Nobody Is Coming to Save You, You Have To Save Yourself: How I Healed Myself When Doctors Couldn't

An honest conversation about chronic illness, environmental toxins, and taking your health into your own hands.

Q: Let's start at the beginning. You were a successful attorney and real estate entrepreneur. When did you realize something was wrong?

A: Honestly? I didn't realize it for years. I thought chronic pain and constant illness were just... normal. The price of being a high achiever. I was running three businesses, working insane hours, and my body was screaming at me—but I kept pushing through.

I had persistent acne that wouldn't respond to anything. Chronic acid reflux so bad I was popping pills daily. Constant fatigue. Recurrent antibiotic resistant infections. Back pain so severe I bought a platform bed because I couldn't stand up from a regular bed—I literally crawled onto the floor every morning. On the pain scale, I was a 9/10 daily. I thought, "This is just how life is."

Q: What did doctors tell you?

A: Classic story. They prescribed chemicals for my skin—a "safe, harmless" pill they said had been used for years. Spoiler: when I dug into the medical journal studies, I learned it causes tumors in lab rats.

For the acid reflux, they had me on the little purple pill for EIGHT YEARS. When I actually read the label? It should only be taken for two weeks. The studies linked it to dementia. When I asked my doctor how to wean off, she said, "It's better to keep taking it than risk esophageal cancer" and handed me another refill.

For my back, it was pain killers, muscle relaxers, cortisone shots in my spine. Just treating symptoms. Never asking: what's causing this inflammation?

Q: So when did things get really bad?

A: When I started getting recurring infections. My doctor kept saying it was strep. Round after round of antibiotics. Eventually, I became antibiotic resistant. The infection turned into scarlet fever—I woke up one morning covered head to toe in what looked like chicken pox.

They prescribed steroids to lather all over my body multiple times a day. That's when I asked myself: "Isn't this just treating the symptom? What about the CAUSE?"

Q: And what was the cause?

A: Black mold. I was being poisoned by black mold in my house, and my immune system was severely compromised.

I told doctors about the brain fog, the severe fatigue, the memory loss. Nobody listened. Nobody believed something else was happening in my body. They just kept prescribing more pills.

Q: How did you figure it out?

A: I had to investigate myself. I started paying attention to my environment—really looking at what I was bringing into my home. The scented candles. The non-stick pans. The plastic storage containers. The synthetic fragrances in every cleaning product and "air freshener."

I found the mold. I remediated it. I invested in air purification. I removed every synthetic toxin I could find. And I started eating an anti-inflammatory whole-foods diet, practicing yoga, building muscle mass, meditating.

And something incredible happened: I started healing.

Q: How quickly did you see results?

A: The chronic pain I thought was "normal"? Gone within a few months. The recurring infections? Never had another one. Haven't needed antibiotics since. The acid reflux? Completely resolved with diet and lifestyle changes—no pills.

My skin cleared. My energy came back. The brain fog lifted. I felt like myself for the first time in over a decade.

Q: That must have been validating after years of being dismissed.

A: It was. But it also made me angry. Why had no doctor asked about my environment? Why were they so quick to prescribe pills but never investigated the root cause?

And that's when I realized: nobody is coming to save you. The medical system is designed to manage symptoms, not remove causes. If you want to actually heal, you have to take it into your own hands.

Q: Is that when you decided to go back to school?

A: Yes. I enrolled at Harvard Medical School to study lifestyle medicine and functional nutrition. I became a certified Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction practitioner. I wanted to understand the science behind what I'd experienced.

And I started spending half my time in Italy, learning how Mediterranean culture approaches wellness, stress, food, and home. They don't separate wellness from living—they cook with cast iron their grandmothers used, store food in glass, open windows instead of spraying synthetic fragrances. They built homes and lives that support health, not compromise it.

Q: How does your real estate background connect to this work?

A: After 20 years in real estate, I've been in thousands of homes. I know what lives behind closed doors. And I started seeing patterns.

The moment that changed everything was when I met my client Michael. He'd been dealing with chronic respiratory issues and persistent psoriasis for a DECADE. Seen every specialist. Tried elimination diets. Exercised like a 20-year-old. Invested in expensive air purifiers. Nothing worked.

I walked into his home and immediately noticed: Glade plug-in air fresheners everywhere.

Q: And that was it?

A: That was it. Within five days of unplugging them and ventilating his space, his chronic fatigue disappeared. Within two weeks, his skin cleared. Within a month, the sinus issues that plagued him for ten years were completely gone.

Michael's story made me realize: we don't know what we don't know about the products we bring into our homes.

Q: What do you wish more people understood about "stress-related" health issues?

A: Research shows 60-90% of doctor visits involve stress-related symptoms. A landmark Kaiser study found 60% had no physical cause—and when you add stress-related conditions, it jumps to 90%.

But here's what doctors don't tell you: your "stress" might not just be mental. It might be environmental.

Your body in constant fight-or-flight because it's being poisoned by synthetic fragrances, off-gassing furniture, hormone disruptors in your cookware, microplastics in your water. Your nervous system can't calm down because it's literally under attack.

That's not "anxiety you need to manage better." That's your body doing exactly what it's designed to do—alerting you to danger.

Q: So what do you do now at Harmonelle?

A: I combine my 20 years of real estate expertise and first-hand health challenges with my Harvard Medical School training to help people identify and remove the hidden toxins compromising their health. Room by room. Breath by breath.

I understand homes in a way most wellness consultants don't—I know design elements, HVAC systems, building materials, renovation red flags. And I understand health in a way most real estate professionals don't—I can connect your symptoms to your environment.

Most importantly, I've lived it. I know what it's like to be dismissed by doctors, to feel like you're losing your mind, to think chronic illness is just "normal." And I know what's possible when you finally address the cause instead of masking symptoms.

Q: What would you say to someone reading this who's struggling with unexplained health issues?

A: Start asking questions. Why am I sick? What's in my environment? What products am I using? What am I breathing? What am I eating off of? What am I storing my food in?

Your home should be your sanctuary. The place where your body can rest, restore, and heal. If it's making you sick instead, that's not something you have to accept.

Nobody is coming to save you. But you can save yourself.

And it starts with where you live.