My Health Journey
by
Patricia Anne Ely
In the 1980s I was newly married. We were trying to get pregnant and couldn't. Seven long years we tried. We went to the best at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles, and no one could tell us why we could not get pregnant. Everything they checked out gave no explanation as to why we could not conceive. However, they were sure it was my problem, and not my husbands’ problem. For a while, I was a Health Director of a Nutrition Store and felt sick all the time, and I did everything I knew right. I had what was considered a very healthy lifestyle, yet honestly felt like I had the flu all the time. I had many subclinical symptoms and everything that I tried, and everything doctors recommended, just made me feel worse. I asked God for help. Since no one could figure it out, I ventured out on my own, asking God to direct me. I went to UCLA and began doing research in the Medical library. In those days there were note cards and no computer in libraries. It was a tedious process. I found a medical condition that was genetic, called hemochromatosis. The symptoms fit how I felt. It was 9 times out of ten only in males, and made them infertile. The more I read, the more the profile fit my symptoms. Most cases were male. I thought I was the exception. I was. I looked for the best Doctor in the Los Angeles area where I lived who specialized in this condition. I found to Dr Figuera at UCLA who was the National head of the Hemochromatosis Foundation. He diagnosed me with Genetic Hemochromatosis in 1987. Back then, the average life span was 3-5 years after diagnosis. I was told that what I ate and did had no impact, that it was genetic, and there was nothing I could do to change it. I did not believe them. When I was diagnosed in1987, the AMA said diet made no difference. I began treatment at UCLA immediately with the best of the best in the medical field at that time. Under their direction, I was donating up to a pint of blood every 7 days for six months. I had two small children at the time. The process was so grueling, and I felt so weak, I did not know if I could survive. My skin looked like paste. I begged God for direction and healing. Then I began another phase of my journey that has been over 30 years long.
The American Medical Association said diet was irrelevant in treating Hemochromatosis 1987. I postulated they did not spend any research money on the diet option because there is no money in diet research compared to research done for profitable medication and drugs. I changed my diet as best as I knew back then, and was told in 1994, that Dr. Figuera must have been wrong, because my symptoms were gone. I foolishly believed that Doctor, hoping I did not have Genetic Hemochromatosis and went back to eating the way I had before I was diagnosed. I was pregnant at age 44 for the first time and miscarried. I got very sick again, and went back to the lifestyle I had earlier. In 1998, the AMA decided diet did impact people diagnosed with hemochromatosis. If I had believed them in 1987, I would have been dead in 1998. In 2002, they developed genetic testing for Hemochromatosis and Kaiser Permanente in Lancaster California tested me and said I had the two most dangerous genes one could inherit for this disease. I gave up to a pint of blood a month, sometimes more and was in a constant state of anemia to 'treat' my condition. My veins in my arms were so shot that at one point the nurse at Kaiser recommended a permanent 'port' be put in my neck to make it easier for them to get my blood out. Silently, within my spirit, I screamed, as loud as I could 'no'! I refused the port and circumvented the system to get my health needs met.
In 2010, I was Graduate School at Southern Illinois University. I swam for a short time on the adult swim team at SIU. Every workout I was so out of breath from my anemia, and just felt poorly but did not stop. I just could not build endurance. At that time, one of the Librarians at Southern Illinois University, who noticed my choice in documentaries, recommended I watch a documentary called 'Forks over Knives'. I watched it multiple times. Then I contacted many of the people mentioned on the video and questioned them. Then I did independent research to see if others world wide had come to similar conclusions. They had. Then I wondered why most media, most doctors, and most people think just the opposite of most of this information. I knew the answer already. I knew although most Doctors are well meaning, even what they learn in medical school restricts what options they can give. I knew that drugs are defined as something that has side effects, and things without side effects were not considered drugs and consequently could not be prescribed as a treatment for a medical condition. And I knew medications were regulated by the Federal Drug Administration. In turn, I knew that the FDA relies solely on the research done by the very companies that will profit from their stamp of approval on that drug. The FDA validates the efficacy of the medications they approve without any independent research. I knew that many times this research is not done more than 6-12 weeks, and negative side effects often take much longer to surface. I knew food and natural things cannot be regulated for profit, in most cases, so they do not get nearly the amount of research. Drugs, on the other hand, are unbelievably profitable, so they get grants for research. I knew that the men who did the research on Forks over Knives, were some of the best Doctors and Biochemists of their time, and were ostracized by those profiting for the other perspectives. I knew that my ancestors, who shared my genetics, were on Mayflower. I knew my ancestors, my genetics, helped start this nation and they survived the first winter when most people died. So I took a leap of faith, and I began the diet recommended on Forks over Knives... not perfectly but kept heading in the right direction in the end of 2011. Fairly quickly. I started feeling better than I had in years.
I moved to Florida in the end of December 2013, and started swimming on the USMS Sharks in January 2014. I’m not exceptional, but my performance is exceptionally superior to what it was before I changed my diet. I have several national rankings in my age group. I am doing things physically I thought I could not do in my 30's! My mind is sharper than it has ever been. I began learning new things to eat and different ways to cook, and it was like opening the Pandora’s box of delicious fulfilling food! Since I changed my diet, I have never had to worry about losing weight anymore. My food world has expanded, and I have never eaten more delicious food in all my life! I began connecting with other people on the same journey and began slowly replacing all the many untruths I had accepted as absolute truth. I felt a sense of gratefulness for the new lease on life I had been given. I also, for the first time, no longer needed to donate blood so much, and be weak and anemic all the time. In fact, my blood panel normalized, something medical science said was impossible without phlebotomy. God has directed my path and given me a way of escape medical science said is impossible. Thank-you for reading this. And may the God of all peace give you the power and grace to do the things you have control over, and give you victory over those things you have no control over.
All my Love,
From the Heart,
Tricia
No one ever says no.
