Answers — and a Rare Diagnosis
I finally pushed for extensive testing and sought out a Functional Medicine Practitioner. For the first time in almost 25 years I learned that not only did I have an under-performing thyroid, but I had autoimmune thyroid disease — Hashimoto’s.
Despite finally having some direction, things continued to worsen. I landed in the ER repeatedly with abdominal pain and gastric distress. Emergency scopes followed. I was ordered to cancel our travel plans — devastating, as we were less than a month away from celebrating our 25th wedding anniversary.
By the time I was hospitalized for several days, I could barely tolerate food. Muscle weakness was so severe I struggled to climb stairs. Being knocked out for tests felt like relief.
The diagnosis eventually came: Eosinophilic Gastroenteritis — a rare condition the surgeon admitted they knew very little about.
Being told to “Google it” was terrifying … and oddly clarifying. At least it wasn’t cancer. But it marked the beginning of thousands of hours of research into my condition — and autoimmune disease as a whole.
This Is Where My Story Intersects With Yours
After starting the AIP Diet early in 2017, I sought support online and eventually joined what was then called the AIP Diet Recipes Group (now AIP Recipe Collection – Autoimmune Protocol Recipes), on Facebook.
It wasn’t but a couple of weeks and volunteered to become a moderator, then an administrator. What I quickly realized was that while I’d gone looking for support, I had become the go-to-gal for answers and I was the one supporting others.
Eventually I took over the group with the founder’s blessing so that I could establish and maintain a strict format — no sick-talk, just recipes meant to heal, not harm.
I started answering questions privately, sharing what I was learning, and trying to help people feel less alone and less overwhelmed. Eventually it became clear that not everyone has the time, energy, or capacity to research their way through chronic illness — and I wanted to help fill that gap.
Another Layer: Mold Illness
In 2018, despite all of the progress I’d made on the AIP, my Functional MD was baffled by my continued need for copious supplements, and it seemed inexplicable that my health was spiraling once again as autumn set in. Things went completely off the rails after returning from a trip to Germany, when I developed rashes and itching like I could never have imagined. I was sleeping with ice packs just to cope — when I was able to sleep at all.
My mood swung dramatically. Depression crept in and I was downright angry. Salves and ointments were prescribed as a band-aid solution, and I feared being pushed toward heavy-duty medications that would undo everything I’d worked so hard to rebuild in my gut. Everyone, including my doctor, suspected the trip had triggered something — yet none of it made sense to me, because I had actually felt better while we were away.
It was time to start digging again.
Up until then, we had assumed the root cause of my illness was chronic stress and my mismanagement of it, compounded by major surgery and a couple bouts of food poisoning. What we hadn’t seriously considered was that there could be another underlying driver.
There was.
To make a very long story short, the century-old farmhouse we had lived in for over 15 years — along with the similarly aged home we’d lived in for a decade prior with a leaky basement — were making me very sick. More accurately, long-term mold exposure was. After countless hours of research into mold illness, CIRS (chronic inflammatory response syndrome), and mast cell activation, I came to understand that I am one of many people whose immune system is profoundly affected by mold.
We knew we had no choice but to leave.
That decision came with enormous emotional, physical, and financial consequences — especially when you’re already that sick. While I won’t go into all of those details here, this chapter marked yet another major turning point in an already complex and layered health journey.
Where I Am Now
More than five years out of that environment, I continue to manage a modified AIP diet and lifestyle. My diagnoses now include Fibromyalgia, Stasis Dermatitis, and possible vascular disease.
Healing hasn’t been linear. It’s layered. I’m still peeling the onion.
As of 2024, I had to leave a job I loved and accept early retirement at 55. In 2025 we downsized again and moved into a laneway apartment on my mother’s property — a practical, supportive solution for where life has landed.
Why This Website Exists
This journey has challenged me in every possible way. I still research. I still adjust. I still have to remind myself daily that I’m not well — and that expectations must change.
What I share here is based on lived experience, ongoing research, and years spent supporting others. It is not a replacement for individualized medical care, diagnosis, or treatment — but it is offered with care, honesty, and the hope that it helps you feel less alone and more supported as you navigate your own path.
I was encouraged by my husband, my sister, and many group members to pull all of this together into the resource you’re exploring now.
My sincere hope is that my experience, continuing research, and recipe collection help you find the best path possible as you embark on the Autoimmune Protocol — and your own journey toward health. ♥
