everyone has a story and this is mine

It took me 13 years to finally feel good again.

Before sickness encompassed my daily life for over a decade, I had just gotten married in NYC, and my husband and I were back in Sweden visiting family. Unknown to me, I got a tick bite while there and little did I know, that was the start of what would change my life forever.

Over the following years, my life felt like a rollercoaster as I tried to navigate my long list of symptoms ranging from daily migraines that prevented me from doing anything to constant nausea and severe weight loss, developing a heart arrhythmia condition, complete and utter exhaustion—and the list goes on. As I consulted with doctors and specialists worldwide, I continued to receive the same answer.

They didn't know what was wrong with me.

As someone determined to get to my sickness's root cause, I began to research more and more into my symptoms. I challenged my doctors, and I even worked alongside them to propose alternative treatments, travel to different specialty facilities to understand why I couldn't get well. Through the ups and downs of my healing journey, life still went on, and I was fortunate to have two beautiful daughters, all while continuing to feel as if my health slowly faded away. I experienced immense hopelessness and depression from feeling like I would never get better again to being sick with no answers why, all of which, sadly and eventually, led to my marriage ending.






Looking back on my journey, there were a lot of unknowns. It wasn't until two and a half years into my illness that I was diagnosed with Lyme disease and co-infections, and before that, two auto-immune conditions: Celiac and Hashimoto's disease. But as I began treatment and avoided gluten, my symptoms didn't subside, and my body kept attacking itself. The medicine I was taking didn't work, and no one could understand why. This was when I realized there was so much more going on, and we still hadn't gotten to the root cause. 

The doctors ran multiple tests, from bloodwork to CT-scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds for various diseases, such as MS, ALS, Lupus, and even cancer, but the results came up without a hint of a problem or inconclusive. The years of tests and feeling unwell for so long were catching up to me. I felt hopeless and alone since none of the doctors seemed to know what to do. It was time for me to take things into my own hands and be my own advocate.  

I discovered there were clinics in Germany specializing in Lyme disease. Out of desperation, my family and I moved to Germany for five months, where I began IV antibiotic treatment. They advised that I needed more extended treatment to get well. Living in a foreign country was very difficult, so I found an LLMD / infectious disease specialist near my husband's family in the US. This was when I began a very aggressive treatment protocol that included a PICC line leading to my heart. My doctor told me to prepare to feel like I was being treated with chemotherapy. There were so many days I could barely walk, stand or even get out of bed to brush my teeth. Eventually, I had days where I started to feel 'normal' again.

At that point, we decided it was best to move to the US permanently. I continued oral treatment, but after our move, my health began to decline again slowly and I hit my rock bottom.




   
All this time, I had no idea mold could be contributing to my illness. I also had no idea that I didn't have the genetics to be able to detox mycotoxins. I began to research mold illness and how sick people could get from being exposed to toxic mold. As I looked back, I realized my first encounter with the suspicion of mold was in Sweden. We found it under the kitchen wood floor that initially came from a dishwasher leak. 

Fast forward to 2014, when we discovered water seeping through an interior wall that was caused by a roof leak. The 'mold certified' remediation company opened up the wall and put fans and air dryers in our home while we went out of town for a few days. Upon returning, I walked into an open wall cavity, with the wall framing black from floor-to-ceiling. There was no containment to stop the mold spores from spreading throughout the rest of the home. The remediation company assured us they killed the mold through the antimicrobials they used, and they didn't think containment was needed. I was a bit wary of this, but they were the specialists, so I assumed they knew what they were doing. Shortly after that, my entire family started to become sick. My oldest daughter broke out in shingles at age 10, and my baby, who was barely one, broke out in hives from head-to-toe. We all had strep throat, sinus infections, bronchitis, and mycoplasma pneumonia frequently. At this point, I became so sick that I genuinely felt like I was dying. 

We had the house retested for mold with an environmental specialist my doctor recommended. The levels of toxic mold in our home were so high that we had to move out the day we received our test results. We learned the first company did not follow the proper remediation protocol and caused the mold spores to spread everywhere, including our HVAC system. We went through weeks of remediation and had to get rid of most of our belongings, which was devastating and exhausting to go through but after this everything started to become more clear. I was toxic.

I was then diagnosed with Mold Toxicity/CIRS. I removed myself from the toxic environment and started to detox and treat what was overlooked for so many years. I sought out another treatment center that specifically treated Lyme and other chronic illnesses. My friend put together a fundraiser for me to be able to go to this specialty clinic in Arizona, which treated the infections and the mold inhibiting my body for so long to improve my immune system. This was when my healing finally began. 







As I continued to get better, I explored other healing modalities. I continued to research how to improve my health further and also educate myself on mold while learning from the best to ensure we could live in a healthy home. Throughout all of this, I've been fortunate enough to have learned from and worked with experts for over a decade. I also started to envision this next phase of my life. I began to realize there was so much more to the one diagnosis of the tick bite that started this all. It was a cumulative effect from stress, trauma, mold, and so much more that contributed to my illness for so long. I didn't want anyone to have to suffer for so long or make that kind of financial investment, with little-to-no support along the way. And so, Within You Healing was born. I became a certified health coach, a mold certified practitioner, and, essentially, a detective to uncover what's going on. A specialist in Lyme disease and co-infections, mold and environmental illness. By combining my personal and professional experiences with the belief that we all have the power to heal from within, I now offer a comprehensive and holistic approach to help my clients get to the root cause behind their symptoms. 







Since founding my business, I've been able to work with various clients worldwide by figuring out what is causing each of their symptoms, restoring their health, and educating them on how to take care of themselves for the future. I'm very grateful and I truly believe I was meant to go through all this to find my passion and mission in life.  We are made to HEAL!



               

i thought i was going to die

there are years of my life that are a complete fog to me 

i truly believe I was meant to go through all this to find my passion and mission in life

being chronically ill stole my personality, it also took the one thing i cannot take back: time!