01/22/2026
THE LYMPHATIC SYSTEM OF A GRIEVER 🌿
Post 5/30: When Shock Breaks the Heart
There are moments in life that don’t just shake you.
They break you open.
I remember standing in my practice, trying to continue with my day, when the world suddenly tilted. My chest tightened. My breath disappeared. My legs gave way beneath me. One moment I was upright. The next I was on the floor, unable to move.
At 33 years old, I was diagnosed with Broken Heart Syndrome. 💔
People think heartbreak is emotional.
But sometimes heartbreak is medical.
Sometimes human grief is so severe that it physically stuns the heart.
And that’s only the beginning of the story.
When trauma takes you to ICU
Those days are blurry, but the fear is unforgettable.
I spent more than eight days in Cardiac ICU —
Eight days attached to machines.
Eight days listening to monitors beep.
Eight days sleeping under bright lights because they never turn off.
Eight days of doctors watching my numbers because they weren’t stable.
Eight days of fearing that if I closed my eyes, I might not open them again.
Nothing prepares you for seeing your own heart on a screen and realising that it’s barely keeping rhythm.
Nothing prepares you for the moment you wonder if your life is quietly ending in a hospital bed.
And nothing prepares you for surviving it…
and then trying to live in the same body afterwards.
How shock and ICU trauma change the body
Trauma doesn’t leave when you leave the ward.
It settles inside your systems.
When you experience extreme emotional shock plus the physical intensity of Cardiac ICU, several things happen:
💔 The heart becomes stunned
💔 The nervous system goes into permanent survival mode
💔 The lymphatic system slows dramatically
💔 Organ rhythms change
💔 Inflammation remains high for months
This is why grievers often say:
“I feel swollen.”
“My chest hurts randomly.”
“My gut is not the same.”
“My face looks puffy.”
“I’m exhausted all the time.”
“I don’t trust my own body anymore.”
You’re not imagining it.
ICU changes you.
Shock changes you.
Grief changes you.
Why the lymphatic system suffers so deeply
The lymphatic system is the silent witness to trauma.
During extreme stress and fear, your body releases:
• High cortisol
• Adrenaline surges
• Inflammatory proteins
• Stress metabolites
• Cellular waste
• Fluid-shifting hormones
Your lymph has to process all of this.
But when you’re traumatised, the lymph slows down, thickens, becomes sluggish and overwhelmed.
This is why:
✨ swelling increases
✨ water retention rises
✨ your gut becomes inflamed
✨ your face changes
✨ chronic pain begins
✨ fatigue becomes daily
Your lymph remembers the fear you carried in that bed.
Why it lasts so long
Because the body does not reset after trauma.
It protects.
It guards.
It adapts.
Your heart beats differently.
Your breath becomes shallow.
Your vagus nerve becomes tight.
Your organs move slower.
Your lymph becomes heavier.
Your chemistry stays in alert mode.
This is not weakness.
It is survival intelligence. 🕊️
If this is your story too
If you’ve ever stood in shock, fainted, collapsed, or spent nights in a hospital wondering whether your heart will keep beating…
If you’ve walked out of ICU but your body never returned to “normal,” please hear me clearly:
You are not dramatic.
You are not broken.
You are not failing.
Your body lived through trauma.
Your heart endured terror.
Your lymph carried the weight of fear.
Your organs adapted so you could survive.
This is not the end of your story.
Your body can come back from this.
Your heart can regrow its strength.
Your lymph can flow again.
Your organs can remember peace.
Your nervous system can learn safety again.
You are not the same person who entered ICU.
But you are becoming someone stronger, wiser and deeply alive. 🌿
And this series is for you.
To help your body release what it has been holding for far too long.
