Melody's Rapid Transformation 6 Weeks Into The Relief and Transformation Course
/Melody's Early Health Challenges[00:02:00]
Melody's ICU Experience During COVID-19 [00:04:00]
Seeking Solutions and Dietary Changes[00:07:00]
Adjusting to Lifestyle Changes and Establishing Routines [00:12:00]
Managing Energy Levels and Pacing [00:13:00]
Addressing Parasitic Infections [00:14:00]
Aspiring to Advocate for Holistic Approaches[00:17:00]
Finding Peace with Food and Nutritional Approach[00:21:00]
Tailoring Approaches to Individual Sensitivities in the Relief & Transformation Course [00:22:00]
Empowerment[00:23:00]
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Lorrie Rivers
Hello, beautiful souls, and welcome back to the Holistic Healing with Lorrie podcast. I'm always so excited to talk to my students, they're amazing and their journey is beautiful. Today, we're talking with a very special person, Melody Johnson, who is currently in the Relief & Transformation: Recovering from Long Covid and ME/CFS course. , has just been going at big steps, just striding along. I'm really excited to share about her journey and for her to share with you about her journey.
Before we jump in, I just wanted to let you know that I do have a Long Covid and ME/CFS Masterclass Series coming up you can join us for, and it's specifically for long COVID, ME/CFS, and fibromyalgia, but also really for any chronic illness. We're going to be going into resetting the nervous system which also goes along with emotional and symptom relief. We're also going to be talking about parasites and how they are the root cause of these illnesses. Then we're also going to be going into either pacing or food and I'm not sure which yet. So I'll just talk with you about that. You can register for free for that and you can do that in the description there. Melody, welcome!
Melody Johnson
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Lorrie Rivers
Melody, you have had, just like everybody, quite a journey with all this. Can you give us a little bit of background about when you first became ill and what your experience was?
Melody Johnson
Mine started young in my twenties with back pain. Then I grew up in the country. My dad was military. We always lived off base. Then around 2000, I became a registered nurse. Later, I transitioned to being a physician assistant, and around 2018, I started experiencing swelling in my joints. I didn't feel good—I was fatigued and even got short of breath just walking three flights of stairs, which I had been doing every week for work. I got concerned and took action, so I ordered the necessary tests. I didn't have to consult five doctors on average; I had a friend order everything to make it official. The tests revealed that I had autoimmune conditions—Sjogren's, chronic fatigue, and fibromyalgia. Despite my health challenges, I still functioned. I went to work every other day and made sure to rest on my days off. I even joke about it, saying I have an inverter for my back and every tool known to man to help me get through this.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah.
Melody Johnson
I was functioning, then COVID hit, and my clinic became an urgent care. In one of them, I did family practice and urgent care, and we became a COVID testing center. I was seeing up to 200 patients a day. I had lines wrapped around the building. In my job, the staff tested them. My job was to interpret the test and tell them the results and the plan. It was very brief when I saw them, and I would just listen to their lungs and heart, making sure they were okay. One room would have one family member, the other three were fine. It was just a confusing mess. We came up with all these crazy systems to prevent the police from coming, because we had so many people there. And I got through this; my aunt lost her husband, so I flew to Ohio to help her move here. As a break, my cousin had COVID, and we all met for dinner and we started with masks, but then we ate—it's a small house. And it was that wicked strain from Midwest Ohio. Within a week and a half, I ended up in the ICU and stayed there for almost three weeks.
They called a respiratory code on me at one point because all I did was walk around the bed, thinking it would help me fill with oxygen and make me a little stronger. It ended up not helping and made it much worse. At that point, I lived a plant-based lifestyle. They didn't know how to cook for me at all in the hospital setting; they brought somebody else's tray by accident. I thought, 'no wonder people are sick.' Watching the food they were eating, the processed stuff. So I was appalled. But I'm still doing all that I know to do. I came home on oxygen.
Here we are three years later, and I'm still on oxygen. Before I started the program, I was on it for 16 hours. Sometimes I could take a little break; the first thing in the morning, I seemed a little stronger and then I couldn't. I'd get pale and sweaty, and my heart would jump up to the a hundred and thirties, one forties. When I went to the cardiologist, he said, 'Oh, your heart's fine, it's your lungs.' I went to the lung doctor, and he said, 'I think it's your heart.' So I'm going back and forth between these two physicians.
