Britney & Levi: Ending Allergies & How I Got My Kid Back

In late 2022, Britney sought guidance to address lingering issues after a challenging health season marked by severe pneumonia and multiple allergic reactions, antibiotics and steroids. After a various treatments, she struggled with ongoing symptoms related to her gut health, allergies, and overall well-being. Britney's journey involved addressing deep-rooted issues, including undiagnosed mold in her family's home, which had been exacerbating her symptoms, leading to chronic yeast infections and severe GI issues. Through targeted care, Britney experienced significant improvements in her and her family's health, reducing inflammation and overcoming long-standing allergic reactions and other symptoms. Listen to learn how Britney and her family got their health back.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:02

Hey, you're gonna be okay. I'm your host, Elizabeth May, and my functional health practice helps people heal when they've exhausted traditional options. When no one can figure your health challenges out, my team helps you resolve symptoms and restores your health. You're listening to my podcast where we'll hear stories of healing chronic illness from a root cause approach. Bernie, when you came to me the first time in November 2022, first, I think backstory, we know each other from college and from past times. We had kind of like crossover lives, didn't go to the same school, but you were one of the first people who I reached out to because I noticed that you you were just working on some health things and your body had changed a lot and you had dropped like a whole lot of inflammation very quickly. And in a season where I had a lot of inflammation, I reached out to you and you kind of gave me um some guides around diet stuff that you had done and introduced me to the AIP diet. I think that was the first time I'd ever heard about the autoimmune protocol. But when you came for care in your note, you pretty much said, I want to have more freedom in food. I want to have more freedom in life, I want to be a role model for my kids and to be able to enjoy life with them. And that was in 2022, and we've had two stents of working together. So I kind of want to go through that path. And it also ticked me quite a bit to read that because I feel like you definitely had more freedom in food and life after our first care round together. But this round where we really address the root causes has brought like so much more freedom for you. So when you came in 2022, what was going on for you? You just been on some antibiotics. Tell me more about that season of life.

SPEAKER_00 1:43

Yeah, it's really funny hearing that because I don't remember writing that at all, but it's cool like hearing you say like that was my goal and like knowing where I am now. That's really neat. Um so 2022, I had gotten pneumonia from um, I assume from COVID. Um, not really 100% sure, but it was like the first time in my life where I had pneumonia and it was really intense. Um I had a hard time getting better. I was on a lot of different antibiotics. It was wild having the antibiotics I was on. Like I would start one and then it wasn't strong enough, and I would start another. And um I was on a lot of steroids, um, steroid inhalers. It was just a really miserable with a month at least of that. And so then after that, my stomach just never got better, really. It was just, you know, like pain all the time. Like I became allergic to antibiotics that I'd taken that I had taken my whole life and then suddenly was allergic to them. I ended up having an allergic reaction to the steroid I was on and all the steroid inhalers. Um yeah, it was just it was kind of miserable. And at that point, like you had said, we had known each other before, and um, and I had followed you enough to know that um, you know, like you said, I had controlled things with my food and my diet up until that point. And um, you know, I felt like I kept pretty close tabs on like, you know, alternative ways of doing things, like, you know, as opposed to like antibiotics, like just ways to take care of your body. And I was like, there has to be more than just accepting that I've had pneumonia and now my body's just like this forever. Like I just kind of refuse to believe that I was gonna be stuck like that.

SPEAKER_03 3:27

So yeah, and you definitely like when I was going back through your intake notes, there are definitely threads for you throughout life. Like you'd had an asthma diagnosis very, very early, like in life. You'd had allergies going on and off, lots of skin issues. The GI stuff at its like peak point at that point seemed like it was quite new. Like you'd had nausea and things that were GI related but were more like allergy stemming. Um, this whole like post-antibiotic situation was different. But I look back now too, and you noted having poor sleep. You weren't really able to sleep through the night and had a lot of waking at night. And your relationship with food was another thing that I read through. And I was like, oh, you said you're anxious, hungry, but afraid to eat, and not sure what will make me sick. And I think that kind of sums up that season. Like you'd had, you know, rash reactions. There were so many rash notes from various medications. You'd had tachycardia. One of the medications, like you said, um, brought on some anaphylaxis response. And then there were just like hives, hives all the time. I remember talking about hives, and you were like, Well, I mean, I get them a lot, so I don't, it's not really a big deal. And I was like, but I need to know like when. And we did a GI map at that point, and really it was unremarkable. Um, there were definitely things. There were strep elevations, there was a lot of poor fat digestion, and your immune system, I could see, was depleted on paper, which can add up with that allergy presentation. But looking back from where we are now, I thought it was really interesting to go through it. But we did, we worked through GI protocols. Um you know, kind of what you said at the end of care was that it was the best thing you've ever done for yourself, and that you've done that journey. Yeah, after years of issues with foods, lots of diet tried, you know, like lots of different like you were smart, you knew lots of different things that you had already done, and you've been managing like anaphylactic allergic reactions, you'd gone through pneumonia, like you were you knew what um to do, I think, to take care of yourself. And in that time, too, we discovered there was mold in y'all's home. And we walked through that, almost forgot about it, to be honest. So when I was going back through here, like I know it was there, but how did addressing the mold in your house really change things too in that season?

SPEAKER_00 5:36

Um, you know, it was wild because I had read about mold and heard about mold, and then I was like, there's not mold in my house. And then after we talked, you're like, I think there's mold in my your house. And at first I was like kind of skeptical, but then I like I trust you so much. I was like, you know what? She's probably right. And so I started hunting for it. And at first I found it in the washing machine, and I was like, oh, here's the mold. And I knew because when I opened the washing machine, I suddenly got this like the headache that I always had was so much more intense. And then um, we started hunting for it more because I just was like, I there's gotta be more. And we found our couch was full of mold, our kids had spilled milkshakes and smoothies and yogurt stuff on this dark couch, and we didn't realize I got some of those little home mold kits, and I mean it was everywhere. It was in our wall, in our kitchen. We went through a lot of stuff, and then um, I mean, I could tell that you were right because when I went on a low mold diet and got the mold out of their house, suddenly like the burden on my stomach was so much better, it was like almost night and day within a few days. Um, and so that's how I knew we were really on to something because it was like, you know, I was already on a pretty restricted diet, and then I was just on the wrong diet for the, you know. Um, I'm sure that happens to people a lot. Like you, like you said, I knew a lot and I feel like I knew a lot, but um I didn't know I didn't know the right thing for me then, and I never would have gotten to the mold thing. Um, and it really like changed a lot of like, you know, just how I understood things like we got air purifiers and um just really improved our air quality in our home. And and during that time, that was when I learned about, you know, food digestion and all the other stuff that you teach about that I did had no idea about. Um, and so in that way, you know, I think I really set myself up for this other thing that we did, um, you know, the second round of care, because I don't think my body would have received it the same way if I hadn't already done so much. Like it wasn't just mold healing we were doing. Like I felt like we were doing a lot of healing from, you know, other stuff too, just in improving my digestion and um and just my knowledge. And I want to say too, like, I think one of the most amazing things that you teach is um like the fight or flight thing and just like your relationship with stress and food. And um, just in the last two years, I've become so much more mindful of the way I feel when I eat, am I rushed when I eat, the way I feel overall? Why am I allowing my body to become stressed, like paying attention to how stress affects me, like my heart rate quickens, you know, just like listening to things like that and like learning to do deep breathing and ask, you know, just ask yourself the right questions to get out of that. I think, you know, a lot of my situation has improved a lot just from removing stress, um, intentionally removing stress and intentionally um just learning to calm myself and teach my body to not have that like immediate fight or flight, you know, response to things. And that was difficult too in that season with where food was scary, you know, like just um the supplements and the food and and learning to not be anxious when I took them and you know, just things like that. Um yeah, it was a really productive season for a lot of reasons, but also just you know, detoxing myself from the mold. I was getting really um chronic yeast infections, and that was probably one of my biggest things um that I struggled with for a long time that I didn't realize was treatable, you know. Yeah um I had developed allergies or some type of you know reaction now after working with you. I'm not sure if it was an allergy or just my body, you know, being a little too responding, yeah. But um I had done so many like you know, monostat, antifungal treatments that um they weren't working anymore and my body was reacting really poorly to them. And so um during my last pregnancy um in 2021, I had a yeast infection for the entire pregnancy. And um, yeah, it was pretty brutal. And um there was like, you know, kind of alternative treatments that my OB was recommending that weren't like boric acid that were not necessarily like safe for pregnancy. But she was like, you know, it's kind of your only option. And so um I was just kind of constantly playing this game of like, how do I get it kind of better, but not all the way better, but better enough to, you know, and I was managing that with not eating sugar and cutting like sugars from my diets and just a lot of things like that that were just everything was really restrictive, and I didn't realize how related the yeast portion was to was to the mold in the home. Um so that I mean, I have had one yeast infection, I think, since since, you know, and that was during our treatment when my body was like pushing a lot of stuff, you know, and so um yeah, it's really nice to not have fungus grow up in my body.

