Happy World Homeopathy Day! Gather 'round for Story Time...

Today, April 10, is the birthday of Dr. Samuel Hahnemann, the brilliant person who developed the beautiful modality of homeopathy, and is celebrated as World Homeopathy Day.

To commemorate the occasion, I thought I'd share the story of how I ended up deciding to become a homeopath.

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Pregnancy is an initiation in so many ways.

Navigating all of the changes my body was experiencing through growing a new life within it would have been challenging enough...

... and I had the added challenge of dealing with a life-threatening condition on top of all that.

In my second trimester, when the immune system makes its  necessary adaptations to avoid attacking the developing fetus, my immune system began going haywire.

I developed a bout of allergies that made me miserable and  unable to sleep or function well. After some weeks of this, the allergies descended into my lungs and turned into a raging case of asthma. 

I am not someone who usually has asthma, so this was a real WTF moment. 

As I progressed along, the asthma continued to grow worse. I tried to do what I could to address it, but with so many things being contraindicated during pregnancy, I felt at a loss. 

Eventually, I could go on no further, and decided to go to the ER. 

My oxygen levels were so dangerously low that, even with oxygen administered through my nose, it took several days in the hospital for my levels to replenish.

I was given two different medications through a nebulizer, put on the lowest possible dose of steroids for the shortest amount of time, given an inhaler, and sent on my way.

After leaving the hospital, I had a couple of weeks of feeling okay. But then, I became increasingly dependent on my inhaler, to the point where I was using it, out of absolute necessity, more frequently than the recommended intervals. 

I was having nearly constant asthma attacks, and the inhaler was no longer helping.

Going back to the hospital felt like a dead end, since I now found myself even worse off than I'd been before.

I couldn't function. I couldn't even walk across the room without having to stop and catch my breath for 20 minutes. I had to consciously focus on my breath each moment just to stay alive.  And I was experiencing sheer terror and panic — the psychological response to the physiological inability to breathe -- compounded exponentially by anxiety for the fate of the child I was carrying.

It was truly the most terrifying thing I have ever experienced.

At this point, I didn't know what else to do. I prayed for a miracle. It was my most desperate hour, in pure survival mode, moment to moment, not knowing if I or my child were going to make it through.

I did some research and found a breathing technique, called Buteyko breathing. This helped to get me through the nearly constant asthma attacks, but it didn't prevent them from occurring.

Finally, after another day or two in this severe crisis mode, help arrived in the form of a homeopathic remedy.  I was given three doses to take over the course of three days.  

Upon taking the first dose, I was amazed to feel about 50% better.  

After the second dose, I was ecstatic to feel almost completely better!

By the third day, I was back to my baseline. 

I have never had another bout of asthma since then! (And we're coming up on almost 11 years of this episode.)

I went from a swift downward spiral, in which I was frighteningly close to the brink, to back to normal, in a matter of days.

I had already been intrigued by homeopathy. I'd been seeing a homeopath and had already tried multiple remedies to address the asthma before my homeopath hit upon this one. This shows how nuanced homeopathy is, but that's another story for another time.

It took some time to truly process this experience and realize how homeopathy had become entwined with my destiny, to realize that my life had been saved in order for me to go forth and help others with this medicine.

On this day, I'm expressing my gratitude for Dr. Hahnemann and the countless lives that have been touched by his incredible life's work. 

Happy World Homeopathy Day!