Finally, I looked at both of them and said, 'That's not right.’ And the cardiologist made the most sense. He said, 'Your heart's working harder to make your lungs function.' I thought, 'That's true' because he did the testing, and my heart was fine. Thank goodness because I actually got some of the medicine from the hospital that killed 40 percent of the people. So I was like, 'There's a purpose for me, to survive that medicine, survive those 21 days.' I have led so many to the hospital and saved their lives and talked to people and been very frank with them. I talked to a functional medicine doctor. Just one call. And he casually mentioned, 'I've never healed a vegetarian or vegan. If you can find somebody with results,' he goes, 'please go to them.' I just don't have the skill. So I started looking, and nobody's saying that they can. He had mentioned AIP casually.
I actually hired a nutritionist for three months, like group coaching, and she taught me all about the autoimmune protocol back in March and I started that. I did see right away some improvement, but not to the extent. Because I know diet really matters, and people want to excuse it and say it's just this or it's just that. I remember joking with my patients, I said, 'So you just take a little crack instead of a lot.' I would tell them to stop the sugar. They were just like, 'Oh,' but I was very blunt as a provider, but I didn't have these tools. So I hear you on your summit, and I thought, 'Oh, I wish I could afford that.' Lo and behold, finally, disability comes through after three years. That's a process, by the way. If you're disabled, they are not there to help you. They are there to drag it out as long as they can, I discovered. No matter what you say.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah. I will say real quickly that there is a wonderful lawyer that I interviewed for the summit. It's Eddie Dabdoob, and if any of you out there are having issues with getting disability, find him. He is amazing, and he'll help you out.
Melody Johnson
I had a disability attorney. They just said you can't rush the process. It's okay, I've paid into this for 40 years. That was that kind of conversation. I'm on oxygen all the time. I've never seen somebody working with oxygen on, in my whole life, an employee that has oxygen. I couldn't, I tried. I actually tried to do different things, because I have so much knowledge and skill, which was affected by COVID. I had brain fog that was significant. Things I had dosed and given as prescriptions, I couldn't remember. I'd have to go back and look up things, and I was overwhelmed and frustrated. I had lots of symptoms. The insomnia was heavy. I discovered with you, that's the little bugs coming out to play. But I found you, like I said, through the summit.
By the way, if anybody can watch the summit, it is so worth every minute. Because it started to empower me, and I thought, Oh, I can do that. I can do that. I can do that. Then it became a little bit like, this is it, so I bought it. Because I thought, this is too hard to listen when you're so tired all the time. I purchased it, very economical, and then I thought, oh, I can do this, and 'I started ordering things. Then I thought I needed help, and just a few days in, I reached out to you and you happened to have an opening in the inspiration class. I became a student again. Boy, is it a process to be a student again?
Lorrie Rivers
Right?
Melody Johnson
It's awesome to ask you questions. It's not always awesome to experience some of the things you experience. I went from somebody who rested in the eighties to nineties and then would jump to one twenties, one thirties, walking to the bathroom. I'm sure I had POTS. I never officially got it diagnosed, but I did. I now rest at 68, and I might get in the 80s when I walk to the restroom.
Lorrie Rivers
Wow.
Melody Johnson
I know!
Lorrie Rivers
I also have to say that you've only been on the course for about five to six weeks.
Melody Johnson
Yeah.
Lorrie Rivers
Just amazing, one of the first things that I noticed was, cause every time I'd talk to you before, you'd had oxygen on
Melody Johnson
Yeah. That has been massively improved as well.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah, you were using the oxygen. And then one day in class, I was like, Melody, you're not using your oxygen. What's going on?
Melody Johnson
I know, it was awesome. What happened with that was all of a sudden I realized I didn't need it. I only tend to check my pulse ox if I get sweaty or my heart rate goes up because I got tired of it controlling my every step. But yeah, you don't want to be low oxygen for too long because I need every brain cell I have. I would argue with myself and just finally say, screw it, I'm doing it. I'd put it on and quit fighting it.
Now I notice I rarely need it before evening. By evening, 5, 6, 7 p. m. Then when I go, I have rigid bedtimes because I've created those, not because I have to do it, it's because I choose to do it, because I've discovered if I get in my room by 9 pm, start resting and relaxing, create the environment I want, then I'm asleep by 10, and it works. It works, it really does, and I overextended last weekend. I was so excited that, three days in a row, I got to go out and I controlled the time and did everything. On Saturday, I had a guest, my husband's brother, and he's not controllable.
