Danielle Patterson FDIN
I am a mother and wife who struggled for 8 years to feel myself. I went to the doctor and they left me with no answers, I tried self diagnosing and experimenting and I got worse. It was so bad that I thought I was dying.
My Story
- Good Health Growing up except couldn’t do cow’s milk
- 2012 honeymoon in Bali…got sick…travelers diarrhea, no big deal and I kept partying and surfing
- I came home…about 3 weeks go by and start having pain in upper right quadrant
- Parasite testing through primary care…nothing
- Pain getting worse over a year so went back to doctor and they ordered full work up
- CAT Scan w/ contrast, Endoscopy, Colonoscopy, LOTS of vials of blood
· All Normal
· Ultimately gave me a “diagnosis” of IBS, irritable bowel syndrome
- 2015 I had my first child
- I still had a bad stomach and I am getting more and more food sensitivities
- I started getting “adult acne”
- My stomach was upset, I breast feed Bridget…then she would be colicky
- 2017 bought an old school RV (“Breezy”)…
- Super fun, and we traveled around as a family of 3
- 2018 I had Auggie
- Stomach still really bad, so was him…same story as with Bridget, he was very colicky
· Auggie was 6 months started traveling around in RV again, but then we all started to notice we’re getting stuffed up and coughing in it
- Auggie developed super bad couch that was lasting for months
§ Finally started to research why we were getting sick when staying in RV and we discovered MOLD (Black Mold)
o Contractor rips it out – I spent 45 minutes in there talking to him with all the mold flying around
§ Over the next 2-3 weeks – my digestive symptoms start getting WAY worse but NEW SYMTPOMS ADDED
· Brain fog
o Started telling husband, kid, friends same stories, not remembering I had told them
· Anxiety
o Heart would start pounding out of chest at the most random times…get a knot in my stomach/feel sick to my stomach
· Digestion
o Straight diarrhea…ate a salad…crapped a salad
o losing weight at this point…breast feeding too
· Sleep
o Insomnia - Used to fall asleep in 10-15 minutes, now it’s taking 2-3 hours
o Horrible nightmares
o Teeth grinding
· Fatigue
o My run & workouts start to feel like a struggle instead of freedom
· Digestion getting worse
o Gas/bloating
o More diarrhea,
§ MORE TESTS
· Super anxious/scared at this point…writing down lists for foods my kids can eat, their entire schedules, writing down lists of all my passwords for all my accounts etc.
o Thought I was dying…SUPER SCARY TIME especially b/c I had a now 8-month old and 3 year old at the time
· Back to the DOCTOR
o Full CT Scan again
o MRI of my brain…suspecting early onset Parkinson’s because I had developed a left-hand tremor
o Colonoscopy/Endoscopy (again)…ugh!
o Tons of blood tests….Vials and vials
§ Results of everything = NORMAL!!!
· Relieved but frustrated because I want answers!
o Started consulting Dr. Google on my own…
§ Spent the next 6 months or so scaring the complete crap out of myself once again…dealing with all the worsening symptoms…
· Brain fog is so bad
o Left stove on all day…multiple times
o Pool overflowing
o even left my kids in the car for 30 minutes after school one day thinking I had let them out of their seats
o telling the same stories over and over to friends/family, b/c not remembering I had told them before
· Anxiety way worse
o Would hear kids stir in AM - heart drop
§ Anxiety feeling b/c kids were so mentally/emotionally & physically demanding
§ sending Chris to parties solo with our kids b/c my anxiety was too bad to go
· Super negative mood…ever story I would tell was negative…felt unhappy & depressed always
· Terrible digestion now, bloating, gas, diarrhea
o Trying every diet out there…keto, vegan, low-carb, low-fodmap, high-carb, GAPS, etc. etc.
o Granny J coming a ton to help with kids because I didn’t have the mental/emotional capacity nor the physical strength to do it anymore on my own
§ She started crying one day watching me change because I was so skinny
§ Weighed 118 compared to my normal 145
· Terrible Sleep
o “sleeping” separate from Chris b/c my tossing & turning keeping him up
o At one point I remember I would close my eyes to go to bed at night and it was like a disco party behind my eyelids…I would basically see a light show from hell and then get super dizzy & nauseous, especially if I was laying flat, so started sleeping upright in recliner in Auggie’s nursery
· Chronic Fatigue
o Taking trash out was a huge chore
o Walking down hill to feed the chickens & ducks I would get out of breath and my heart would race like crazy
o Aches & Pains for 1st time ever
§ Cramping in legs
§ Numbness/Tingling in hands & feet
§ Joints all over body would ache
o Still trying to keep most of my symptoms a secret from Chris because he was already stressed out enough paying all our bills because I couldn’t work
§ Granny J (stepmom) is now sleeping over several days a week to help with kids
· Finally doing MORE Dr. Googling online came across a podcast with Reed Davis the founder of about Functional Diagnostic Nutrition and it was talking about running labs (separate from your primary care doctor) to get to the root cause of problems
o Decided to sign up
§ Ran the 5 foundational labs on myself and discovered what no other doctors could tell me previously
· Gut Screening (GI-MAP)
o H. Pylori a bad bacteria probably picked up in Bali b/c that’s when all my digestion started going downhill
o high levels of pathogenic & opportunistic bacteria
§ wreaking havoc on my gut
· gas, bloating & IBS diagnosis
o Digestive markers were all out of whack
§ Explained why I was not breaking down my food
· Food Sensitivity Testing(MRT)
o Many of the foods I was eating even daily, were actually creating inflammation in my body
· Metabolic Typing Test (MT Diet)
o Discovered that I was eating the complete opposite macronutrient levels to support my own individual metabolism
· Hormone & Thyroid Levels
o I discovered my hormones were completely out-of-wack
§ Thyroid had tanked…explains the extreme fatigue, the hair loss & loss of period
· Reduced ability to digest protein, Elevated Liver Congestion & High Oxidative Stress Markers
o Liver not keeping up with demand
· Ran an additional test because I knew about the MOLD exposure
o Discovered High on 3 different MOLDs
§ Explains brain fog, digestive issues, nightmares, etc.
§ One side effect of the mold I was the highest on was tremors…thus the hand tremor
· THE BUCKET ANALOGY…overall I just had a ton of toxic burden (gut pathogens/bacterial overgrowth, eating inflammatory foods, hormone imbalance, mold exposure, etc. etc.)
o Bucket overflowing and my body and more specifically liver could no longer keep up, and slowly start to experience symptoms and then eventual overtime they become chronic all the various symptoms were the result.
· How do we start to drain the bucket of stressors on our body so the symptoms will start to dissipate
o That’s where I come in as you FDN-P
Personal health detective