Here's something that would have confused me earlier in my healing journey:
Some of my Lyme and tick-borne illness labs can still look pretty ugly...while I feel dramatically better than I once did.
As a nurse, I care about objective data.
Labs matter.
Symptoms matter.
Medical evaluation matters.
But none of those pieces should be interpreted in isolation. And I've become increasingly interested in the gap between disease markers and functional capacity.
The truth is - a lab results is a SNAPSHOT, NOT your entire physiology!
A laboratory test measures a particular marker under particular conditions at a particular moment. That's valuable information! But it can't fully measure things like:
~How well you recover after exertion.
~Whether you can tolerate a stressful week without crashing.
~How much physical activity you can handle.
~Whether your sleep is restorative.
~How steadily your brain and body can meet the demands of everyday life.
THOSE are measures of capacity. And capacity can change substantially even when every underlying health issue hasn't disappeared.
We sometimes talk about "compensation" as though it's inherently negative. But adaptation/compensation is one of the body's greatest strengths. Your physiology is constantly adjusting to changing demands—altering fuel use, stress hormones, immune signaling, circulation, and energy allocation to help maintain stability. That's part of homeostasis: the body's ongoing effort to maintain an internal environment compatible with life.
And resilience takes that concept - one of homeostasis - into the real world.
The question becomes: How effectively can your body adapt when the environment isn't perfect?
That's what fascinates me about my own Lyme journey. I'm not living inside a bubble with perfectly controlled food, stress, sleep, exposures, and activity. I'm doing my best & living a real life. And my body handles that real life significantly better than it once did. To me, that's meaningful progress.
THIS DOES NOT MEAN IGNORING ABNORMAL LABS!
Absolutely not!
An abnormal result deserves appropriate interpretation in context, especially when it could signal something requiring medical treatment.
But I also don't believe we should postpone living until every number is perfect. Healing can include improvements in strength, recovery, metabolic health, nervous system flexibility, energy, sleep, and quality of life while we're still working on other pieces. THAT'S health resiliency! And lately, I think it's one of the most important measurements we aren't talking about enough.
Maybe your healing isn't as "stuck" as you think.
Maybe we just need a better definition of progress. <3
If you're having trouble seeing your own progress—or figuring out what deserves attention next—a coaching session can help us zoom out and look at the whole picture together. Check out more HERE.
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