I still had that calling, and I went back to finish my training for Magnified Healing ™. As luck would have it, I was able to get educated under one of the marvelous beings that brought Magnified Healing ™ to everyone. I cherished these moments; they were one of the few times I felt happy. There were too many things happening in my life, and I chose to step away and focus on working. I worked in a vet’s office, landscaping company, and construction. I even worked moving people a couple of times, worked cleaning houses and buildings, got divorced, and finally started a cleaning company and met my soulmate.
There was always that voice on the back of my head reminding me that I had a place where I truly belonged during all this time. I got my real estate license for the second time, and this was a job I enjoyed, but as we all know, your body keeps score, and sooner or later, you’ll get a bill for it. After all of these difficult years, I noticed my health was declining.
At first, I was just gaining weight, like a lot. I wasn’t eating poorly, I was still active, but it didn’t matter what I did. My weight just kept on going up. Then I noticed that no matter how much I rested, I was exhausted, which was attributed to my weight, and the doctor also diagnosed me with depression. My son graduated high school and went to a college in a different state. It was the first time I was away from him for more than a couple of days, and being an empty nester is way more complicated than I imagined. Then around a month later, we had to put our chocolate lab to sleep, and I hit a low point and became very depressed. The doctors felt that the diagnosis was correct. I was overweight and depressed. They just didn’t know why. I was put on antidepressants, but I was still getting worse. My bloodwork was “normal” by USA standards, I saw different specialists, and nobody seemed to know what was happening.
Now I had breathing issues, insane pain, bruises coming out of nowhere, and my heart was going crazy, jumping from 180 heartbeats dropping 35 from one minute to the next, and my energy was getting lower and lower. My family was worried, and we went to South America to get another opinion. Within days I had more tests done than I had back in Florida in 5 years. And I finally got a diagnosis. I had Lupus and Sjogrens. Both are autoimmune illnesses that so far don’t have a medical cure. Just lots of meds that may or may not work, you are forced to adapt as much as possible, mourn the person you used to be, and accept that you are someone else. The new you wont be reliable; regardless of how much you love to spend time with people, there is a high chance that you will not have the energy; you have to be worried about anyone having anything contagious since all the meds you are given suppress your immune system.
Heat and sunlight are big triggers for me, I had also to accept that no matter how much I loved going to the beach, that was no longer an option, just being out of the house was extremely difficult due to the weather in Florida.
A couple of years had passed, and my health wasn’t getting any better. I would come back home from work, and I could barely get changed and get in bed. My husband (we had been married by this time) wanted a change, and I needed a place that gave me at least a couple of days with colder weather, but we didn’t want to be too far from our families. So, we moved to North Georgia. My son was out of college, and he moved back with us to pursue starting a company with one of his friends from college.
In the late summer of 2019, moving was stressful, and the process of selling our house and leaving everything behind affected my health even more. During the first weeks in our new state, I could barely get out of bed; everything was foreign, and adapting to a new place when you were 39 wasn’t easy. I was planning a big party for my 40th birthday, but now we were in a different state than all the people we love.
I am fortunate to have my sister; she took me to Istanbul as my 40th birthday present. I spent my actual birthday with my husband and son, and the next day I went to Turkey, and at the same time, I got all my tests and medications taken care of.
We didn’t have insurance, and as crazy as it sounds to many, it is cheaper to travel to another country to get meds and tests done. I cherish those nine days with my sister; as usual, we laughed, made fun of each other, and visited some of the beautiful places Istanbul has, not to mention all the lovely people there and the yummy food.
On my way back to Atlanta, I saw many sick people flying back home but didn’t make any of it, it was winter, and it is normal for people to get the flu.
I did what was right for me. Wore my facemask and only removed it to eat. Guess in this case, I was lucky that I have immune issues, and I had a mask with me. Two months later, Covid was official, and we were all in lockdown.