Johnson family with race-truck

My Lyme/Yeast Disease Journey:

I remember it like it was yesterday.  1977, 4 years old, at my cousins farm in Morden, MB.  After spending all day in tree forts, and the woods playing, it was after supper that I went to the bathroom, to find a ‘bug’ embedded in my tummy.  I screamed.  My mom came running, pulled the ‘bug’ out of me, a wood tick she said, it was gone, and that traumatic event was over.  Little did I know, that was just the beginning.

My problems began with bladder issues.  Bed wetting was the first.  At 4 years old, my parents couldn’t understand WHY this was now happening.  Plastic sheets travelled with me everywhere. For years and years, we worked with Dr’s and chiropractors, and apple cider vinegar, and meds, and more meds.  ‘Bladder infections’ is what I was told.  Antibiotics became a staple in my life.  I was sick.  Always sick.  It seemed that I ‘might’ be getting better, and then sick again.  More antibiotics.   But yet, the bladder problems never went away.  I began to believe that the burning, and stinging,  would never go away.

By the age of 10, I was getting migraines.  This was unheard of! But, my Dr confirmed that’s what it was.  More meds.  In between the appointments to drop off urine samples for more antibiotics for my ‘bladder infections’, and the medications for the migraines, I didn’t even need to book, or schedule to go see my Dr.  I just went in, slid my urine sample through a door in the wall, got my prescriptions passed back to me, and out the door I went.   Years and years of the same ol, same ol.   Numerous trips to the hospital were made to be put on IV drips of morphine or Demerol, to help manage my pain.

When I was 26, I became very ill with a ‘stomach issue’.  I could keep nothing in me.  I lost 40 pounds in two months.  I went to see my Dr, she sent me home with antacids.  Nope.  Not the solution.  The stomach pains I was enduring 24/7, was hindering my ability to work.  I was always in the bathroom.   After a few more Dr appts, with no help, I decided to go to the hospital when I started bleeding profusely out of my bowel.  I thought it would be a simple in an out.  Get checked out, go home.  I wasn’t so lucky.   I was immediately admitted, and I didn’t know ‘why’.  ‘Call your parents’ they told me.  Now I was scared.   The diagnosis, was ulcerative colitis, and a very severe case at that. I remained hospitalized for a week.  Specialists were brought in, fearing that I may lose part of my bowel.  But, with heavy duty steroids, amidst a vast of other stomach ‘helping’ medications,  it seemed to calm down enough to be discharged, and off I went with even more pills to take each day.

Fast forward to 2001.  On the verge of losing yet another job due to my incessant bathroom trips,  I decided to not go see my Dr whom I had for years, and instead to a walk in clinic.   I felt like I was dying from these terrible ‘bladder infections’ and just wanted someone to help me.

‘You don’t have a bladder infection’ the Dr told me.  ‘What?’ I cried.  ‘I’ve had bladder infections since I was 4!! My regular Dr has always given me antibiotics for them’.  I felt SUCH despair.  It meant that he wouldn’t prescribe me what I needed, and I needed it!!!! But he showed me the urine test.  It was, NEGATIVE!! How could this be?  He requested my medical records from my Dr, and we were stunned to find out that never ONCE, had my urine tests came back positive for a bladder infection!!! In all those years, not once.  She had never even bothered to check, just sent me out the door with that usual piece of paper in my hand, to head over to the pharmacy.   ‘So now what?’ I asked.  ‘Now what do I do???’ I felt no Hope now.  Just despair.   He told me that he would get me into a Urologist the next day.  Then we might have some answers.

The urologist appt lead to an admittance back into the hospital, to have a bladder scope done.   ‘Interstitial Cystitis’ was the diagnosis.  IC is a chronic bladder disease, for which there is no cure for.  It has the highest suicide rate of any chronic pain disease out there.  That, I could understand, as I’d often not felt the will to live.  The pain, the discomfort, was very depressing.  And now? To find out THIS was going to be the rest of my life? Oh my gosh, it was devastating to me.    With IC, simply put, the protective lining inside the bladder has been worn away, exposing cracks and tears. Hence, leading to the excruciating pain.  I swore sometimes I could feel my bladder ‘collapsing’, which made sense, as it was so very weak.  The urologist told me I had one of the worst cases he had ever seen.

