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Health Journey

Gotta Catch Em All…NOT NO THANK YOU

Teresa Love

As Rick’s cousin says “you need to stop collecting conditions like they are Pokemon to catch.”

This is so very true! So I have many complex chronic illnesses. I have POTS, CFS/ME, Vestibular Migraine, Small fiber neuropathy, CRPS, anxiety, depression…I wonder why?, EDS/Hyper-mobility, and which used to be the newest Pokémon I caught.

Which cause my joints shoulders, hips, neck, knees, and ankles to “go out of the socket sometimes with the least amount of movement, it hurts.

Ohh nope that’s not my newest condition. The other day I had my blood sugar tested just cause I’m in the Medi-Cal system new primary appointment. And my A1C was 8.3 so APPARENTLY I’m a diabetic now. The doctor thought maybe type 2 but that wasn’t even confirmed. So what’s Teresa’s fears? Hmm doctors, hospitals, needles….OH WAIT. Needles need to be used to test my blood. So now I have to test my blood. I haven’t got the hang of doing it myself yet causes me a lot of anxiety to do the poke but it’s only been a day.

So if I wasn’t already scared enough for listening to my body and making sure nothings an emergency. I sure am now. It’s insane how much these symptoms over lap with my other conditions.

According to ChatGPT yes I’m using this!

🔄 Symptoms high glucose and your conditions have in common

1. Exhaustion / fatigue

  • High glucose: cells aren’t using sugar properly → low usable energy
  • POTS/CFS-type issues: poor circulation + autonomic dysfunction
    👉 Feels like: “hit a wall,” heavy, drained

2. Dizziness / lightheadedness

  • High glucose: dehydration + electrolyte imbalance
  • POTS: blood pooling, heart rate changes
    👉 Can feel almost identical

3. Nausea / stomach upset

  • High glucose: slows digestion and irritates the gut
  • Your conditions: autonomic dysfunction can also affect digestion
    👉 Nausea, bloating, or even diarrhea

4. Headaches / migraines

  • High glucose: inflammation + fluid shifts
  • You already asked about migraines → big overlap
    👉 Can trigger or worsen headaches

5. Brain fog / confusion

  • High glucose: affects how your brain uses energy
  • Your baseline: fatigue + meds can already cause fog
    👉 Hard to tell apart sometimes

6. Rapid heart rate / “off” feeling

  • High glucose: dehydration → heart works harder
  • POTS: heart rate spikes with position changes
    👉 Feels like your system is “out of whack”

7. Weakness / shaky feeling

  • High glucose swings (especially if dropping from high):
    👉 can feel like a crash, even if not true low blood sugar

🚨 The tricky part

Because there’s so much overlap, it’s easy to assume:

“This is just my normal condition acting up”

…but sometimes it’s actually:

blood sugar being too high

So now I’m like how many times when I was so nauseous in bed was it POTS or high blood sugar?

It kinda feels like what do I believe. Okay I blackout from POTS. Yes that true. And I have eye issues with vestibular migraine. And I’m obviously exhausted with chronic fatigue but also that can be diabetes.

My niece has type 1 diabetes she’s only 5 years old. But now it’s all she knows. I think if she can do it I can do it. But she doesn’t have the over thinking side of it. The trying to stay away from sugar and it causes more depression, the fear of needles, ALL the other conditions I have.

Lately well for a while now, I’ve been using to use something to be able to sit up or go to something like out to dinner with hubby. I would need alcohol or soda. But now either are options!??? Am I going back to those 5 years where I could barely leave the house cause I couldn’t be upright for long enough to do anything!?

NO, I refuse to go back to those times.

Now that I’ve gotten a lot of emotions out let’s do what Teresa does best find the positives.

My dad texted this “I have been praying hard for you and maybe this latest challenge is an insight towards healing? Maybe the sensor needed to collect data needed to move the needle in the right direction and it will fix something. I still have hope.”

My mom texted

There is HOPE cause there’s one stationary belief that I have and that’s having God fight these battles with me.

I hear this song Battle Belongs.

“When all I see is the battle, You see my victory
When all I see is the mountain, You see a mountain moved
And as I walk through the shadow, Your love surrounds me
There’s nothing to fear now for I am safe with You

So when I fight, I’ll fight on my knees
With my hands lifted high
Oh God, the battle belongs to You
And every fear I lay at Your feet
I’ll sing through the night
Oh God, the battle belongs to You”

One thing I noticed today was sometimes diabetes awareness has a butterfly and a butterfly 🦋 has always been my own sign of HOPE.

So for now let’s take deep breaths, keep praying and hoping.

Love, T

Beauty/Lifestyle Blogger

The Proposal Story

Teresa Love
Secret Proposal pics

It was a Wednesday evening when Ricky asked Teresa to go out to dinner on Friday for an early dinner to celebrate our 10 months together. Since we missed the celebration before. At first Teresa was quite suspicious thinking maybe the ring came in and it was time to get proposed to. But as she kept mentioning and asking to be proposed to before her Chicago trip. Ricky kept saying it probably wasn’t going to happen in time. This bummed Teresa out. Now Friday 7/29/22 Teresa asked what to wear to dinner he said what ever you’d like I’m not dressing up. Therefore this made Teresa think he wasn’t going to propose there. Plus all the other days she’s been wearing dresses and going her makeup all cute.

