Welcome to my Blog.

Thank you for being here and allowing me to share my journey with you.

Who am I and why am I writing this blog?

I’m Julie and I started this blog to start documenting and sharing my healing journey. This journey started years ago but I never felt like I was on the right path until now. Let me give you some back story.

I, like many others, got sick with Covid-19 back in 2020. I always saw myself as someone who was very healthy and had no health issues. Covid humbled me and showed me how wrong I was. As soon as I got sick, I started noticing I was having strange digestion issues I have never experienced before. I ignored it for a while just thinking it would resolve on its own. As time went on it continued to progress to the point I was in pain and needed to see a doctor. I made an appointment with my normal doctor as soon as I could. I told her all the things I was experiencing, and she wasn’t surprised, she explained to me that the virus could live in my gut longer than my respiratory system and wreak havoc. Her suggestion was to get on a probiotic and take some laxatives. It all sounded legit to me so that’s what I did.

The weeks go by, and nothing has changed, I am getting desperate for something to change. I had to reach out to my Dr. and tell her we needed to do something else. She referred me to a Gastroenterologist. Anyone who has ever tried to make an appointment with a specialist knows how incredibly frustrating that is. It takes me weeks to get in to see this Doctor and what a waste of my time. He asked me what my symptoms were and when this all started so I gave him the run down. Before I tell you what he told me, let me lay out my symptoms for you at the time:

1. Chronic Constipation
2. Serious stomach pains every time I ate and for hours afterwards.
3. Extreme and painful bloating

This Gastroenterologist gives me these chalky ass fiber tablets and some peppermint supplement to take when I eat. THATS IT. He never once asked me what my diet or my lifestyle was like and did not give me any sort of physical examination. At the time I just didn’t know any better and I left, unsatisfied, but willing to do what he told me to. This was a challenging time in my life, not only was I battling these new health issues, but I had just made the decision to leave my partner of 4 years and get my own apartment. In the midst of all this physical pain I was under intense pressure and emotionally drained. Not a good combo.

Following the doctors’ orders, I take my Fiber Supplement and my peppermint with my meals and absolutely nothing is changing. I’m confused; Fiber helps with digestion so why wasn’t it helping me? I started to become scared to eat and my food intake got very low. I didn’t know what food was going to cause me pain, I wasn’t at a point where I could pin-point it yet. I started dropping weight and was at my skinniest as an adult. People started to notice how thin I was looking. There were days I just had to stay home from work, being in an office surrounded by people when you’re going through this is absolutely miserable. I called my Gastroenterologist multiple times to just be transferred to his nurse. She would tell me to just keep taking the Fiber and Laxatives even when I told her they weren’t helping. I remember on one call I told her I had to resort to an extra-strength laxative, and she had to audacity to get upset with me and tell me I was wrong to do that cause they can be dangerous. I was like BITCH you have given me no other option here. After many calls I finally got her to agree to schedule me for a Colonoscopy.

My Colonoscopy adventure ends in my Dr. telling me I have a minor prolapse…. yeah… a prolapse. He is very confident that this is the problem and refers me to a Pelvic Floor Physical Therapist. I knew immediately that this wasn’t the problem and that this was a symptom of the problem. I go to the Physical Therapist anyway and they actually helped me a lot. She had Celiac disease and she suggested I get some allergy testing done. So, I did.

I remember talking to the Allergist before she pricked me 72 times. She was going on about how people come in all the time hoping to find some allergy as the culprit to their health issues and that I shouldn’t get my hopes up. Well, I reacted to 13 foods. The Allergist was shocked and told me that was only the second time she had seen someone react to that many foods without having any prior food allergies. She sure knew how to make me feel special.

I at least had hope that cutting out these foods would help me feel better, and it did. But the hard part was that those foods consisted of Soy, Spinach, and Peas. I was a hard-core vegetarian for 9 years and those foods were in almost all of my protein sources. it did not take long for me to feel the effects of a low protein diet. I was willing to do anything to feel better even if that meant eating meat again. So I started with a Turkey Burger that grossed me out so much I had to throw it away and didn’t even eat it. I chuckle to myself thinking about that now and how much meat I eat in a day. How things can change.

I did end up seeing a surgeon who told me that I really didn’t have anything abnormal in my pelvic floor that was cause for concern, mainly just some inflammation.

My confusion is at an all-time high at this point. I feel like my life has become meaningless. I watch other people run, rollerblade, and ride their bikes around my apartment complex and it hurts. It hurts to see other people so freely able to do the things I no longer can’t. At the time I blamed Covid for all of this. If I never got sick, I wouldn’t be in this situation. I had to keep pushing on, but I had lost all faith in our medical system to help me. I knew I had to take matters into my own hands if I had any chance of getting better.

I’m almost a year into this, and I decided to get off my Anti-Depressants, my Hormonal Birth Control, and stopped all medications my Dr. had given me. I had so much hope that maybe one of these things were causing my issue. Nothing changed.

Another year ends up going by and in this time, I have tried everything, every Fiber, probiotic, digestive enzyme, prunes, prune juice, etc. Some of these things definitely helped me manage and start functioning like a normal person enough to go to work and go on my vacations. But I was still having bad days.

After a while I came across Jen Donovan on Tik Tok. She was another creator talking about healing your gut. At this point I knew not to take any of these people seriously. But I started watching her videos and something about her and her message was different. I started watching her YouTube videos and I watched one where she explained how leaky gut and gut dysbiosis was the root cause of so many chronic illnesses and digestive issues. The way she explained the why and the how clicked for me. For the first time in my whole venture to heal I finally understood why I was sick. I went on to buy her book and start her Gut Reset Diet. I didn’t prepare myself and I dove right into this diet. 2 weeks into it I was mentally not okay. I was experiencing the most anxiety I ever have in my entire life. This is a common die off and detox symptom, but I was not ready for it. I made the decision to take a break and get back to it again when I was ready.

Now here I am, I’m ready!