It all started when...

I was born with a congenital illness called Hirschsprung's disease. Very simplified, it causes a portion of your intestines to be paralyzed. Therefore peristalsis stops and waste gets backed up in your intestine. It's a very painful condition with a host of consequences.


Infant/Childhood
When I was eight months old, a friend of my mother's prayed for me and I was healed. A lot of people will scoff at that, but my medical records prove it. In 1976 there was no other treatment for Hirshsprung's besides surgery. I still have yet to have surgery on any part of my body 31 years later! (Besides getting my wisdom teeth taken out.)

One side effect of Hirschsprung's that I did suffer, however, was yeast infections. My mom recently confided that I'd had multiple yeast infections as an infant. I'd also been slightly anemic from the day I was born. In fact, all my life, whenever I've been tested for anemia, I am never very far from "borderline anemic,"(in either direction) no matter the treatment.

I read somewhere recently, I think it was Dr. Crook's Yeast Connection, but I may be wrong...that whenever there is a yeast infection in the reproductive system, there is a corresponding infection in the intestinal track. And that when there is an inbalance in the intestinal track, there is a very high chance of a yeast infection in the reproductive system.

While I am incredibly grateful that I was healed of Hirschsprung's disease, I believe the origin of my problems with candida can be traced back to my infancy and those eight months battling the disease. I was constantly constipated and/or impacted. I cried constantly, I hardly slept.

Even as a toddler, my mom recalls that I rarely slept. She would put me down for a nap whether I slept or not, just because she needed a break!

I developed allergies very young. When I was seven years old, I got my ears pierced and we discovered that I was highly allergic to any metal but gold. I was allergic to most animals, dust, mold, mildew. I would toss and turn in bed for an hour or two before falling asleep. I resorted to making up stories in my mind in order to entertain myself!

When I was nine years old, I began having such hard stools, I would bleed. They put me on stool softeners which had some, but little effect. I still did not sleep easily. At that time, my bed was right next to a window with a streetlight outside it. I'd prop a book so that the light shone on in and would read long into the night.

Yes, I think all of this and more can be traced back to infection due to complications of Hirschsprung's Disease and the resulting yeast infections.

And so it begins.