How I got into gut health and parasite cleansing
I’ve been in relationship with eczema and asthma since I could remember.
I went to the doctors office so frequently as a kid that I knew the nurses names and they knew me. Ointments, inhalers, flare ups and steroid treatments were all common words used in my household.
I played sports as a kid and became interested in volleyball. So much so I played throughout my childhood and into my college years where I was recruited, got a scholarship, and played volleyball while studying kinesiology.
But after many years of playing competitive sports, I found myself drifting away from competition mode.
I was in my early 20’s, coaching club volleyball, waking up for tournaments with a Monster energy drink and cigarette. I was going out every weekend, binge drinking, living pretty reckless, but having hella fun.
I was still dealing with eczema flare ups and doing nebulizer treatments (breathing treatments with steroid medicine) when I had asthma attacks. And to be honest, I didn’t think much of it. It became my normal.
One evening at my apartment, I started feeling so sick I couldn’t do anything else but be in a tabletop position with a bucket to vomit in. My stomach hurt so bad and any movement would send lightning bolt like pain through my lower abdomen or cause me to vomit. It was so bad I ended up going to the emergency room where the ER doctor did an ultra sound and told me “good news is that you’re just really backed up!”
I was constipated??? But how could being constipated bring on such excruciating pain? I mean I felt like I was going to die!
I left the ER with some Miralax and stool softener pills and THUS began my interest in gut health.
Thinking about my human design, I have a 5/1 profile.
Now this is a whole other post, but the 1 in my profile is the researcher. It’s natural for me to relentlessly investigate when something peaks my interest. In this case it was "why the hell am I so constipated, how do I prevent that kind of pain again, and all the other why's and hows about poop!"
I went plant based the next day I think. I cut out all dairy from my diet. Hello defined heart and will power. I found colon hydrotherapy centers and began doing colonics with opened and closed systems. I added supplements into my routine. I started doing yoga, hot yoga. Sweating! Hello lymphatic health!
And within 3 months I had changed where I lived, the people I was hanging around with, my career, my diet, and my life really!!
Fastforward hella years to 2017. I was now a seasoned birthworker lived with my beloved partner and was pregnant! I had a midwife who I loved, planned on having a homebirth and was just really excited to meet my babe.
I was 42 weeks and 2 days pregnant when I felt the pressure from the outside world to induce labor. My midwife wasn't even hinting at induction (which I love and appreciate), but something inside me and outside me was nagging. I drank castor oil to bring on labor and sure enough within a couple of hours I was contracting. But before labor became intense I was vomiting and had diarrhea. Fun right!? This can happen with too much castor oil. It has a super laxative effect.
Well my body was purging so much that when labor really set in, I was already so exhausted and dehydrated. After 24 hours of laboring at home, I decided to transfer to the hospital. There I consented to the fentanyl, the morphine, the epidural, the antibiotics, and more.
My son was posterior in utero making his descent a little trickier. Babies are born like this all the time and theres nothing wrong with it. Just in my case it was taking a long time and I was exhausted. Feeling defeated and tired I decided to have a c section.
It was a super traumatic experience. I was floating on the ceiling looking down at my birthing self in pain and in so much fear. I truly felt disconnected from my body from that moment on and for a long time to come.
After the birth I felt like a failure. I had planned for this beautiful birth, had an amazing midwife, was a birthworker myself, and here I was scarred emotionally and physically from the c section.
Days after I made it home intense symptoms started to show up. Postpartum depression and anxiety, eczema flare ups, shortness of breathe every morning when I woke up. Months went by like this.
And then after my second time getting mastitis, I was hospitalized. They kept me overnight and gave me IV antibiotics. My 104 fever went down and the shivers and chills went away. But what came home with me were a slew of symptoms I hadn't experienced before. At least not to this degree and all at the same time.
The next week I noticed a yeast infection, eczema flare ups all over my body and face, bacterial vaginosis, itchy vulva and rectum, insomnia, loss of libido, hemmorhoids, persistent dandruff and itchy scalp.
Now at this point I was already an herbalist and knew that the systems of my body were all connected! All the symptoms that I was experiencing were alarms yelling "WE ARE IN PANIC MODE! HELP!"
I dove into some research and came across parasite cleansing. And I thought... "All the symptoms that I'm experiencing at the same time could be caused by.... parasites?" EEW!"
And with that, my line 1 was intrigued. I dove all the way in and started connecting the dots of gut health to parasites. Then womb health and parasites!!
I became super focused on drainage pathway work and parasite cleansing. I had filled myself up with so much... It was time to let go.
Time to let go of the trauma, the pain, the hurt, the physiological symptoms and more!
And so I did. I did my first parasite cleanse with wormwood, neem leaf, and cloves to kill off the parasites, and diatomaceous clay as a binder to bind up and move out all the toxins and unwanted waste.
And just with those plantitas, after just 2 weeks, I started feeling alive again. My itchiness stopped, the haze of depression evaporated away, I was sleeping soundly, crying from laughter and happiness and not fear or flashbacks. My dandruff was completely gone! No yeast infections or bacterial vaginosis! I truly felt like a butterfly with fresh wings!
And I haven't stopped talking about parasite cleansing ever since!
It has truly become one of the most important ceremonies I will participate in. Twice a year I commit myself to this practice of intentionally letting go. It has transformed me inside and out. This practice continues to create space within my life so that I'm able to receive what is truly mine.
In addition to parasite cleansing, I sat in plant medicine ceremonies with healers, did depth hypnosis sessions, accupunture, and a lot more. All the plant medicine and ceremonies were foundational to my expansion. And I can truly say that what I was considered a traumatic experience or traumatic birth, I now witness as the biggest catapult into my expansion of self. I am grateful for the birth experience.
To learn more about the ins and outs of parasite cleansing head here!
To end this post, I'd like to send a big hug and a forehead kiss to myself all those years ago, experiencing all those symptoms and still raising a child and tending to herself as a new mom. And to anyone experiencing anything similar and reading this post. There is so much goodness here for you to experience. Trust the path. Listen to your ancestors and continue to connect with your inner being. You are getting ready to be ready to be ready.
Blessings!
Daniella