This isn’t a story about how I figured it all out. It’s a story about what happened when the system ran out of answers and how holistic health brought me to the other side of that.
If you’ve landed here, something brought you. Maybe you’ve been to the doctors. Maybe you’ve done the tests. Maybe everything came back “normal” and yet you’re sitting here knowing in your bones that something is not right. You’re tired. Not just physically tired, though probably that too, but tired of explaining yourself. Tired of being dismissed. Tired of starting over.
I know that place. I lived there for a long time.
When My Body Stopped Making Sense
At 28, my body started falling apart. My daughter had just been born. A 41-week induction turned into a cesarean that got infected. What followed was one of the scariest seasons of my life. Standing up made my vision go black. At 2am, my heart would race to 120 beats a minute with that horrible wave of dread I can only describe as impending doom. Brain fog so thick I couldn’t finish a sentence. Exhaustion so deep that sleeping when my baby slept wasn’t a choice, it was survival. Then came asthma, food reactions, and sensitivities to environments that had never bothered me before.
Scared doesn’t even cover it. Shaking in my boots, constantly trying not to spiral while actively spiraling, scared.
I Did Everything Right and Still Got No Answers
So I did what you’re supposed to do. I went to the doctors. A lot of them. Neurology, cardiology, gastroenterology, primary care. More labs than I thought were possible. A 30-day heart monitor. A couple of ambulance rides. Numerous ultrasounds, x-rays, and three MRIs. Every box checked. And there it was:
“Your labs are normal.”
Sent home again and again with nothing.
Eventually my MRI came back with brain lesions. The report suggested demyelinating disease, but also pointed to another possibility that felt more true for me. My neurologist wanted me on medication, but my symptoms didn’t fit that picture cleanly. Something in me knew the box they were handing me wasn’t my box.
So I started pulling on threads.
The Moment I Knew Food Was Part of the Answer
Before pregnancy, a scary episode had pushed me to clean things up. Quitting smoking, stopping drinking, and doing a Whole30 changed everything. My energy came back. Every weird symptom cleared. Better than I’d felt in years. By the time I’d exhausted the conventional route, that evidence was impossible to ignore. This time though, a Whole30 alone wasn’t going to cut it.
Through conversations about what I was experiencing, a friend pointed me toward the Wahls Protocol. Dr. Wahls is a physician in Iowa City who reversed most of her own progressive MS symptoms through nutrition after conventional medicine had nothing left to offer her. So I started there. Nutrient density. Reducing inflammation. Slowly and steadily, things began to shift.
The Piece That Changed Everything
Then came muscle testing, and eventually subconscious healing work. Around the two and a half year mark I was sitting at about 90% symptom-free and quietly wondering if that was as far as I could go. After a single Body Code session, my remaining symptoms dropped in half. The second session cleared the rest. That day marked the beginning of my remission from what we eventually identified as MCAS and POTS.
Why I’m Telling You This
Your path is yours and it will be beautifully unique to you. But I want you to know that I did not come to this work from a place of having it together. Desperate and out of options is where I started. My body gave me no choice.
Now I get to sit across from people in that same place. Exhausted, dismissed, quietly terrified. And say: I see you. I believe you. More is available to you than what you’ve been told.
That’s why Rise of Ivy exists. Not because I have all the answers, but because I know what it feels like to not have any. And I know what it feels like to find your way through anyway.
If you’re in it right now, I’m grateful God guided you here. It would be an honor to walk with you as we figure it out together.
Curious about what working together could look like, let’s chat. Click here to schedule a complimentary Discovery Call.