He doesn't get, that you need to do certain timings. So we stayed up too long. So it did, I didn't go back to the beginning of it by any means, but it did make me go back to oxygen a little sooner in the day, not early, but sooner. And it was just like, it just reinforced, you really have to set your pace and pacing is magical, if you will. I used to power through and I walked every day for 45 minutes, even though I could barely walk the rest of the day in the net, I could barely get out of bed. I could barely move. I would do it because I knew it was healthy. I was determined to be right. And I'll tell you, I went out in the pool and I thought three laps up and back, it took me down, in the very beginning. So I quit that. I do get to the pool and I just move my arms and I move my legs and I'm very gentle with myself. I found grace and mercy.
Lorrie Rivers
Yes.
Melody Johnson
Because I was just like,
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah, one of the things that we talked about in the Relief & Transformation: Recovering from Long Covid and ME/CFS course. is that prioritizing physical movement is one of the last pieces that comes into place.
Melody Johnson
I got so excited last week, that I could actually carry the laundry basket. I haven't done that in months. Because I would have my husband put it in the machine. I'd have my son carry it to where I was sitting. I would fold it, then he would carry it to the bedroom. Sometimes I put it away and sometimes I couldn't. And the other day I just carried it and did it.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah. And again, this is after a month and a half and you haven't even fully started treating yet, I don't think.
Melody Johnson
I just started. I'm not fully recovered. I'm building up. So I haven't, I did herbs. Herbs until now. But the difference is real.
Lorrie Rivers
You left these, there are two posts that you did in the community that I want to talk about and the first one, it made me laugh so hard you said something like my medical mind Is not comprehending that I'm passing parasites. Let's talk about that a little.
Melody Johnson
Oh my gosh. So I didn't want to do the colander thing you suggested. That just grossed me out because I knew I'd have to rinse it. And I haven't done that stuff since being a nurse. 20-plus years. So I bought the little hats that the hospitals use and then I put a disposable thing across it and I thought I'll catch it. Oh my goodness, I did. I had worms and I'm just like, I had lice one time in my life as a nurse and I didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or throw up. That was the way I was feeling with the worms. Do I laugh, cry, or throw up here? Because this is nasty. And I didn't just find the one, I found several. I just quit taking pictures.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah.
Melody Johnson
It was just like, this is ridiculous. I live in the United States. How do I have worms? And you think about it, and it isn't, people don't realize how big a deal it is. What it does, and I know you mentioned it, but I had already mentioned it to my husband. That may be why the ivermectin helps some. It didn't help others as much.
Lorrie Rivers
Sure. Then the thing that one of the things that I found so interesting about what you said was when you're trained, medically, what are you taught about parasites?
Melody Johnson
Oh, it's for third-world countries. It's not for here. We're the first world. We're never gonna have those. But we go to restaurants and we eat fresh food that they may not wash as well as we would at home. Or we're lazy at home and don't wash them as good as we should. We have these beautiful pets we just adore that love up on us and they have stuff. I grew up in the country I had all the dirt and germs that I ate. You didn't hesitate to eat the seal.
Lorrie Rivers
Or we're born into it too,
Melody Johnson
Definitely.
Lorrie Rivers
Parents had chronic illness
Melody Johnson
And I did.
Lorrie Rivers
Or symptoms, then we inherit.
Melody Johnson
Yes.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah. I have to say that almost every single student that I have ended up seeing worms. And the thing is that you have to take into consideration that what you see makes up a small amount of the parasites that we have in our bodies. Most of them you can't even see.
Melody Johnson
To say, if you don't have a microscope, you're missing probably 70 to 80 to 90 percent of them. I just happen to see the big enough ones. It's...
Lorrie Rivers
I know it's, I know it's totally gross. I think I remember being grossed out by it. Now I'm just
Melody Johnson
Now you're excited.
It proves what's inside of you is real. You said that. And I thought it did. Now my husband doesn't want to see pictures.
I said, are you sure? Are you sure you don't want to see pictures? He was like, no, thank you. I actually had the eye doctor say that the other last week. I was telling him that I had, I'll read that, but I was telling him I had stopped a medicine and I said, I just don't want to go blind over this medicine. He said I'm going to clear you today because I had stopped it five months ago. He said but I really don't want to see your pictures. I said, chicken. I was like, come on, you went to medical school. He goes, I'm with the eyes for a reason.
