Content warning: this post involved yucky worms! Don't read if you are grossed out by yucky worms!
How It All Began
On Christmas day my little kids came down with HFM: Hand Foot and Mouth. They had fevers and rashes on their hands and feet and they just felt yucky. I took care of them through it.
Even with plenty of essential oils and energy work, my littles were waking up in the night needing lots of hugs and attention. I was also hosting all my inlaws that week. So at the end of the week, on January 1, I succumbed to the illness.
Apparently in adults, HFM manifests differently than in children. I had no rash or fever, I just had extreme fatigue and after a few days of barely being able to stand, I developed a cough, as I always do--everything I catch ends up in my throat and lungs and I cough and cough.
As a sidenote, I don't believe illness is bad. I did some energy work on myself during my illness but not really with the purpose of alleviating the illness: more to help my body take advantage of the illness for healing.
In my philosophy, illness is only possible when the body has problems that need to be purged. To me, natural illnesses exist to help our bodies purge unhealthy cells. In a way, to me, having an illness of any kind is a sort of healing crisis.
I do feel that many times, illness can help us process our emotional and other traumas, and this was the case for me.
Then I coughed for two more weeks, until about January 21.
As I was coughing and coughing during those weeks, I finally remembered I had some slippery elm in my pantry. Slippery elm powder is good for coughs and you can't overdose on it.
So I started mixing slippery elm into my water and drinking slippery elm every time I started coughing.
I also started drinking salt water, and water with tons of ascorbic acid powder (vitamin C powder) in it. Salt water helps me retain water and the vitamin C helps tissues heal. So those three things were helping me a lot with my cough.
But something else happened.
The Dream
I am a Sunday School teacher at church and we were studying Lehi's dream. My big message to my class was: what does God tell us in dreams?? Are we listening to our dreams? When you have a dream, are you listening?
I dreamed, all night long, the phrase: "DRINK TURPENTINE. DRINK TURPENTINE."
I couldn't get it out of my mind.
And I woke up and thought, "that was weird."
And then I thought: "I just told my class to trust their dreams! Do I have to trust this crazy dream???!"
I had already ordered turpentine because years ago I once passed a bunch of worms (other long story) and I knew that turpentine is anti-parasitic. So I had some in my cabinet, unopened.
By the way, it's not Home Depot turpentine. You want Diamond G 100% pure gum spirits turpentine. It's different.
But I thought: can turpentine really help coughs?
I did some googling around and found enough anecdotes to make me feel okay about the idea--kind of. I prayed and felt like it was a real directive.
So I took 1/4 tsp turpentine on a spoonful of sugar one night... one fateful night.
The Crazy Thing That Happened While I Was Driving
The next day, I was feeling much better. I was able to drive my kids to school and I had very little coughing happening.
But when I went to pick them up from school... I started to cough.
And cough.
And something got stuck in my throat.
And it wouldn't come out.
And I was driving.
And so I had to stop, and reach into my throat, and yank out the thing in there, and stick it in a Kleenex, and keep driving.
When I got home, I dried it off.
Here it is:
That, my friends, is a male roundworm.
And it is 6 inches long.
I called my brother, super freaked out. I had never pulled a worm out of my neck before. AH!
A few hours later, this guy came out of my nose:
That one is female.
...
AH!
And in the next few days I had a few more buddies show up but those were the really impressive ones.
I realized at that point that I needed to seriously up my anti-parasite game.
Because apparently I have a serious roundworm infection!
In all my energy work and psychic sight, I had never thought to look for worms in myself. But apparently they were there.
WHY did I cough them up then??
I just thought: WHY did this happen?! WHY are worms coming out of me NOW?!
I did some research and read that while turpentine is anti-parasitic, so is slippery elm, in large doses and especially when combined with cayenne pepper. The night before, I had had my slippery elm and had had a "lip sweatin hot wing burger" from the Art City Trolley. It's a hamburger doused in super hot wing sauce. So I had accidentally eaten a bunch of slippery elm plus cayenne, in addition to the turpentine, and the worms died and got expelled.
Later I found this document from Dr. Jennifer Daniels, which is worth reading all the way, about how if you take turpentine but your bowel isn't clear, when roundworms in your lungs die, they will come out your mouth and nose instead of your bowel. SO I guess you could say I learned that the hard way!
Now I take my turpentine with castor oil to prevent such exciting happenings. Since I have been more responsible about keeping my bowel clear, I have not had any more mouth or nose events.
Most worms are intestinal worms and they live in your intestines (obviously). But roundworms prefer to live in your lungs. So you wouldn't cough up a normal intestinal worm, but if you have roundworms in your lungs, it's a possibility.
How did I get roundworm?
This is what everyone wants to know. I live in America! How did I get roundworm?
