Before Helping Others With CFS Recovery, Miguel Battled For His Health

01/01/25 • 70 min

After recovering from CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome aka myalgic encephalomyelitis) Miguel Bautista felt like he had a new lease on life. At the height of his illness he was unable to walk or sit up in bed and needed meals blended so he could drink them. Now he is running marathons, traveling, spending quality time with loved ones and running a successful CFS recovery program. His journey through chronic illness was extremely tumultuous, but led to several profound realizations about how he was living his life. It also re-defined his life’s purpose moving forward.

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Miguel walks us through his incredible journey through the depths of chronic illness and back. Realizing his immune system was overactive was a turning point in his journey. He elected admittance into in-patient psychiatric care to work on calming his hypersensitive nervous system. Through the use of medication and therapy, he was back on his feet within a month, experiencing long-lasting recovery.

After getting out of the hospital, Miguel began sharing his experience online. He quickly discovered the methods he had used to recover and the lessons he learned about neuroplasticity could be applied to other people. He now operates CFS Recovery, offering both free and paid coaching to individuals living through similar circumstances. He tells us about the three fundamental principals of his recovery program: determining your individual stress threshold, understanding the base problem of a hyperactive nervous system, and recognizing that your success will be dictated by how you respond to flaring symptoms.

Check out Miguel’s program at https://youtube.com/@cfsrecovery, and hear his full story on this week’s podcast!

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

Major Pain has been selected by FeedSpot as one of the 100 best chronic illness podcasts, making the list at #6! Check out the full list here: https://podcast.feedspot.com/chronic_illness_podcasts/?feedid=7317394&_src=f1_featured_email

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Check out Miguel’s program at https://youtube.com/@cfsrecovery, and hear his full story on this week’s podcast!

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

AFFILIATE LINKS
RARE PATIENT VOICE: https://rarepatientvoice.com/MajorPainPodcast
AMAZON SHOP: https://www.amazon.com/shop/majorpainpodcast
NEURAHEALTH: https://www.neurahealth.co/majorpain

Previous Episode

Amee is Finally Opening Up About Epilepsy 35 Years After Being Diagnosed

When Amee was first diagnosed with epilepsy at 8 years old, one simple medication was able to control her disease. This made it easy to hide her illness from almost everyone in her life, which remained the case for about 35 years. Of course there were complications along the way. When looking to start a family she faced the potential that this medication could cause birth defects, but with the help of an understanding doctor Amee was able to have two healthy children. It wasn’t until Amee was in her mid 40s that her relationship with epilepsy underwent a profound shift. Her symptoms worsened significantly – the frequency of her seizures went up dramatically. Keeping her disease a secret was no longer possible.

Amee needed to be electively hospitalized to trigger seizures and scan for their location of origin in her brain, and she knew her disease could no longer remain secret. Of the decision to go public she says, “I could do two things. I could sit and feel sorry for myself...and fall into the societal norms, or I could use it as a tool of education and empowerment. And I chose the second route.” She started advocating publicly on social media on behalf of the epilepsy community, finally opening up about what she was going through. Friends that had known her for decades had absolutely no idea that Amee had this chronic condition. The outpouring of love and support she experienced was deeply cathartic.

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast, Amee discusses her complicated journey with epilepsy and the decision to stop hiding her disease. She shares the challenges of being a mother living with an unpredictable chronic illness. She also describes the sensation of having a seizure, including the first seizure she ever experienced. Amee suffers from simple partial seizures, where she does not lose awareness or consciousness, but is not able to move until the seizure passes. A huge piece of her story is the medication she takes, and the side effects it causes. Sometimes it feels like these side effects are more of a major pain than the epilepsy itself. Amee also discusses the power of turning to public advocacy, and how it has precipitated intense emotional healing to no longer hide her disease.

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.

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Next Episode

Tayler’s EDS was Screaming for Attention, But Doctors Ignored It

Looking back through the history of her medical challenges, it becomes painfully obvious that Tayler was born with the connective tissue disease EDS (Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome). Unfortunately, the lack of quality healthcare in her youth prevented this diagnosis for many years. She struggled physically throughout childhood, often being accused of laziness or being unwilling to participate, when in fact physical activity was more difficult, painful and dangerous for her than for her peers. Medical challenges often made her stand out, like her time spent in a back brace for scoliosis or her runaway heart rate in health class that led to a POTS diagnosis (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) at 15 years old. Her EDS was constantly manifesting, screaming to be acknowledged, but doctor after doctor refused to take Tayler’s complaints seriously.

In this episode of the Major Pain podcast Tayler shares her remarkable health journey with us, eventually coalescing around her EDS diagnosis. The tumultuous road she has traveled includes many unexpected diagnostic detours, like septic arthritis, congenital muscular torticollis, visceroptosis, MALS and more, all conditions she teaches us about during this conversation. In the past year her GI issues have necessitated transitioning to an ostomy bag, and the ileostomy surgery led to unexpected complications that she will also share. Tayler found a creative outlet in crafting custom ostomy bags (found on her Etsy store). Since her ostomy bag gave her a second chance at living more fully, she likes to craft these bags out of second-hand materials found at thrift stores. Her experiences have given her a passion for helping others, working as a sign language interpreter and disability advocate.

Check out Tayler’s amazing projects or connect with her online: https://linktr.ee/distaaybled

PlayWatch the episode on YouTube, or listen on your favorite podcast platform.