SPEAKER_03 10:36

Yeah, I mean, I think your story's interesting because you were keen, you had a lot of self-awareness, but going through like the GR healing season, if someone is looking at package care, like it is a solid intro. You're there for six months, we're working through video teaching, we're teaching you one-on-one. And the stuff that we learn or that we teach, I guess, I still feel like I'm learning all the time. Every time I make a new video, I'm like, wow, this is honestly something that we should all know. But our parents don't teach us because they didn't know. Like, there's just so much practical science that can improve your day to day. You're working through that, and then we're working through fine-tuning the GI track and just kind of looking back through your stuff. I'm like, this was like your foundation season. Like, I think you're totally right. This next season, you were like, we just got right to it. We didn't have to do a whole bunch of drainage. Your body was much more stable. We didn't have the yeast piece in there, you didn't have the GI stuff, you were feeling good, like you left care from your GI healing season feeling well. But also, I think it is kind of a testament too to what one-on-one care can look like. As a person who solved my own health issues after I had my voice, um, I look back now and I would give a lot of money. And I could have given all the money I used, figuring it out to pay somebody on our team to do that. Because you said, like within working with us after a month, your stomach was not hurting anymore at all. The mold was a piece of that. And if we hadn't, you know, known to to listen for that, it wouldn't have been something necessarily that we look for. And you guys remediate, I think, largely by yourselves too, right? So we kind of walked through that. And I kind of gave you the like that's not my first recommendation, but if you're doing it that way, here are my recommendations, and it really worked out well for you guys. And I think that that sometimes there's so much rigidity in our space, but there can be flexibility, you know, like you can do what you can do, and it can still be good and still be enough. But the second time we worked together, so that would have been January of this year, 2024, and I don't really remember how we got linked back up, aside from we talk here every now and then and we've checked in for maybe kid follow-up and your follow-up here and there. Um I just think like the more I've grown in knowledge too, and the more we've treated complex cases, the more I just kept thinking about your story and about how it continued to progress. I think I had to do a questionnaire before we even popped into care because I was like, I don't want to see what the chronic Yeah, so I um I got pneumonia again, and that was what really pushed me.

SPEAKER_00 13:07

So I I forgot to mention when we were doing the other thing, it was like when or when we were talking about what before, um, like after I was on that mold mold protocol and then we realized that we had mold in our home, we put all of our kids on the mold protocol. And so, you know, that's important since we ended up um putting Levi through the second round. And so I feel like it was foundational for my kids as well. Like we started, you know, detoxing things from them and stuff. But anyway, so yeah, I think we parted ways in the summer, and then um I was feeling really good. And um then in the fall again, I kind of had like allergy symptoms and I wasn't sick this time, and then I got pneumonia again. And um it was really that was really tough for me because I thought, um, I'm healthy, like why is this happening to me again? You know, like I'm 33, you know, and um so yeah, and then I was like still, you know, I think I had an another allergic reaction to a different antibiotic. And I was like, okay, something's still not quite right. And um I got really frustrated one day and I um this guy on Instagram, I won't like name names, but he was posting about different ways to like cure yourself of things, and I just lost it and sent him like this really long message, and I was like, you know, because like you said, I think there is some rigidity in like the crunchy space or whatever you want to call it. Crunchy might not be the best word, but like, you know, for example, oh, all viruses can't be cured with antibiotics. Well, like for me, my entire life, every time I got a virus, I would need an antibiotic because I would always develop a secondary infection. And so I would have all these people telling me, well, you don't need an antibiotic for that. And I'm like, Well, I actually do because then I get really sick, you know. It was just it, I felt like I wasn't really like, so I sent him this message and I was like, How does somebody like me even get better? And he started talking about um I don't remember what he called it, but I think it was like immunotherapy or something that you had had mentioned before. And I was like, you know what, I'm gonna ask Elizabeth about that. So then that's when I message you, like, you know, I I feel I still feel like there's something I'm not right from. Like there's something that is still like there's I felt like I had solved a lot, but then um my son too was like he was better from the mold diet. Um, and the the whole mold protocol. My kids call it the mold diet, that's why I call it that. But my kids, he was better from it. And there were a ton of improvements, but like it just still wasn't, you know, like full freedom, I guess is what I'm saying. Like it felt like there was still something that was like not right. I felt like there was still something about my body that was just like, like, I just refused to believe that I'm gonna get pneumonia every fall for the rest of my life. Like I refused to accept that, you know? And so um I had asked my asked my allergy doctor about options, and she said, well, you might need the pneumonia vaccine. And I was like, well, I'm gonna ask Elizabeth about that first. And then that kind of led us to um to talk. And you said, you know, maybe you might have um chronic strip or um, you know, something along those lines, I think was like how we got started. And, you know, I think there was like a lot of um a lot of like divine intervention in the sense of like, you know, we had talked about working together years and years ago, and then the timing never worked out until you know the whole mold piece happened. And then I think all the time, like, if I hadn't had that mold and I hadn't had that healing season, like I don't know if I would have gone into this season. Um and I just really feel like like the pieces were all laid out for me to hit the healing season I needed, like when I needed it, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_03 16:41