Surprise, everyone: dirt in America also has worms. It's not just the third world. Everyone who comes into contact with dirt, with sushi, with pork,--those are the biggies--it doesn't matter where you live, you probably have worms.
In America, our doctors like to deny that parasites are a major problem, but I believe that is one reason why people have so many chronic issues these days. Toxicity is a major cause--but parasites EAT toxic heavy metals. When we are toxic, any parasites we come into contact with through our sushi or our pork chops or our pet cat or whatever--those parasites can THRIVE in our bodies because of our toxic load.
In that way, the presence of parasites is kind of a gift to us. Human bodies are not equipped to be super toxic. Parasites thrive on toxic material. Parasites eat the metals we can't process. So in that way, they are a gift.
Candida, for example--candida eats heavy metals and pesticides. When we have candida overgrowth, it is because our candida has an abundance of stuff to eat. We know that candida loves sugar, of course, but did you know that sugar is processed with heavy metals? How much of candida's love for sugar is actually a love of the heavy metal sugar is processed with? I don't know the answer to that but it's a question I think is worth asking.
Parasites and fungi in the body exist to serve us and protect us.
But they come with their own problems.
For me, with a roundworm infestation in my lungs and possibly my sinuses or brain (based on how many have come out of my nose since I started treatment)--those worms are eating toxicity in my body, but they also are probably linked to my chronic coughing problems.
Look at this: in Bangladesh, wheezing/asthma is linked to roundworm infection.
I thought: I used to play in dirt ALL the time, AND I would bit my nails til they bled. I can't even begin to guess how many worm eggs I probably ingested that way as a little kid. I was diagnosed with asthma when I was 9 (if I'm remembering correctly).
Could it be that my lifelong respiratory issues were actually NOT asthma, but roundworm??
To me, that is feeling VERY likely right now.
What do you do about a roundworm infection?
My brother is in medical school and he pressured me to go in to an infectious disease specialist and get a script for albendazole. Typical anti-parasite prescriptions available include albendazole, ivermectin, and fenbendazole.
But I was doing some research and they can have pretty different levels of efficacy for different parasites. In this paper, we see that albendazole is only 88% effective against roundworm (also called ascaris), whereas ivermectin appears to have a 100% cure rate against roundworm.
Ivermectin and the -azoles make me a little nervous, though, for possibly no good reason, but I decided I was more comfortable with pursuing an herbal treatment and the natural cures first.
One thing that made me nervous was one doctor I read who claimed that albendazole could cross the blood brain barrier, and that it worked by exploding the worm bodies--so if you had worms in your brain, it could explode their bodies and cause seizures. Scientists apparently don't know how exploded worm bodies are removed from the body.
I figured there's a strong chance I have worms in my brain, or at least my sinuses, just --sorry-- based on the number of worms I have blown out of my nose at this point. I don't want to take a Western medicine that could possibly make the situation worse.
The doctor I was reading recommended herbs because they make the worms expel with their bodies intact, so you don't have to worry about exploded worm pieces in your brain.
So, this was the thought process that went into my plan.
I thought: I'll do a round of an herbal treatment, a round of a full turpentine treatment, and then another herbal treatment, and then maybe I'll try an -azole or ivermectin if I feel it's still necessary at that point. And in the meantime, I'm still using my TRS.
How It's Been Going
Since the last week of January, when I started really treating, things have been-- up and down.
I've had a few weeks of weird brain feelings--some fatigue and general "blah" feelings. Some days I've felt too spacey for email. Honestly, that has been most days. So many clients and other people have fallen through the cracks since Christmas, and I've felt bad, but also, I mostly haven't had the energy to feel too bad.
I've felt guilty about how much of my life and work has fallen by the wayside during my treatment and recovery. When I've prayed about the situation, I've felt to just forgive myself and take it easy. So I've been resting more than usual, watching more TV than usual (I'll admit it!), and just trying to take it easy.
Taking it easy is not my natural stance so it's been a roller coaster in its own sort of lazy way.
Do YOU Have a Parasite Infection?
This is what my friend said people needed to know. The idea that you could have parasites is a novel one for many, particularly Americans.
At this point in my research, I feel pretty certain that EVERYONE on this planet has at least SOME worms and other little passengers.
Some symptoms of parasitic infection can be: being underweight, being overweight, having dandruff, sugar and carb cravings, itchiness, yeast infections, bloating, muscle and joint pain, fatigue even when you get enough sleep, brain fog, digestive problems, and basically a lot more--depending on what parasite it is and where it is located in your body, parasites can cause a lot of problems.
You may not even have lots of symptoms.
My brother in medical school said that parasitic infections ALWAYS lead to obvious signs of infection.
