What is this?
What is going on?
Up to this point we did not know the full extent of what we were dealing with. For years we knew there was something going on with Kiddo but we could never find the root cause nor could we get a doctor to fully listen to us. She had a horrible ‘barking’ cough all during 2nd grade, major GI issues beginning in 2nd grade including the inablity to gain weight all through 3rd grade and into 4th grade, a couple fainting episodes beginning in 3rd grade, sleep disturbances, continued major asthma flare-ups, irregular menses from the start, borderline anemia, very low blood pressure, CMV in 6th grade that knocked her out for the entire summer, migraines that began in 7th grade, and so on. On top of these ‘odd’ medical issues, she suffered multiple major concussions. We had an EEG done because of her continued sleep disturbances as well as some odd times where she would stare off into space or lose time. All tests came back normal or were not able to pinpoint what was going on. We were brushed off by doctor after doctor.
In the beginning of her 8th grade year we moved from the Pacific Northwest to the Great Plains region. We went from sea level to above a mile high in altitude. This move seemed to uncover more issues and she also suffered another major concussion. A CT scan showed a white matter area that was abnormal but we were never informed of this. It wasn’t until she had an MRI a few years later, ordered by a neurologist at Diamond Headache Clinic in Chicago, that we found she had the same white matter area as well as a lesion. The MRI report was the first place I came face to face with lyme, as the report said the lesion was consistent with chronic migraines OR lyme disease not to be ruled out. I questioned a couple doctors and when they just blew off the possibly of lyme I forgot about it. Fast forward a couple years and God kept bringing lyme into my ‘vision’ (I would see a sign or watch a video about someone dealing with it) and each time I would almost have a violent reaction – NO SHE DOESN’T HAVE LYME! As the saying goes, hind sight is always 20/20. In this cause I really wish I would have listened.
Kiddo made the decision to be homeschooled her Junior year (2018-2019) because she was unable to physically make it through an entire school year. It started her Freshman year where she developed a debilitating migraine that lasted the entire month of May. Her Sophmore year she had to be put in the home bound program on 2 occasions due to excessive absences and the year end migraine began in April. She developed severe fatigue. Her Junior year began with multiple migraines and fatigue; and continued with a rapid decline continued through the end of 2018 with an almost constant migraine along with what we now know are abdominal migraines, as well as all the fun co-symptoms that come with a migraine. She had severe nausea, vomiting, vertigo, auras, sound sensitivity, etc. In January of 2019 she started having very weird neurological symptoms. It was almost like a breaker in her brain would be flipped (almost like a robot being powered off), and her head would come to her chest and she would become unresponsive. These episodes later turned into more seizure like activity and physical ticks.
We had no answers and were basically grasping at straws. Did she have parasites, did she have lyme, were these seizures, did she have brain damage from her multiple concussions? Really there were too many questions and not enough answers. Also we had no help from any doctors within the conventional realm. They were all convinced she had some unresolved mental health issues going on. In a later appointment (unrelated to all of this) with a PA who leans toward integrative medicine, he said many conventional doctors go straight to depression or mental health issues because they don’t have the answer to what is wrong with you. They can’t be wrong so therefore there must be something wrong with you!
From Triggered to Happy 