Year 2

It’s so crazy to think that in just a few short weeks it will be an entire year since we began our first COVID-19 quarantine. I thought the last four years were hell — Trump was elected in November of 2016 and as I previously wrote, I truly believe that election is what finally caused my immune system to crash and Lyme to take over my body and ultimately a good part of my life not to mention our wallets. Anyways, the good news is that Biden won the election this time and I couldn’t be happier. For those that don’t know me outside of this blog, I had a previous life and career in entertainment and in the early 90’s the producer I worked for and I optioned the rights to a woman’s story who was serving a life sentence in prison in Delaware for killing her abusive husband after years of being tortured and nearly being murdered herself many many times. Joe Biden was the Senator of Delaware and became the first Senator in the country to enact the Violence Against Women act and pardoned this woman. We flew her out to Los Angeles and because of her, I became a peer counselor for a rape and domestic violence hot line and worked both her and in NY when I lived there. It changed my life and I’ve been a Joe Biden every since so color me thrilled that we have him, a sane person and family man in the Oval Office.

As an esthetician, as you can imagine, this pandemic has pretty much destroyed my business — I’m praying things pick up otherwise I’ll have no choice but to close in a couple months. My big focus right now is on my skin care line and CBD products. I’ve signed with two distributors and am in the process of hiring reps around the country.

We’re also gearing up to head back to Cabo for a week so I can treat and visit my happy place. It’s truly the place I feel the happiest and healthiest. My daughter will be coming with us on this trip and while we can’t afford for her to treat — yet — she’ll get to see the clinic and meet all my friends who have become so dear to me — my Mexican family. I’m also working on getting temporary residency so it will be easier for me to fly in and out of the Cabo airport and I’ll be allowed to have a bank account and buy a car when the time comes. Kris and I plan to spend half the year there once he retires and I cannot wait! And if the idiot who left the oval office happens to win again in 2024 (doubtful as hopefully he’ll be a convicted and incarcerated felon by then) then I’ll be spending more time there much sooner than anticipated.

The big question — how’s my health? Well….turns out Dr. Klinghardt, in my opinion, isn’t the end all be all doctor. He put me on a medication for tremors as my left hand was shaking really bad. In the meantime, I had already lost over 10 pounds since last year this time and suddenly I was losing again. I had a telemedicine appointment with my brilliant Dr. Mary Ackerley and she pointed out that the medication he’d put me on causes weight loss. I mean, I was literally lying on the bed where he was testing me and talking to me and he could see how small I already was — what he was thinking is just beyond me but suffice it to say, I cancelled my next appointment with him as I just don’t trust him anymore.

I also stopped taking all the herbs and tinctures that made me nauseous for hours and have kept it simple between the bee venom therapy I’ve been doing for over three years now and my regular meds and supplements and I have to say I feel a ton better. There’s a chance I may have a cerebral spinal fluid leak in my brain (yuck!) and I’m really praying I don’t as my friend who has one had to have a craniotomy and has a metal plate in her head. Seriously, that’s the last thing I want especially if my skin care line takes off and I’m on camera a lot in the future. I don’t want to be bald. I came close to shaving my head in 2017 when I was at the Auto Club picking up my handicap license plates because I was standing up and dropping thanks to vaso vagal which is low blood pressure and low heart rate upon standing. I’ll never forget the guy behind the counter handed me my new plates and a screw driver. I WAS THE DISABLED PERSON! I was literally sobbing on my knees in the parking lot when a very nice man stopped and put the plates on for me. I’ll never forget his kindness but I bawled the whole way home and seriously considered shaving my head just so I’d be taken serious. “You don’t look sick” is sadly something my community and I have been told for years. If they only knew how much we suffer inside — there’s a reason Lyme is called the invisible disease or the great imposter as it imitates so many other illnesses. Case in point, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia in 2012 and accepted my diagnosis.

