It took me years to understand the patterns. To me, this all just sounded crazy and impossible. Now that I’ve learned more about mitochondrial disorders, this makes perfect sense and is consistent with experiences of mito patients. For years I was alone in this, thinking maybe I was crazy… I wrote this in early 2012, and I am placing this here in the hopes it saves you some sanity in tracking down your own patterns.

Things that make it worse – Things that make it better

Worse:

Each time my baseline is lowered for any reason, it seems as if it takes me longer each time to recover back to wherever my baseline was previously.

1. PHYSICAL EXERTION – The severity of my symptoms are directly related to how much I try to push my body to do. I do NOT recover with rest as I would normally expect.

2. COLD weather – I have a difficult time regulating my body temp due to Autonomic dysfunction. From early Sept to May I wear many layers in attempt to keep warm. During this time, my baseline is lowered considerably and symptoms become dramatically worse due to cold temps. This will last until it is warm outside again.

3. Getting sick * – This lowers my baseline substantially. I was having a string of better days until I got sick in late Jan. A simple cold I got from my Son dramatically lowered my baseline for nearly 3 months. It’s mid-May now, I am only now starting to improve back towards what my baseline was before getting sick. Each time I get sick, hurt or do too much it takes longer and longer to get back to my previous baseline.

4. Physical Trauma – Each of the 4 times I had a PICC installed or removed, my baseline was notably lowered for roughly 1 week each time. There are many other and better examples, but this is the most recent that comes to mind.
5. Stress and/or anger ** – This is a big one. Looking at my logs today, I noticed I had first written about this within the first few weeks of this. ALL of my symptoms become instantly worse, the pain and tingling especially. This will last a long time, weeks or months.
6. **Many chemical and food sensitivities – Symptoms become substantially and immediately worse, lowering my baseline for months.

Better:

1. GLUTATHIONE – Substantial improvement in baseline. Substantial improvement in brain fog, energy levels, stamina, pain, etc.
2. Saline Drip (NSS) – Helps at times, somewhat with tightness in flesh as well as a noticeable improvement in certain types of pain (burning acid like feelings in flesh, some of the stiffness, etc)
3. Massage/Acupuncture – helps with circulation, pain and mobility
4. Supplements – (see Supplement and Injection Routine)