But yeah, and I think I say this a lot about clients. I just wrote last week in the newsletter, somebody came to me for PCOS right when I was out of school, and I look back and I'm like, it really could have helped her then to feel better and had a better quality of life for a bit. But she came back in the last year, and she and both of her children have Lyme and co infections, and she's definitely had it, had many years of infertility, and timing is such a thing. Like sometimes I do clarity calls, and I'm like, uh, I don't know if I'm right for you right now. Like, and I think in some ways this was kind of its own different version of that because you had the pneumonia thing again, but there were breathing problems that were still hanging, there was shortness of breath that had popped up, and I had a different brain for my own experiences and seeing more clients to kind of hear some things in there, like cold extremities, and you had some air hunger and static shocks. And we kind of, I think we briefly walked through. We sure there's still no more mold because that's always a good question and kind of ruled that out. But walking through even just past health history, anemia history, skin hypersensitivities, you're my rash girl, like a rash is gonna show up if something's going on. Um, all of those sort of metallic tastes in the mouth, the recurrent yeast infections, ringing in the ears, sensory overwhelm and feeling fried, which you're a mom, you have many children. I also think like it's important to note that like I've watched you from afar for a long time, and you take really good care of yourself. Like the amount of exercise that you do is more than most people, right? Like you're in cycling and running and do lots of different things um with your dad. And that's also one of my favorite parts of the story because you kind of got to get back to that. And yeah, it didn't make sense for me either, but I also could hear over and over again an immune thread. There's an immune thread there. When you get sick, then you get really sick. You can't just get a little infection, it has to be multiple things at one time, and then it's followed usually by allergic reactions, and that was kind of your life. Um, and at the time that we linked back up, it was gluten and tree nuts and eggs and corn and xanthem gum, multiple gums, and you were like, I don't know, Elizabeth, it just stacking and the egg thing is a lot right now. At times you'd been able to tolerate like an egg on the counter with other things, and you were at a peak place where you were starting to have grape reactions and broccoli reactions, like there was EOE stuff going on. Um so while you'd made it through the pneumonia, it kind of like left you with a pile of remainders, if you will. Yeah, and I know too, when we started that phase because of the corn piece, I think to your credit, and you talking about stress, like you've really embodied like tackling the fear thing very well. I would say better than most clients because ethanol has been a thing for you, right? And in the detox, part of the detox process that we use, the drops are suspended in alcohol. Um, and you were like, you know what? I'm just gonna do it. And homeopathy has a lot of different ingredients and they're microdosing, but a lot of the ingredients are bizarre things. And for someone with a lot of allergies and allergy history, that can feel overwhelming. And I remember us talking and you being like, Are you sure there's not this or that or this? And I was like, I mean, we can only be so sure, but it's all microdose. Let's just give it a try if you want to give it a try. And I remember you wrote me back, I'm taking the drops without panicking, and it's actually going good.

SPEAKER_00 20:05

And I was like, I literally jiggled the first day I Googled every single thing in the cut.

SPEAKER_03 20:14

That's what allergy life was like. But you were brave and you did it, and then we got into we did some testing. So we kind of assumed from questionnaires we could see that Lyme was there, cytomegalovirus popped up, Epstein Bar virus popped up, which I think you knew you had a history of, parvovirus was like raging for you, and strep A was there, which we'd seen strep before on GI maps. You kind of had some cyclical GI stuff here or there. And anytime there was an allergy thing, there was always GI stuff, you know, nausea. You're like, you're like the most comfortable vomiter, I feel like, because that's been part of your life. You're always like, I mean, it's fine, I just puked and it's fine. And I was like, it's not fine. We don't need to continue on like that. Um, and then as we work through, we eventually addressed Bartonella too. So what was it like? Like, how did it feel? Like you were working through the detox drops, and you're like, okay, I can see that something's happening, but moving into beginning immune therapy for that batch of pathogens, can you remember like how you were feeling where you were food-wise, day-to-day wise and how that shifted when you started?

SPEAKER_00 21:18

Um, let's see. You know, I want to say it's kind of wild, like because all of it's just like clear stuff, like whatever drop or whatever, and you're I'm just trusting that this is a straight wall. It's like, you know, I knew after a while I was like, okay, this is definitely not like a placebo because I mean there were obviously huge changes in my body, but yeah, um I can't I think it was about two months in that I decided to try my first food again. Because, you know, before you start the actual immune therapy, you're starting like, you know, like the detox, you know, like what you've talked about and all the other things that we that we threw in there, um, you know, for balancing different parts of what You got from my blood work, and um I was feeling really good. And um my husband made me something one day and he had forgotten that I wasn't eating broccoli and he like chopped up a bunch of broccoli in it and he handed it to me and I was like, you know what? I'm tired of I'm tired of just not eating broccoli, like I'm tired of just avoiding stuff, so I'm just gonna try it. And I tried it and I was fine. And I was like, Chris, I eat broccoli and I'm fine. And he was like, What? What do you mean you ate broccoli and you're fine? Like he had forgotten I like had been not eating it for like a year, you know, because it just made me so uncomfortable when I ate it. And um yeah, I was totally fine. And so it when we started started getting little pieces of stuff like that, and I had known about like the ethyl alcohol, but I just kind of like couldn't think about it for a while. And then I think a couple months in, I was like, I've been drinking corn literally every day. I have been drinking corn literally every day. And then one day, I think it was it was Mother's Day. Um, for Mother's Day, my husband took off work the day after and sent me and my best friend out like to get pedicures and do whatever. And we went out to lunch and we were sitting at Chipotle and I was like, you know what? I want to eat some corn chips, I'm gonna do it. And um, I did it and I hadn't eaten corn in six years. I mean, it was one of those things that, you know, I had all this stuff going on, and I think I could just manage it really tightly if I avoided any type of food that caused any inflammation in my body whatsoever, you know? And so it was really cool to me to see that I could eat something that used to cause inflammation and then it didn't. And so to me, that meant, whoa, your body's losing a lot of inflammation, like something's happening and your body is not having this inflammatory response anymore. So um, yeah, it was super encouraging. And so um, we just had like a lot of little pieces like that along the way where it was like, okay, this is really encouraging, you know? And another thing that was really encouraging to us is like you were always able to say, um, you know, because you've done it before, and I think that really speaks like that helps a lot when you're going through something is like, you know, you're very knowledgeable and like walking alongside somebody, but like you've also been through it yourself. And so you would say, at this point, I didn't feel that good. And then I would hit that point and be like, oh, that's what she was talking about. You know, um, I was really able to identify that I had BART because it didn't show up on my blood work, but because you kept asking me, do the bottoms of your feet hurt? Do the bottoms of your feet hurt? It's a distinct feeling, the bottoms of your feet hurt. If you had it, the bottoms of your feet would hurt. And somebody should be like, and there's no hurting, there's no pain in the bottom of your feet, right? And I was like, why does she keep asking about my feet? And then one day, oh man, I woke up and my feet hurt so bad I could barely walk. And I was like, I have got to message her immediately, what is wrong with me? Yeah. I was like, it's barbanilla, I have barbanilla, oh my gosh. And then we talked and you were like, Yeah, I do believe you have Bartonella. And I I think maybe you had suspected it and that's why you kept asking. But um yeah, anyways, I um a couple weeks after, I mean, it was so bad. I went out to like a to meet some friends at a bar, and it was like probably the first week we had started the Bart stuff, and um my feet hurt so bad I couldn't stand up. I mean, I literally could not stand up, and all I could talk to my friends about was how bad my feet hurt. And um they were like, Are you okay? You know, and I was like, No, I'm not okay. It hurts to walk, it hurts to stand. I remember praying when I was driving in the car because I had some friends in from out of town, and like one of them, her father was her mother was in the hospital passing away. And the other one, her dad was having like the slow thing with cancer. And I was like, I can't miss this. But we were, I was pulling up in the parking lot and I was like, God, if I did not get a parking spot close to the door, I am not gonna be able to go into this bar. Like, I'm not gonna be able to, I'm not gonna be able to get on my feet and walk in. So please just give me a parking spot close. And there's one right by the door, and I was like, okay, I could do, you know, and it was like so hard, just like putting one foot in front of the other, and like, you know, I'm a photographer, like standing and doing stuff. It was just so hard. And then um, you know, probably a month into that, I woke up one day and my feet weren't hurting anymore. Like, tell me if that is not proof that something I am doing is working, because I had never, I never felt pain like that in my feet. And and I know, like you had told me when we start treating these other functions, some other co-infections may pop up because they're getting to draw the other ones. And um, I really believe that's what happened because I mean it was like suddenly out of nowhere, it felt like I was being taken down by something. And yeah, that was that was really encouraging to me and Chris both too to see like, okay, this is clearly working because you know, I it was something so I could so visibly feel like you know, this intense pain in my feet, and then it was just gone um almost as quickly as it had started, you know. And then it kind of got to the point where like some weeks, I don't remember what phase we were at, but some weeks, you know, by like day five, when I was like a do for it, I would start my hearing hurt again and I would start looking forward to you know the BART dosage.

