For years, I believed my health struggles were all about food.
And to be fair, food was a huge part of it.
Back in 2017 I discovered a variant on the BCHE gene that causes a Butrylcholinesterase Deficiency and I found that with my particular variant, I may struggle with the alkaloids in nightshades, as well as pesticides and herbicides. I removed nightshades from my diet and a lot felt better. Less pain, more energy.
However, I unknowingly increased another plant toxin in my diet, OXALATE.
In 2019, I became so severely reactive to nightshades that my life became incredibly restricted. I couldn’t go to restaurants or parties. If nightshades were being cooked or prepared nearby, I would react and get a full body migraine. It didn’t make sense, I eliminated them 2 years earlier.
At one point, I had to wear gloves in public.
If I touched a door handle or a shopping cart after someone had eaten fries or chips, I would develop contact dermatitis—followed by a full-body migraine. The migraines were so bad, I couldn’t even have a conversation. I just wanted to lay in bed and cover my head. While it exhaused me, sleep was not restorative.
It was isolating. Exhausting. And honestly, overwhelming.
That same year, I started NAET. It helped in a big way. I was able to stop wearing gloves and return to social situations. But I still couldn’t eat nightshades without consequences and it seemed like something else was triggering pain.
So I kept searching.
By January 1, 2023, I was in constant pain—head to toe, all day, every day.
I felt like I was 90… but I was only 46.
I had been eating what I believed was a “healthy” diet for 16 years—almost entirely organic, no processed foods. I was doing everything right… and getting sicker. Any toxin exposure like a pesticide or herbicide and my pain went through the roof.
After a session with Andrea at Soul Mechanics Healing, she encouraged me to stay open to new possibilities.
Not long after, I came across a video featuring Sally Norton and her newly released book Toxic Superfoods. Around the same time, I heard about the Carnivore diet.
It felt like a slap in the face.
All those years of trying to “eat the rainbow” to heal my body… I had to face the possibility that I had been making myself worse. For decades I had avoided red meat, because I was taught it was bad, inflammatory, and causes cancer. But now people are eating all red meat diets and they are healing? WTF!
It wasn’t a slap in the face. It was a KICK in the face and a punch in the gut.
So I made a drastic change.
I removed plant foods entirely and started a Carnivore diet. Yes red meat and eggs every day. Sometimes salmon, bacon, or chicken thighs.
The healing I experienced was significant.
My chronic fatigue improved. My pain decreased. And for the first time in years, I felt like I was finally moving in the right direction. The long overwhelming list of health problems started shrinking.
I was hopefull that soon I could tolerate a little plant food, or a little keto chocolate. But even after two years, I couldn’t tolerate any nightshades or plant foods high in oxalate, without severe, head-to-toe pain. I was so stiff all of the time, I couldn’t even check my blind spot. And while my energy had improved, I platued, I struggled to get through daily tasks. I felt stuck—much better than before, but not fully living.
That’s when I started asking a different question:
What if this isn’t just about food?
Around that time, I revisited something I had come across through The Lipedema Project—from Dr. Perrin and his Perrin Technique. After learning more about its focus on the nervous system, lymphatics, and the glymphatic system, I began to wonder if this might be the missing piece for me.
I wanted to try it, but there were no practitioners near me. In fact, at the time, there were only a handful in the entire United States.
I felt strongly that I needed to fully understand this approach—not just for myself, but so I could share what I was learning with the therapists I was already working with. Most weren’t interested, but one person was: Rachel at Copper Mountain Manual Therapy.
Rachel also suffers from fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue, so this immediately resonated with her. She decided to travel to train directly with Dr. Perrin. After returning, she quickly became overwhelmed with the number of people willing to travel long distances to receive this treatment.
Seeing the need, Rachel took it a step further—she brought Dr. Perrin to our city to train additional therapists.
I attended that training as well.
Starting Perrin wasn’t easy.
In fact, I got worse before I got better—something I had been told might happen.
But then, slowly, things began to shift.
