04/26/2026
Obviously, I don’t post much on social media these days. The social media world just isn’t the same anymore with AI and just the funky state it is in.
However, I have been mulling over posting about my year long health journey that I have been on. My general consensus is if I can help just one person advocate for their health, then my guaranteed lengthy and wordy post will have been worth the effort.
Ready to hear my story? (This is when you scroll on by if you don’t like reading a lot of words!)
Here goes.
The first weekend of last April 2025, we took a quick family tent camping trip to the Delaware beach. It was exceptionally warm weather and our tents were covered with crawling ticks until the end of the weekend. Surely, one of us would come home with a tick bite. Turns out, two of us were bit. Cranky’s bite was quickly diagnosed as Lyme Disease and the usual prescription diagnosis was a round of Doxycycline. I, personally have tested positive for Lyme Disease so many times that I can’t even remember the actual number. However, this time, I didn’t test positive but my family doctor gave me a prescription of Doxycycline anyway. That’s pretty standard procedure as far as Lyme Disease goes. By the beginning of May, Crank had no signs of Lyme but I still wasn’t feeling well. I went back to my family doctor and was issued another antibiotic to fight the disease. This antibiotic made me extremely nauseous but I tried to follow the full prescription protocol which was for the month of May. At the end of May, we flew to Idaho for a week to visit our friends. It was a wonderful trip but on the drive from Idaho to Salt Lake City to catch our flight, I started getting really sick. I chalked it up to the elevation of where we stayed (6,000 to 8,000 as we were in the Tetons) and seasonal allergies as Idaho’s spring was just starting! By the time our plane touched down in Harrisburg, PA, I was really feeling like crap. After a couple days of being home, I still didn’t feel well. I just felt plain icky!
I was scheduled to return to both my jobs that first week of June 2025 after our Idaho trip, which I did but not successfully. I showed up for a shift at my banquet serving job and couldn’t remember how to perform my job! I have worked in the service industry for over 30 years, how does one forget how to be a server? Seriously, for the life of me, I was dumbfounded as what to do. I dropped an entire tray of stacked meals because I suddenly lost my balance and my arm strength. At my other job, I couldn’t lift or stack suitcases like I have done for eight years previous! I have always prided myself with my love of my airport job. I often half joked when someone would ask what I do?, “I love my job! I get to throw luggage all day!”
But because of my health, I hated my jobs and I was MISERABLE. I didn’t have energy, slept a lot, was in pain for no reason, nauseous, daily headaches, dizziness, diarrhea…the list goes on.
It was back to my family doctor with another visit regaling of my latest health woes. You know what that entails. Bloodwork, tests and referrals (because that’s how stupid insurance works) to see a slew of specialists. I spent the summer of 2025, going from one doctor office to another. Neurologists-turns out bat s**t crazy can’t be treated, infectious disease doctors-I am happy to report that I do NOT have malaria!, internal organ doctors, orthopedic doctors, a nephrologist, a hematologist-I saw so many “gists” that I can’t begin to remember them all. I have had every possible “diagnosis” from MS, ALS, kidney disease to the final straw when a mass was discovered on my liver. I will always remember getting that phone call which scared the bejesus out of me. “Go get a MRI immediately. We found a mass on your liver.” Ugh. Coming from a family health history of internal organ cancer, this one scared me the most.
But nothing panned out, made sense and none of the many prescribed drugs worked. By the end of September, I still didn’t have any answers and I was using a walker and/or a walking cane.
I couldn’t work, my brain was a fog machine and I spent my days in bed or on the couch. Even washing the dishes exhausted me. I was absolutely miserable and even considered the possibility that I was dying!
My momma died the middle of October 2025, and I thought that maybe, just maybe, the stress of her long death would elevate some of my symptoms. (Squaw didn’t go out of this earth quietly or peacefully. She fought her death like a fatigued but faithful soldier!)
October meshed into November and life moved on but my health remained the same. I was still on my couch or bed, miserable and depressed. I wasn’t enjoying life; eating bon-bons, smoking cigs and watching the soaps like I had hoped to do when I turned 54!
Randomly texting with my friend, Morgan about my current health situation, she said that my story sounded much like the exact same stories shared by others for a functional doctor in our local area.
I was all in until I found out the cost of visiting a functional doctor. Out of the blue, Morgan shared a $200 coupon for my first visit and that was the clincher for me. I am a sucker for a deal or a coupon!
At the end of December, I went to my initial visit with a very optimistic attitude. What did I have to lose? I had spent the last nine months with no answers, not being able to work and still not feeling well.
After my first appointment, I was all in with my new health journey. I adopted a VERY strict food diet, not so much to lose weight (although I had gained 30lbs by sitting on the couch for so long!) but to cleanse my system of possible food allergens. I also participated in dry January (toughest thing I have ever done in my life! Ha!) and started on a natural supplement plan specifically for my body. I forced myself to start walking a mile a day-something that I used to do religiously but hadn’t done so in almost a year! Alpha gal Syndrome, an allergy to red meat was a possible culprit for my failing health.
After a month, I started feeling a bit better but the big turn didn’t happen until my second appointment. In conversation with my “doctor”- he is really a chiropractor, we discussed environmental factors that may have contributed to the demise of my health. In January 2025, we had a house fire in which we slept through for several hours until Greta, our Great Dane woke us up. We were able to put the fire out but considerable damage was done in the several hours that it burned. Evidently, the toxicity of those ingested fumes caused considerable damage to my internal organs; specifically my liver. Not long after, during the renovation process of our old house, we discovered black mold in the walls. Add everything up and it’s a case of an unrelated domino effect.
A burning log pops and rolls, hitting the latch on our wood stove causing the log to roll out to the floor, catching the floor joists on fire. After gutting our house of the fire damage, black mold was discovered after a few years of exposure to it. Two months later, I was bit by the Lone Star tick which caused Alpha gal Syndrome. Just one of these incidents is enough to make a seemingly healthy person uncomfortable. Combine the three factors and you’ve got a valid case of an unexplainable health demise.
I am happy to report that I am now feeling fantastic! I can’t articulate all the positive improvements in my health. I am back to working at both my jobs and can attest that I truly love them both again! I am gardening again, visiting my favorite thrift stores, talking to my beloved house plants, have strength in my arms, have considerable more energy and am working towards transitioning from my daily walks to running again! I had an acne like rash on my chin for almost a year and it has all but disappeared! My brain still functions with a bit a fog but I just contribute it to my level of “bat s**t crazy”! I just had an appointment with my functional doctor this week and most of my blood work numbers are back to normal!
There are some things that are different though. I still can’t eat (or be near red meat), lanolin or some dairy products. Cheese used to be my love language! I can not hug a cow or I will go into anaphylactic shock! This is such an oddity for life long lover/farmer of dairy cows and sheep! However, I have a bottle baby goat that I can care for with only a bit of itchiness on my body.
I am not writing this rather lengthy post to berate our conventional medical system. I have a lot of friends and family who work in the medical field and take their roles (and our health) very seriously. I am writing this post to offer alternatives for our health. My wish is for others to advocate for their own health, be in tune with their own bodies and think outside the box, so to speak.
And if you think not taking the 15 seconds it took Morgan to forward the $200 coupon doesn’t make a difference in someone’s life, you are wrong. (Forever grateful for that coupon, Morgan!)
*Photo of Greta, the “Not so Great Dane” who saved our lives. She dumb but she knew the house was on fire! (She is pouting in this photo!)
