A couple of people have asked, so I thought I'd post for all to hear.
Yes, I am a painter and I'm happy to share with everyone. Paulette, I would love to see your work.
I'm not private... so here is a link to my website:
http://www.elizabethdangelo.com
Anyhow, so how did I get here you ask?
Well, I had a spinal fusion for scoliosis when I was 12 (they fused 7 of my vertebra) but was strong and in good shape until college. Although, I always had very bad seasonal allergies and was allergic to cats and dust. My nose was always swollen from blowing it.
In high school I started to have bad PMS and was a little hypoglyemic. But was very active, ran track, was in musical theater, on the weightlifting team... yadda yadda.
I started smoking cigarettes in high school and in college had chronic bronchitis for a while and was prescribed lots of
Antibiotics . I also did a good share of ecstasy. My sophmore year I quit smoking and drinking and doing drugs... bought myself a beautiful red Lemond bicycle and started juicing. I was gonna be HEALTHY!!! And I was, for a while.
After college I moved to New York, which made me feel so stressed that I had to concentrate to pee and I started to be more and more constipated. I moved to Atlanta and felt much better but found that I just didn't tollerate any grains at all anymore. Felt better on Protein and Veggies and fruit... Still ate a good amount of sweets. I had always been a
Sugar addict.
When I was 23 I hurt my low back at work, lifting heavy boxes at a weird angle, while bartending and lost that job and was very stressed out about it. The low back pain gradually spread to be chronic pain that was everywhere from the waist up. I stopped being able to ride my bike and worried that I would never be able to carry a child or go backpacking in a foreign country. These things were all really important to me. I struggled with workers comp and they were very difficult to deal with.
After two years of chronic pain I read somewhere that trigger points can last longer if your body has low blood sugar. Well, I've pretty much always had some degree of hypoglycemia... my whole life. I went and had my blood
Sugar tested and it was 32 when they tested me. 24 and you can go into a coma, I hear. So I stopped
Sugar and dried fruit, which was my staple for a while. My body started to hurt less. I then started to feel starving and began eating bread again, because I wasn't sure what else to eat. The bread made me very sick after a while, with chronic indigestion.
I went to a Naturpoath and had every test under the sun. Stopped eating gluten and starchy foods, starting taking a boat load of supplements, starting getting regular colonics, which i still get.
I then felt very good for about two years. And strong enough to drink booze and smoke cigarettes, without much repercussions. This was amazing to me. I started smoking again because a boy that I was totally in love with, dumped me out of the blue because he had to focus on "playing the trumpet" and never spoke to me again. And still I felt great, even though I was sad and smoking. Gross.
Anyhow.. I learned so much from that heartache and grew spiritually, quit smoking and drinking. Eventually I started to feel like my life was pretty blissful and even though I couldn't ride my bike and had some
food intolerances I was pretty damned happy.
In 2008 I painted 18 paintings in one month for an art exhibition, all the while I was eating the same meal over and over and not chewing enough... never sitting to eat... eating while driving, while painting. Drinking lots of yerba matte. After a few weeks I started to have indigestion again. It never went away. I started taking hydrocloric acid and enzymes with every meal in order to digest my food. I kept saying to myself "I have adrenal fatigue", although I had no idea what that meant.
I gained some weight in the process of quitting smoking and having trouble digesting my food. I also got off the pill, which I had been on for 7 years. I was not happy about the weight gain. Stopped being able to fit into my clothes, which was very frustrating.
Last Winter I vowed to find healing, full and deep healing. I asked the universe for this. I then went to that Naturopath and she tested my thyroid and sex hormones and said they were all low. She put me on armor thyroid and dhea and had me taking a homeopathic detox and going to a sauna twice a week. When I went to her, I had been feeling great, but I was unhappy with the 20 lbs I had gained and at how many supplements I had to take in order to go to the bathroom. After a week or so I crashed, but had no idea what that was. Over the next two months I was on a roller coaster ride from the thyroid. High, high, high, then crash! Boom! I also lost my sex drive.
I thought I was detoxing. Anyhow, when the detox ended and I still felt like crap I stopped taking everything. This is when I got really thirsty. So scared. Found Dr. Lam. Been working with them since April 2010, for 5 months now. I have gotten worse and a little better and worse and better, but I understand a lot more. I feel like I'm really starting to understand how to heal. You guys have been instrumental in that regard.
So there is my long story. I would love to hear anybody else's who would like to share.
I am now eating a ton of protein and fat- ribeye steaks, chicken legs, smoked salmon, getting eggs and milk from local farmers, eating kelp and other types of seaweed, eating all organic veggies... mostly raw, washing the hell out of them. Water with lemon and ginger and
Seasalt . Nutritional Yeast. Chicken broth from the bones. Real salt. Raw flax seed chips. Hummus. Raw eggs- no blending.
Currently taking:
Isocort 1
Pandrenal 1/2, 1/2, 1/2
Pantopure 1, 1, 1
magnesium citrate 1am, 1pm
Triphalla from Now 6 am, 6 pm
B complex 2 am
Probiotic 60 organisms in PM
L-glutamine 1000mg am, 1000mg pm
progesterone pea sized amount am and pm from day 14 onward
Exercising very little... weight train 2-3 times per week if I can. Walking maybe 3X/ week for 15-30 mins if I can.
Alright, that's it. Love you all!!!!!!!