My History of Autoimmunity
Continued from Home Page
And so in late 2012, when I suddenly realized that I had developed the same three symptoms that first plagued my mother in the beginning stages of her autoimmune death spiral, I decided it was time to get serious about ME being my own doctor. "Physician, it is time to heal thyself!", i SHOUTED INTO THE MIRROR MORE THAN ONCE.
If my experiences with the medical community in my own life weren't enough to convince me that I was on my own if I wanted good health, my front row seat to a double feature of "Death Autoimmune Disease" as my parents left this world, persuaded me that I needed to get busy and learn everything I could about autoimmune disease.
Though, I am an educated woman,with a Bachelor of Arts Degree majoring in Journalism and minoring in Psychology acquired in 1975, I have no formal training in medicine. My education about how my body works began in the mid 1980's when I visited the very first "health food store" that I ever encountered in all my life. I described my symptoms to the very helpful woman behind the counter and practically begged her to sell me some kind of magic pill or supplement that might make me feel better.
She gave me a look of sympathy and said, "Follow me." As we passed the shelves of vitamin bottles, she waved her hand and told me that though she had plenty of supplements to sell me, there was only one thing that would help. She stopped in the book section and handed me a copy of "The Yeast Connection." written by Dr. William Crook, M.D. She promised me that if I would read that book, and live by what I learned, I would feel better. She also gave me some very valuable information about how an enema would make me feel better short term, but I won't go into that here. You're welcome!
This was the first of three books that I have read about bad gut yeast, aka Candida Albicans, and how an overgrowth of this septic yeast in our gut affects my body. I used to loan these books out to everyone I encountered that needed the information they contained until the last person I loaned them to never got around to returning them.
Fortunately, the Internet has given me an opportunity to share the fruits of my more than 30 years of reading and studying on how my body works. This website appears to me a perfect opportunity to share my attempt to save myself from autoimmune disease with witnesses, so that I will be inspired to keep myself as healthy as possble while staying off the pharmaceuticals peddled by Big Pharma's drug pushers. I am hoping that at the same time, I can offer hope to others who have, like me and my mother, become desperate when we realized that we were sick and the medical community was exhibiting every indication of being incapable of identifying the cause of our problems, much less restoring our health and sense of well being.
Another reason I am thankful to have this platform is that can I serve as a witness to the truth on these matters as I know them. Just as there are science deniers, and history deniers, and climate deniers, there are also candida albicans deniers. I suspect that many candida deniers make their living with a prescription pad while, in my opinion, serving as drug pushers for Big Pharma. There is a lot of money to be made of sick and desperate people!
Big Pharma's drug pushers and their minions will probably say that I am making money off this site, which I might but currently am not. I have also heard them say that just experiementing on my body without the input of doctor is a mistake, even though I can assure you that the majority of doctors that I have seen write presriptions for those who suffer from autoimmune disease were simply experimenting on my mother with drugs that are designed to treat symptoms, not cure disease, and usually did more harm than good. The difference between me and Big Pharma & Her Minions is that I am seeking health and they are putting bandaids on mortal wounds.
Eating right and taking good care of our bodies isn't a quick and easy job. I personally am much better at selecting a good restaurant and ordering off a menu than I am at preparing healthy foods in the kitchen. However, the realization hit me like a ton of bricks that if I didn't work harder, I was going to die the way my mother did, weak and struggling to breathe, praying that I might finally find a doctor who could help save me from a quickly deteriorating physical condition that inexorably ends in death.
So, I have made it my full-time job to learn more about autoimmunity, because it was clear that I was traveling the same road as my dear mother, and autoimmunity has a genetic component. I want to live well and be able to take care of myself until the day I day. What I have seen of death by autoimmune disease has convinced me that it is not the way I want to go.
Years ago, I tried to convince my mother that her health problems were all related to autoimmune disease and that she could possibly control autoimmune disease with nutrition and self-care before it progressed too far. I bought a book for her titled "Living Well with Autoimmune Disease" by Mary J. Shomon. She was, however, not convinced. She kept holding onto the hope that eventually she would be able to find a doctor who could help her, and who finally would be able to figure out exactly what was wrong with her, and give her a pill to fix the problem.
As it turned out she couldn't. My mother's treatment odyssey led her through a long list of doctors and a longer list of prescription drugs that usually did more harm than good, until finally it led her to a miserable death connected to a myriad of machines in the ICU Red at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta. It was horrible, in every way. I couldn't save my mother, but I'm betting that I can save myself and through this website perhaps help others to save themselves from the ravages of autoimmune disease.
Naturally, I know that one day something will kill me, but I want to be fully functioning as long as I can. When you can no longer care for yourself, it's a scary world. I'm thankful I was able to be there for Mama & Daddy, but I don't have any children to take care of me when I can no longer take care of myself. And I've seen what happens in nursing homes where the employees don't make enough money to live well. Take good care of yourself because there is a chance that nobody else will!
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