But my understanding through talking to many sufferers of parasitic infection is that parasites actually prefer not to destroy their hosts, but to create a sort of false symbiosis--and maybe it's a true symbiosis, since they ARE eating our heavy metal load--but smart parasites don't obviously destroy your body. They lie low and cause low-level problems that are hard to detect until you do something like take some TRS or turpentine or boatloads of slippery elm powder while you eat a lipsweatin-hot wing burger.
If you wonder if you have parasites, I really invite you to pray about it, and/or ask your body and see what your gut response is. Your body knows what is up.
Dealing With Parasites
Since people ask, here are links to stuff. No affiliate links.
Diamond G turpentine, to be taken 1 tsp 2x/week (like Mon and Fri, or Tues and Sat) on a spoonful of sugar or mixed into 3T castor oil.
Humaworm is the brand of herbal dewormer I am using. Highly recommended. The whole website is worth checking out.
This is the castor oil I use.
I ordered my slippery elm powder through Legacy Remedies and Botanicals (click through to the FB group to talk to Julie directly about placing an order if like).
These are the straight vitamin C crystals I use. I dissolve them in water. It takes a bit longer than you'd expect to dissolve them in. They taste like tart tart lemonade. Sometimes I add a splash of organic lemon or lime juice from the juice aisle at the grocery store, the kind in the glass bottle, and a dash of coconut stevia to make it a tart coconut limeade drink.
This is the borax I use. I take 1 pinch in my water (like 15 granules) 3x/day. I did not start this to be anti-parasitic but this is another thing I started shortly before coughing up worms. I was doing it for my cough and the other health benefits but it also works for worms and morgellons, apparently.
This is wormwood tincture, which also kills parasites. I did a round of this to kill off some blood flukes I was dealing with about a year ago. I haven't taken any this cycle but I will again soon.
None of those were affiliate links, but this one is--it's my TRS link. TRS detoxes the body of heavy metals, which are a primary diet for parasites. TRS doesn't kill parasites directly, but when you detox, they die off because you starve them to death. They just pass in your stool. This is how I first discovered I had parasites, about 18 months ago. I took some TRS, detoxed, and one day passed a large clump of roundworms, hookworms, flukes, and one ENORMOUS rope worm/mucoid plaque. So freaky! That was what started my research journey, but I didn't realize how severe my situation was until I coughed up the worm.
That is the thing about parasites: you probably have never seen or noticed any pertaining to your own body.
But if you start treating yourself for parasites, you will probably see some pretty quick.
I believe most parasites live in a state of sort-of balance with our bodies. You probably won't see any of your passengers until you start killing them.
The Energy of Parasites
This is what people ask me: what is up with the energy of parasites?
I'll say this: I do believe that, like illness, parasites are a gift.
I believe that illness and parasites both exist to help our bodies, not hurt them. When we get hurt it's because things are out of balance, because there is too much cellular damage within us, because we are out of balance.
This is why I love TRS for parasites: because it gets to the root of the problem.
If we have a ton of parasites because we are toxic, the answer is not to kill all the parasites.
In that case, we kill them off, and then what? Then we just have to shoulder the burden of extreme toxicity with our own bodies. We can make ourselves worse off.
Instead, we have to address the source problem: the source of our internal toxicity.
We need to address it on a PHYSICAL level, with detoxing and herbs and so on.
And we need to address it on an EMOTIONAL/SPIRITUAL level as well.
I'm detoxing my body physically--what do I need to detox emotionally to purge these parasites?
The Emotional-Spiritual Purge
My body has been telling me for weeks and months at this point that I have a LOT to let go of. A lot of old anger, old pride, old feelings like I HAVE to do things this way or that way.
I know I need to detox my feelings of possessiveness about my business and my reputation--I need to let go of feeling a need for my work to be this way or that way, or look this way or that way.
The Two-Way Street
To me, dealing with parasites is a two-way street. We need to work with physical toxicity and emotional toxicity.
Parasites are a really clear signal that we are not enforcing our boundaries. I have parasites in my physical body--am I also tolerating parasites in my real life?
What habits in my life are parasites? One that comes to mind is the habit of constantly checking Facebook--is my Facebook habit a parasite I need to detox?
Sometimes I feel like I am dealing with parasitic people. Most of them are the sort that actually live in my house and spend all day climbing all over my body and eating my food ;)
How can I establish clearer boundaries over ALL the parasitic situations in my life? These are questions I am still working to ask and answer--made all the more interesting by the brain fog I sometimes get while taking my herbs.
Conclusion
Sorry if you've fallen through the cracks in the past few months! I'm trying to put myself back together again but my first top priority has had to be parasite recovery. And that will continue to be the case.
I really hope everyone reading this takes the time to consider if they may have any sort of parasites--this is an important thing to address and to heal. <3