Lorrie Rivers
Oh, they live in the eyes too,
Melody Johnson
Absolutely in the brain, everywhere.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah, exactly.
Melody Johnson
I didn't get it when I was a provider. I didn't have a clue. I wish I did. I'll read what I wrote in the community...
By the way, I would encourage this because of the community. I can jump on there and ask questions or answer questions if I know the answer. We're all there to help each other and support each other when the rest of the world, most of it, doesn't have a clue what we're doing and it's working. So I'm excited, but I said I have all the traditional ones. And I was a physician assistant myself and called myself in. Oh,
Lorrie Rivers
Real quickly to clarify, by "ones" you meant doctors, right? So this is something that Melody posted in the community.
Melody Johnson
Sorry. I probably should be more clear.I have all the traditional doctors. Someone asked about a physician, and I said I was a physician assistant. I called myself integrative, but through the summit, now the course, I'm learning so much that no one brought up.
"I want to do the same thing (help people learn about all this). I want to walk into the lung doctor without oxygen and tell him about the worms. I want to let the cardiologist know I've gotten rid of my last med because I'm doing so well. I've weaned it to a quarter of its original dose in the last few months. I want to teach my general doctor how to help her husband and myself as they have long COVID.
But it didn't get quite as intense as I did. I want to smile at the rheumatologist and tell him I haven't taken his prescription since I last saw him six months ago when he made me cry because he said there was nothing left to offer and smirked when I brought up functional medicine."
By the way, I didn't write this part, but I told him, I said, Oh, they're MDs too, they just have an open mind. I was just like...but anyway, some of the tears may have been aggravation, but mostly just what do I do? Helpless.
Anyway, "I want to tell the eye doctor I'll be back as needed. Not every six months because the medicine the rheumatologist could give me could make me blind. So many things I'm praying I get to do."
Lorrie Rivers
And how are you feeling about those all coming to pass now?
Melody Johnson
For the first time in almost three years, I feel hopeful. I feel like there might be an answer for me. It was interesting; in the hospital, I lost a lot of weight because I was so sick and to eat was an effort. Then I get out and I'm still plant-based and I start ballooning up. I just didn't get it. My cousin and I joked about being the only plant-based people in the world that gained weight.
Lorrie Rivers
No.
Melody Johnson
It was just like, but it was, it's part of it. And it's interesting now, eating the way you've helped us learn to eat (which is NOT plant-based), how at peace I am with food. Before, that could be a whole conversation, the food conversations I had in my head all the time. It was just like, I couldn't stop it. I can see in my face I've lost, and I think I've lost, just recently, I had been on that other AIP for three months and lost nothing. Then I even said that to her (her previous nutritionist) and she said, when you're sick, you may not lose as fast in the beginning. That's actually okay. She said, cause if you're that sick, then it's more worrisome.
Now I feel like I'm doing things in a healthier way for sure, but hopeful, definitely hopeful and optimistic, and telling people left and right, sharing your podcast, sharing videos you've done to fit their situation because people don't care what you say until you meet what they want. And I've learned in life and, That's one thing I want to share with them what will meet their need and you're doing it left and right with this program and it's a big deal to do what we're doing because the standard doctors will not do this or traditional medicine.
Lorrie Rivers
Yes. I'm so glad that you brought up the specificity for each different person because it's different and that's such a big part of the program. With you, we can play and have fun because you're more tolerant of things, whereas with other people, they're very sensitive. So we have to approach things in a different way.
Melody Johnson
Interesting is I wasn't tolerant before this. I would eat certain foods, not down to four, like some people, but I never got to that low. I think I like food too much. I forced the issue, but it was, I just would feel bad and suck it up and just move on. My dad even asked, he's now 80 and he said, you think it's because you've tried all those diets through the years that this happened? Cause he didn't understand. And now that I've done the summit and with you, I understand it's the hidden infections.
Lorrie Rivers
Yes. Absolutely.
Melody Johnson
What I did outside of myself, per se. It's something inside of me that needs healing.
Lorrie Rivers
Yes. Absolutely. It's so interesting because I have people who come to me and say, I've had an eating disorder for a while and so I'm not sure if I can do the course. I try not to push the issue too much, but if somebody has an eating disorder, they have hidden infections.
