My journey to diagnosis isn’t something that just happened overnight. It’s not a story where I was completely fine until one day I wasn’t.
Instead, it’s a story made up of a series of events, all leading up to one culminating moment.
It’s a story that has progressed and evolved over the years of my life.
It all began as a child.
Early Years
Growing up, I remember always being sick.
I routinely complained of having a tummy ache, was sensitive to a variety of foods, and often didn’t have an appetite. Taking Tums and that nasty pink junk, also known as Pepto Bismol, was my norm.
Allergies were a daily occurence. My parents tried every prescription under the sun to help my poor sniffles, watery eyes and stuffy nose. There was even a time in my life where I took Sudafed every day for a few years.
I was a regular in our family physician’s office. From colds and coughs to strep throat and ear infections, you name it, I had it and very frequently.
I don’t even want to know the number of antibiotics I took as a child.
Although my mom is an incredible cook and made us home cooked meals much more often than any of my friends’ moms, I was still a child of the 90’s. Our pantry shelves and fridge were stocked with mainly processed and low fat foods, and we often ordered takeout for convenience.
We cleaned with toxic household products and our personal care products weren’t any better.
Looking back, I can’t be angry with my parents. I know they were doing their best with the information they had, like so many other families during that time.
Adolescence and College Years
At the age of 14 I went on the birth control pill to manage my acne, and intense periods that were accompanied by heavy bleeding, and cramps that were so bad I needed to skip school.
After a few weeks on what I thought was a “miracle pill,” my acne cleared up completely, and my bad periods? GONE!
Little did I know that little pill would have so many negative effects on my body later on.
As a junior in high school I got mono, which I found out later in life is caused by the Epstein Barr virus. More on that later.
Fast forward to my college years. My sensitive stomach was worse than ever before, brought on by stress from work and school, coupled with more processed foods, cigarettes, and way too much booze.
I had daily afternoon headaches, and suffered from insomnia and anxiety. But, I did what I thought I needed to do to get by. Which meant more prescriptions, more caffeine, and more naps.
Like my parents, I simply didn’t know what I didn’t know.
Never Ending Symptoms
After I graduated college, I started experiencing what felt like a never ending list of symptoms.
I began to suffer from fatigue, joint pain, poor sleep, stomach cramps, diarrhea, constipation, nausea, and crippling anxiety. I chalked it up to stress and thought maybe this was just what it felt like to get older (even though I was only 24).
After 10 years of taking the birth control pill, I decided to give my body a break just before my wedding. I knew I wanted to have kids one day and thought it would be a good time to stop, not realizing the nutrient deficiencies and hormonal imbalance that would ensue once I stopped.
In August of 2011, I married the love of my life. And, just three months after that, my world forever changed.
The Moment Everything Changed
On the flight back from my honeymoon, I felt incredibly ill. I spent most of the nine hour flight in the bathroom and thought I for sure had a case of food poisoning. Wishful thinking.
Over the next few months, I developed symptoms I never had experienced before. Intense stomach pains and spasms, I was having diarrhea multiple times a day, and sometimes had blood in my stool. Not to mention the familiar symptoms like nausea, fatigue and joint pain.
Finally Some Answers
I will never forget the day I received the answers I had so desperately been searching for, although they weren’t the answers I wanted to hear. After years of suffering with these confusing and oftentimes debilitating symptoms, I was diagnosed with Crohn’s Disease (a type of Autoimmune Disease also known as IBD, or Irritable Bowel Disease), and my world as I knew it instantly turned upside down.
When I close my eyes, I can still picture that awful day. I felt helpless, cold and numb as my doctor explained that I have an incurable disease. The more I listened, the more his words became muffled, like the adult voices on Charlie Brown, “mwa-mwa-mwa.” I will never forget the pain that filled my mother’s eyes, or the fear that flashed across my husband’s face that day.
I was told I would need to be on medication for the rest of my life, that nutrition and lifestyle changes would make no difference in my symptoms, but that I could still live a “normal” life. And with that, I was sent on my way.
But, I didn’t want to live a “normal” life. I wanted to live the abundant life I dreamed I would.
I was crushed.
Navigating Life with Chronic Illness
What followed were some of the most difficult years of my life, as I tried to navigate life with a chronic illness.
I’ll share these next steps on my journey to wellness in a future post, including the medications and diets I’ve tried over the years, the lifestyle changes I’ve made, and why I’ve adopted a holistic and functional medicine approach to healing.
To my fellow chronic illness warriors, I see you, I feel for you. You are incredibly strong and resilient. You are a warrior and you will get through this.
PIN ME!
