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? I hope you're having a great morning so far. I have a day full of client calls and am looking forward to some adventures with my family; We're going to Disney for the long weekend to celebrate Liv's birthday. I will share the adventures IG stories! Kids want events or outings instead of birthday parties, and I'm all about that. Much less stress and much more fun all around.
I'm usually weird about celebrating personal things – for example, I never tell anyone it's my birthday, hahaha – but there are two milestones I'm celebrating this month, and I'm embracing every bit of these big milestones:
– one year symptom-free and
– one year of negative Lupus markers
How I overcame autoimmune struggles
My main symptoms
About two years ago some strange things happened with my health. I went from feeling *fine* – I still had occasional anxiety and was tired at times – to dealing with mystery rashes, histamine issues, joint pain, and extreme fatigue. I couldn't recover after workouts and felt like I needed to sleep for the rest of the day, especially when I was doing something intense. My eyes also caused me a lot of pain. I have written many blog posts about the eye myth. but the result was blepharitis, Meibomian Gland Dysfunction and dry eyes.
My last flare was a little over a year ago. we have seen Nutcracker It's one of our favorite traditions as a family, and I could feel my eyes brightening during the show. Suddenly they burn, itch, and turn neon red. As soon as it was over, we ran to Walgreen's to get Claritin – at that point I knew it was part of a histamine response – and I took my contacts out so I could put my glasses on. I was doing MUCH better, but I was still experiencing regular eye flares.
This was my last one.
My autoimmune story and lupus markers
Two summers ago my PCP helped me get blood work done and everything came back *normal* except for two Lupus signs. 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 with the results, they made sense to me.
He referred me to rheumatology but since my symptoms were manageable and I had been dealing with them for about a year at that point, I really wanted to do some research and see if I could cure myself.
Although I have received some potential diagnoses from my PCP and dry eye specialist, no one could tell me WHY this was happening. I knew my body was crying out for help, that something was causing the inflammation, and I was determined to fix it. I newly certified IHP Level 2, So I put my new skills into practice. My goal was to discover my shortcomings and toxicities so I could bring everything back into balance.
How I overcame autoimmune struggles
I made radical changes in my life. Running 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.
By last December I felt much better and My lupus markers were negative. Last week, during my annual blood test, both indicators came back negative again; It's a huge relief and a testament to the progress I've made. TBH I was nervous getting the results because I've been feeling so good for the last year, but it was such a relief.
(You can see here that ANA is positive in July and negative in December!)
And when we tested again last week, it was negative again:
And dsDNA also came back negative twice in a row. Wow!!!
Since it's too long for a blog post, I wanted to share some of the things I implemented and learned along the way. I downloaded the 7 things that helped me the most for free and here is the link to get a copy. Just add your email; Everything will be sent to you automatically.
Please note that this is not medical advice. I'm just sharing my experiences and hope this might offer some ideas or support if you're in the same situation. It's also about sharing some hope, because the *current* state of things may not be permanent. Healing is possible and may be hard to see right now.. <3
Download the free e-book here.
I'm sending you lots of love.
Yes
Gina