As we drive to dinner we have a great time chatting. Get to dinner and have to wait. So we wait outside talking about how happy we are. At dinner, Teresa jokingly says “don’t put a ring in my food I don’t want to break my teeth, he says haha no of course not I wouldn’t propose here also I’m so sorry but the ring hasn’t come I won’t be able to propose before you leave. Teresa got freaky really sad and thought she could tell by his face that he was being truthful. Teresa is taking her time eating like normal but Ricky starts to rush her a little bit saying “oh traffic just jumped to 27 mins to 57 mins, we have to go. But Teresa wants dessert! Unfortunately it’s too late and the check comes and we rush out of the restaurant to avoid the bad traffic.

They talk a little bit in the car but then Teresa gets super super tired and asks to take a little nap which worked out great because Rick ended up taking the back roads and Teresa would have gotten car sick.

As we near Teresa’s house Rick nicely wakes Teresa up saying “we are almost home but can you do me a favor and close your eyes for me?” Of course she does. As she keeps her eyes closed he drives a little more and then parks. He says “keep your eyes closed and hold on.” He gets out of the car goes into the trunk and supposedly walks away. She waits patiently. After a minute or two Rick comes back helps her unbuckle and grabs her hand saying “follow me.” He leads her up a curb and onto the sidewalk. She’s walking so slow in his words. He guides her to the swings and has her sit. Then says “okay open your eyes.” She does.

He’s right in front of her. Starts to say all there cute things. (a little boy says will you push me while on the swing next to us) then in shorts kneels down in the tan bark and pulls out a ring and says “will you marry me?” She says “yes of course!!!” Hugs and kisses him. (the little boy says are you done with that yet? Pointing to my swing.) He puts the ring in her finger. And then after a few minutes he takes my hand and says let’s walk. We walk across the park.

As we walk we are just over the moon excited and she keeps looking at her ring. Then he says “have you ever noticed over that hill there is a basketball hoop?” Teresa looks over to the right and keeps looking for it squinting cause she can’t see without her glasses very easily. Finally she sees it. He pauses turns her to the left and says “babe look.”

When she looks she sees a white pop up tent with a Love balloon, pictures strung on the wall, pink roses, a sparkling cider bottle, and fruit bowl. It was straight out of a romance movie. She kissed him and cried. Their pictures were covering the walls. What an adorable and peaceful set up.

It was pretty amazing!!!! Can’t wait to be Mrs!

Love, T

christian, Health Journey

It’s Been a Crazy Week!!!

Teresa Love

God is good!!!

Life has been a whirlwind lately. As my boyfriend Rick and I have been getting to know each other and learning everything about each other. We discovered that even at a early time of dating we loved each other. And now fast forward 9 months! We are planning to find a place to live and get married.

This is not a love letter to my boyfriend. It’s a “wow I can’t believe this is my life right now!?”

7 years of being sick 4 of them being close to housebound and now I am in the process of finding a place to live away from my parents, I have a boyfriend who truly cares about me, and we are planning a wedding in the future. Like serious what is my life!?

Story time: months and months ago Ricky and I put our name on a waiting list for these apartments that weren’t even built yet. The wonderful this is they are literally 1 minute from my house now. This means with my health my mom can help me anytime I need, if he’s not home and I’m having a bad health day or symptom. We really wanted to stay in our same town as close as we could to my parents. Then on Thursday July 30th they contacted us. Asking if we wanted to come in for a tour? Of course we said “yes!” Scheduled it for July 10th which was in 2 Saturdays. I understood I needed to wait but I was starting to worry a little. Then Saturday morning they texted and said “you can come at 11:30am for a tour.” Of course we said “yes!”

We went for the tour. At first it seemed odd cause it was still a construction site and we knocked and no one answered. It was daylight so we weren’t worried and I have my big tough guy with me. Lol

So I called the number they texted me and they said “oh awesome, we are here we will walk down from the model home section.” We met 2 really nice ladies. They right away showed us the clubhouse which had a heated pool, pool table, high ceilings, tables and high seats, etc. it looked awesome!

Then they took us in the golf cart to the one apartment that is actually finished. It was absolutely beautiful. Loved everything. It didn’t feel too small which can be a big problem for me cause I get claustrophobic. I could totally picture us living there. There was a nice kitchen with all appliances. There was windows that brought in a lot of light. And a walk in closet which could be a nice way to hide some stuff (makeup drawers, book cart, bathroom cart, clothes, etc) and a bath/shower in the bathroom nothing was too short which can be a problem with our tall heights. Is was gorgeous and very home like.

There’s a little more process to do but we are looking at our expenses and planning to jump on the application when we get all our ducks in a row and they contact us again.

