I was diagnosed when I was 13 with cyclical immune thrombocytopenia, which means my ITP would flare up monthly with my menstrual cycle. My platelets would drop to below 100 for at least a week every single month, which meant I got monthly treatment and weekly blood draws.

They tried prednisone, IVIG infusions, rituximab, and finally a splenectomy—which they did twice because they left a little bit, and it grew back. Some of these treatments worked but only for a short while. I still had to come back to the hospital every month and also get weekly or bi-weekly blood draws.

After 16 years of this, they enrolled me in a study at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada for drug trials. They would take 13 vials of blood once a month for a year. Nothing worked, and I felt like a guinea pig. For years, the symptoms of these drugs made me feel worse than my ITP did.

So I gave up. I was defeated. I got off all meds and stopped seeing the doctors. At that point, I decided I would just try to live my life with ITP, and whatever happened, happened. About a year later, I was watching this documentary about how the meat, dairy, and pharmaceutical industries are all linked together. They showed people going plant-based and reversing all these autoimmune disorders—even heart disease and some types of cancer. I also did a little more research on my own and found out you can restart your immune system by fasting for 72 hours. So I thought, what do I have to lose? Why not try it out?

At the time, I had no meds in my system. I started with a 72-hour fast, which was extremely difficult—but I did it! I cut out all meat, dairy, gluten, alcohol, and anything that was inflammatory to my system. After 2 months, I was feeling amazing!!! So I made an appointment to go get a blood draw, and my platelets came back at 245!!! I kept with it and continued getting blood draws for the next few months to make sure. It's been 8 years now—and I've never had a problem with my platelets!! That being said, after two years I started reintroducing foods back into my diet like fish and chicken, but stayed away from beef, pork, gluten and dairy because they are very inflammatory. I drink once in a while now, I get outside more, exercise, and eat waaaaay more vegetables—and I get to LIVE.

It was VERY HARD, but VERY WORTH IT!

It was worth all the hard work and sacrifice I had to go through to get to where I am today. I hope my story can help at least one person get healthy and not have to deal with ITP.

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