We got away for a week's vacation at the start of June, camping in two beautiful state parks in the Laurel Highlands region of southwest Pennsylvania. It's a mountainous area filled with waterfalls, roaring rivers, and peaceful lakes that I've wanted to visit for decades. We were also able to visit Fallingwater, the famous house that Frank Lloyd Wright designed that sits on top of a waterfall!
This 15-minute video brings you along with us to see all the sights. You can watch it on my YouTube channel or I will include it below. Turn up the sound so you can heard all the birdsong and waterfalls!
Although we enjoyed our trip, I relapsed again, out of the blue. It started a few days before our trip, with some mild symptoms, but I had a few very severe days while we were camping. My bed is very comfortable in our trailer (home away from home), and I have a lounge chair that lays flat outside, so I spent a lot of time lying in that and reading or taking naps inside. The weather was perfect for that part of the trip, and it was relaxing to look up at the treetops and listen to the birdsong, even with a sore throat and flu-like aches. We made the best of it. My husband was wonderful, as always. When I woke up badly crashed on Wednesday, he just smiled and said, "I guess it's a Plan B day, then!" (a quote from my book!).
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| My outdoor resting spot |
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| I had a lot of reading time! |
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| Can't beat the view! |
We were fortunate in that many of the major features in our first stop, Ohiopyle State Park, were very accessible, often just 10-20 steps from the car, so on my better (still not great) days, we toured with the car and got out to see the sights here and there--very laid-back.
And as mysteriously as this crash began, it ended! I woke up Saturday morning (our last day before driving home), and I suddenly felt like myself again! I was grateful, and we were able to enjoy a little easy kayaking that day, but it's so frustrating to me to not know why.
Perhaps the short-lived nature of the relapse (about one week) was due to one of the new treatments I've been trying:
- Microdosing tirzepatide (which helped in the fall and winter & I restarted during my April/May relapse)
- Sirolimus/rapamune (also known as rapamycin) - I'm not up to the full dose yet, but I had been taking it for 3 weeks when this crash hit.
Certainly, neither of those prevented the crash from happening--during a time of year when I usually feel quite good--but perhaps one or both helped me to get over it quickly.
Once I get up to the full dose of rapamune, I'll write a detailed post to tell you all about it. In my last post, I explained the results of some research into it and why I decided to try it, including links to articles and videos.