Then we decided to go look at rings. I knew I wanted to look and he didn’t know even my size so we went on a little trip to go ring shopping. First we went to the place he got my necklace which was for Valentine’s Day ended up finding the ABSOLUTE perfect dream ring there it’s unique just like I am as he said. So now we are starting the process to plan the wedding because the ring will take 2-4 weeks for it to come in since it’s custom. Exciting!!!!!!

Im just really happy, excited, joyful, and content. I still have my ups and downs with my health. Even a newish thing if I think too much or do too much for too long then I get a pretty bad migraine (so that’s fun…not)

But seriously I am feeling so blessed!!

For now. Please pray and send us good thoughts. We need to stay calm, relaxed, and excited. When God opens door we chose to walk through.

Love, T

Health Journey

Recovery

Teresa Love

“If you stumble, make it part of the dance.” –  Unknown

“She made broken look beautiful and strong look invincible. She walked with the universe on her shoulders and made it look like a pair of wings.” –  Ariana Dancu

“I don’t want my pain and struggle to make me a victim. I want my battle to make me someone else’s hero.” –  Unknown

“Resting is not laziness, it’s medicine!”

“When the unthinkable happens, the lighthouse is hope. Once we choose hope, everything is possible.” –  Christopher Reeve

“If opening your eyes, or getting out of bed, or holding a spoon, or combing your hair is the daunting Mount Everest you climb today, that is okay.” –  Carmen Ambrosio

Recovery its not an ugly word. It is the word that “means a return to a normal state of health, mind, or strength.” or “he action or process of regaining possession or control of something stolen or lost.”

This word recovery is often used when someone is recovering from something whether it’s an addiction or a short health related thing. But what do you do when your health condition has effected every single aspect of your life? You can’t think or walk without it saying, “I’m here.”

My life has been been just like this. But we aren’t here to say “poor me,” because in my opinion saying those words doesn’t help you live the best life that I believe we deserve.

So about 6 months ago, I made the decision to get the covid 19 Pfizer shot. After having a really weird body and knowing I could have the rare reactions, I took a leap of faith and got it. We won’t talk about how long I waited in a car line for it….but after 4 days of feeling sick flu like feelings as the days continue and a month went by I started to notice more and more changes.

I felt energy not a ton but some. I felt like I wanted to do more. In could sit up for longer periods of time without triggering my symptoms. Instead of 5 minutes I could sit up for 10 minutes. One day I realized I could leave my walker in a room and just walk around the house without holding on to things to keep my balance. My mom, dog, and I started walking outside. These changes started slow and there was definitely a part of me that was afraid to believe because if I did believe and say the words “I am on the road to recovery,’ what if something changed and I was but to being very very sick again stagnant in my life.

Now fast-forward to now November of 2021. I have been walking without my walker for over 4 months now. I have a niece my first one and I’m an auntie. I can hold the baby and walk around. I can get down on the floor and lay her on her mat. I can babysit and go for walks in the hills of the city with my sister, mom, and baby. This has been such a wonderful light in my life. The constant baby smiles we see her once a week and facetime a lot with the baby.

I have a boyfriend. He’s amazing. the most caring, funny, and honestly the most genuine guy. I have been able to go out on dates. Like actually leave my house get dressed up and go out. This is such a huge thing for me, I was actually nervous that no one would want to try to date me with all the things that come along with it but this guy sure is one of a kind.

There is a lot of benefits of the stages of recovery I am in now. As I’m sure you can tell my mood is even happier. But there will ups and downs and rest days and really tired days and not feeling good days but the good thing is after I rest it doesn’t seem to last like before. YAY!!!!!!

Beauty/Lifestyle Blogger, Health Journey

Resting is Self Care

Teresa Love

Hey it’s me!

Something amazing happens!? It’s really cool. Haha that reminds me of when I used to watch The Wild Thornberries and she’d say “she could talk to animals but it’s totally secret.”

June 26th 2021 marks 4 years straight of being chronically ill. Barely leaving the house, using mobility aids whether it’s my walker or wheelchair, and watching my life fly by while I’m stuck staying reclined almost 24/7 in my chair.

I don’t even know when this started but for a few months now I started feeling better. First I could walk without my walker for like 20 mins and I was amazed. Then I felt more strength in my legs from all the movement my doctors have me doing. Then I started to be able to sit up for longer periods 10 mins to 2 hours now. Now I can walk without my walker most days and do a lot more. Now to figure out life but that will be another post. Lol

Honesty it’s so FREAKIN amazing. Like feeling better, having energy and motivation to do more is so great.

But what I forget about sometimes is I’m still sick. There’s no cure for my condition so I may get to a functioning level, but I will still need to rest. And honestly I’m okay with that. At first I was like doing all these things each day and then I’d get to day 8 and be exhausted and sad. But now I understand that I need rest days, hours, and minutes.

So when I start to feel tired or worn down I just have to remember self care is important and resting takes priority over anything else.

Love, Teresa