https://youtu.be/MfyRiVOCqaQ — I had been sick for four and a half years with lots of things that you guys are really familiar with. I had multiple chemical sensitivity, electromagnetic sensitivity, I had food sensitivities, I had POTS, I had fatigue, and I had chronic Lyme and PTSD before I got sick. I was a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia. And I had a job that I just absolutely loved. And I was one of those happy, enthusiastic, always helpful rangers that was always smiling. And I wore those green and gray uniforms and those big, big Stetson hats. And I had a great career. And I, I just had everything. I had a great husband, two boys, and, and it was just wonderful. My descent to hell, or my perfect storm of limbic system injury started in January, 2010 with an injury to my neck and followed by multiple mold exposures.
And then in 2011, I got Lyme disease. And that was my big, big trigger. Over the course of many months. I got progressively sicker. I developed severe fatigue and chronic pain and insomnia. I had grand mal seizures where I would, my muscles would tighten and flail to deal with the pain. I got addicted to narcotics to deal with weather related anxiety. I took anxiety, reducing drugs to sleep. I took sleeping pills, and I became sensitive to mold. I became sensitive to smells. I could smell laundry detergent and dryer sheets and perfumes and paints and diesel and, and all those things. Well, I became EMF sensitive. I was reacting to the refrigerator, to the microwave, to the gas stove. It was just absolutely crazy. I could walk in my bare feet across the, uh, the floor and I could tell you where all the junction boxes were in the, in the apartment below.
I couldn’t live in my house anymore. From 2012 to 2013, I lived in nine different houses, homes, apartments. I lived in my screened in porch. I lived in a tent. I got really, really hypersensitive to foods. And I lost a lot of weight. Weight was just coming off me. I think at my lowest I weighed 89 or 90 pounds. I was skin and bones. I couldn’t eat anything. I could only eat 12 foods. And then, so over that four and a half year period I was diagnosed or tested for fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, hormone imbalances. I was tested for thyroid problems. I was tested for allergies, Lyme disease, Bartonella, Babesia. I was tested for insomnia myotoxicity, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, anxiety, candida depression, POTS, Addison’s disease. Oh my gosh, the list goes long along my file. Is this long or this high?
I had multiple chemical sensitivity, electromagnetic sensitivity, and severe food sensitivity, probably like all of you. I had genetic testing done, and I was told that I, I had a mold gene, whatever a mold gene is. I had a mold gene, and I was told that I didn’t methylate well, and that my detox pathways were compromised. And I believed all that. And I thought, oh, my life is just gone. That’s so not true. It is so not true. Like each one of you. I did everything. I did everything to try to regain my health. I tried Western medicine. I tried Eastern medicine. I tried energy medicine. I saw GPs. I saw Lyme, literate MDs. I saw orthopedic specialists. I saw ER docs. Oh my gosh, lots of ER docs, hospitalists, naturopaths, neurologists. Um, I saw a kidney doctor. I saw nutritionist. I saw an environmental medicine doctor. Two of them. I saw dentists. I saw a counselor. And I, I talked to my pastor. And, um, they prescribed antibiotics. They prescribed opioids. They prescribed anti anti-anxiety drugs. They prescribed cholestyramine and activated charcoal. They prescribed antifungals. They provided prescribed beta blockers, supplements out the wazoo, out the wazoo. They prescribed massage and yoga. Try getting your insurance company to pay for yoga and massage. One doctor told me that I wouldn’t get well until I had my mercury fillings removed. They’re all gone. Another doctor told me that she had never seen someone so allergic to mold. When I told my doctor that I just wanted to go to my son’s college graduation, she told me that she was just trying to keep me alive to see his high school graduation. The doctor that diagnosed me with POTS told me he wouldn’t even do a tilt test on me because he thought I wouldn’t survive the test when these didn’t work.
I tried Chinese medicine, Japanese medicine, um, Chinese acupuncture. I tried energy medicine. They tried cupping electrical stimulation. They tried detoxification. They tried these tinctures. They tried these herbs. They tried everything. I did homeopathic medicine… I did blood ozone therapy. I did neuromuscular therapy. Oh my gosh. And I did IV vitamins. I did IV glutathione. I did infrared sauna. And I did colonic. My son, my son told me that I should try marijuana. So he gave me this tiny, tiny piece of marijuana. I was high for three days,
I had to retire. I retired early from the park service. I was homebound. I had POTS. My blood pressure was 50 over 30 at times. I couldn’t cook. I couldn’t clean. I couldn’t shop. I couldn’t go to stores. I couldn’t gas up my car. I couldn’t drive. We hired a part-time caregiver, and at that point, I was so depressed. I had such unhealthy thoughts, not thoughts that anybody would ever, ever wanna have. I really just simply wanted to die. I wanted to give up. I wanted to get off this train. This was just a life that was so crazy. I, I, I didn’t wanna do it anymore.
