And I knew I was getting better, despite what other people saw on the outside.
During this time, I made new friends…at Restore. Shout out to them, because the nurses and employees that work there are incredible and got me through some of the toughest times. At some points I was getting 2 IVs and 5 HBOT sessions per week. I brought a book to read or music to listen to. But many days I ended up being there during a slower time and was able to chat with the staff.
In the amount of time I spent at Restore, I heard some of the most incredible stories of self-healing. PTSD sufferers seeing a decrease in anxiety and depression from the mHBOT. Diabetics being able to decrease their insulin intake through targeted diet and IV therapy. And people like me, with Chron’s or colitis seeing that their lives didn’t need to be spent in constant pain while searching for the closest bathroom. Hearing these stories was exactly what I needed to keep going on this journey to heal my own body.
Somehow I just knew this was another piece of the healing puzzle. I did everything I could to envision and manifest what my life would look like in a year. All of the plans, trips, and memories I had to put on hold in 2022 would come to fruition in 2023; I just had to be patient. I told myself this countless times while laying in the mHBOT, before bed, and on walks.
I looked back through old texts and found that one year ago today I was at Restore getting an IV. Today, one full year later, I’m returning home from a wonderful trip to Colorado with my husband. I always knew it was possible, but it feels good to show everyone who doubted my efforts what I’ve been able to accomplish.