My energy started improving beyond the level I had been stuck at for years. My sleep improved. My pain decreased. That awful stiffness that kept me from being able to properly check my blind spot, was gone. My osteopathic manual therapy sessions with Rachel were holding longer. Stiffness that I’d had for decades, was softening. I noticed less pain flares, and the flares I did get, were getting milder.
And then something unexpected happened.
After nearly a decade of severe reactivity…
my tolerance to nightshades changed.
I wasn’t reacting the same way anymore.
I could eat out without the same level of fear about hidden ingredients like potato starch or paprika.
That moment changed how I understood my body.
Because nightshades had been a real problem for me. Eliminating them helped. But they weren’t the entire story.
The best way I can describe it now is like a “bucket.”
For years, my system was overwhelmed.
When that “bucket” was full, even the smallest exposures caused big reactions.
My body didn’t need more exposure—it needed to calm down.
Switching to a Carnivore diet gave my body relief from plant toxins like oxalate. But before that, I had spent 16 years eating what I believed was a “healthy” diet—trying to eat a rainbow to heal my body.
In reality, I was consuming extremely high-oxalate foods every single day:
spinach, sweet potatoes, dark chocolate, chia seeds, beets, almonds, almond products—and all those “healing” smoothies, released more oxalate into my body.
Instead of helping, it was making me worse. Much worse.
A few years on Carnivore helped lower that burden, but it wasn’t enough on its own. I still needed support to help my body and process what had built up over time.
As my overall load began to decrease—through diet, time, red light therapy, lymphatic support, and eventually the Perrin Technique—something shifted.
My threshold changed.
My body became less reactive… and more resilient.
I also experienced some unusual sensations during treatment—like a sandy or gritty feeling in different areas of my body, including my chest, jaw, wrists, and even my eyes. Oxalate researchers explain that oxalate binds to heavy metals and minerals in the body, and when your body detoxes it, you FEEL it. This was a consistent part of my experience. It still happens after every Perrin treatment, or any myofasical release.
Looking back, I don’t believe my reactions were caused by one thing alone.
It was likely a combination:
- my genetics
- food sensitivities
- high oxalate diet
- environmental exposures
- stress on the nervous system
- and how well my body was able to process and recover
For me, addressing diet was essential—but it wasn’t the final step.
The real shift came when my body moved out of a constant state of overwhelm—and that’s what the Perrin Technique did for me. It allowed my glymphatics system to activate and release the storage of toxins in my brain.
Now, am I 100% healed?
That’s a question I’ve been asked.
The honest answer is—no.
I still have the same underlying conditions:
My genetics – BCHE deficiency, Hypermobility, Lipedema, Dercum’s Disease, Hip Dysplasia, Scoliosis/Kyphosis, and Advanced Serrated Polyposis Syndrome.
Those don’t simply disappear – there is no cure for any of these disorders, but I can manage them.
I am living again—and that’s what matters.
I have tools now.
I continue with Perrin work on a regular basis.
I stay consistent with my diet, adhering to Low Oxalate Ketogenic or Carnivore. I add some fermented foods. I use my tactile Flexitouch lymphatic pump, red light therapy, osteopathic manual therapy, and physical therapy to support my body.
Do I still face setbacks? Yes.
Illnesses like COVID can set me back, especially with Dercum’s.
Procedures like my annual colonoscopy can disrupt my gut, which does increase my migraines.
And my body is still detoxing oxalate on and off – the pain can get so bad, it takes my mobility for months. Then is suddenly stops and I get better.
The difference now is this:
I recover.
I no longer feel like my body is constantly spiraling downward.
I have a way to support it, respond to it, and move forward again.
And I will not let these conditions define the rest of my life.
I opened my Etsy shop, so I can help support my family with all the therapies I need to maintain my health. Both my shop and managing my health feel like a full time job. If you are in need of a invitations, party printables, party games, coloring pages, and more – check out my shop! I have lots of stuff for kids, but I’m building other printables for adults too.
Want to learn more about the Glymphatic system? Check out this video hosted by Lymphapress with Doctor Wei Chen on neurolymphatics.
What to learn more about The Perrin Technique? Check out this presentation from Dr. Perrin.