SPEAKER_03 27:02

Like I would say, oh my gosh, I can't wait to get that, you know, I'm on BART day. Um get that immune system back on it instead of ignoring it. I think your case is so interesting too, because testing-wise, we didn't do our whitest testing, but we did look at viral stuff because there's so much viral stuff hanging out for you, and Lyme, you fit definitely like that. Like you talked about when you would get sick and you would need an antibiotic, and that would be the thing that helped you over the bump. And I think Lyme and Bartonella were very stealthy for you. You were not presenting as someone who had major joint pain, you were not bedbound. You did have days where you were like, once we got into things, you were like, Well, I felt horrible all day long today, and I couldn't clean the house, and I was very tired, so I just kind of stayed in bed a lot. Or then I felt really great today, but then the next day I was like completely useless, sliding down, rolling in a ball, like this is just where I'm gonna be. And then the leg stuff started to happen, and your ankles, you kept saying they feel really thick. They're like so painful, they're thick and swollen. I was like, there it is. Um, but also it's kind of fun to read through your notes over time because, like you said, there was at one point when your shin started hurting a lot and you were like, wait a minute, I have had shin splins here or there in the past, but not always. That's a very Bartonella-y thing and it can pop through. So if an a virus is there present, taking down your immune system, those bacterial infections like Lyme and Bartonella can take that opportunity to like rage forward. So I really think looking back on your original GI thing after you had all those antibiotics, your body was just kind of like pretty overwhelmed by Bartonella being forward. I think that had a lot to do with your GI stuff because, like I said, your GI map was pretty unremarkable and your strep was there. And we've even talked about mood and mental health things over the years, like generally a very healthy person, but when you would get sick with other things, that one, that's like when you felt more teetering, um, if you will. And then as you would get healthier, those symptoms would kind of fall off. Like everything seemed to like ebb and flow with your sicknesses, and then an antibiotic could help like you get over the hump. But for me, looking at it from here, I think that Lyme and Bartonella were very um decently dormant a lot, but they were driving that dysregulated immune system where your body wanted to inflame, where it wanted to be TH2 dominant and really push after food reactions and allergies and things like that all the time. But I love like watching, I have your notes like listed out, and you're like one week you're eating hot dogs and garlic powder and onion powder, and you're like, just a little garlic powder and onion powder went great. And then a couple weeks later, you're like, I'm slamming all the garlic and corn and capital letters on your on your little form, and then talking about eating mozzarella cheese sticks, and then you went and biked with your dad during the immune therapy process, which I think was huge because it was 20 miles. It wasn't just like you went on a small bike, yeah, you returned to kind of what was normal for you.

SPEAKER_00 29:58

Yeah, I was doing triathlons before and like marathons and stuff, and um you know, looking back, like I probably wish I had been a little kinder to my body, like prior to doing this. I I definitely approach exercise in a different way now. Like I don't push myself like past a certain point that I don't feel like I should go anymore. Like I'm just like, you know, be kind to your body. Um, ask it to do a lot, but then be kind to it in return, I guess.

SPEAKER_02 30:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:23

Um, yeah, it was it's like a big for for me and my dad, it's like a social bonding thing, you know, like that's his thing, and we go do it together. And I wasn't able to for so long. Um, you know, especially with like the muscle pain and the shin pain. And um yeah, I felt like for a while there, my like I had a hard time with muscle recovery. Um, you know, I'd go on a photo shoot and then my back muscles would be sore or something. And um, so yeah, it was really big for me whenever I was able to start. And I told myself at the beginning, I was like, you know, we're gonna do this, talking to myself, we're gonna do this. But um, you can walk every day, awesome. If you can run, awesome. But if you can't do any of it, that's like okay too. And um, and so yeah, I kind of had like just in my mind dedicated myself to this season, like whatever you can do, you can do, and whatever you can't, like that's okay. There'll be another season when when this is over and it's gonna be like a better season because you're gonna be better.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 31:18

So yeah, it was really like it felt really symbolic to me, like that I had made it through like the hump, you know, being able to like, and so now Saturday morning's like our bike time. Um so Saturday morning, like really early. He's such a morning person, it's kind of ridiculous. But he'll show up at my house at like six o'clock in the morning, pretty, are you awake? You know, and um and we go and it's really fun. Um, so yeah, I look forward to doing that more, you know, now that I can. Um now that the like the hard part is pretty much over.

SPEAKER_03 31:51

So yeah, I think it's fun too for me at least to watch your symptoms like peel off, but because you've been very dedicated to like what you said in the beginning, like you want your life back and you want to like live life how you normally would and be a role model for your kids. It was just like kind of constant where you were like, Well, now I'm getting to be present in more family meals, and I can eat my mother-in-law's food and I can have whatever the kids are having. I'm not cooking multiple dinners, and then the next time you're like kind of dragging, really dragging. I feel like my mood is down, my morale is down, and I we kind of walk through some questions around like adrenals and kind of seeing like through this process because it's a bit long. The immune therapy portion usually takes like seven to nine-ish months, depending on how drainage and detox goes, it can be longer, but there are parts of your body that will get depleted at some point, and you're always really good at like communicating with me. Like, these are all the things I'm noticing that are not normal. And we kind of deduce that your adrenals need a little more support. And once we brought that in, you were like, Okay, I feel like that literally changed my morale. Like they were not working for me, and now I'm good to go. And then you message that you shot like a four-day track meet, photographed it. Um, which, if that's not something you listeners have done, that's a lot of walking and being outside and standing and moving around and following people around. Like, that's a lot. I think listening to you kind of share how you kept pushing yourself and how things um kept being more and more accessible to you, which I think brings us to kind of like, where are you now? You're at the end of the process, but what does life look like right now? And what has kind of like opened up for you or what still hangs on symptom-wise um after immune therapy.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

