How I Got Here
My system was taken down by salmonella poisoning in 2012 which wreaked havoc on my gut and led to a sequential decline in my health from that point forward. My migraines increased to the point of hospitalization, I could no longer eat foods I had eaten since childhood without repercussions, I started to break out into regular hives, my hair was thinning, my brain had lost its quick wit and edge, both my concentration and energy levels were rapidly depleted and my ability to handle even the smallest of stress was nil. Towards my breaking point 7 years later, lifting my legs to tie my shoes caused so much pain I resorted to slides for much of the year.
Throughout this time, and my list of symptoms growing, doctors’ comments to me were all but devastating. “Your bloodwork is fine”, “you look healthy”, “you have all of your eyebrows”, “it must just be stress” or “it’s just a part of getting older”. I was 32 when this all began.
Over the course of those 7 years, doctors prescribed me, a “healthy” 30 something year old with “normal bloodwork”, twelve medications:
Medicine for post infection irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)
Migraine medicine (and I took copious over the counter Goody’s powders every week)
Anti-anxiety medicine for the debilitating heart palpitations and nightly 3am panic attacks
Beta Blockers for when the anti-anxiety meds didn’t help the heart palpitations
Steroid pills for hives
Topical steroid solution for the maddening icy hot sensation on my scalp
Steroid injections into the scalp for my hair falling out
Birth control pills for ovarian cysts and irregular periods and PMS
Anti-inflammatories for my low back and a few muscle attachment sites that seemed like they were on the verge of not really being attached
Pain pills for my low back and the attachment sites
Muscle relaxers for my low back and the attachment sites
Antidepressants, well, because with all this going on how could someone not be sad
A few of these I took consistently, most I let wane. However, that is 12 medications multiple doctors prescribed without ever asking WHY all these things were happening or trying to find the root cause. All because migraines, PMS, hair loss, constipation, anxiety, fatigue, you name it, are “normal” according to our healthcare system. That word was told to me many times. These dysfunctions might be common in our Western world, as I’m sure doctors see them regularly, but they are NOT normal.
I had dysfunction, frustration and no answers.
Feeling like I might, in fact, be dying, I quit my job, sold my house, closed a sweet little yoga studio and moved to South America in search of wellness. …and the Amazonian Shamans. Sadly, I got so sick down there – what I now know as an autoimmune flare – I came home, hives in every crevice of my depleted body, and slept for 15-18 hours a day for 3 weeks.
Both curse and catalyst, my appendix ruptured a little over a year later on New Year’s Day.
Septic, and covered in hives yet again, I was out of my mind in pain to the point I have no memory of much at all. Three days after surgery I was back in the hospital with infection - one softball size abscess in my pelvic floor and one golf ball size abscess at the appendectomy site. These did not clear through two weeks of IV antibiotics.
One abscess ruptured making me violently ill. The other required an intensely restricting and painful drain for three weeks while the infection drained slowly from my body.
I was in survival mode.
Six months post-surgery, still feeling very much in fight or flight, but with no energy to do either, still experiencing everything I had over the accumulating 7 years, but with added symptoms… Please welcome the expression of my 3rd autoimmune condition as a result of that appendectomy, septic, drain inspired trauma.
After the joy of not actually dying had faded, my patience and positivity had all but left my being as well. I still “looked” healthy which was something I guess (joke) and was otherwise functioning to the outside world. “Wow, you’ve lost so much weight.” As if that were truly an indicator of health. What do you do when you don’t know what to do? You keep clawing your way out of the mud hole searching for solid ground. Because if you don’t, you’re stuck at the bottom of a hole descending deeper. That is not where I wanted to live for the rest of my life.
Still struggling, and sometimes desperately, I reached out to a friend of a friend who is a naturopathic doctor in California. She held my hand across 50 states through the appendectomy. Someone I’ve still never met face to face.
After a fifteen-minute phone call, she said “I think you have Hashimotos, but let’s get some bloodwork to confirm.”
And the clouds parted, light shined down and angels sang.
I had Hashimotos! A diagnosis. More than I had gotten in almost a decade. It was validating, and it was my stepping stone.
Thus began my rabbit hole expedition to know everything there was to know about, then Hashimotos, and, now, autoimmunity in general.
With that diagnosis and lots (and lots) of research, school, and famous functional doctors followed, I have come to know in my own journey that all those antibiotics, bad, very bad for your gut. Please know I am not dismissing the small yet pertinent fact that they also saved my life. All those steroids, also very bad for the gut and your immune system. All those other meds, yes, very, very (very) bad for your gut and your health. Aside from the antibiotics that were absolutely necessary in this circumstance, all those other meds I took for almost a decade, were not only not necessary, they were driving my autoimmunity deeper into my cells while absolutely nothing was being done about the actual problem. In my case, severe hormone imbalance, 4 gut infections and gut dysbiosis, systemic candida, and 6 active strains of Lyme Disease. My bloodwork was fine because the appropriate testing wasn’t being run. My root causes were many and compounding over a decade of masking symptoms. Sometimes I feel like a badass for navigating this bumpy road to the other side. Sometimes I cry in the shower.
Believe me when I tell you I understand what you are going through!
As a result, I know what to look for, what testing needs to happen and how to heal from autoimmunity or chronic symptoms.
What I know now about wellness and healing…
Clearing infections is a must. Obviously. Tempering inflammation is the only way you will function and not be debilitated. Balancing both sex and stress hormones is dire. The gut is a pretty big deal.
What helps heal the gut, temper inflammation and balance hormones? Diet and lifestyle practices. Backed by an absurd amount of peer reviewed research, this one-two punch quells inflammation, reduces antibodies, builds up your vital reserve, restores your vitamin and mineral balance and brings the body back to a state of equilibrium.
Because, if left masking symptoms and not addressing the issues, the risk is high that your 1 autoimmunity will most likely turn into multiple autoimmune conditions and a weakened body with no defenses against infection. Welcome to your own version of this story.
At present, there are technically 6 places on and in my body where antibodies have decided to rear their heads. And, dear reader, I do for myself what I hope to help you do in your own life.