A friend of mine called me one day. She had been up in Canada at a DNRS program up there. And she called me and she was so excited. She was suffering from all the same things that I was suffering from. And she told me, she said, Linda, you have got to go to this program. You’ve got to get online. They have a program in Ojai, California coming up next month. You’ve got to sign up for it. I had no idea how I would travel. I had no idea how I would eat, but I signed up anyways. And two years ago and four months, I was sitting in a seminar in Ojai, California. Nothing had worked. So I was skeptical about this program too. Throughout the week that I was in Ojai, I had really bad brain fog. It was really hard. And I was really, really depressed. And as the week went on though, I noticed that I was smiling a little bit more and my mood was changing. And it was probably the first time I had felt that emotion of happiness in so long. On Thursday that week, a woman named Jessica came and, and spoke to us. And I will forever remember that talk. I was so depressed. And that was my aha moment. Jessica reached me.
You are approaching a recovery like an Olympic athlete. That’s what it takes. Focus, dedication, determination, commitment, drive, and chutzpah. Serious willpower and forward movement. That is your focus. Your focus is not to clear or get rid of symptoms. Symptoms are not a progress of your recovery. Again, I’m gonna repeat this. Symptoms are not a marker. And Aliza taught me this. Symptoms are not a marker of progress in your recovery. They have nothing to do with anything. I’m a living example that symptoms can disappear overnight.
She kept telling us to do the work and go for the gold. And she was so enthusiastic. She had been to the program five months earlier, and she was telling us all the improvements she was making. And I knew in that moment I knew that if she could do it, that I could do it. And I know that if I can do it, every single one of you can do it. So I didn’t notice any shifts that whole week in Ojai. I, but I did leave there with hope, which I hadn’t had for four and a half years. I left there with a lot more energy than I had come with. I don’t think I saw any positive changes for the first month. But I kept doing rounds and I did small incremental challenges. As the month went on, I started noticing really small, gradual changes, funny things like my fingernails.
My fingernails started getting stronger and my hair started getting healthier, and I began to sleep better. And I would just tell anybody that through the peaks, in the valleys, through the plateaus that you get through, that you go through, just keep doing this program because your brain is rewiring. So I continued to practice. You know, you get some, some things that gradually change and you get really, really excited. And so I created these future memories and I created this memory of going to my friend’s house in Virginia for Thanksgiving. And, um, I remember thinking in my memory that I was eating Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie. And, but also back there in the back of my mind, I thought, you know, this is really farfetched. I live in Utah, they live in Virginia. I can’t fly in a plane.
I still can’t eat that. November, six months after I graduated from the DNRS, I flew to Virginia and I went to our friend’s house in Virginia and I had Thanksgiving and I ate Turkey and stuffing and mashed potatoes and gravy and pumpkin pie. And then I had seconds. And over the last two years, I’ve gained 30 pounds. And about two years ago, I created this future memory of going to Albuquerque to the Hot Air Balloon Festival with my tribe. And tomorrow, tomorrow I’m meeting my tribe, some of my tribe, and I’m going up in a hot air balloon. We’ve called this trip from the very beginning where dreams take flight. But honestly, I have to say that it’s this program. It’s the DNRS program. That’s where dreams take flight. That’s where it started for me. I can do anything now. I can eat, I can eat in restaurants. I can stay in hotels. I can visit family. I can visit friends. I can go into people’s houses. I can go anywhere. I can hike, I can bike, I can swim. I’ve even started running. I ran a 5K this summer. My husband and I went to Banff and Jasper with one of my classmates. We camped. We traveled. Next February, I’m gonna go to St. Martin. My dream to see the Caribbean, I’m gonna go with my sister and next May, I’m gonna go to my son’s college graduation.
I can do anything. It’s so wonderful. I, I’m so, I can’t believe it. Pinch me, pinch me, pinch me. Pinch me.