My only successful treatment, after months of Guinea pigging more medications,  trying to calm my bladder down, to no avail, was a bladder distention.  It’s like getting a ‘fake’ coating. I called it my ‘pepto bismal’ for the bladder.   Because I was a chronic case, I was able to go for these procedures as much as I needed, and Medicare would cover it.   I’d be ‘good’ for anywhere from 1-2 years.  My urologist told me though, that because of the very poor shape of my bladder, he wasn’t sure how many treatments I could get before it would perforate and completely tear up my bladder.  A bag was going to be inevitable, and he told me to prepare for that.

From 2004-2009, I had my 3 children.  Pregnancy seemed to put the IC and all of the other problems (except for the migraines), into remission, but afterwards? They fired right back up.  With a vengeance.

I was in rough shape.  The migraines, were getting worse.  The colitis, was still always rearing its ugly head too.   I was becoming very depressed, fatigued, and truly saw no ‘light at the end of the tunnel’.

Then, my sister in law and brother in law, who were massage therapists, went to a Lyme disease conference.   As soon as they returned to Winnipeg, they came rushing over. They were SO excited!  ‘Brenda, you can NOT have IC without Lyme disease!! YOU have Lyme disease!!!’   Serious?  Really?   They made me read the pamphlets, we sat and watched ‘Under Our Skin’ and the pieces all began to fall into place! Seeing those peoples stories, it was like I was watching myself!  It ALL made sense. I filled out a survey.   I said ‘Yes’ to so many of the questions.   It said to go see my Doctor.

By now, I had a new family Dr, and he was fantastic.  But, he literally screamed at me when I told him I believed I had Lyme disease.  He agreed to test me, but, we all know how those tests turn out.   He informed me that I didn’t have Lyme disease.  The test came back negative.   No surprise there.

But I ‘knew’.  I now knew that it ALL went back to the age of 4, when my problems began, because of, that traumatizing wood tick!  I knew, that is when I had picked up Lyme.  It just all added up.

There was nothing I could do.  But continue the way that I was, and ‘welcome to the rest of your life’.

The migraines got worse.  I was now going blind, numb, and unable to function.  I couldn’t speak, I couldn’t move, and was more in bed than out.  The bladder got worse, as did the colitis.   But I was done with med’s.  So I just quit everything. They weren’t helping me anyways, so why keep taking them.   I had given up all Hope.  I wasn’t sure that I even wanted to carry on any more.  I didn’t want to live the rest of my life this way.  Maybe I didn’t even want to live at all.  I wasn’t ashamed to admit it.

I am a BIG believer that everything happens for a reason.  As hard as it is to ‘see the joy in your sorrow’ when tragedy hits, we don’t know the reasons for it.  In my case, it was because of one of my dogs, Bella.

On December 1, 2012, Bella suffered a spinal injury that left her paralyzed.  It rocked our family.  We couldn’t afford the minimum $4000 surgery, it had no guarantees either.  ‘No Hope’.  “Do the right thing Brenda, don’t make her suffer” is what everyone told me.  “Put her down,  she was broken” is what I heard.   Even my husband said, “Mark my words, that dog will never walk again”.   Nobody had any Hope.   What do we do???!!!

At this time, my bladder had become so bad, I knew I needed another distention.  But, the urologist informed me that this time, he was almost certain that my bladder couldn’t survive it, and I was probably going to walk out of the hospital in January of 2013, with a bag.   I was only 39 years old!!!   I was in the midst of all this depression and sorrow for myself, trying to be a stay at home mom to 3 young children, and my dog becomes paralyzed too???  How much more can I take???   I had never felt such despair in all my life.

‘Show me the way’ is what I pleaded to God the second night of Bella’s hospital stay.  ‘Show me the way because I don’t know WHAT to do!!!!!’   I needed ‘something’ to give me an answer.  ‘What’ was the right thing to do??

Well, I can only say, a divine intervention lead me to the ‘answer’.   An answer that would change my life forever.

