From Mystery Illness to Autoimmune: My Diagnosis Journey.

If you know anything about autoimmunity you know this isn’t going to be short. So thank you for taking the time to read about my journey as complex, long, and overwhelming as it all may seem. I’m taking this back all the way to the beginning: Candida to my new found  Vasculitis and Lyme Disease. Here goes it. 

The Journey To Diagnosis

I’m April.  People often refer to me as “ the healthiest sick person they know.” Sometimes I think that that might be an understatement.  My journey is a complex mixture of environmental factors like mold and heavy metals along with parasites,  PCOS, viruses, gene mutations, and Inflammatory conditions. As you Will read, most of my journey was a mystery to me. And it not over yet. Healing, especially chronic conditions, is a lifelong process. Although what I’ve learned and if you take away one thing from this blog entry, it’s this: Illness is manageable.  It’s manageable with Food +Herbs and purpose. The key thing I’ve learned is that it isn’t manageable with one of these things, it’s a synergistic Healing that is Whole Body: Mind, Body,  and Spirit.

Acne

This story begins with complex bowel problems and cystic acne back in Highschool. 6 years ago now. Time really does fly. My cystic acne was intense.  I know now that it was a fungal interaction and the first signs of my PCOS. Hormonal and fungal cystic acne-Not fun.  I treated this with my all-time favorite healer: Grapeseed oil. My base oil for all my herbal body oils these days. It was during this time that I was on antibiotics for 4 straight years ( a precursor to my candida). 

Candida, Mold and EBV

In college, things went rapidly downhill.  In my first year of college, I got a mono within 3 months. I’ve always said that I got mono (EBV) “twice” which is something that was told by a  doctor over the phone, in less than 1 minute. No further testing was pursued.  I know now that had actually contracted Lyme and mono within the same time frame. I know I cannot be positive this is when iI contracted Lyme. What I can tell you is that I now have a chronic Lyme diagnosis and no other time in my life where i experiences such lymph node swelling. Also, about 3 % of the population that contacts mono get it twice.  I would say my symptoms speak to my gut feelings on this one.  I can’t recall much of this time frame If I’m being honest ( sorry to the Fitchburg squad) I just really cant. I remember being really sick and going through the motions of the second semester of freshmen year. I later moved into my first legit apartment, which later ( and by later iI mean 3 years later) found out that it had severe mold damage and sketchy piping. This is where I contracted Mold and heavy metal toxicity. 

 

I went on throughout college feeling as if my class schedule and work schedule were catching up to me – the tiredness was off the charts. I wondered if everyone felt this way and went on with everyday life as it needed to be.  I became vegan during this time- which improved my energy a lot I must say. For the first year or so of this, I was a “junk food vegan”. This triggered my candida flare-ups ( which was started by heavy antibiotic use in high school). Which you can read about here.  I started to intensely crave sugar and carbs and gave in to those cravings. I gained 30-40 pounds and all of my symptoms worsened. 

Thinking feeling ill was normal. I went on with this for awhile. Until I moved to LA in January of 2018.

The First Diagnosis

If you have never been to LA, its like the epitome of healthy people. Fortunately, there’s also a lot of access to healers, doctors, and really clean vegan food here which worked out for me in the long run. I found my way to a naturopathic office. This is where  I discovered I had candida, mold, 33 food sensitivities,  adrenal fatigue, and hormone imbalances. 

For 6 months I went on the candida diet, Although I morphed it into a vegan candida diet and healed in 1/4 the projected healing time. I lost 30-40 pounds and really started to see through that brain fog I had been living through for years. This is also when I started this blog and practice.  This healing feeling lasted for awhile, until I started to see some new symptoms arise and others worsen.  When I had candida and mold, my brain was so fogged up and overtaken by that that I numbed out a lot of my other pain. 

 

This is where it gets really complex, confusing, and frustrating for me in my journey. 

