Sick and tired of being sick and tired​

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For my entire young adult life, I endured various health complications. I stumbled through my days feeling sick and overwhelmed until one fateful day I had an epiphany triggered by the revolving door of medications that weren't working. Desperate for health, I took on a series of 8-10 day water fasts and returned to eating a whole food plant-based diet. By altering my diet and lifestyle, I inadvertently changed my life forever.

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When I was in high school, I was diagnosed with chronic syncope (fainting), and I had furious red rashes covering my entire body.  As I got older, the rashes became more intense and they enveloped my face and mouth. I had what I called a permanent "rash stache". I hid under caked-on make-up and if I wore it too long my eyes would inevitably swell shut. I was having an allergic response to everything when I had never been allergic to anything.

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Even worse, as time went on, I endured a long bout of unpredictable vomiting and diarrhea. There were nights I’d wake up from a dead sleep and start projectile vomiting all over my bed. I began sleeping in the bathtub because the messes were overwhelming. I had no energy to do anything so I took an extended leave of absence from work while I tried to figure out what was happening to me.

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Medically, I was taking anti-vomiting and anti-diarrhea medication, undergoing EKGs, never-ending blood tests, barium swallow tests, ultrasounds, you name it- I did it. I continued to worsen until one day I was getting a refill on my prescriptions and realized the side effects of my anti-vomiting pills was diarrhea and a side effect of my anti-diarrhea pills was vomiting. It was in that moment I realized I had to change my plan of attack.