Brett was feeling well enough to drive us back to the ranch yesterday! I’ve been practicing my driving more but I wasn’t ready for a 3.5 hour road trip yet.
We’re both really glad to be back on the ranch now. There’s something really reassuring about a little familiarity in the middle of an unstable life. Plus, the wind is blowing from the north and it feels fantastic!
Yesterday morning, while we were packing up to leave, I had a mini-epiphany.
Let me explain…
I’ve been really fatigued these last two weeks. I feel like I’m having to drag myself through each day. The chores take me hours because I move so slowly. By late afternoon, I often find myself crying because I don’t have any energy left but I still have plenty of work to do. I’ve been puzzling over it for several days now.
What is wrong? I had so much energy just a few weeks ago. Is there some contamination in the van? Could it be a withdrawal symptom? Do I need to decontaminate myself more often?
Changing locations seemed to help the pain and mood issues that the south wind blew in, but the fatigue did not improve one bit. It finally occurred to me that maybe the fatigue wasn’t biotoxin induced after all. Maybe I was just low on electrolytes. After all, I’ve been sweating like crazy day after day in this inescapable heat! Could that also be why I was wanting a lot more salt on my food than I usually like?
Maybe I just needed to drink more water and try some of the salt pills I used take when I had POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome). They helped a lot with my low blood pressure and low blood volume.
So, when we got to Rapid City yesterday evening, we stopped at three different stores trying to find the sodium tablets. The last Walgreens we tried, had the same kind I used to take for my POTS. Yay!
I took some of the pills immediately but I didn’t really notice a difference. Bummer… I was pretty sure they helped within an hour or two in the past. Maybe this is different? Maybe it will take a while to get the electrolytes back up?
Today, I took them all throughout the day… and guess what? My intuition was right! I did all the chores and I didn’t even need an afternoon cry.
Best of all, I still had enough energy left over to run around with Ramona this evening. I even skipped to the water spout when it was time to fill our shower bottles. I definitely don’t skip unless I have energy to spare! Hooray for a simple cure! That almost never happens!
Disclaimer: This might be obvious but please don’t take salt pills if you have high blood pressure, heart disease, or kidney disease.
By the way, Brett and I made a beautiful PDF of my favorite resources for suffering souls. I created the content and he made it look fancy with his superduper graphic design skills. It’s available for free to my email subscribers. Click here to sign up and receive 5 Resources for the Suffering Soul.
