At 21 I was diagnosed with interstitial cystitis after a hospital stay while I was on vacation in Florida. Chronic inflammation of the bladder, cause “unknown”, extremely difficult to treat and symptoms feel like a constant UTI. When I was younger, I would get chronic UTIs because of all the inflammatory food I was eating. The lymph system in my body was dirty, making it the perfect breeding ground for bacteria and fungus. I took a lot of antibiotics but the inflections would always come back because I was never addressing the root problem. Overtime the pain was there with no infection and that’s when it became bad enough to be considered a chronic illness.
I went on with my life after being diagnosed, living like that everyday managing my pain with herbs and supplements. I was offered but not taking any pharmaceuticals because I knew they wouldn’t help. The last time I took antibiotics was 2014 after being in the hospital for a couple days. Physically they didn't help the pain. I was still drinking alcohol, smoking cigarettes and eating whatever I wanted so no matter the amount of supplements I was taking, I wasn't getting any better. A few months later, I got pregnant with my first child and for a time, I felt pretty good. I started eating better for my baby, which was also helping me. This is when I decided to try a paleo diet. Organic grass fed and finished meats, raw dairy, lots of raw keifer and a good amount of fruits and veggies. My partner was a lot healthier than I was, he cooked for us a majority of the time and really did his best to make sure I was eating well and I was taken care of while I was pregnant.
In May 2015, a year after having my first child. My symptoms started to get a lot worse. I was on the same diet but I also had the Paraguard IUD in at that time which made all the inflammation in that area worse from having a foreign object in my body. I ended up removing the Paraguard by myself and yes, the whole thing came out in one piece. Before removal, the pain was so bad to the point where I couldn’t walk around for long, wear jeans, stay too far from a bathroom because the urgency was so bad. I needed to get that thing out of me and my doctor refused to remove it. She said after a year of having it, my body must have still been trying to adjust and I should just wait it out.
I knew something was wrong so I couldn't have it in any longer.
The bladder pain gave me a lot of anxiety around leaving the house and I became very socially distant. I remember after going to the bathroom I would flare and then it would be constant burning and itching in my bladder and there was nothing I tried that would ever relieve it. I would just sit there and deal with it most of the time, using cannabis to numb my mind. My body was caked with mucus forming foods even though everything I ate was organic and "healthy" it wasn't enough alkalinity to combat the acids I had built up. Candida probably played a role as well, trying to break down the heavy metal from the coper Paraguard. That on top of the sulfur from antibiotics and processed food build up burning the cells. I was cellularly dehydrated from rarely eating plants a majority of my life and severely inflamed. I remember eating Tums multiple times a day, everyday, because I was so inflamed and backed up the acids would come up from my stomach and give me acid reflux. This was when I tried going more strict on the auto immune paleo protocol. Which only ended up making things worse because I traded grains for more meat.
In 2016, My mom gave me her old Breville juicer and I started incorporating juicing into my daily routine. I was pregnant with my second baby at the time and I felt a lot better having fresh juices as an option for calories while struggling with nausea for nearly the whole pregnancy and I barely had an appetite. I didn't enjoy ANY fruits or veggies, literally at ALL. I knew I needed them for me and my baby boy though so juicing was the only way I could get them into my body. As soon as I started getting alkaline foods into my system, I felt a lot better but I was also detoxing from the juicing and I felt like crap during my pregnancy with him. Nauseous, very inflamed, kidney stones, I was in bed a lot of the time. I’m sure a lot of this was detox reactions from juicing most of my meals but at the time I wasn’t aware of that. It was the only thing giving me any relief and allowing me to actually get nutrients into my body. Finn's pregnancy was my first unassisted pregnancy and birth so I was dealing with all of this chronic illness stuff while being my own midwife and preparing/studying for an unassisted home birth. I was also taking care of my oldest and working for my dad as an office assistant when I could get myself to feel good enough to go there. That lasted until November, when I couldn't work anymore because it was just too stressful for me. Finn was born December 11th, in the only snow storm we had in Michigan that year. About 6 hours of total labor, 2 hours of active. The most perfect little man and birth. Everything went according to plan without a hitch and I am so grateful I chose to empower myself in that way. It's still the most empowering experience of my life.
In 2017 I finally started listening to my body and phasing meat and dairy out of my diet completely. Both are extremely inflammatory and every time I would eat them it would absolutely make my symptoms worse. After I cut those 2 things out I felt a lot better. Like to the point where I could do things again without having fear that I would flare. A friend and her husband came to my house to show me the ropes of eating a plant based diet which really helped and was so transformative for my journey. I felt incredible the whole time she was there and it was so nice to have another mother take care of me and show me how to eat so I could feel better. After that, I was confident I knew what I needed to do to heal myself. Then I found Dr. Morse. A woman in a Facebook group recommended his book to my friend and I. I started to apply the teachings immediately, watching every Dr. Morse YouTube video on every tv in the house. I knew I found the key and the proof was in how I felt. I could do things again. Run. Play with my kids. Leave the house with them. We took a family trip to Vegas and I could hike for hours without being in pain. This is also when I started wellness coaching and making my own diet/herb protocols for clients. I also found iridology at this time and started consuming everything I could about that. Learning as much as possible and this is also when I got certified in Iridology.