Melody Johnson
Okay.
Lorrie Rivers
They have these cravings that are caused by the parasites. Same kind of thing with alcohol, stuff, with all these different things. So I'm so glad that you brought that.
Melody Johnson
It's even. I even did volume. If you listen to vegetarians and vegans, Oh, you can eat as much as you want. That was my head issue, was overeating. It never, I never quite aligned with that, but yet, it's hard. Feed the right combinations so that I don't get hungry sooner than I do now.
It's interesting now I'm a bowlful because it's a lot of food for me, and I never thought that would be that way in my life. Because it's the right combination, I am, and I stay that way. But before this, it didn't matter if I was satiated, I could eat until I got sick, it was stupid. I would say that to myself, don't think people are stupid. But it was just like, oh my gosh, and I'd be frustrated with myself, and then this has empowered me to think, no. And I made a rule for myself, if I wanted a second helping, wait ten minutes, just ten minutes. And then if I still wanted it, I'd eat it. I'm not going to make this so hard and so rule-oriented, and it's worked. It's like I've given my permission.
I've got to tell you one funny story. We used to work in a children's home and this boy had a potty mouth. He would say the F word. Like I say the word and so he really struggled and we're in a Christian home.
Lorrie Rivers
Oh, wow.
Melody Johnson
It was like, I couldn't just let him fly all the time free. So we said, okay, you've got two swear words. You're allowed to say a day. He said I can do that. I said, you won't have any trouble from me too. Before I knew it, he wasn't saying any because that too, 'cause I would just hold my finger up when he would do it. It's like giving yourself permission to know you can get better. It's okay to do this. I want to be healed, and I need a group to do it. I, we're never an island. So for me, the summits and then the class have been transformational.
Lorrie Rivers
Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. So what would you, I think you really just summed it up beautifully right there, but just in case for anybody who's out there, who's considering taking the course and just not a hundred percent sure, the Relief & Transformation: Recovering from Long Covid and ME/CFS course. , and they're just not a hundred percent sure, what would you say to them?
Melody Johnson
Figure it out, figure out how you can do this, because if you are sick of being sick. If you're sick of your illness controlling your every move, every step, every moment. Because all you can think of is this. My husband would keep saying, I hope you, I can't wait to see that oxygen off your face. I can't wait to see that oxygen off your face. This was three years ago, the whole time. He wanted it for me so bad. And the people around you want you well. You will even learn how to speak to them. They want to understand what you're feeling in a way but they don't. Some people have mocked, like, oh, she looks fine. Oh, she's not sick. Oh, she's this, and they think you're okay, and you're not inside. I would encourage anyone with a chronic illness, any chronic illness, to at least have a conversation with Lorrie, and then decide, but I would decide for it. I did. Best thing ever.
Lorrie Rivers
It's such a joy to have you in the course, especially, as a former physician's assistant, because you are so knowledgeable.
Melody Johnson
Damn, 30-plus years.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah.
Melody Johnson
It's you can't play me anymore from people's conversations. I'm the one that calls you on it. I'm the one. I called myself on some things.
Lorrie Rivers
Yeah.
Melody Johnson
You got to be honest with yourself and being sick is not fun. This is because my mom is chronically ill and she exists now on a couch, mostly. I did not want to become that person. When I first got out, I couldn't even get myself out of a chair without help. I had to be moved and helped and showered and I've come so far, but I knew there was more. I didn't want to stop. I'm telling anybody listening, don't stop. Keep being your best advocate, your own best advocate, and help get yourself help if you don't know what to do next.
Lorrie Rivers
Beautiful, Thank you so much, Melody, for sharing your experiences. To everyone watching and listening, if you're interested in the Relief & Transformation: Recovering from Long Covid and ME/CFS course. , please do reach out. I'm happy to meet with you in a Discovery Call to answer any questions you have if you're seriously considering it. We have a Long Covid and ME/CFS Masterclass Series coming up, and we have wonderful people in the program like Melody who have already walked this path and can help you out. It's a really supportive system you'll be in. Also, make sure to subscribe to Holistic Healing with Lorrie, and I'll see you in the next video or episode.
DISCLAIMER: The information offered is for informational and educational purposes only. It is not intended as a substitute for medical or psychological care or advice. Consult your physician or other health care provider regarding your symptoms and medical and psychological needs.