What's This?


The first name my husband called me when we first were married was a “nutter.” Even though we had dated for over a year before we were married, I don’t think he completely realized what a nutter he had really married. 

I love health. I love exploring. I love looking things up. And most of all, I love my disease.

Due to this being a recreation from the first blog I started (mandksummerhays.blogspot.com) I feel the need to retell my story as how I came to be this person, this health enthusiast, this NUTTER!

I was barely 12 years old. It was thanksgiving time and I was visiting my favorite childhood vacation spot…my aunt’s house in Idaho (easy to please, right?). I remember feeling really tired and worn down. Apathetic, even. I had my flock of younger cousins, whom I generally enthusiastically entertained, following me around demanding my attention…but I just wasn’t feeling with it. After our thanksgiving feast I remember rushing to the bathroom. It was like my digestive tract had disappeared and everything I had eaten went right through me. This continued for about 2 weeks before I noticed the blood. And I was too embarrassed to tell anyone for about a week after that.

After extensive testing and numerous trips to Primary Children’s Hospital, my Doctor determined that I had Crohns Disease. WHYYYYY me??? I was 12! Why did this happen to me? I cried a tiny and being the optimistic kid I am, err, was, I decided I was going to deal. And I did. Thank goodness to my strong religious devotion, God brought me to it…as well as through it. 

The hardest thing was my medications. For some reason I was a strange case and everything my doctor tried me on didn’t work and sometimes even worsened my symptoms. Thanks for that, Dr. (totally sarcastic…I actually really loved my Doctor at PCMC) I even ended up in the hospital in 2004 because a medication made me so sick. I paid a lot of attention to what I was eating….but think of yourself as a 14 year old…did you always choose bell peppers over pizza? I don’t think so. 

In 2005 my dr. tried a medication called remicade. I had to go to the hospital every 8 weeks to have the medication administered via IV. Let me tell you…a scheduled sick day every 8 weeks…away from school…pretty much just sleeping…it sounded all too idyllic for a 15 year old freshman…and the medicine WORKED to boot! Crohns disease no longer had a hold on my life. I felt free. I ate what I wanted and didn’t have a care in the world. …..until I turned 18.

Fast forward 4 years from high school freshman to college freshman. I started this medication as a 15 year old and at 18 my mom was about 11,000 dollars in debt making very high monthly payments. Once I turned 18 it was my turn. It amazed me how much money I owed so quickly. I was making minimum wage working 30 hours a week while taking 18 credits at Southern Utah University. Within a year I was 5400 dollars in debt; After TWO insurances had paid. Luckily I could claim myself as an independent and had medical financial assistance and only had to pay for about 500 of that. HOWEVER, it kept piling up every time I went for a visit. It wouldn’t have mattered. I was happy, healthy and living a good average college kid lifestyle. 

But the medicine slowly stopped working. 

I started flaring up again. The blood returned. I was lethargic most days. My grades started to suffer. I barely made it to work long enough to support myself. 

In 2010 I met my husband.  He was wonderful. His family was wonderful. Our friendship and love was WONDERFUL. And in 2011, we married. Two weeks later. I was completely out of remission. The remicade wasn’t working. I was only working 20 hours a week and I basically slept the other 148. IT. WAS. BAD. 

In a sad turn of events, my husband’s grandpa was diagnosed with stage 3 melanoma and had a brain tumor. I regret to say he didn’t pull through…but in his heroic battle he met with a marvelous lady. Wendy Niksich. Wendy is a kinesiologist. His whole family was URGING me to see her. But like hell was I going to some self-proclaimed witch doctor. THEY. WERE. NUTTERS. 

Thanksgiving 2011, three months after I had stopped responding to my “miracle drug,” I had hit rock bottom. No pun intended. (If you don’t understand crohns, that won’t be funny and I am thoroughly sorry.) 

The day after thanksgiving I gave this lady a call. She sure didn’t sound crazy. But I wasn’t convinced. She had to be. Kinesiologist? Get real. But I had to try SOMETHING! 

I went to her that same day with my mother in law and my sister in law. Something about that lady and her talents make me want to cry with joy. I was so hesitant to see her and when I got ready to leave her home I couldn’t bring myself to do it. Have you ever felt amazing somewhere with someone and didn’t know why?? That is Wendy. I could have cuddled up and felt content for forever. 

Anywho. Once I started to turn around taking the herbs her kinesiology told me to take, I was CONVINCED I needed to stop my medicine. (Yes, crazy kid over here was still trying to feel well on a medication that was killing Me. financially and physically) I told my husband: by the end of 2012 my goal is to be off remicade. (Smiling inside) well ladies and gents…I was off by January of 2012 and I was feeling better than ever. I didn’t feel so apathetic inside. I felt vibrant. 

At a family gathering in March that year I had family members coming up to me and asking what I was doing and telling me that I looked alive. I felt alive. 

This was the turning point in my life. Despite how my doctor tried to tell me this would never work, I AM THRIVING! NOT just surviving!! I started questioning the foods I consumed, the painkillers I took, and the ingredients I baked with. Nothing familiar seemed couth anymore. I had to question EVERYTHING, research EVERYTHING, experiment with EVERYTHING and I love every second of it. 

It is now a year later (officially ten years with crohns) and I am doing ever so well. I follow a semi strict paleo diet and eat gluten, sugar and dairy-free if I am not strictly paleo. 

A few weeks back I sat there thinking of how I am constantly questioning the food market and learning things that have to do with health benefits of food…and it struck me…why am I not doing this for a living?? So, not exactly cutting to the chase, here is the reason I am starting this blog; I have decided to return to school in the fall to become a Holistic Health Practitioner. 

If you would have told me 5 years ago that I would be this person, I would have LAUGHED in your FACE. Me? A health nutter. Get real. But people…I am for real. This is the greatest thing (besides me ever so fantastic husband who lets me do as I please as long as it “makes me happy”) I’ve encountered in my short 22 years. I haven’t felt so good about a decision regarding education since…um, ever! I realize there is a lot of scrutiny for people who choose to live this life style…but jokes on you, haters! I. AM. THRIVING! 

So, congratulations if you made it to the bottom. Long story short. This is my online progress of my road to being Au’ natural!! I hope you care to join me! 

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