Inspiration Sunday: Overcoming health challenges

One of the reasons I wanted to start this website is to offer hope to others that are dealing with health challenges and for those who want to turn their health around by making life changes one step at a time.  When I was first presented with some of the challenges I had I was so frustrated by the lack of hope I was reading  and I was desperately looking for others that had come out on the other side and been victorious rather then the doom and gloom I was hearing!  I am going to strive to do that here with this series of individual stories, because we all have one to tell! I want to tell how they “stepped out of the box” and changed their situations.  So the idea of Inspiration Sunday was born.  I thought I would begin with my story and feature someone different each Sunday.  So here it goes!

Anybody see that truck that just hit me?

Although I had been having more subtle issues going on for a few years, In the summer of 2014, my life took a sharp turn that I wasn’t expecting.  I had already been dealing with a rare allergy to mammal meat that I had gotten from a tick bite.  The allergy causes a delayed reaction to a sugar in the actual meat and causes anaphylaxis when the sugar is consumed in many of us. Not fun to live with! But something else was about to happen that would put a halt to the normalcy that I knew. Within a weeks time I developed one “troubling” symptom after another until I was literally unable to go about my daily life.  I developed sores covering the inside of my mouth and down my throat, little did I know that these sores would be with me for months.  My mouth became so dry that I couldn’t eat and could barely swallow.  I felt almost like I was choking a lot of the time. I won’t bore you with the long list of symptoms but they ranged from debilitating panic attacks that woke me up all night to rashes that broke out on my face all of the sudden, hair loss and nails getting big crevasses in them to fatigue that was unrelenting .  Due to my mouth not healing very quickly I started to drop weight, which wasn’t a bad thing because I was not at a healthy weight but dropping it in that way was no picnic! The illness was different then anything I had ever experienced. You spend your life getting different things like a cold, a virus or a random ache and pain BUT they go away.  This didnt go away.  It didn’t let up or get better.  I was scared! My doctor thought Lupus antibodies were detected and I needed to go to a Rheumatologist.  Those guys take a ridiculous amount of time to get into so I had a 6 month wait to get into him.  It was the best thing that happened to me! I took the bull by the horns and here are some of the steps I took!

7 steps I took down the healing path

I hit my knees! I woke up with the panic attacks and immediately started praying. I prayed for peace, guidance, healing and help! I prayed that God would point me towards the answers and guidance as to who could help me.  My faith was absolutely crucial! I think I would have died without it. I hung on to God with everything I had in me!

I found someone trained in Functional Medicine, they look at you very closely testing for things that a regular doctor will not look at attempting to get to the root of the problem.   They went over me with a fine tooth comb and to quote what she told me, “your body is literally on fire” with inflammation.  A lot of my vitamin levels were way down like Vitamin D which is crucial to keeping your body healthy. It was so good to have someone that didn’t seem clueless but had a plan and a way to monitor what was going on! She started me on some supplements such as B12, folate, magnesium, iron and D3 to name some of the main ones.

I put myself on an anti- inflammatory diet even before I saw the functional practitioner but  I also got tested for food sensitivities through her.  Of course I was sensitive to everything imaginable and coupled with my AG allergy and the anti inflammatory diet I was down to very little options to eat. Let me tell you though, I was never so motivated to stick to any sort of food plan in my life! Restrictive or not I was doing this thing! I went off of gluten, eggs, soy, corn (actually all grains), dairy, nuts, nightshades and then there was my list of allergies.  I was mainly  eating lots of vegetables, poultry, fish and fruits.  She told me I had a leaky gut and really needed to get the lining of my stomach healed, which by the way could have very well been what was going on with my mouth.  The mucosal lining goes from the top to the bottom of the digestive tract.  Healing whole foods, homemade bone broth, enzymes and herbs such as aloe, slippery elm and l glutamine were my diet!

I took I.V treatments that contained Glutathione and B12.  I went in once a week.  They took a small amount of my blood out and mixed it with the Glutathione and then slowly put it back into my body.  Glutathione is the MASTER detoxer of the body.  It helps to carry the junk out of  your body  that is being stored there causing damage. The treatment also contained another element that made my cells more pliable instead of rigid. The  B12 started to give me some energy back!

I had Acupuncture and took  Homeopathic drops.  These help restore the balance in the body that can cause inflammation and illness in the first place.

In addition to my other supplements I  took a couple of supplements that literally allowed me to function again without the horrible panic attacks that were plaguing me all night.  I took a  high dose of L-theanine and Inositol combined into one.  I’ve never had a supplement be so life changing before this time! This really calmed the anxiety down within 20 minutes so I stayed on this every 4  hours for the first couple of months. I later found out that when the body is so inflamed the brain can become inflamed as well causing extreme anxiety. This seemed to put out that fire!

Sweet sleep! I was so exhausted that I slept and slept.  As much as I was able to sleep I did! I went to bed early and took a nap if I needed to.  I was so grateful that I was able to do this.  I know many don’t have this luxury as they are raising little ones or working many hours a week.  For this I’m thankful to my hardworking husband for allowing me this opportunity to rest.

Success!

Within about 2 months the sores were gone!  Over the course of the next 6 months the rashes on my face that had plagued me for a couple of years and had gotten much worse, were GONE!  The panic attacks are gone and I only take the Ltheanine when I am having a tough day.  I am back to a normal sleep schedule and doing so much better!  I am down 40 pounds and still hoping to lose more. My nails have grown out beautifully and are strong again.  My hair is not falling out in large amounts anymore.  When I finally got into the Rheaumatologist the Lupus antibodies were undetectable and have remained gone so far!  The dry mouth is so much better as well. You don’t know how thankful you are to have spit in your mouth until you have none! Wow, the things we take for granted!  I am praising God and so thankful for all that he has brought me through! I have been able to add many foods back into my diet now but still avoid gluten, dairy and of course the mammal meat.   I know I still have a ways to go because  I still struggle with some joint pain and get tired easy but that is getting better slowly but surely. The key is to listen to your body it will whisper to you what it needs before it screams it.  Don’t wait until it screams at you like I did!

Your body is designed to heal…

Our body is so amazing! It is made to heal but it needs the right fuel.  It needs all of the elements any living thing needs.   Wholesome Food, good clean water, sunshine and  a connection to the creator! Sometimes you just have to step out of the box and trust and believe that we are designed to have hope and not give up! Don’t give up!

I was honored to be interviewed by Trent Childers on this topic.  If you wish to hear more about the steps I took feel free to have a listen: Podcast interview with Trent Childers

Check back next week for a new story!

*This story is not intended to serve as any medical advice. This is merely my story.  Please see full disclaimer here.