[Note: This post may be updated in the future if more information is available.]
Late March 2022 – October 2022:
My new team of doctors treated me after business hours or on their days off an average of 2x per week. The way the chiropractor described my situation was similar to the Men’s Health article. Basically, my body had come into contact with pathogens, toxins, environmental stressors, emotional stressors, etc. over my lifetime, and we needed to work backwards to get back to a state of health. It was like peeling an onion. We needed to start with most recent events, and work backwards to peel off one layer at a time. I can’t explain how he knew what to do first, second, and third, but he somehow knew. We would add foods back in one at a time, and then he would use a combination of chiropractic adjustments, biofeedback, acupuncture, and energy healing in order to keep my body from becoming sensitive to each new food.
He also instructed me to continue my daily walks and to do some very minimal weight lifting in order to build back muscle. He was concerned about me losing my ability to walk due to muscle loss over the last few years in my legs, so he gave me some specific exercises to do. However, he was also careful to warn me not to overdue it. My body needed a lot of rest as well.
After I had gained back a little bit of weight, we worked on treating pathogens in my intestines. My body responded better to this supplement protocol than it had previously due to simultaneous treatments with the chiropractor. However, the recurring theme over the last 20+ years has been that my body would experience extreme die off symptoms every time we tried a new supplement regimen, and this time was no different. My body was struggling to detoxify as we killed off some of the pathogens, so we slowed down the treatment, but kept going. He instructed me to sleep whenever my body was tired regardless of time of day and to continue to drink a large amount of water.
At this point, the chiropractor made it clear that my body was in such a state that it was going to take quite a while (years) to get to a healthy place. He could not believe how much physical trauma my body had been through over the years, and because of the damage that had already been done, I would probably only be able to physically heal to about 70%. He also said that I had saved my life by sheer willpower for at least the last 10 years. I had figured out so much of what was happening in my body on my own, and the rest would have been impossible without assistance. He described it as trying to put a puzzle together with only half of the pieces. It can’t be done. He repeatedly urged me to share my story in order to help others. I told him that I would be happy to share my story once I knew what to share. He ignored my responses and continued to bring up the topic at various times during my treatment sessions. [Side note: I still don’t know what to share, but I will keep doing my best.]
He also said that the origin of my health issues was physical and not emotional, but he still helped me work through the emotional stressors as they came up while we were peeling back the physical trauma. Both doctors on my team indicated that even though I was one of the most complicated cases they had ever seen, they were committed to seeing it through until the end. We both repeatedly told them how grateful we were for their time and assistance. They asked my husband and I to stay open to the process, to be committed to the process, and to trust that they were different than my previous doctors and would not abandon us when things got difficult. I told them from the very beginning that we would never be the problem. We would be the most dedicated patient (and support person) they had ever known. We assured them that they had not yet met people with our level of commitment and determination to heal.
While the physical healing was taking place, the chiropractor told me that I should start paying close attention to my dreams. He said I would know what he meant when it happened, but I wasn’t sure what he was talking about, so I just told him that I would and moved on.
A few weeks later, I had a visitation dream that I remembered in vivid detail when I woke up. Someone who had passed away was visiting me. At the beginning of the dream, it seemed like my maternal grandfather was coming to visit me since I had heard the story about him coming to visit my grandmother a few months earlier. However, as the dream progressed, my paternal grandfather, who passed away in 2019, was the one who made an appearance. In the dream, we ended up sitting in a swing together in his former living room. I was around 4-years-old in the dream, and he had his arm around me. It was as if he was trying to tell me that it wasn’t solely my maternal grandfather who was helping me, but instead, the two of them were working together to help me. [Fun Fact: My grandfathers were friends with each other as teenagers, so if there was indeed something spiritual happening, it would make sense that they would be working together for my benefit.] I then remember knowing that the visit was about to end and pleading for it to last longer. After waking up, I remembered every single detail of the dream. I had never had a dream like this before. I called my paternal grandmother and told her what had happened. I knew she would be unfazed, because she has had similar experiences throughout her life, and especially after my paternal grandfather’s passing. As I have stated previously, regardless of spiritual beliefs, I am always ready to receive whatever positivity and/or reassurance comes my way.
For many months, my body was responding to treatment at a slow and steady pace, so my doctor decided it was time to venture out into the world again. He told me that isolating as much as we had saved my life, and now my body was ready to be slowly reintroduced to the outside world (and germs). I needed to follow his very specific plan and not overdue it. He said that the fall and winter months of 2022 were going to be very bad in terms of illness for the general population, so I needed to be very cautious. He said that if I followed the plan and came down with an illness, it might take me longer to heal, but he would be there to treat me and assist in my recovery. I was very excited to begin the process of reentering the world, because I know how important connection to others is for good health. It is vital.
We were also still seeing our therapist who specializes in chronic illness and trauma to round out our team. All 3 practitioners were playing a vital role in our progress. The progress was slow, but it was progress, and we hadn’t had any progress prior to this treatment for a very long time. We were filled with hope.
Then, in September 2022, I developed another UTI. The chiropractor was not concerned, because the healing journey involves going 2 steps forward and 1 step back. That is how it works. We have to try to remove supplements to see how my body reacts, and when that happens, my body may tell us that it is not ready for that yet. As a team, the 4 of us (chiropractor, functional medical doctor, me, husband) discussed the results of the urine culture and decided that I needed a short stint of antibiotics to go along with the supplements to make sure the infection was eradicated. We didn’t want to kill the good bacteria in my intestines that we had worked so hard to build, so we were very intentional during this time. The antibiotics worked (as determined by a follow up urine culture), but the inflammation did not subside, and it just added to the pain I was already experiencing in that region of my body. We tried a bunch of different treatments and supplements for the next month, and nothing was working. The chiropractor was not worried, because his belief was that everything that happened during treatment was more data for him to use as we progressed on the healing journey. Due to the timing of the infection (fall season with cooler temps and more rain), we discussed mold and other possibilities once again. I was tired of being in constant pain, but we believed that we were still on the right path.
At the end of October 2022, as we were finishing up a treatment session, the chiropractor said, “We are going to need to try a different approach.” He waved it off as if to say he had a plan and not to worry about it.
We had no idea that would be the last time we would see him.
Just another day of . . . This Brutiful Life: The Brutal & Beautiful Moments of My Life.
This Brutiful Life 