So you did tell me, like, and I told myself this all along, like kind of at the end, like you get better, you get better. Like, I think you've compared it to pregnancy a lot. Like the beginning of pregnancy is hard, you feel kind of sick, you know, kind of nauseous. That was the beginning for me for sure. Like the beginning of the detox. I was like, oh, I feel kind of nauseous. Um, then you kind of get better and you get your energy back. And the second trimester is like, ooh, this is kind of nice. I can do this, you know, but you're still a little tired. And then at the end, it's like, oh, this is like, you know, oh, this is back. I this the end for me hasn't been um as much of like a dip down as I thought it would be. Um, because I am in kind of that like last couple month phase. Um I feel really good. Um, you know, I shared with you before before, but um, I started aviation school, and that was so huge for me because um I mean it was kind of something that my husband and I, it's this isn't like something I had planned my whole life. Like I was a photographer and I was like, I'm a photographer, what am I doing? But I went on this photo shoot. Um, I have been picking up more work, like I've been feeling really good picking up work, and um I homeschool my kids and uh I have four of them. I don't know if we mentioned kids, yeah, worth mentioning. Yeah, I have four kids and homeschool them. And so picking up work prior to this, even before I even started this program was exhausting. Like just staying up editing and preparing homeschool lessons and doing the photo shoots I was doing, it was really draining me prior to doing this. Um and so then over the summer, I did a photo shoot of a friend's home-built plane and I went flying in it. And I just like remember like seeing the runway the first time from that like pilot seat, it just did something in my brain. And I kind of went on this like informational quest and came home and told my husband, like, hey, I want to be a pilot. And I mean, he, if you haven't figured out by now, like he's super supportive, like he supported me through this entire, you know, process too. And he's just like, Yeah, we got to do this, you know, like we got to get your health back. And he's like, Yeah, of course you can be a pilot. Yeah, done with these um, let's start tomorrow. Yeah. What's so cool, um, you know, just to him and I, like in thinking about all of this is how I don't think if I had had decided a year ago that I wanted to be a pilot, I'd I know that I couldn't have done it. Um because just like the amount that I'm having to train. Um, I mean, I train five days a week and it's really physical. I mean, I'm muscling back like the plane. I mean, I'm pushing planes around, like it's it's super hot and sweaty. And I actually think all the time, like, oh, this is like a free detox because I'm sweating so much. Like, I think of you when I'm up there, I'm sweating so much. I'm like, oh, this is great. I'm detoxing everything. Um, but yeah, I mean, it's just like I know how to take care of my body now in a different way. And I know, like, I don't know, like I'm tired, but it's not the same. Like, and it's wild to me that I can be in school and study for a test and multiple tests, like have all of these hard tests, and I'm, you know, training five days a week and doing photo shoots. And um, it kind of sounds insane, like saying it all out loud, but I think like just really the best part of all of it for me is that I don't feel stressed. And um, you know, I went into this like hoping for food freedom and I'm not gonna cry. But like I think what I didn't realize that that I really needed was like freedom from other stuff, like just the ability to sit and like take deep breaths and like give my body rest and things like that that I just um I had never learned before. Like you mentioned before, like our parents never teach us this stuff. And like drinking enough water, like identifying, oh, I think I need some coconut water today because I feel this and this. And like I did, I took an adrenal cocktail before I sat down to talk to you because I was dragging today and I was like, you know what, I need an adrenal cocktail, like because I don't feel good today. And um yeah, just like all of those pieces coming together. Um, but I do feel like this was like a really big piece for me. Just I mean, figuring out like I had I had COVID a couple weeks ago, and one of the biggest wins for me too was that I didn't get an infection. I didn't get a sinus infection, I didn't get bronchitis, I didn't get an antibiotic. And even after our mold um protocol that we did, I got COVID and I got I had to get an antibiotic for a sinus infection that time. And so like I can tell um, you know, something has shifted in my body in a way that like, you know, I have four kids, my youngest is three, and so they're like little germ factories, you know, and so um just you know, moving forward, thinking about being able to fight off stuff that they bring home, you know. I hear teachers all the time like, oh, you get immune to stuff, blah, blah, blah. And I always think, like, well, why am I not getting immune to anything? You know, and um, and another huge gift like this has been is just like giving me some clarity as to why my immune system doesn't work. Um I remember before we started, you sent me a podcast that someone else had recorded that was just like like this, like people sharing like what they've been through and like how they feel like it changed their life. And I thought, man, like every single one of these people feels like me. Like, you know, some people have really intense diagnoses, but mine felt very broad, you know. And I think a lot of people just suffer through the healthcare system because they don't have answers. And maybe they're like me and they're just really in touch with their body, and they're like, think something's just not quite right. Like, you know, I'm different in this way, and yeah, we're all different, but like, you know, this is different about me and this is different about me, and like this just doesn't feel quite right. And, you know, there there can be answers. And I think I just searched on Google and other places for so long. Yeah. Um, and it was just so refreshing to figure out, oh, hey, like your immune system's really imbalanced, you know. Nobody had ever said that to me. People have been like, oh, you have a crappy immune system, but nobody had ever said, oh, your immune system's imbalanced. Let's help you get it back into balance. I didn't know that was an option, you know. Um, and so yeah, there's just I could go on forever. Like it's been, it's been really encouraging. Um, food is super emotional. And like you mentioned, eating together as a family. I mean, I had gotten so used to just preparing myself different stuff and eating different stuff and not eating at people's houses and not eating at restaurants that I don't think I realized um, you know, the like sadness I was just like tucking away all the time. And sometimes I did feel really sad. And most of the time I was just like, eh, you know, whatever. Um, and then, you know, last weekend, a week or two ago, I went to a friend's house and she made me dinner and I ate it and it was so normal. And I sat there thinking, what am I doing right now? I'm just eating at somebody's house and I'm not stressed out about it, you know? Um, just like all the small things like that that just pile up one after another and become a really big thing because it's my life, you know, like it's my life and it's like it's just different now. Anyway, sorry.

SPEAKER_03 40:46

I love it. I love too when we were talking about the pilot thing, because like I've known you for a long time, but I don't know that I'd ever heard that desire come out. So it's fun even for me to hear the whole story just now. But when you were talking about how the health piece wasn't something you could do because you depended on Benadryl so much before, and it's not something that you need anymore, and that if you need support for allergy stuff, you have different tools and you need it far less. And then also from my perspective, when someone has Lyme and co-infections, Lyme really loves a low oxygen environment. Bartonella um can flare with a lot of EMF elevation can cause flaring. And so when you are flying and you're like, oh, I'm flying five days a week, and I was like, Oh, I can talk for a few weeks. Let me let me pull in here with some questions and see how those infections are remaining dormant. But they really are like, there's not really evidence of lime popping for it. There's not evidence of Bartonella, and you're in like their ideal environments, they're like, Yes, let's have less oxygen, let's let's be bothered by um altitude and EMF. And it's very interesting. And exactly what you said. It's like the immune system was imbalanced, your body was stuck. There's too much TH2 and not enough TH1 where your body was killing pathogens where they came in. You really needed the aid of medications to kill them. And on some hand in the cringe world, we're all like antibiotics are awful, blah, blah, blah. I have I have a lot to say about that, maybe a different day. But if we're needing to use cyclical antibiotics, that means those are just taking the place of what your immune system should be doing on that TH1 killer side, and we have to get back to balance. And I think your story of like Lyme and Bart kind of being like the undercurrent of those cyclical um viral infections is really interesting because Lyme can present in this way where it's not really like super aggressive. You were you would been doing triathlon stuff for a long time, and it wasn't knocking you out of what we would think, like Lyme would knock you out of like joint and you know exertion type things. Um, it was more when your immune system would hit a challenge, a seasonal challenge or a sickness challenge that it then just like couldn't keep up right. Um, I do think too, like the mold was a trigger, the antibiotics before your GI season were a trigger because we can look at your health and kind of see the ebb and flow. And it's been it's very, very fun for me. Probably the most fun part of both your and Levi's notes were seeing you guys get COVID a little bit ago and like literally nothing really happened. Because typically for someone who has an immune system that's in balance and tilts when there's more challenge, like it gets bad and it gets bad quick, and you guys both just sailed through that. But I do want to touch on Levi a little bit because we did work through the mold season, and I feel like his body is the most similar to yours in your household, and he is little, and so he definitely kind of fits some more. Little kids often show more symptoms through behavioral things. Um, but the more we pulled stuff apart, there were incidents, there were little blood sugar things, there was a lot of meltdown stuff. So, like, what was life like with Levi before we got into immune system work for him?