In 2018, I got pregnant with Shae in January and that entire year I was high fruit, juice and plant based during my pregnancy with her. I felt incredible the whole pregnancy. Vibrant and alive, running around with 2 small boys, & traveling. It was so blissful, completely different than my other pregnancies and I knew it was because my body was healing from the way I was eating. That was more than enough proof for me. No nausea, no heartburn, no kidney pain, I barely felt pregnant. I continued to coach clients and practice iridology through offering $25 readings. In October we had our second successful unassisted pregnancy and birth. I spent a majority of that pregnancy studying and putting everything I could into regenerative detox and iridology. I started saving for my ISOD certification with the money I would make from coaching and took that course shortly after Shae was born. 2018 was one of the best years I've ever had.
In 2019, I started getting more serious with coaching, taking on multiple long term clients and really helping people stay on track with their health. I was inspiring them to heal themselves, which inspired me to keep going. I was holding them accountable, which held me accountable and it helped me stay on track with the mostly raw plant based diet. I learned about distilled water and I did my first juice cleanse over the summer of 2019 after finding John rose. Because I was nursing, I felt I transition was necessary so I would go 10/11 days, break it with some raw food and then I would go back in for 15/20 days. I still continue to practice juice fasting this way after that first cleanse and still make it a regular part of my protocol. I started doing coffee enemas after researching the Gerson therapy and adding that into my daily routine helped me stay on track with cravings, remove mucus from my body so I stopped craving mucus forming foods. I read Arnold Ehret and Hilton Hotema for the first time and my world was completely and forever changed. At the end of 2019 I cooked/made juice at my first retreat for my dear friend Vanessa and it was absolutely the best experience being able to connect with so many people at once and have them eat my food. I learned a lot and I was able to apply a lot of things to my healing journey in 2019. I felt better than ever, and I was able to do the emotional healing necessary to have the confidence to leave my unhappy marriage. That in itself was a testament to my healing. I finally wasn't scared to do life alone.
In 2020, I started incorporating distilled water fasting into my daily life, intermittent at first then working up to everyday 18-24 hours. Working in some 36, 44 & 52 hour water fasts. Most of that year I’ve spent on fruit and juice. Still taking my time with giving up cooked food 100% but I didn't eat it often at all and when I did I could feel the difference in my body. In 2020, I physically felt the best I’ve ever felt in my life. No pain, complete bliss most day’s and I really believe that’s because of fasting. I removed so much mucoid plaque from my body and it made me feel a lot better. That year I also did my 2 longest solid food vacations, 30 days in august and 30 days in December. My December juice fast started with a 54 hour water fast. I incorporated breath work into my daily routine and realized how detrimental cannabis was to my health over that time. I started slowly weening myself off of it until I couldn't tolerate it at all anymore. I focused less on coaching and more on myself, learning, absorbing everything I could from mentors and people that have been on this journey for a long time. I also got more into iridology at that time and my business really started to take off. I knew that's what I needed to focus on, and I'm happy I did because its something I'm extremely passionate about and good at.
2021. In January after my juice fast, I started rebuilding and re-feeding my body. For the whole month of January I ate a lot of raw food and high fat because while I was on my juice fast in December, I lost about 15lbs of old waste. I rebuilt and gained all that weight back in a month of feeding my body raw foods so being that thin didn't scare me at all. My goal for that year was rebuilding on as much raw food as I could so that I looked "healthy" my societies standards for my sisters wedding in June. That year I was more lax on what I'm eating that the last couple years but I still continued to eat 90% of my meals raw and always plant based. I feel best on raw foods. That year I also experimented with more raw gourmet foods than ever and I loved that as an alternative to cooked food. At the end of October I did 5 days on fruit and juice fast, 6 days raw. It's easier than it ever has been for me. I haven't experienced any pain in a very long time, throughout the pandemic bs, I haven't gotten sick. Not even a cold. While the whole world freaks out, I trust myself and my body. I trust the work I'm doing is protecting me because I had been all over the country that year, back and forth to various states. 2021 was the year I pushed my body to its physical limits and saw how strong I really was. I did a lot of hiking and traveling and the stress of that alone would have made me flare earlier in my journey but I never did. I still continued to live pain free as long as I remained on the diet that's been reversing my illness.
In 2022 I started rebuilding my body from all the fasting I've done and paying more attention to eating fats and supporting my gut microbiome with a large variety of plants. I took my first international trip for my 30th birthday in March. My partner and I went to Costa Rica for a week and enjoyed the sunshine, waterfalls, mountains, and of course all the fresh fruit we could get! Even with adding more fats into my diet, I haven't flared at all this year and it feels really good to have my health completely under control when I was lost for so long. I still haven't gotten sick, not even a cold. Everyone around me has been sick multiple times, my kids especially with colds and a stomach bug I never got despite being thrown up on! This tells me my lymph system is no longer as clogged as it was and things I come in contact with will not stick to the mucus inside my body. My body is strong enough now to filter out anything and it really shows me all the hard work I've done is paying off.
If you’ve made it this far & you’re struggling with chronic illness, I hope you are inspired by this and you realize how powerful detoxification is. It took me from not being able to get out of bed, to vibrant, blissful, and really enjoying life to the fullest. I owe everything to my teachers and the people that have helped me learn and understand how the body works. It’s been an incredible ride so far, and I can’t wait to see what happens from here 😏
Disclaimer
Only a physician can diagnose, treat, and prescribe for illness or disease. I neither diagnoses nor treat disease. Nor do I prescribe remedies.
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