Parasites, IBS, and SIBO

 In December of 2018, I got diagnosed with a rare parasite and high levels of E-coli. I contacted this rare ( really I can’t make this up) parasite in Italy a year prior. I started seeing a gastroenterologist in early 2019 who then discovered I had IBS and SIBO. Later that year, I had a colonoscopy which revealed I also had acid reflux and gastritis. 

SIBO and IBS took the longest to heal, and I can now manage my IBS with stress relief exercises and herbals. I underwent 2 months of homemade herbal healing and a Vegan low FODMAP diet for SIBO and at first to help my IBS flareups( I’ve discovered my flare-ups are caused less by food and more my stress). Unfortunately, I noticed no changes to my SIBO symptoms as at this time to dismiss this overgrowth. Read more about this here. I decided to go with antibiotics. ( much to my demise).  In all seriousness, I found the balance in natural and allopathic remedies. My bloating disappeared. 

PCOS

During the time I was diagnosed with SIBO I started to see a Gyno more regularly. I had been healing my hormones naturally but started to see more signs and felt Intuitively that things just weren’t right.  I got my hormones tested again and discovered I was premenopausal with my levels at 23 years old.  I scheduled an ultrasounds and one month later I was diagnosed with PCOS. 

Mystery Rash

Now, The weirdest symptom of all was a mystery rash that appeared on my body. It started in about July/ August  of 2019. I saw every doctor possible from the ER to a hematologist, Rheumatologist, 2 dermatologists, everything I could think of.  It went undiagnosed. I had 21 x-rays done of my entire body, weekly ultrasounds, 6-8 rounds of bloodwork, autoimmune panels, skin checks, Er visits. I was on a steady schedule of 3-4 doctors appointments a week from August to December of 2019. I was left with absolutely nothing. 

Then my colonoscopy was cleared. How?!

Lyme

In the week before Christmas, I followed up in my hometown with a naturopathic doctor. I was diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease.  

This diagnosis was probably the most relieving thing that happened to me in all of  2019. It felt like I really had the answers. I started everything I could do to progress this healing. 

A week later I saw a biological dentist who took all the mercury fillings out of my mouth.  I started a homeopathy remedy for Lyme and I started to really see the light at the end of the tunnel. I felt SO much better! I hadn’t got that mystery rash in a few weeks. Which was shocking- as it had been appearing all over my body in random spells for months.

Rash is Back

When I got back to LA I really thought I had this whole thing in a steady motion. Until I got another rash larger and darker than ever before.  I knew that it needed to be biopsied, so I took an emergency trip and had that done. I got stitches and left. Hoping maybe this had another piece to the puzzle.

Cysts

Two days later, I found out I had a massive cyst on my left ovary at my routine PCOS checkup and confirmed insulin resistance caused by my PCOS. 

On Tuesday, about 2 days ago, I  received the results on my biopsy. 

Which leaves me to right now. Years of diagnosis and finally answers. 

Vasculitis

Vasculitis. So, 2 autoimmune diseases and enough chronic diagnoses to count on two hands. 

Now, what I’ve come to realize in this journey is what I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post . That healing is and always will always be whole body. When my stress increased and disconnection to a spiritual practice increased is when this all heightened. 

Now, what I’ve come to realize in this journey is what I mentioned in the first paragraph of this post . That healing is and always will always be whole body. When my stress increased and disconnection to a spiritual practice increased is when this all heightened. 

Without that low though, I probably wouldn’t be where I am right now, writing this blog entry. 

Fortunately, It takes 1 instant to change your mindset on something. I learned from this journey and took my OWN advice for once, and I’m ready to allow the deep cellular healing to restart, refresh, and revitalize myself. 

The journey isn’t over- I know that because the type of Vasculitis  I have is triggered by OTHER autoimmune conditions ( go figure). What I  do know is that I can manage my pain, stress, and situation with plants, herbs, and a balanced mind-body practice. 

You can too.

Thanks for listening. Be well.  Leave me a message in the comment section if you’re on a healing journey. I’d love to connect.