“Being chronically ill (I have Lyme disease, several co-infections, Morgellons, mold toxicity, parasite overgrowth, Candida overgrowth, and Hashimoto’s) has steered me towards life with greater purpose. I am so much more compassionate and have more empathy for others, am gentle with my body, and started my two businesses out of my illnesses. The first business is one I co-founded with my mom. It’s a clean skincare company called My July, which my mom really started when she began alchemizing natural skincare treatments for me to use on my debilitating rashes. The second is an online course I just launched in May of 2023 with my best friend, Dianna, who also has Lyme disease. In this day and age, the beauty of social media is that it connects so many like-minded people from all over the world. I have found an online community that has supported me and continues to support me through most of my healthy journey. No one is an island and it’s in finding community that you build a support team to lean on during tough times.
Just because someone looks healthy and well from the outside, you never know what’s going on inside. I have never felt well. Except I didn’t realize I was chronically ill until late in my teens when my symptoms took a turn for the worse. Growing up like this, I just accepted it as my normal and chalked up my eczema, stomach aches, joint pain, anxiety, brain fog, difficulty concentrating, and more to being akin to my peers’ lactose intolerance, ear infections, and seasonal allergies. I learned to pull gymnastic tricks to hide my symptoms so no one, not even my parents would know. The only thing I couldn’t hide was my eczema, which, in retrospect, was not actually eczema, but my Lyme disease or one of its co-infections flaring up. Late in my teens, my digestive issues got so severe, I couldn’t even drink a glass of water without getting bloating and being in extreme abdominal discomfort. It’s at that time, I knew something was terribly wrong and I needed to seek medical help. After almost a decade of chasing a diagnosis, in July of 2020, I was finally diagnosed with Lyme disease, Bartonella, Babesia, mold toxicity, parasite overgrowth, Candida overgrowth, and Hashimoto’s. Going back into my health history, I was conceived in a home that had toxic black mold we didn’t know about until we had work done on the home years later. My theory is I developed mold toxicity in utero. To add to that, the fact that I grew up in New York, then Connecticut and played outside in the yard all the time, the chances of me being bit by a tick were very high. From there, I’m sure my immune system was so compromised that developing parasite overgrowth and Candida overgrowth was inevitable. I wouldn’t wish these circumstances on anyone. However, I treat all of these as gifts to me because they’ve made me become more in tune with my body and intuition than ever before. Also, my businesses were born from my illnesses, so I’ve truly made my mess my muse. I believe there are silver linings to everything and there is freedom in being able to find the beauty in the mess.”
Micaela