unknown 43:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:51

So I I kind of started on this like whole quest when he was a baby. Like, I I'd say like his birth was probably my first trigger. Um Um, just because my my body that was when I I first started like the AIP diet and stuff. And I always felt like from a very early age that something was like just off. Like um he had a lot of food allergies as a baby. Um, I mean, there was one point when he was under one or two that he had like 13 foods he couldn't eat. Um and he just like his his poop was never right, like just tons of stuff like that. And so then we kind of just managed it with restrictive diet, the same way I was managing myself. And um then we, you know, kind of flash forward to like age three or four. And then that's when the behavioral stuff like really started. Um, you know, just like lots of anxiety, um, you know, irrational crying, anger episodes. And um, it's it's hard kind of to explain, I guess, to somebody who doesn't know him because like obviously toddlers have tantrums, but I mean, I'm talking like he was five years old and I was like carrying him, kicking and screaming out of somewhere because he would become so irrational that like he couldn't, he couldn't calm himself down. And um, I use your phrase all the time, like he couldn't control his own brain. Like I say that now. He's in control of his brain. Like he, I look back and I see he wasn't in control of his own brain. Um and he would get cold a lot. Like it just seemed like stuff was always bothering him. He would cry a lot, but it wasn't like, it wasn't like crying, like normal children cry, yes. And yeah, he's normal, he's just special in some way. But I'm saying, like, there's normal crying and like like he would eat something and then he would get really cold, and then he would just start crying. And it was very like, he just was miserable. Like, you know, he's just this delightful human. And I felt like he was gone in a way, and I really grieved that too, because I felt like I had lost. Um, I used to call him my thankful child because when he was like a toddler, like two, three, four, he was always just so thankful for everything. And then he kind of went from being this like thankful child to like um I almost felt like he just had to had to control me because he didn't have control of anything else, if that makes sense. Like he developed these really OCD type behaviors, like in relationship to me, like um at bedtime. If I didn't do his bedtime in a certain order, that things would get really like, you know, he would just get really upset if I didn't make a decision that he liked. It was just like very, I don't know, there just was he wasn't in control of his brain. And um the the chills like when he would eat, like that was always super weird. He had a lot of um, he had a lot of food anxiety too. And then uh over time he developed this anaphylactic chicken allergy, um, which I found, I have found later. I think we've talked about this. Like I found multiple people who had mold in their home that they couldn't eat chicken, they struggled with chicken, developed a chicken allergy. There's something so fascinating to me. I don't know if anybody really understands it, but I met somebody at a random photo shoot that said something about mold, and he said, Yeah, my mom lived in mold and now she can't eat chicken. And I was like, you know, um because I do think the mold had been there for a while. But um, so we removed the mold, and that was huge for him. You know, there was a lot of I think behavioral stuff there for him and just like stomach issues. But then, you know, a big thing was like he was just constantly saying his belly hurt, his belly hurt all the time. And we could kind of like excuse the crying and you know, just say it was personality stuff, but the belly hurting all the time was like his belly was kind of what ruled us. And um, I mean, I I drove him to Cincinnati to to a specialist um at Cincinnati Children's, and you know, they did like a full workup and they were like, we don't know really, like, there's nothing really wrong with him, you know. And um, the only thing they could offer me was to do a scope. And um I was like, you know, I have four kids. You the cleanse you have to do for a scope is really brutal. And I didn't really want to put him under anesthesia. Um and so we kind of declined and we decided to just wait and see. Um, because they were like, you know, there's nothing really, there's no hurry, but we can't offer you any any more answers without doing a scope. And so um, yeah, it was just always my belly hurts. And then when his belly would hurt, he would hysterically cry and kind of lose it. And um, just the toll that was taking on the other kids too, um was really difficult. Um, you know, everybody felt like they were being, I think, kind of ruled by us, like not wanting to set him off. Um so uh yeah, that was, you know, it was a really tough season. And so whenever I started this for myself after the pneumonia, um I remember one day in the car, he just like he was just losing it, like crying about something completely irrational. I mean, we're talking like like I didn't tie his shoes in the right order. And he's seven now, you know, like or you know, some something crazy like that. Like I he left something and and I needed to turn around and go get it so he could do things in exactly the right way, like very OCD stuff. Yeah. And um I texted my husband and I said, We have we have to do this. Like I I need to know what's going on in his body because something is not right. And he was like, Yeah, I agree, you know, we'll find a way to afford it kind of thing. And so, um, because at that point, money was really like the only thing that was holding us back because we knew um, I think just from seeing the changes in me and um like after my blood work and stuff. And so we got the blood test, and uh, you probably remember more than I do what what he had, because I don't even I could probably list it to you, but um yeah, he had a lot going on.

SPEAKER_03 49:56

We did. We worked on Lyme and Strep and Toxoplasmosis, um, Anaplasma, Bartonella. I think Strep and Bartonella and Anaplasma really were her his biggest. I think Lyme was there as an undercurrent that was really like holding the immune system hostage and was bringing about a lot of ragey stuff. But he definitely fit more of that pans pandas where you have like acute psychiatric situations. Like you said in your notes, like I feel like I lose him and then he comes back again. And it's really heartbreaking because then when it happens, I feel like I've entirely lost my child. And this the responses, like his inconsolable meltdowns, are starting to be more and more like kicking, screaming, hitting. And you said, like, sometimes we don't feel safe in our home because you don't know what's gonna happen when he has a response like that. And really looking at pathogen stuff, Bartonella and a child, uh a lot of pans kids, Bartonella is running the show. And for Levi, his strep titers weren't really that high, they were moderate, they were absolutely worth addressing. That's where a lot of that separation anxiety he had, he was very fixated on you, and like you said, like controlling you, like he needed you to be okay, and that becomes a thing with strep. There can be a single parent or a person that they cannot be away from um or want to be in charge of, or it is a when we had hand is in the next few calls. I guarantee you, every single parent is like, and then the child did not want to be around dad and only wanted to be around mom, or vice versa. It's very interesting. But um, when we started addressing things, you saw some of those shiver things come about still, and we talked through that being, you know, likely Babesia rooted, um, because he would have some breathing things here or there. Nothing remarkable, but where he would maybe like little air hunger signs that kids show us, like a little extra breathing effort, things like that. And his immunoglobulins are very high too, which we know there's anaphylaxis there. Um, and we saw over time that they were declining, they were decreasing as we work through. But I think a lot of his bedtime rituals, those are some things where when a kid is very latched on to like, I gotta do it this way, we gotta do it like this, I need you to be here. I cannot be falling asleep without you. Like, it's one thing to be a child and have a little preference. It's another thing to be a child and have have to have control over that bedtime situation to be okay. That's where I say, hey, we have to address this. And for Levi, too, with the strep, the belly complaints were huge and not, we'll get into strep soon. I'm gonna do a whole episode about it. But you can have strep elevations and it be more GI and there be no ear, nose, and throat, strep throat presentation. And it can happen flow and it can be my belly, it can be a kid who complains a lot of belly aches, or it can come in batches. Um, but I think for him, that's really how that, you know, presented more.

