'Years of fatigue - vanished!'

Debbie Olson went from doctor to doctor looking to ease her constant fatigue. Then she discovered the little-known cause - and cure!

- Gina Roberts-Grey

What is wrong with me? thought Debbie Olson as she struggled to muster the energy to make dinner. “I’d been dealing with debilitating fatigue coupled with enormous hives that covered nearly half my body,” she recalls. “But no one could tell me what was wrong.”

Tired all the time

“For months, I’d been dealing with unexplained extreme fatigue. Initially, I assumed I was fighting a mild case of food poisoning or a cold, but then I woke up in the middle of the night with huge hives blanketing my torso and legs. My training as a nurse told me I was experiencing symptoms of a severe allergic reaction. Baffled by what caused the reaction, I decided the hives were a fluke and didn’t seek medical treatment.

“I recalled the engorged tick I had found on my back after an afternoon gardening but didn’t think much of it. Then, two weeks later, after hosting a backyard cookout, complete with a hamburger—something I didn’t typically eat—I attributed a queasy stomach to the beer I drank possibly hitting me wrong.

“The fatigue worsened and became so unbearable that I quit working. Some days, exhaustion—along with joint and bone pain—made it hard to stand up or stay awake.

“Once a self-sufficient go-getter who owned and maintained a business and my home on 5 acres with a pool, I was barely able to care for myself. I bounced around doctors’ offices desperately seeking answers, occasionally rushing to the ER with inexplicable anaphylaxis, a severe, potentially life-threatening allergic reaction that can cause difficulty breathing.