My Story - The Road Less Taken

I lay there alone in the hospital bed in Rome, Italy, thinking about my college classmates roaming the country and having a blast without me. The Catholic nuns would frequently check on me, pinch my cheek, and say, "Bella, Bella," to cheer me up. They would glance at my bible on the nightstand next to my hospital bed and smile with approval. I was grateful that my upper lip, presently the size of an implanted Ethiopian lip disk, was beginning to shrink. I found comfort in reminding myself that other cultures, such as the young women of the Mursi tribe, were admired for their plate-sized lips. I could become a missionary and blend with their culture if necessary.

The morning before, I had knocked on the Director's door back at the college dorm, a cozy Italian villa nestled in the countryside, and usually a safe haven from danger, and tried to exhibit bravery. Panic overruled my logic, as the Director's wife opened the door, saw my face, and yelled, "Oh my God, Beriberi!" After three days in a Roman hospital hooked up to IVs, and glued to a throw-up pan, the diagnosis was not beriberi, but a severe reaction to a Mediterranean mosquito, and nothing more. The edema would eventually subside and I would be able to return to the U.S., and unabashedly wear lipstick again

I rejoined my classmates, but the rest of the semester was disrupted by reoccurring symptoms of swelling of the lips, eyes, and glands, accompanied by chronic fatigue, and a dreadful sense of being 'different.' Once back in the States, the typical lab tests were run, but there would be no answers to my diminished vitality for years to come. Over the next decades, I would struggle with bouts of chronic fatigue and reduced productivity wondering if it was a lack of character on my part, some missing element of perseverance and commitment preventing me from accomplishing all that I felt called to contribute; always purpose-driven, but consistently falling short of goals. Why didn't I have the energy to succeed? I assumed if I lived a lifestyle that omitted drugs, alcohol, and smoking from my daily life the result would be health and longevity.

What I didn't understand is that my diet also played an essential role in health and healing. I consumed the typical American diet of pizza, burgers, fries, donuts, cookies, processed foods, fast foods, and other boxed and packaged 'quick' foods high in preservatives, additives, dyes, chemicals, fats, and sugar, while devoid of fiber and nutrients. I avoided vegetables and if I ate a piece of fruit, I rewarded myself with a hot fudge sundae. A consistent diet of toxins from processed foods, void of nutrients, would eventually break down my already compromised immune system.

Underweight, malnourished, and dehydrated for decades, I found myself middle-aged and no longer facing only chronic fatigue, but chronic disease, and a further loss of vitality. Six months of fevers, exhaustion, nausea, swollen lymph nodes, and cervical lymphadenopathy led me back to the doctor twice.

During the second visit, the physician's words were harsh and impatient. "So, what's it going to take?!" His superior manner, perhaps an attempt to compensate for his hobbit-like stature, provoked my rebellious side. He reiterated his belief that I had some kind of lymphoma and pushed for the biopsy again. Illness and death had been the outcome of conventional medicine in our family, so given my gene pool, I suspected chemotherapy and surgery would not be the best option. What good would it do to puncture my neck and discover I had cancer cells if I wouldn't survive the treatments?

I glanced at my husband sitting awkwardly on a small stool across from the examining table and watched tears well up in his eyes as the doctor spewed out his probable diagnosis. I pondered how to make a quick exit from the claustrophobic examining room, to free us both from the negativity oozing from the physician's mouth. I left the clinic knowing I would choose an alternative treatment, and pursue a philosophy that focused on wellness, not disease. Hope heals; despair kills.

Over the next three months, I met with three different naturopaths, and although their various approaches were confusing, they all emphasized hope instead of pessimism. My most unique naturopathic visit utilized biotechnology which balances the body's energy field using a red laser light tool. Standing a few feet away from the practitioner's Santa-like face, I watched him move the red light back and forth across my body. I awoke early the next morning full of energy with hair that looked like I had stuck my finger in an electric socket. Unfortunately, the energy supply waned by the second day, along with my free perm.

At this point, I began independent research in the Encyclopedia of Healing Foods, and read: "The problems of nausea and vomiting, anorexia, and cachexia are sometimes the results of cancer itself but often they are the adverse effect of chemotherapy or radiation...By some estimates, approximately 40 percent of cancer fatalities result not from the disease itself but from malnutrition."

After more research and earning a master of science degree in holistic nutrition, I was able to regain my health through the gradual implementation of a whole foods diet, healthier lifestyle choices, and many hours of prayer and positive thinking. During my pursuit of natural healing, I consistently found that what I removed from my diet was just as important as what I replaced in my body. When I returned to my old ways of eating processed foods, especially those high in nitrates and sugars, the fevers and swollen lymph nodes would return. When I removed the dietary culprits and replaced them with whole nutrient-rich foods, health, and vitality followed, providing confirmation time and again, that the human body is designed to heal itself when harmful toxins are removed and are replaced with natural whole plant foods rich in healing phytochemicals. I could flood my body with all the nutrients it needed, but if I did not remove harmful foods simultaneously, healing would not occur.

I discovered that holistic nutrition promoted healing through the consumption of whole clean foods with an emphasis on plant foods when removing the cause of disease simultaneously. That was 14 years ago. I have not had a perfect health record since then - there have been intermittent challenges; however, I continue to watch the miraculous healing grace of God as he shows me how to be a faithful steward of my vessel. To learn more about health and healing, I encourage you to purchase my book, "Choose to Heal." I am available to answer any questions you may have on your health journey. It is so much more than just learning which foods to eat. It is a faith journey, an exciting manifestation of what God will do in our lives when we are faithful and obedient.

Please contact me at karenkibbey@hotmail.com, and though I am in partial retirement, I will do my best to get back to you within a reasonable time frame. I also appreciate feedback! God bless you on your journey to optimum health and healing! Our God is a miracle-working God and He loves us! Enjoy the journey!

"I have told you these things so my joy and delight may be in you, and that your joy may be made full and complete, and overflowing." (John 15:11)