SPEAKER_00 52:47

And I think too, did Leva have headaches at some point when we started working into he did, and like right before we started, he had like a chronic strep, like where he had like strep like weeks in a row because it was like he kind of would get better and then he got sick again and like reinfected himself from his water bottle. And um, yeah, I mean, there was there's a lot of things that I was like, you call it streppy, and I'll be like, he's actually very streppy.

SPEAKER_03 53:14

Yeah, I do think it's interesting too. I love working with kids so much because they heal so quick. And yeah, we were talking with you early on, and you were like, he's taking vials, and when he takes a vial, literally the response coordinates with the infection we're addressing, and there's no more crying after vials all of a sudden in the beginning. Every time he would work through that immune therapy, there was like kind of like a meltdown session for that day, like a lot of crying upset, and then over the next few weeks, things kind of started to drop off, and sleep started getting better. And there were a lot of vivid dreams, I think, in the beginning. Would you call them nightmares or for him?

SPEAKER_00 53:51

Like, we both actually had vivid dreams. He had them pretty bad. Like, I mean, he came in one night and told me he had a dream that I had killed him and described it in like great detail. And yeah, just things like things like that. That was that was tough. That was, I think, one of the hardest things was because I told him and I was really open with him about what we were doing. Like, hey, this might make us not feel good for a while. Mommy knows because mommy's doing it too. And it was it was nice to do it together in a way because I would tell him, I mommy's having bad dreams from this too. Like this stuff that we're treating, it's in our whole body, and our whole body has to get better, like you know, even our brains. So, um, yeah, I mean, it was it was really tough, but um, it was has been so cool just like seeing how much better it's gotten.

SPEAKER_03 54:37

Yes. Okay, so I love like three things I want you to share about. You guys went on a beach vacation. How was that this year? And how is that?

SPEAKER_00 54:45

Oh my gosh. I mean, I remember back to like I went to Indianapolis with my mom, and I might cry telling you this, but like um, it was maybe two years ago, and he was like just screaming in the backseat, and um like and my mom was like, What do you do? And I was like, There's literally nothing I can do when he gets like this except ignore him. So, like you're just gonna like she would try to rationalize him out of it, and it was a long trip, it was like four hours, and I remember telling him, telling her, like, I don't know if he's like autistic or if he's got some like you know, mental things going on, but like somebody's not right. And um, you know, like I just haven't figured it out yet. And that was just really tough telling my mom that, like, you know, and like having somebody else see it, it's one thing when like you only see it at home, but like then having somebody that doesn't live with you see it is just really hard. And um yeah, I mean, it's just tough on a trip because trips are stressful, they involve a lot of eating out, and you know, before I was having to very much hyper plan all of our meals around what would what would hurt his belly, what wouldn't hurt his belly, and um so we went on a beach trip over the the fourth of July. And so at that point, he had been on this treatment for months, um, and we had already seen like a huge improvement in him. And um I was just it was so cool. Like we we went out for ice cream and it was like normal. And there was like a little bagel place um next to our hotel, and I got him a bagel, and the first day I was like, I don't know if this is gonna hurt his stomach. It's a lot of like it's really carb heavy, you know. And I even let him put jelly on it, and we'd been avoiding sugar, you know, pretty hard until then. Um, you know, just just for healing's sake, we, you know, had been avoiding sugar. And so um the first day I got him a bagel and I brought it back and I was like, we're gonna see how this goes. And and he just loved it. Like he just loved it. He loved like going to after that. We went over to the store and he like ordered his own bagel, you know. And so then the next night I was like, okay, my dad really wanted to take them to get ice cream, and I was like, we're gonna try it, whatever. And he got like straight cow milk ice cream with sugar in it, and he was totally funny, like totally normal. And I mean, a year we had this really cool full circle moment a couple weeks ago. Um, like, I think it was a year and a half, maybe two years ago in May. Um my daughter had had, my other daughter had had a graduation party at Crank and Boom with like a little homeschool graduation. And um, we had gotten him like some dairy-free ice cream, and he was in kind of the peak of his like, you know, just everything. And he started shivering really hard. I knew he was like, we called it an episode. I knew he was having an episode of his like anger when it started because he started shivering and he rolled up on the couch there, crank and boom, and said, I'm so cold, I'm so cold. And I knew the crying was gonna start. And so my husband tried to get him to leave and he became really combative and um just screamed a lot publicly. Like Chris carried him out. I mean, at this point, he's like five, almost six, you know. So he's a big kid. And he like kicked over the sign. And um, I mean, he still talks about it. Like he remembers it. He remembers how angry he was, like he remembers how much it upset him. And um yeah, it was just it was kind of like a low for us, you know. And so then a couple weeks ago, um my kids had like a really good day. Like they did all their schoolwork, like they were just really nice to each other. He's become this like really kind brother. Um, everybody like he just loves playing with people, and he just was like really good to everyone that day. Everybody, it was like one of those magical days you dream of as a mother where everybody's like super, super amazing. And I was telling my husband about all of this at dinner, and I was like, everybody was just incredibly helpful today, and I was like listening it off. And he was like, We need to take them somewhere, you know? And so we ended up going to the same exact crank and boom where he had been, and we hadn't been back there as a family since that. And I just was like sitting there watching him like silently eat his ice cream and like laugh and like talk to everybody, and I was like, I mean, like this is why we I'm sorry I was like, this is why we did this, like we did this so he could have a normal life, yeah, you know, yeah, like so as a family we could have a normal life, like like shared experiences, you know, like a normal day. Or like we just say, hey, you guys did a really good job. We can go get you ice cream and we don't have to worry about carrying you out screaming, like like I just looked at him sitting there and I was like, like we got our kid back, you know, like like I know it's expensive and you know, whatever, like people do what they can to make things work, but like how do you how do you like ever put a price on getting your kid back, you know? Yeah, I think talk forever about how much I wish like health insurance was better, you know, whatever, like all of that, but like however, however you can do it, like to save your kid's brain and like you know, it's just worth it.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:02

I think one of the things we don't talk about are honestly, like a lot of people don't see, like, unless you have a child like this in your home, you maybe see a kid throw a tantrum out in the store, or you see like a like you have no idea, honestly. So many people have no idea what pans and pandas can look like, or even just what like you know, chronic infections impacting the brain can look like. But one of my favorite, favorite, favorite parts always of working with children with autism, which was pri primarily what I did in the beginning, was gut work and autism. And as I did that, I saw more and more infections, and now we're in so much infection space and so much pans and pandas, is what it's like for siblings to get their sibling back. Yeah, it makes me cry all the time. Little kids will get on and be like, Johnny doesn't beat me up anymore and we play together and it's so fun. Thank you, Miss Elizabeth. And I'm like, I mean, that's kind of cute, but it's really, really accurate. And like to have one child who is struggling, and like you said, like Levi's a sweet kid, it's not like he came out and he was poor disposition. Like he went away and and came back, and to be able to have his relationship with everyone improved. And I can't even imagine, like, my boys go to normal school and they're gone, you know, during the day and they're not home with me homeschooling, but how that would have impacted you trying to teach all of them at home and their relationships with one another and and even what they had to miss out on by the ways that you all had to like accommodate Levi in his sickness, essentially. I just love so much that like you don't just have Levi back, but everyone has like a family unit back that's a healthier thing to children. Um which leads me to my one of my most common questions. And I know how you're gonna answer it, but would you say at this point that the food changes and the effort, even back in the mold, like when you kind of overhauled food for everyone, um, and you have children older than Levi, was all that change worth it? Would you do it again? Oh, a hundred percent.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:57

