$100,000 BAD NEWS (and what it means for us, sailing and this channel) | EE 165

First off, I AM going to be okay! But we unfortunately do have some lame, sad news to share about my health. Now that we finally have real answers and action plans, I'm ready to open up about it. I have a serious post-viral complication from covid called Cervical Spinal Instability -feel free to Google it, but in a VERY simplified explanation, my brain stem is getting squished, and many of my major nerves like the vagus nerve etc are being compressed. It causes all kinds of problems, as you can imagine. And it's progressive as the tendons and ligaments continue to damage and weaken. The fix is to have a spinal fusion, to fuse my skull to my top two neck vertebrae. There is an experimental stem cell procedure that we are looking into trying first. I'm very sad and frustrated about it but after getting the diagnosis, I've been able to start managing symptoms with chiropractic care and PT and I'm already feeling immensely improved. I'm hopeful that this means my body is responding well and that the alternative therapies will work to heal my body so that I won't need the surgery. We started sailing a couple of weeks ago with the help of David and Holly, who are great friends of ours. They're heaven sent no doubt and getting moving again has really lifted our spirits. Not included in the video is the news that Brett's dad has recently been diagnosed with a very aggressive form of leukemia. Things have been hard here in the Evans' household! We don't know what comes next for us but we are happy to be on the water and FILMING again. Filming is genuinely such a great thing for us, it keeps us in the moment and really encourages us to focus on the good and after such a long period of self isolation we are definitely aching to connect again. Thank you for being our reason to get up and get going again. With love, Jade @ExpeditionEvans @ExpeditionEngineering My symptoms for the curious: All these symptoms began appearing over the last year with the first showing up just after having a bad case of Covid that caused my eardrum to rupture. The symptoms progressed exponentially Shivers up the spine (very frequently) sometimes feels like electric shock Electrical or ozone-like taste when neck, back, or shoulder pops Metallic Taste in the back of my throat -Peripheral vision loss -Darkness and blurring -Ink drops appeared later -occasionally things appear distorted or curved Complete Vision loss for a few seconds upon standing - dizziness / falling Numbness of right eye and right side of face Hearing is muted in right ear + popping and crackling Car sickness!? (I’ve never had motion sickness before!!) Intense facial pain + tension on the right side. Tension pain Jaw clicks when opened Sensitivity to light Restless leg or random leg kicks Itching + Histamine Sensitivity Muscle knot at the base of the skull on the right side Unilateral Symptoms (right side) Intense nerve pain on right side of body Pain and inflammation on right side Joints feel “out of place” Time dilation / disassociation Intense pain at base of neck Migraines everywhere in head Symptoms improve when horizontal Stuck in "fight or flight" but in my body rather than emotions. My body feels stressed Clumsy fine motor skills That's all I can think of right now but that's a pretty good list of my main symptoms. All were very light and minor and got worse with time **************************************** Come join the party! https://www.patreon.com/expeditionevans Go follow the build! https://youtu.be/cubHo0S9ddQ **************************************** If you came here looking for our Amazon links, you're a special kind of awesome human. Thanks for checking them out! Products we use and love: https://www.amazon.com/shop/expeditionevans Products we wish for 😁: https://a.co/epcOarT **************************************** *Our Gear* Main Camera: https://amzn.to/3csaFjz Main Lens: https://amzn.to/3cwZRkl Microphone: https://amzn.to/3iSDGoV Go Pro: https://amzn.to/324dq43 Drone: https://amzn.to/2Yf3X8S Laptop: https://amzn.to/3h9ydcL *Find Us Elsewhere* Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ExpeditionEvans Jade Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/Jadexploring/ Brett Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_BrettEvans_ EE Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ExpeditionEvans Dingo Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/DingoEvans Penny Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/PenntelopeEvans TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@ExpeditionEvans *Website/blog* https://www.expeditionevans.com/shop *Want to support us?" https://www.patreon.com/expeditionevans https://www.paypal.com/donate?hosted_button_id=FWBYD33TFEBRY https://www.buymeacoffee.com/theevans #sailing #boat #boatlife #sailboatrefit #sailboatliving