Hello everyone. This post might be a bit longer, as well as possibly off topic, but I’m pretty desperate. I apologize in advance for my English, and if any sentence doesn’t make sense please feel free to point it out. This post is basically a last resort request for help and advice. I wasn’t sure If I should structure this post in paragraphs by topic, or If I should kinda just write up how I got to where I am now chronologically, so it’s a bit of both I guess. TL;DR version at the end.
Since I was born I’ve had health issues. I was the kid that was always sick, that skipped PE all the time, the kid that got picked last in any sport we played in school, the kid that at age 15 couldn’t do a single push up or pull up. I always had mild asthma, allergies, upper airways and immunity problems, all of which results in chronic tonsillitis and bronchitis. I’m saying mild asthma because I am not having many seizures from asthma regularily, only when I was much younger (age <10).
Because of these issues I am constantly on medication my whole life, mainly Corticosteroid and antihistamines, often also antibiotics. I got sick constantly, and getting better takes a really long time for me. A simple cold or a sore throat takes 2-3 weeks to fully heal, and If I’m not careful it worsens into bronchitis. I was hospitalized due to pneumonia once too -and I feel it’s necessary to point out that I didn’t do anything extreme like diving into a frozen lake or something, I was on a ski trip, got a sore throat that didn’t get better no matter the medication I was on and in a couple of weeks it escalated into full blown pneumonia.
I’ve had two surgeries because of these issues a couple years apart, both promising that it would get better. First I got my tonsils removed, then I had a nose surgery. I was told that the mucus membrane in my nose stopped working properly. Normally the air you breathe in with your nose gets filtered, warmed up and humidified, but I was barely able to breathe with my nose at all and my mucus membrane was supposedly destroyed by all the years of taking inhalers. So I had a turbinoplasty done, and the mucus membrane got laser treated somehow. The surgeries didn’t help much and the last couple of years it’s getting worse and worse.
I have a couple of other minor health issues as well, I’ve had liver problems and I’m mildly anemic (blood problems) and some other stuff not worth mentioning. I am a second child from 5 pregnancies, my mother miscarried 3 times before she had me so I have this feeling that I’m just kinda messed up, even though that’s probably irrational.
Despite all this, working out found a way into my life. I started working out at 15, at a skinny-fat composition of 6’2" (188cm) and 130 pounds (59kg), with no athletic background and like I already mentioned, unable to do a single push up or pull up. I took working out quite seriously right of the bat, started reading everything I found, educating myself about the matter, eating right, just everything. I was still sick very often, but every time I was fine for some time I pushed really hard.
My health even got a bit better for some time after I started working out, my lung capacity increased which was complimented greatly by my immuno-alergy doctor. Because of that I got quite the backing from my parents, who supported my new found healthy eating habits and supplements - more on that later. I trained hard and smart, anywhere between 3 times a week to two times a day depending on the routine I was following. In about 4 years I gained around a 100 pounds (45kg) and my strength on all the main exercises multiplied several times. Here is me deadlifting a bit over double my bodyweight a couple of years back (450lbs)
My build wasn’t that impressive for my height in general, but people that new me were in awe. Everybody was coming to me for training advice because they new how much of a transformation I made, and I gladly helped them out. After that I did the regular cutting down/bulking up a couple of times, the first cut brought me down to a lean 200ish lbs, and the plan was naturally to get bigger and leaner.
All of this was intertwined with my ongoing health issues, but I was motivated. Working out and eating right, oats and curd, white meat, read meat, fish, rice, plenty of veggies and fruit. I cook 99% of my meals. I’m supplementing with high quality fish oil almost constantly and high quality multivitamins pretty often, alongside with the gold standard - protein powder. I tried creatine a couple of times but wasn’t impressed, I’d rather spend money on fish oil/vitamins/joint supplements.
I was chasing the dream of making this a bit more than just a hobby, maybe being a personal trainer, but the health issues were always in my way. I tried switching doctors, I traveled my country up and down to try different doctors and different methods, everything from reiki(yea I was getting desperate) to some kind of hormonal and laser therapies. I tried every immuno-boosting therapy my doctors suggested and every immunity supplement I could find something about.
I also had the aforementioned surgeries done at ages 18 and 22. Every time I’m sick, I do some pull ups, push ups, and core work just 2-3 minutes at a time so I don’t get winded, 3 times a day, just to slow down the atrophy. That has helped me greatly in retaining my strength and physique.
But the problems are getting worse and I’m running out of stuff to try out. Health care in my country (Slovakia) isn’t that great and I have some terrible, terrible experiences with doctors. I have experienced nightmares in the hospital, doctors treating my like shit even threatening and blackmailing me. My staple doctors that know me my whole life are getting frustrated with me and communicating with them is harder and harder.
I think it’s worth mentioning that I really don’t underestimate the feeling of getting sick. I know how delicate my health state is and act accordingly. Me “getting sick” is basically going to sleep just fine one day, and waking up the next with my throat completely fucked. I am more and more prone to inflammatory problems, and I am getting more and more resistant to antibiotics.
Last couple of years it’s not uncommon for me to get sick, try to “lay it out” with some tea, home made remedies (the hydrogen peroxide trick from Don't Let Sickness Derail Your Progress is really helpful) and non prescription drugs, that doesn’t work for 2 weeks so I get prescribed antibiotics, and those are absolutely ineffective so after eating them all I get prescribed with some other. This usually leaves my digestive tract in shambles. The inflammatory problems are now not just appearing in my airways, but everywhere. My ears, muscles and joints get inflamed, I get hemorrhoids all the time, and nothing seems to help very much.
Basically the last year I’m in a state where If I start working out I get sick. I was working out like I normally do, and something in my lower back got inflamed, I did 3 months of rehab and took a cortisol shot for it to get better. Then i started working out a bit again, I did some inverted curls, my flexor got inflamed. Then I stopped and started working out again, I did some stair runs, my knee got inflamed. When I sit behind a computer all day and don’t do anything and eat and sleep right, eat my supplements and medication, I’m fine for quite some time. But as soon as I start working out more seriously, I get sick.
recently I wasn’t working out for 3 months due to being on some immuno boosting medication(Luivac is the name of the pills, I have taken them before), so I was just carefully doing the aformentioned bodyweight/strength stuff to help me retain my strength and physique, and after taking it all, I decided to go swimming in my local indoor pool to get back on track. After 2 days of light swimming I’m sick again. Even light activity sets me off now, I can’t live like this.
The health problems are effecting my mental health to a scary degree now. I am convinced that my life expectancy isn’t very long, I lost motivation to do anything at all with my life and I get more intrusive suicidal thoughts than I can handle.
So my question is, are there any unconventional, maybe even illegal things I can try out? I really don’t have much to lose at this point, and am willing to take some risks. I’ve read some stuff online about people with aids/HIV that take anabolics to boost their immune system but I couldn’t find much and I don’t know if what works for them would work for me.
I have a couple of friends that can reliably hook me up with gear, I never took anything of this nature before. If you have any ideas please tell me. Also if you know anyone who might now more, please ask them or point them to this topic.
TL;DR: My immune system is fucked, tried everything, doctors suck, is there anything else - unconventional maybe even illegal, that I could try out?