I would do it, I would do it over again and again. Um yeah, I mean, to anybody who's like thinking about doing something with a child and like feeling overwhelmed, um, first you're welcome to give my number to anybody. I would love to tell people, but like, I mean, like we did the mold protocol with all four of our kids and they range from like very compliant to like extremely picky. And um yeah, there were there were like at the beginning, I thought, holy crap, how are we gonna do this? You know, like how are we gonna do this with a child? How am I gonna get a child to take a vial of something, hold it in its mouth for, you know, however long? Like, I mean, I there was when I first put some of that ethyl alcohol in my mouth and I like had to hold it there for a while, I was like, I don't know how I'm gonna get the kid to do this. You know, and it's just you just it's like one step at a time, you know, you can't you can't like worry so much about like getting to the end. All you can do is really worry about the one step at a time, and it gets easier in their kids, like they're so compliant. And I also would just say, like talking to kids like in a you know, in an age appropriate way, in the same way that I talked to myself, like like I just was really open with them, all of them, about what we were doing, you know, the first time around and then the second time around with just Levi, we had really open conversations with all of the kids in our house, like, hey, we're doing something really hard so that we can all get get him back, you know. Like he needs right now, and so it's gonna be hard, but we're doing this and it might cause this and it might cause this, and everybody knows like he's taking this, he's taking this, and um he calls one of them the men and he holds in his mouth for blah, blah, blah. And and he like likes to run a lap while he's like holding it in his mouth. It's just the thing he does. He like he gets really excited to put it in his mouth, and then he runs while he's holding it under his tongue, and that's how he copes with it, you know. I mean, I think everybody finds like unique little ways to cope with what they're doing, but um but yeah, I mean, it was totally worth it. And and now that we've done it for so long, I mean, we're not even done yet. And um, it's just like second nature, it's so easy to get him to take stuff. And um I mean, yeah, there's literally nothing else we could pay for that would be more important to us than like getting the overall health and well-being of our kid back, you know?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:21

So true and so helpful, and so helpful, I think, for me for you to share firsthand stories because I get to watch the stuff Monday through Friday, and honestly, sometimes I talk to the girls on our team, and I'm like, I honestly feel like we're regularly seeing something that Abby, one of our lead practitioners, said when she first came here was that she wanted to be a part of a place that saw miracles all the time. I really do. It's really, really crazy, and it sounds wild for me to say that, but also once you've lived like getting your kid back or getting your own health back and being able to do like normal life activities that you should be able to do if you want to at 35. I mean, uh you can't really put a number on that, you can't really explain it even sometimes. So I just appreciate you taking the time to share like the highs and the lows and the intricacies of your story. But wrap-up question for you. Wrap-up question for those who may be listening who aren't familiar with chronic illness, or maybe this was sent to them because their friend is walking through Lyme and Coes. But what's something that was done for you or your family that cared well for you all during this season or during your past healing seasons?

SPEAKER_00 1:05:31

Oh man. That's a really good question. I mean, like I mean, like one night my husband he came in and he was like, just go lay down, you know, like just go lay down. Um, having time for me to rest. Like my best friend was really good about um, you know, just like when we would hang out so much, he would just be like, sit down, like I'll go take care. your kids, you know. Um, my dad regularly shows up with coconut water at my house because it's really expensive. And you know, I like the good kind of coconut water and he knows about my adrenal cocktails. And so like the other day he just showed up at my house with coconut water and orange juice and he was like life's essentials, you know? And like I love that he gets that, you know, just like knowing um I don't know, knowing what makes somebody feel good, you know, like an Epsom salt bath goes like a really long way sometimes for your morale and just like how you feel. And um I my friends were really good about there was one night they all were just like, can you just explain to us what we're what you're doing because we want to know about it. And they didn't tell me I was crazy because sometimes when you start to describe it to people that you know have grown up in our kind of current health climate, they're like, what are you doing? You know, just how willing some of my friends were to listen and like support me and be like yeah um one of my friends so we talked about my egg allergy and I'm I wanted to mention this because I can't wait to like for you to bring up on a podcast in like a couple months how I'm eating eggs again because I'm not eating eggs again yet. But my egg allergy is severe and um not in an anaphylaxis way. And it's only if I ingest it but if I ingest it in even the slightest way I throw up literally all night long. And um so I just avoid ingesting it. But um I wasn't allergic to eggs until I was 28, 29. I ate them my whole life and I love eggs. I love um runny eggs I love hardboiled eggs I love all of the kinds of eggs you can make a Dr. Seuss book about me because I love all of the eggs. And so when I started this and I told one of my good friends like my goal she was like you're gonna eat eggs again like just like saying that over me. And so every time we talked about it she's like I can't wait until you can eat eggs again. I can't wait until you can do this. I'm gonna have you over and we're gonna make this and I can't wait until you can do this. And it was just like that little enthusiasm I mean like I can't wait until you eat garlic again. I'm gonna make you this you know like that that little bit of like the confidence the like absolute belief that like what I was doing was going to help me and then like giving me like something to look forward to it just really helped my morale you know I can't wait until I make you this salad and we're gonna eat it together. You know like we just love talking about food and she just said that all the time and I was like every time it would just give me this like little surge of hope you know like yeah you're right we are gonna do this and um because it's not so difficult to not be able to eat those things.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:43

But I think those your foods crack me out because I mean eggs have a strong tie to Epstein bar virus and but garlic and onions and broccoli and like very regular things. And I just love how also friends don't always understand this, right? Like we all choose different health paths for ourselves. I would imagine she does not understand the intricacies of what's going on here. Even got you to this place and that she was willing and just able to like carry you in encouragement though it probably made no sense from her side street.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

That is a big every now and then she's like so can you explain this again you know but like yeah just showing up for people emotionally like we don't even live in the same town and she says this all the time you know just like showing up for people emotionally is so helpful especially when they're like already spread super thin yeah managing things you know that's dear well I appreciate you sharing all the things very much so and I'm super excited to go out for brunch with you when you're eating eggs again. Yeah I can't wait to I'll meet you we can go get those Pop Tarts because I'm pretty sure they have eggs in them too. I really want to eat one of those Pop Tarts. That one I sent you a picture of it was a peanut butter cup Pop Tart and so this lady in Lexanimix gluten-free Pop Tarts and they're always at least on coffee house but like there's so many different kinds but this one had peanut butter frosting on top of chocolate frosting I'm gonna need that.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:07

Maybe we can split one so our blood sugar doesn't go like over the roof but we can go we can go for like a proper brunch and then top it off with a Pop Tart from there. That'll be good. I like it all right well thanks so much for doing this yeah happy to I hope you're leaving encouraged curious and hopeful if you learned something I'd love for you to share this episode with a friend. Hey we're all healing together you can learn more about my practice our team and what it's like to work with us at heyhey may calm I teach lots on Instagram and answer questions each Monday. My Instagram handle is at heyhey elisabeth may and my cookbook heyhey everyday is available on heyhe.com and Amazon. Happy healing