On Nearly Bleeding to Death and Chronic Illness
When a stranger’s cold blood enters your body, the chill rattles your bones and chatters your teeth. Receiving a blood transfusion is a lonely, lengthy process. I wondered how I’d failed, sitting in the ER with two pints of A-negative slowly entering into my dangerously low bloodstream.
I’ve been fighting my battle for 21 months, feeling the waves of hope and despair harder than any other life event. While the diagnosis isn’t as simple as “just one thing”, I’m sharing my journey in hopes that it will inspire you to change, dig deep, fight for answers, and value yourself enough to claw out of that pit and feel better.
How I Nearly Bled to Death
This photo was taken 24 hours before landing in the ER. Excessive blood loss from menstrual bleeding unknowingly pushed me into a danger zone. I was having trouble breathing while hiking up shallow inclines and experienced abnormally high heart rates. This photo isn’t washed out — my face is just that devoid of color.
The onset of my health issues started long before my trip to the ER to get blood transfusions, about 13 years ago. I loved mornings. I woke up with a lot of energy and it was generally sustained throughout the day. Over time, however, I became sluggish to start, despite getting 7-9 hours of sleep. I was losing focus at work and fighting through brain fog. Common tasks depleted my energy and I often found myself repeating steps to complete a simple project. As I approached my late 20’s, I could hardly make it through a day without drinking several cups of coffee, which at the time, I hated.
To bolster my energy levels, I’d fill up with high-starch and high-sugar foods and more coffee — anything to survive a workday. I’d crash hard in the afternoon only to hit a second wave of energy late at night which ultimately disrupted my sleep patterns. I didn’t manage stress well. People-pleasing is another chronic “sickness” I still work to overcome, even today.
I now understand what I was experiencing was the onset of adrenal fatigue (technically HPA-Axis Dysfunction) and just one part of a total picture of health I needed to address in my physical, mental, and emotional journey. Around that time, I was also experiencing mild depression and mood swings.
Concerned about my energy and mood, I went to my primary care doctor, but was consistently diagnosed as “normal” after reviewing many blood tests to check thyroid levels and nutrient panels. I took an anti-depressant for about a year (it didn’t work). Even then, I knew something was wrong and pharmaceutical medicines would complicate my journey. Still, I slogged through my days while continuing to search for answers.
Sorry. I Can’t Get Together Today. I’m on My Period.
By the time I hit 35, my health had taken a more serious decline. I was undergoing biopsies for breast cysts on a more regular basis. Having first identified them as young as 26, and my mom’s history with breast cancer, I was concerned at the early warning signs my body was sending.
Then, my menstrual cycles became incredibly heavy with excessive clotting. At its worst, I was bleeding through both an overnight pad and the largest available tampon on the market as quickly as 20-30 minutes. This would continue for 24-36 hours, even through the night. I slept with a hospital pad on my bed which is an incredibly sexy way to seduce any young husband.
Although my periods were regular, I had to rearrange my schedule to be homebound from work and all social activities the first two days of my cycle, literally organizing workdays and meetings so I didn’t have an embarrassing accident. Vacations were a nightmare, assuming I wasn’t in bed or near a restroom most of the day.
My cycle was so bad that I had to leave Machu Picchu — one of the Seven Wonders of the World — to take care of girl business. I was so fatigued, I never reached the top, despite hiking exhaustedly for four days in anticipation of that epic moment. It was devastating. My life was being robbed. I was diagnosed with uterine fibroids (I had hundreds of them) and was told by my OB/GYN that I had only three options to solve my problem:
Get on a pill to curb the bleeding.
Take the birth control pill to alter my hormones.
Or have a baby to solve the problem .
I’m not a fan of a band-aid answers with little to no exploration into root causes. I had been on the pill in my 20’s for bad periods and the imbalance of hormones from the pill made my hair thin and fall out and triggered sudden and unexplained migraines. In the midst of it all, I was also dealing with breast lumps and getting biopsies (benign, thankfully). And I was still tired.
My Foray into Naturopathic Healthcare
My body was so overburdened with toxins, unknown to me before learning about functional medicine that detox was painful and excruciating. This rash was an extreme reaction likely caused when mycotoxins were being released from my body.
