It’s been my intention, for quite some time, to share about my journey back to health since 2004. My hesitation: well it’s this doubting voice in my mind saying, “Who wants to hear about THAT?”

I try to keep things positive when posting, because I am a believer in keeping positive energy and that love vibration really high.

Recently, however, someone in my life has started to feel the very same symptoms that I’ve dealt with for over 10 years. (Including the fear and anxiety that comes with the unknown of it all)

It’s dawned on me that, just maybe, sharing about my experiences with this CAN be a positive thing in helping others to at least feel comforted, heard, and maybe, understood.

I’m not exactly sure how to go about it. Post a brief summary or the whole history? As with all my posts, I will just let my intuition guide me. What is typed here will be what is supposed to be shared. I’m just the instrument with which the energy will flow.

In November 2004, in a seemingly sudden happening, vertigo struck me in such a way that was baffling, scary, and confusing. Instantly, constant spins caused everything I knew in my life to be changed. Remember when you were a kid, spinning and spinning around on the grass just to get that out of control dizzy feeling was fun? Falling to the soft grass, we would laugh and laugh and the world would slowly come to a stop again for us. Well, this time, I wasn’t spinning myself on the grass, I wasn’t laughing, and the world did NOT stop. It went on continuously. For a month, before I finally I went to a doctor and was taken out of work on December 1, 2004. The spinning continued on well after that…

Doctor after doctor — Specialist after specialist — Test after test — All the scary diagnoses were ruled out (thankfully), but the mystery was even more troubling. Every possible cause of vertigo known to the medical world was proven not to be the issue, in my case. I was given mounds of medications, all of which caused tremendous side effects, INCLUDING more headaches and vertigo, kidney stones, intestinal problems, among other things.

I felt hopeless, confused, scared and sad. The only time I would feel any relief was when I was laying down in bed.

I couldn’t do anything for myself. I could crawl on the floor, but the spins made it difficult to navigate my direction. I couldn’t eat anything without feeling sick.

I was very lucky to have been blessed with an angel in my life, who took such phenomenal care of me during that time. This angel, after tirelessly searching and trying different things, found that the only food I could eat comfortably was French fries from “In N out Burger”, with extra salt. Now, today I can tell you that that was a no-no, but hey. It’s what I lived on, and I’m grateful.

After a while, about a year or so, I enjoyed about one day per month where the world stopped and I could sit up in a chair for a few hours. It was amazing! But being the extreme all-or-nothing personality that I am, I would over-do it on those days, and pay for it for another month or more with the agony of being bedridden again.

This went on for a long time. Eventually I was told by medical doctors that there wasn’t anything else they could do for me, they patted me on my head like Cindy Lou Who, and sent me on my way; prescriptions in hand which included anti-nausea meds, anti-headache meds, anti-anxiety meds, antidepressants, and who knows or remembers what else. They told me that I would never have a normal life again, that I would be bedridden the majority of the rest of my life, and that I would get depressed, so take all the meds.

Utterly defeated, I sank into that for a while and let it consume me.

Eventually, on the good days, I would get online as a form of social connection. I met someone on a networking site that was a nutritionist. This fabulous man from the East Coast helped me, for free, to examine diet as a possible cause of the symptoms. With his advice and coaching, I changed my diet. I took red meat and pork out of my meal plan, and added in new things, like Quinoa, Millet, turnips. (I found out later that my diet would need to be changed, AGAIN… but let’s continue…)

I started feeling a difference. More good days.

That went on for quite some time, and then I decided that I still wanted more. I met a girl that knew this doctor in town that she was raving about. He is a Holistic doctor, and a Chiropractor. Thinking to myself, hey, I have nothing to lose! I made an appointment.

This man is a blessing! He was the first doctor to actually listen with compassion and care to my story. Like the nutritionist I worked with prior, he also believed “diet” was the culprit. More specifically he focused on toxins in the diet. He kindly said to me, “give me two years and we will have you more functional”.

We took grains out of my diet, pesticides, and sugar. We added in meditation, easy walks when I could, and he also explained how stress alters body chemistry, which acts like a toxin as well. He got me off of all chemical medicines except the anti-nausea medication and Advil, and into natural supplements.

After a couple of years, I noticed so much more improvement. I was still experiencing vertigo symptoms and migraines, however this doctor taught me the “signs”. When I would feel a toxic feeling at the back of my neck that was a sign for me to drink a lot of water, and lay down. This keeps the “spins” away, and leaves me with only a “trying to walk on a boat” feeling (seasick, but manageable).

With even more functional days, I figured that I should be thankful for those, even though I still had the symptoms.

Then, In August of 2014. The 4th bout of kidney stones had me DESPERATELY searching for a way to avoid those forever. If you’ve never experienced those, consider yourself lucky. Worst pain EVER!!!

I stumbled upon a group on a social media site that discusses oxalate issues. They have a website, www.lowoxalate.info that is so full of information – current, correct information. So much on the internet about oxalates is wrong (as I had been following all of the wrong information for decades). This site is another miracle to me. It’s shown me the “missing link” in the treatment I’ve been receiving.

By “accident” in trying the Low Oxalate Diet, I began experiencing HORRIBLE vertigo and migraines, extreme fatigue, burning eyes, more toxic feeling in my neck, back, ears, sinuses. I was scared that it was all getting worse again. But in reading about oxalates and learning from the experts in the social networking group on the subject, I realized that those are all symptoms of “oxalate dumping” (which is the body releasing stored oxalate).

See, I thought I was eating healthy. Well, except the mountains of chocolate I was eating. I ate healthy things like nuts, spinach, kale, brown rice, potatoes, etc. ALL of which are high oxalate foods. Not only do they cause kidney stones in people prone to calcium oxalate stones, but they also increase oxalate related issues. For decades of my life, with all the high oxalate foods I was eating, it got “stored” in my body.

Oxalate is a poison. Some lucky people have the bacteria in their guts to be able to process it. Some people don’t. I’m not a scientist, or an expert, so trying to explain about oxalate here will not do anyone any good. So I will leave that to any interested reader, to check out the low oxalate info site 

I began working with a Low Oxalate Coach (yes, there is such a thing). I am teaching my Holistic doctor about it (he is so amazingly open and wonderful).

Currently, I am suffering with worsened symptoms, for 10 to 20 days per month. But I have been given hope by the experts and my peers in that social networking oxalate group, that once the body rids itself of stored oxalates, that the symptoms will gradually become less severe and less frequent. That the “in between” times will become longer, and have me feeling better than ever.

The days that I DO feel well, are fabulous! I celebrate them; I see the world in its entire vivid splendor. I love more, I laugh and smile more, I do my best to spread positive energy and gratitude. Those days are cherished treasures! They keep me going during the “down” days, as well as the genuine, wonderful people in my life that keep me encouraged.

The process could take up to two years, I’ve heard. But I feel that it’s worth it. There is light at the end of the tunnel. I may actually get to live life more “normally” again. The curse given to me by the medical doctors in the beginning has been lifted. I am not sentenced to a lifetime of nothingness. I’m in the final battle of this… I can see the glorious ~ beginning.

Everything in life happens for a reason, for our best good and the good of the world. For whatever reason, I’ve endured these things and more, so that I can be right here, right now. Following my calling! Which is sharing light through my writing (err, my feelings and thoughts).

We are not alone, we all have a purpose for being here, and we are all valuable and important. Our job is to find acceptance within our circumstances, trust and keep faith. If we keep our hearts and spirits open during such times, we will allow our intuition to receive guidance by following our destined path.

It’s really cool when ya think about it.  Happy wishes to all of you, and, thank you for reading. Hugs!

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