I was lead to a website that very night, after returning inside, and having asked for ‘Help’.   The computer was open to the Nzymes Granules, 1-Lb package‘paralysis’ page (at NZYMES.COM).  I started watching, reading, listening to the testimonials, in disbelief of what I was learning. Dogs who walked again?! Dogs who hadn’t been able to get up, paralyzed, just like her!  THIS was the answer for Bella!   I just ‘felt’ it.   I ordered the stuff (the Sprouted Granules + other items, as seen below).   We got the products on the 5th day of her injury.  Nine days later, she took her first steps! By 6 weeks, she was almost completely back to her old self. We couldn’t believe it.  This stuff was incredible, even though we really didn’t understand ‘how’ it worked.

I ended up having a conversation with the VP of this company.  He knew the great results Bella had achieved,  and we got to talking about Me.  I didn’t want to get into any great detail with this virtual stranger to me, so I only told him I suffered from debilitating daily migraines,  ulcerative colitis, and Interstitial Cystitis. Nothing about Lyme.  He had no idea what the IC was, but, he told me that he believed I had a lot of yeast in me, and that I should take the same thing I was giving to Bella (Kit shown below).  It was the same for people as it was for pets??!!  Well, since we’d seen what it did for Bella, how could we deny what it would do for us? Snake oil theory did not apply to an animal!  I started taking it also.  I really had nothing to lose.

My life changed that day.  Within 2 weeks, my migraines had stopped. They were manageable  headaches only, and were completely gone by 2 months.  My colitis, stopped. And my bladder? Which hadn’t stopped ‘searing’ in pain for 36 years, STOPPED!! I was able to go hours upon hours without having to go to the bathroom.  I could actually hold my urine too! I was so proud of the big pee’s I was having!  I didn’t go for my appointment to have my bladder removed.  I didn’t need to (yeah)! My bladder was 100% pain free!  The ‘shedding’ of my bladder walls had stopped weeks prior also, so I saw no need to still go to the hospital when it was maybe unnecessary?  Besides, I ‘believed’ I was going to keep on getting better. I slept better; in fact, I slept great.  My hair stopped falling out in fistfuls, my skin & nails, everything changed.  For the first time EVER in my life, I was beginning to see, what it felt like to feel ‘normal’.  I was truly seeing, ‘the joy in my sorrow’.  Because of my little dog becoming paralyzed, she in turn, ‘saved’ me.  I was becoming HEALTHY!! I was able to be a better wife, a better mother to my 3 children, and I was finally truly Happy.

I am now over 10 years in, and have been completely free of the ‘symptoms’ of the Lyme disease.  I have had zero of the problems I had before.  I truly believe that I chased the disease out; I am rid of it.  However, I’ve learned a lot in the past 7 years, and have found another thing that goes hand in hand with what I’ve been using, and have been able to successfully rid out Lyme disease in dogs and horses,  in 3 months.  Completely gone (negative).  No false positives.

I know the same ‘results’ apply to people too, but so many of the ones I’ve met, weren’t able to get tested properly for it, and the ones that did, had to go to the US to be diagnosed. However upon returning to Canada, unable to get ‘treatment’.   To be able to be tested again – to see if it’s gone – is a big financial restraint. However, we all share the common ground of being ‘better’, without a doubt. And don’t (really) need a ‘piece of paper’ to tell us so.   It’s so easy to get that ‘piece of paper’ for the animals, to confirm existence and nonexistence of the disease, but not for people.  That is truly sad.  I am ‘results’ driven, not ‘scientifically’ driven.

Still on the subject of Lyme disease, I’ll end my ‘novel’ by referring the story of Bohdi (on another page).  He was the first dog where I had success ridding of Lyme and its symptoms.  He came to me as a ‘Forever Foster’.  Meaning he was coming here to die.  He had just days left to live.  He suffered from congestive heart failure, due to cardiomyopathy (very enlarged heart), and stage 4/advanced Lyme disease.  For this dog, there was No Hope whatsoever.  “Just make him comfortable to die, in a happy home, for his last days” is what the vets said.

So, I really do believe everything happens for a reason.  And I always say…

❤❤❤Don’t Stop Believing❤❤❤

Brenda Johnson
Manitoba, MB


Nzymes Healthy-Skin Kit, Large

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