After hitting a wall with my primary care doctor, I worked with a holistic practitioner — a chiropractor/naturopath. Using non-invasive tests and empirical evidence from on a list of symptoms I answered on a form, he determined I was estrogen-dominant and had adrenal fatigue. While the supplements he gave me helped a tad, I ultimately went back to feeling the same. I knew something deeper was going on but didn’t know what to ask for…what to test. I still had a sense that something was missing or undiagnosed.
During this time, I also went on natural progesterone and testosterone to balance the hormones but, again, no change. My bleeding increased in severity. During that time, I had adopted a plant-based (vegan) diet with a high glycemic index, which unbeknownst to me, created an even greater hormonal imbalance.
This is one of the few selfies I’ve taken. Shortly after I was admitted to the E.R. I had to wait for the approval to get blood transfusions. I would need two pints and an overnight stay to get just above the danger zone before being released.
Thank You, Blood Donors
Two days after Thanksgiving in 2018, I found myself in the emergency room, desperately needing blood transfusions. Through a routine blood test tied to an allergy test earlier that day, the results revealed that my hemoglobin levels were at a dangerously low level (5.2 for you medical professionals), and well below the point of what’s already considered “emergency” transfusion level.
The tumors my body was creating was literally causing me to bleed to death.
Based on symptoms I experienced the day prior, I was also close to having a heart attack.
After an overnight in the ER with two pints of new blood in my body, thus began my journey into really diving into what would be the most grueling 18 months (and counting) of my life.
Sick of Being Sick: Root Causes and Diagnoses
Since getting the emergency blood transfusions, I found a functional medicine doctor to get to the root “why” behind all of this. May caring friends and family want to know the diagnosis, but in truth, it’s an extremely complex situation. I can best explain it this way:
ROOT: MTHFR genetic mutation. Unknowingly, I’ve been a sponge for toxins for four decades.
= Lack of B9
+ Inability to detox
+ Environmental toxins
= Possible metal toxicity
+ Poor diet choices
+ Poor stress management
= Adrenal fatigue and exhaustion
= Poor gut health
+ Candida overgrowth
= Inability to properly digest food
= Malabsorption of nutrients
= Sensitivities to foods
= Autoimmune responses
= Hormonal imbalance
= Uterine fibroids
= Heavy periods
= ER for blood transfusions
So, it’s no wonder I’ve spent nearly two years to reverse nearly 40 years of damage to my poor body.
Recovery: Where Where My Journey Is Today
Toxins + gut health = a bad combination.
I still take about 6 pills a day to digest food. However, I’m amazed at how much progress I’ve made in the last year, having addressed both the acute and chronic nature of my illnesses.
In February 2019, I underwent surgery to remove the racketball-sized stinker of a fibroid to tackle the acute issue. Healing my body naturally, with the help of functional medicine helps guarantee the fibroids won’t return and by balancing my hormones and adrenals I’ll continue to feel better and more energetic as a whole.
I don’t bleed excessively anymore. My hormones have come back into such great balance — so much, that menstrual cramps are rare, I experience normal bleeding and no breast cysts. That’s worth raising a glass of celery juice!
While I sometimes struggle with energy and mental focus as I continue my process of heavy metal detoxification, mold detoxification and chronic healing by addressing gut health, I’m finally seeing a light a the end of the tunnel.
Here’s my biggest takeaway: Our health is a lifelong process and the worst periods of recovery require an endurance mindset. Recovery isn’t an Amazon 2-day delivery package. Health is ongoing and it’s for life.
I’m currently on an autoimmune diet which is similar Whole 30 but more strict (if you can believe it). Social life is a struggle, having to plan and “pre-eat” a healthy meal before sharing a social meal with friends. And while I don’t often go off-diet, I experience painful skin blisters and eczema as I address “leaky gut” issues. And I’m never entirely sure if I’ll be able to commit to plans I make based on the ups and downs of flare-ups.
The more I learn about true healthcare, root causes of health issues and the signs your body tells you when it’s in trouble, the more in awe I am at this machine we call the human body. We’re wired to heal and when you understand how to promote that process, your body will be all the better.
Rest and patience are the two most important tools we have to fight the lengthy battle to healing. It will come.
I’ll be sharing updates here and on my social media feeds, so please follow and keep reading. I’ll be happy to answer your questions. Click here to download my health packet for a more in-depth summary of the healthcare providers I used, tests I took and information I’ve gathered along the way to help me recover from chronic illness.
