Hi, I was privileged enough to live through the past 12+ years of hell and survive so I pulled together this blog to prevent others from continuing into that same hell. I started to slowly decline in my late teens after a trip to Central America where I apparently drank the wrong water. I've never been the same since.
It started with a bout of giardia and tropical sprue and it's as if I never kicked it. Slowly its affects left me with chronic diarrhea, increasing sensitivity to foods which led to all out food allergies (lactose, gluten, wheat, onions, soy, sulfates/sulfites, corn, and the list goes on and on to the point of nausea), uncontrollable weight loss, hypothyroidism, vitamin D deficiency (quite possibly the worst of all consequences listed), brain fog, forgetfulness, blood shot eyes, thinning hair, rotting teeth, chronic fatigue, joint muscle bone pain, heart palpitations, insomnia, total loss of appetite, weakness, depression, anxiety, panic attacks, all amounting to a complete and utter loss of motivation and hope...well, almost.
That is, until I started to leave denial in the dust of my feet and go on the offense and attack my demons. I got to the point where I was teetering on the edge of life and non-life; at a cross-roads with an eternally present decision to make based on one question: am I worth it? My wife, family, friends and community helped me to come to the reluctant decision that YES, my life does mean something and I am worth EFFORT.
I hit the books hard, I hit the health forums harder, I called doctors until they called me back, I spent A LOT of money and even more time trying to figure out what got me into this morbid pile of poo (pun intended). All because I am worth it and I'm convinced until you understand your value to god and your community you may not be able to take the leap necessary to turn your life as far as you need to in order to regain your health. Remember when you could eat normal food and not worry about it? Remember when you felt good?
I do, and I did just about everything I could to claw my way back to that kind of thriving. Jesus said he came so that humans could have life to the full and I decided one day with the help of my community that I would settle for nothing less no matter what it took.
I did just that and then I wrote this blog and then I kept going and even wrote a book and tried to make it as funny as possible.
But alas, where do I start? There's so much to say and there's so much I didn't know when I started and I don't want to skip anything so that my beloved readers can get AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE from my 12 years which were lost to the oblivion of chronic debilitating illness. I've organized the blog as much as I can but my best advice is to just start reading...
I Don't Feel Good
Denial
Okay, Something Is Seriously Wrong With Me
The Science Behind Why You Feel Like Total Sh!t
IBS - Finally a Diagnosis! Kind of...
SIBO - Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth
Is SIBO Just Another Word for IBS?
Parasites and False Negative Test Results
The Vicious Cycle(s)
Doctors, Colonoscopies and Endoscopies
The Specific Carbohydrate Diet and/or GAPS Diet
Beyond IBS to More Difficult Issues
The "Feel Good" Zone
The Recovery
Me and Jesus
Oh but wait, there's more...
The 10 Year Cleanse
The 30 Year Cleanse
The 60 Year Cleanse
Feel free to comment, contact me, contact other commentors, do whatever you need to do to GET BETTER.
Cheers,
Tim