March is Autoimmune Awareness Month

I actually didn’t even know this until about two years ago when I started actively using Instagram for business reasons and saw all of the posts on the subject. Currently 1 in 5, or 20% of Americans suffer from one of the more than 100 identified Autoimmune Diseases with nearly 80% of them being female. Some of the biggest include: Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Lupus, Type 1 Diabetes and Inflammatory Bowel Disease. Symptoms are varied, and can run from simple skin rashes to people being wheel chair bound.

I’m going to share with you something personal I wrote only for myself almost two years ago in honor of this month. Not that I’m all about sharing everything with my life, in fact I’m actually fairly private and struggle with today’s oversharing world and social media platforms. I share so that others may benefit from the absolute roller coaster that is autoimmune disease and chronic illness in general.

I also am acutely aware that I am blessed. I have managed my illness to the point where on most days I feel really good and can almost ignore my symptoms completely. Then there are days I can barely get out of bed, but I tend to muscle through, telling myself this is just a “flare” and “this too shall pass”. From the outside, I know people think I look very healthy. That is the problem, Autoimmune Disease for the most part is not seen. For many, these “invisible illnesses” cannot be managed and are completely debilitating. I honor them by sharing this and ask them to comment on their story so others may understand.

THE GIFT OF CHRONIC ILLNESS

(originally written in 2017 in my personal Journal)

I’m recently 46, and guess what? I finally know what I want to be when I grow up. For years I struggled with the daunting task of finding one’s “life purpose”.  I’m a way over-thinker, with that question and many more. I spent my career in sales, marketing and advertising with an MBA in business. I worked at a young and very hip “.com” online advertising firm where we had chocolate milk and beer for free in the office refrigerator at all times. I had a great time working to create an online presence for my clients and liked the people I worked with. What’s not to like about living in the city, dressing hip and going out to fun restaurants?! However, this was never a passion for me and I truly wanted to be passionate with what I was doing.

Along came Autoimmune Disease. The onset began with the birth of my first child. I truly believe as I look back now that it was the trifecta of hormonal imbalance, stress, and unidentified food intolerance that acted as my loaded gun. Childbirth was the trigger. Sounds awful when I talk about the birth of my beloved firstborn this way, but this is what happens. Now, as a practicing Certified Holistic Nutritionist, I have studied, read, and researched this all endlessly. Leaky gut might have been brewing for years (although still not generally recognized by western medicine), especially as a carb/sugar loving athlete who felt I needed to carb up for performance. I was also a child of the low-fat era, so I avoided things like avocados and nuts as if they were a version of the plague and might instantly add 5 lbs. to my smallish frame. Instead of eating processed carbs, fat-free cookies and no fat “cheese”. Do you remember TCBY and Snackwell cookies?! I was an addict.

 The year I first started with my symptoms I was working full time, had just had a preemie baby who was in the hospital for a month and training for triathlons. Getting up at 4am to train so I didn’t miss my precious time with my newborn before heading to work. Trying to make it home for lunch with her and then rushing back to work. To keep me going during the day there was a lot of coffee and sugar. I actually thought I was doing everything right at this time in my life, exercising, eating well (I actually ate tons of fruit and veggies and primarily vegetarian). I was also doing really well in my field as one of the youngest account team leaders in my company so I kept on pushing.

My gift first arrived as intense burning in my feet. So embarrassing when you literally can’t keep your shoes on in the office! Later progressing to more burning in my hands and face (this was actually often visible), debilitating fatigue, muscle and joint pain and poor digestion. Nine years later after going through numerous doctors and even a major wasted surgery, I was finally properly diagnosed via a simple blood test with Autoimmune Disease. Primarily Sjogren’s syndrome and Raynaud’s phenomena, but also markers for Rheumatoid Arthritis and Lupus. It did not look good as I was “clustering” conditions. This is not unusual from autoimmune sufferers who often go years without proper diagnosis and often show markers for more than just one condition. Many more are told it is all in their head and they should take an anti-depressant. The rheumatologist I saw immediately put me on immunosuppressive drugs and gave me Lyrica for the neurologic symptoms. This was a band aid and definitely not even a very effective one at that. When I asked if anything I was doing or eating could be creating this I was assured it was not my fault, it just was the situation. Continue on!  

It has now been 16 years since I first began this journey. I currently take no medications for my autoimmune condition and am about 80-90% better and striving for 100%. There are still days however where I get frustrated with the burning and fatigue that I work so hard to keep at bay. I do feel my marathon days are over, but I blame Lyme disease for that one (an entirely different story).

How did I heal? Well it’s been a long journey, and the better term is roller-coaster. I honestly do see that this process has been my “gift” because I have literally been there, done that and tried it. I’ve done all the diets, taken all the supplements, practiced the stress reducing techniques and focused on healing in every way. Everyone needs to go on their own healing journey. My tools will not be the same as even someone suffering from the same conditions. What I do think is a useful first step is to recognize your illness as a gift. Ok, so maybe you aren’t there yet. Look at it as a message from some higher power, whoever that may be to you. It’s trying to tell you something! Maybe it’s to slow down, change what you are putting in to your body, treasure the moment you are in and the people around you. We all have different journey’s and silent illness is perhaps yours.

Autoimmune Disease propelled me to study Holistic Nutrition at IHN in Canada. It has me reading endlessly on conditions and treatments. I listen to podcasts and try and test new remedies. Legally I am not permitted to treat disease even with food alone. However, I can share my experience, educate based on what I know and hopefully represent hope to those individuals who suffer daily. This is my purpose.

Cheers to your health! XDeeDee