From Deathbed to "Dang, girl, you doin' pretty good."

In August 2010, we were moving back to the states from 5 years in Costa Rica. We were moving back because three months earlier, I had gotten out of the hospital having barely survived a 3rd-world-country bacterial pneumonia. I was ready for America again.

Before I got sick, I thought I was healthy. When I got sick, I figured it was just a bad flu. When I kept getting worse, we went to the hospital. By then, I was so sick, the docs put me in a COMA to save my life.

Here's the story told by my husband on my Costa Rica blog.

Later, my doctor told us that, if we hadn’t come in that night, I’d be dead.

Yeah, I thought I was healthy. I thought I ate right because Triscuits are “whole grain” and it says "healthy" right on the box!!! I also took a boatload of supplements. And I exercised. Occasionally.

I KNEW a lot about health. I TALKED a lot about it. WROTE a lot about it. Heck, I USED to actually BE healthy. But I couldn’t even begin to fight off this bacteria.

By the time I got out of the hospital, I was malnourished, discovered I had heavy metal poisoning, had lost hair to the point of big bald spots, was suffering adrenal fatigue, hypothyroidism, brain fog, a chronic cough that was relentless and was just all around toxic.

You don’t come out of a hospital WELL. I was alive and am forever grateful. But hospitals like giving you shots and pills and meds and they loaded me up. I was FFAWW. It took 6 YEARS of expensive trial and error healing protocols to start to feel like me again.

PLUS my illness had cost us our savings. We came back to the states nearly broke and needing an income. Since my main focus here was being my mom’s caretaker, my work opportunities were limited.

Fast forward to today, it’s been a long 9 years.

• I’ve worked a ton of different jobs between caring for my mom and going back to school.

• I’ve suffered so much guilt for being so unhealthy that I cost my family our savings.

• I’ve put food back at the grocery store because I didn’t have enough money to get everything.

• I didn’t buy clothes or shoes until it was ab-so-lutely necessary.

• Costco and Walmart were my haberdashers.

• We didn’t go out.

• We pretended we had money like we used to, not to impress (we didn’t have that much, lol) but so we’d feel better about things.

• I’d check my bank account before I left home to make sure I’d have gas money to get back.

I’m in tears writing this. Let’s just say it’s no way to live.

Two years ago I started my online health & wellness business. I didn’t seriously work it at first because I didn’t think it would work. I WANTED it to work, I saw how it worked for other people, I just didn’t believe it would work for me. Those other people were smarter, luckier, prettier, younger... better.

Today, in spite of myself and because I’m following instructions (never my strong suit, lol), my business is taking off. Best of all, I have a thriving health & wellness business THAT I LOVE and that continues to grow.

Today I AM healthy. I know what it takes and I get to help others get healthy too. That is the BEST PART of what I do: helping OTHERS get healthy. Health and wellness has always been my passion and here I am living the dream =/:-)

It’s funny, I went to school for 2 years to become a certified functional medicine practitioner. I learned how to interpret expensive lab tests and put together all these complicated (expensive) healing protocols. Then come to discover that most people get dramatic reversals of their health issues just doing my elimination diet/detox, just losing weight -- WOW. I wish I’d found this 9 years ago — it would have saved me and my clients so much time, money and anguish!

Today, things are looking up. Way, way up. I’ve been blessed with people and opportunities far beyond my imagination! I’m so, so grateful. Yes, I am doin’ good.

I share this so you know that, if you are in my shoes, it can get better. It's like getting sober, like making any big change: you have to do stuff you've never done to have things you've never had (or lost and wanna get back!)

Keep the faith. Open your eyes. Take a chance. Do NOT sit in the corner and think, "Oh, well. This is my lot." Unless that's where you want to stay.

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