Daja’s Story: Healing From Crohn’s

When people ask what I do as a functional nutritionist, the answer could be that I operate somewhere at the intersection of Sherlock Holmes and a Sherpa in the Himalayas. The first thing I do is gather all the clues. I look at your diet, yes, but also your lifestyle, activity level, living situation, family history, bathroom habits, stress levels, and more. I gather clues that maybe you didn’t think were connected, but perhaps they are. Once I build that big picture, I journey with you. Like that mountain guide who knows when to pause so you can acclimate to your climate, I help you go at the pace that works for you while encouraging you to press on. I can help you negotiate around the tricky bits and adapt to unforeseen challenges.

What follows is the story of one of my clients and dearest friend and her unique health journey. All health journeys are unique.

My client-coach relationship with Kristina began in 2019, although we have been friends for many years. At that time, I was struggling intensely with my cycle. I had symptoms of endometriosis since I was a young teenager, as well as frequent cysts on my ovaries. The first time I had one burst was in the middle of church when I was 17. I almost passed out, opting instead to lie down on the public bathroom floor, thinking I was dying. My periods were extremely painful and heavy, and I would live off ibuprofen and acetaminophen. How my organs survived that abuse is beyond me. Doctors were unhelpful, only suggesting birth control pills, a path I am glad I never took.

I married young and immediately had a baby, which calmed things down and appeared to regulate my cycles. I was pregnant or breastfeeding for many years, which limited my ovulation and, therefore, the endometriosis symptoms.

But after my last child was born in 2015 and I separated from my husband (and therefore no longer sexually active), the symptoms started creeping back in. At first mildly, but soon in full force. Several times, I was in the emergency room. Doctors were reluctant to officially diagnose me with endometriosis because I had many children, and one marker of endometriosis is infertility. Even without that fact, endometriosis is wildly underdiagnosed, and women suffer for years without answers. In fact, according to Forbes, it takes an average of 7.5 years for a sufferer to receive an endometriosis diagnosis. I had all the symptoms plus a family history of endometriosis. Finally, after multiple internal ultrasounds, CT scans, blood tests, and monitoring, a doctor conceded that it appeared I had endometriosis and likely PCOS. His solution: birth control pills. (When all you have is a hammer, every problem is a nail.)

I was at the end of my rope and very frustrated when Kristina asked me to give her 90 days. She said, “Please, just give me 3 months to try to figure this out for you. What do you have to lose?” So, I took the leap.

By the end of those three months, the symptoms had eased so much that I decided to continue with her plan. A year later, in the summer of 2020, I was feeling better than I had most of my adult life, with my cycles regulating and my weight stabilizing, my skin clearing up, my energy levels better than ever, and brain fog all but gone. That summer, 1.5 years after taking her up on her challenge, I climbed Mt. Katahdin in Maine.

In the Fall of 2020, I started feeling a little ill. I was going through a painful divorce and raising my kids solo, so at first, I just chalked it up to stress. But stomach pain, diarrhea, and extreme fatigue would not relent. I went to the ER, they gave me IV fluids and said I had IBS. I knew it had to be more than that. They told me to give it a few days. The days stretched to weeks. I went to Urgent Care, where the nurse practitioner ordered a stool test. Finally, I had an answer: I had a parasite, Giardia. She ordered an anti-parasitic. She said I should be feeling better within the week. But I continued to decline. Back to the doctor. My primary said I had post-infection IBS. And just told me to hang in there. Meanwhile, I was radically dropping weight and could no longer even walk unassisted. The uncouth nurse at the doctor’s office joked that she wished she could lose weight that easily.

Kristina listened to me and said that this was not normal. She was always one step ahead of the doctors through this whole thing. She monitored my diet and sleep, made solid recommendations, and ordered supplements. She adjusted my supplement plan as my body progressed on the journey. There was no one-size-fits-all approach.

In October, I received last rites from my priest because I hadn’t gotten out of bed in weeks.

Kristina was relentless in her research, her empathy, and active listening. She even connected the psychological dots between what was happening with my divorce with what was happening in my body, a condition later confirmed by my psychologist and primary care doctor. She thought I had Crohn’s disease triggered by trauma.

I began to improve. The inflammation in my body subsided. Food began to digest. I began to gain weight. I started walking and even doing a small bit of hiking again. It was slow, so slow, but all progress counts.

My doctor, finally curious as to what was going on with me, ordered a colonoscopy and endoscopy in November. I was diagnosed with severe Crohn’s disease and immediately prescribed high-dose steroids and then immunosuppressant IV therapy. While I was still coming out of anesthesia, my GI asked for consent to administer and begin treatment. I was delirious, of course, and things were so fuzzy in my brain. But I said no. I said I needed time to think. I needed space to read up on things. She acted positively manic, telling me I needed to decide immediately because I was risking death. It just didn’t seem right. Because I was already beginning to recover. So I said no and would follow up with her in the office.

Now that we had a firm diagnosis, Kristina had more recommendations. I followed them all. Diet, sleep, exercise, therapy, supplements, liver cleanses, etc. My health improved so dramatically that six months to the day of receiving last rites, I climbed Mt. Humphreys in Arizona (12,600 feet!), my highest peak to date.

I went back to the GI, and she ran all the tests. She sat across from me in her office and said, “I don’t understand how you are getting better because you haven’t received any treatment.” Her mind could not grasp that there was treatment outside of immunosuppression.

My client-coach relationship with Kristina continues as we never settle for good enough. Health is a journey and she is a faithful companion on that journey.

I’m a 45-year-old woman diagnosed with endometriosis, PCOS, and Crohn’s, who is not on any medication and is living a full and active life. This would have never been possible outside grace and my connection to Annyssa Wellness.