I believe that nearly everyone has Lyme but if they have a functioning immune system then they can live a happy healthy life and never be affected by it. In retrospect, I had been symptomatic my entire life but knew nothing about Lyme until I was diagnosed. If I’d only listened to my friend who diagnosed me four years prior when she thought I had it — my life would be very different now. I can’t even imagine those who have been treating for over two decades. We’ve spent at least $250K on my out of pocket medical expenses and now that my daughter is treating, we’re spending even more so I NEED this product line to take off so we never need to worry about money again and we can get whatever treatment we need wherever we need to go.

But in the meantime, I pray that one week of stem cells can give me the remission I’ve been seeking since July of last year when we last returned from Cabo and all the towers at LAX blasted my brain and I haven’t been the same sense. I honestly need to research how to protect myself when we return from Cabo in March so that it doesn’t happen again because when we were there last summer, it truly was the healthiest I’d felt in years.

We had such an amazing trip. Our last night was especially spectacular as we went to dinner with a fabulous group of people including the owner/head of the clinic, Brigitte, her medical director, Dr. Denisa, a former employee and his boyfriend — the boyfriend was responsible for testifying in front of congress and being a crucial player in getting gay conversion therapy banned federally. There was another couple there was Austin. Coincidentally, the wife is also in the beauty industry and owns a nail salon in Austin, Her husband is a shaman but used to work for the CIA in counter intelligence. We thought it was crazy what he was telling us as it just seemed to out there to be true until he pulled out his phone and showed us pictures of himself with all these different foreign leaders. Kris and I stayed up till 3:30 in the morning as we were so amped up after the night’s festivities. Outside of my wedding when I married Kris and the birth of my kids and a couple other amazing talks with both kids, it truly was one of the best nights of my life.

Anyways, back to COVID. Kris got his first vaccine last Friday. He did great but got a delayed reaction several days later and was pretty much down for the count for two days but is perfectly fine now. I’ve decided to not get it even though a couple of my doctors are okay with it. I already have mast cell activation syndrome and while I do have an epipen, COVID can also trigger other auto immune diseases. I already have multiple so the last thing I need is to add another. So I’m incredibly grateful to him for getting it and will feel even more relieved after he gets the second. It’s incredibly sad seeing all the businesses that have closed. There was a gym two doors down from me that’s now empty after a good 20 years or more of being in business. My friend who runs the Green River project also had to close and is now working from home. I pray that I don’t become another statistic so if you’re in the Los Angeles area and need a colonic or an amazing skin care treatment please look me up!

I’m thrilled that my daughter and her boyfriend are on their way here from Vegas as I type this. My daughter moved home last summer to return to school and to treat as we finally got a positive test on her. It’s been awesome having her back. We had many years where we fought like cats and dogs and she put me and Kris through hell for a long time but she’s come a long way and is an incredible young woman wise beyond her years and I love that she’s back home and all four of us are under one roof until my son leaves for college in the fall. Where he decides to go is anyone’s guess but he’s been accepted to some really incredible colleges — ones that he was shocked he got into but he doesn’t give himself enough credit as he’s truly that smart.

Anyways I’m going to enjoy some down time before my kid arrives. I actually made dinner tonight, can you believe it? My daughter loves butter chicken so that’s what I made for her. And I found an amazing recipe for rye chocolate chip cookies. Who would’ve though that rye flour is naturally mostly gluten free — and yes they’re delicious and I used stevia sweetened dark chocolate chips and coconut palm sugar so they’d be less inflammatory and I can cheat without feeling guilty. Since I’ve gained some weight back, I’ve noticed that I’ve been able to tolerate gluten better but need to cut back because even though it’s not causing a negative response in my body, it’s still adding to the inflammation I already live with.

Thanks to everyone who follows me and publishes my posts. Writing is so therapeutic for me and it makes me happy when someone read what I write so thank you again for humoring me.

I’ll update you again soon! Until then, stay safe, wear your mask and enjoy life because if nothing else, I’ve learned that we can’t take life for granted — it can literally be gone in a heart beat.

Peace, Love & Gratitude

Wendei