I share some details about how I overcame my autoimmune struggles, brought balance to my body and am now symptom free. Download the free ebook here.
Hello friends! How are you doing? I hope you are having a wonderful morning so far. I have a day full of client calls and I’m looking forward to adventures with the family – we’re heading to Disney for the long weekend to celebrate Liv’s birthday. I will share the adventures on IG Stories! Kids are asking for events or trips instead of birthday parties and I’m there. Much less stress and much more fun.
I’m usually weird about celebrating personal things – for example, I never tell anyone when it’s my birthday lol – but there are two milestones I’m celebrating this month and I embrace each part of these huge steps:
– one year without symptoms and
– one year of negative Lupus markers
how I overcame autoimmune struggles
My main symptoms
A little less than two years ago, some weird things happened with my health. I went from feeling *ok* — I still had occasional anxiety and was sometimes tired — to dealing with mystery breakouts, histamine issues, joint pain, and extreme fatigue. I couldn’t recover from workouts and if I did something particularly intense, I felt like I needed to sleep the rest of the day. My eyes have also caused me a lot of grief. I’ve posted quite a few blog posts about the eye saga, but ultimately it came down to blepharitis, meibomian gland dysfunction, and dry eye.
My last eye rash was a little over a year ago. We had seen The Nutcracker as a family – one of our favorite traditions – and I felt my eyes light up during the show. All of a sudden, they were burning, itchy, and glowing red. As soon as it was over, we ran to Walgreen’s for Claritin – I knew at that point it was part of a histamine response – and took out my contacts so I could wear my glasses. I was MUCH better, but still had regular eye breakouts.
It was my last.
My autoimmune history and lupus markers
Two summers ago, my PCP helped me get some blood work done, and everything came back *normal* except for two lupus markers. When one is positive, there’s a good chance you have lupus, but when two are positive, there’s a very good chance you have lupus. Although I was disappointed by the results, they made sense to me.
She referred me to rheumatology, but since my symptoms were manageable and I had been suffering from them for about a year at that point, I really wanted to dig a little deeper and see if I could cure myself.
Even though I had received potential diagnoses from my GP and dry eye specialist, no one could tell me WHY this was happening. I knew my body was screaming for help, that something was causing the inflammation, and I was determined to find out. I was a newly certified IHP level 2, so I put my new skills to good use. The goal was to discover my deficiencies and my toxicities so that I could rebalance everything.
How I Overcame Autoimmune Struggles
I have made substantial changes in my life. Doing functional labs on myself, changing my diet, and focusing on my nervous system has been a game changer. Over time, my autoimmune and histamine issues disappeared, my eyes stopped bothering me, and my energy and focus returned.
Last December, I felt much better and my lupus markers were negative. Last week, during my annual blood tests, both markers were negative again: a huge relief and a testament to the progress I have made. TBH I was nervous about getting the results because I had been feeling great for a year, but this was a huge sigh of relief.
(You can see here that the ANA was positive in July and negative in December!)
And again negative last week when we tested again:
And negative dsDNA twice in a row as well. Wow!!!
This is way too long for a blog post, so I wanted to share some of the things I implemented and learned in the process. I made a free download with 7 things that helped me the most, and the link to obtain a copy is here. Just add your email and everything will be sent to you automatically.
Please keep in mind that this is not medical advice. I’m just sharing my experience and hope this can give you some ideas or support if you’re in the same boat.. It’s also sharing a little hope, because the current situation may not be permanent. Healing is possible, and it can be hard to see it in the moment. <3
Sending you lots of love.
xo
Gina
