HS 188 - "Bounce to Resilience" with Dr. Erica Kosal

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It's my pleasure to welcome Dr. Erica Kozel to the show. She is the author of a book entitled Miracles for a Family's Inspirational Fight against a Modern Medical Goliath. Erica, welcome. How are you?

I'm doing well, thank you.

Well, good. You're coming to us from Raleigh, North Carolina, I believe.

That's right.

Fantastic. Well, tell us a little bit about what caused you to write this book and your story with your husband's illness and overcoming it.

Well, when my husband got very, very ill to the point that he was in the hospital and we weren't even sure if he was going to survive or not, and some of the physicians there had given us a six month to Live. I started writing on just a webpage to let our friends and family know about Jim's condition, who lived in Michigan and Alabama and Singapore and all over the world. And as I started writing about him and hearing people's responses to Jim, I realized how helpful it was for me to write it. But more importantly, how people responded to Jim's story and how inspirational he was. And here he was, you know, not only surviving when the doctor said he wouldn't, he was able to go back to work for a year. It turned out to be a year. And he was just doing some really amazing things. And so I thought, you know what? More than just my family and friends need to know about Jim's story. I mean, he really did. Everybody who meets him, even today, says the same thing. Just this man is amazing, and his perseverance and his will to live and his quest for the truth is really pretty remarkable. And so that's what prompted me to start writing the book.

Okay, so tell us what happened, though. He was sick, and then they couldn't figure out what the sickness was, right? That's right.

He had different symptoms here and there, and nobody put them all together, us included. So, for example, he started having these unbelievable massive headaches, especially after he drank red wine is what we noticed. And we just decided it was. He was getting older and we heard that your alcohol. So we thought, okay, that's that. And then he started to have a really awful crick in his neck. And he saw a chiropractor and the chiropractor was trying to fix that, and we just, you know, sort of assumed it was. He was sleeping incorrectly and he got a special pillow and all of this. And then he started having some flu like symptoms. And that was sort of, again, something was going around work and lots of other people were sick, and so same thing. We just sort of wrote that off. Is everybody sick? It's that time of year. And the thing that really started getting us to take things seriously was when Jim was having fasciculation, which is when your neurons start randomly firing. And then he was starting to have trouble twisting off bottle caps and cramping really bad, like Charley horses. And his whole body would seize up. And then he got to the point where he was so tired, he would literally stumble into our front door after a day of work and make it to the couch where he would crash and he would fall asleep until I would go over there and kind of wake him up so he could eat dinner. And then he would stumble up the stairs and Crash in the bed until the next day and then go back to work. I mean, it was just crazy.

Okay, so. So how old was he at this time?

At this time? He was 49.

Okay, and what were you going to say about alcohol and getting older and the red wine issue?

What did we find out about that?

Well, no, what were you going to say about it? Because you just assumed that, like, tolerance to alcohol goes down as you age. Is that what it was? Yeah.

So we had just done a little bit of, you know, sort of a Google search, I guess, probably the way most people would. And Jim had learned that as you get old, your body, for some people, has a harder time breaking down alcohol. And we even went to a local Whole Foods store, and they sold these, like, supplemental tablets that supposedly would help your body deal with the alcohol. The same way that, like, if you're lactose intolerant, you can take something before you eat ice cream.

Hey, I think the listeners would like to know, what are those called? Anyway? Do you remember?

I do not know.

All right, well, there is such a thing. So that's.

Yeah, yeah, there is. I remember the tablets, and it didn't help Jim, but, yeah, we just. Again, it was easy to write off most of these things as just kind of getting older or working hard or just, you know, needing a vacation.

Okay, so he was 49 at that time, and then you started in with the medical community, probably. And when was he finally diagnosed with. Given the proper diagnosis?

Oh, the proper diagnosis was probably close to almost two years later.

Wow.

Yes.

That's amazing.

And the thing that's so frustrating to us is he used to play golf all the time and would get tick bites all the time and would come home with ticks on his body, and we would take them off. And this one time in particular that I talk about in the book, because it was such a turning point, and I wish we could go back in time, but he had taken a tick off of his right hip. And the next day he got out of the shower and he said, look at this, Erica. And he had this rash on his right hip, and it was a streaky rash. And I just very plainly said, oh, it's not a bullseye rash. It can't be Lyme disease. Good. I'm sure. It's just your body's sensitive. And we didn't think much about it. And I think, gosh, if we only knew that any rash is bad, so.

What difference would it have made? Would there have been a treatment you could have done right after the Fact that would have changed things potentially.

Potentially. He certainly would have gotten antibiotics sooner. And, you know, you never know how much bacteria was already in his system and how long the bacteria was in his system. So you never really know if it would have gotten rid of his problem on the front end, and we wouldn't be in the mess that we're in now. But we certainly would have been aware of Lyme and would have gotten the more help and the Lyme literate physicians on our team much, much more early in the story. And therefore, I can only assume that Jim would be in better physical shape at this point.

Right, right. So what happened after the diagnosis and the proper diagnosis two years into it? And, I mean, do you consider him cured?

No, Gosh, no.

Unfortunately, just treated. This is something you don't cure, you treat.

Actually, our vet was so helpful in getting us. She recommended her physician because she had diagnosed Lyme in her dogs, and then she had been diagnosed with Lyme disease as well. And so she recommended her physician. And I remember when I was first talking with her, she used this term remission, which I thought was so odd, as it referred to Lyme disease. But she and her doctor discovered that if she. If she took three days worth of oral antibiotics every month, she could keep all of her symptoms at bay, and if she didn't take any antibiotics, the symptoms would start coming back. And so she used that term remission. I think Jim has still got a lot of problems. He definitely. We thought we had the Lyme bacteria on the run, but then they seemed to kind of rear their ugly head again. And so he is definitely not where he needs to be. So he, again, he's got a long way to go. But I think, you know, different people have different immune systems, different genetic predispositions, different, you know, levels of health getting into this. And so you just have all variations out there for people who get Lyme disease.

So what were some of the successes then that were used in his treatment?

Well, I don't think I answered the other question you said, but it's related to this. So when Jim first got diagnosed, because he had such neurological problems, the doctor immediately plunged him into IV antibiotics for six months. And it was great. All of his symptoms went away. The cramping, the fasciculation. He got some vigor back. He wasn't quite so tired. He was working. All seemed well. And then when he got off of the IV antibiotics, he started having trouble again, and to the point that he crashed. He was having trouble walking. He was having trouble breathing. And every time we would go to the doctors, they would say, you're fine, because they would stick a pulse ox probe on his finger and it would say 100% oxygen. But it was clear he was laboring with his breath. And one night he crashed and we ended up in the emergency room and he had to have a tracheostomy. And he still is on the ventilator today. So we had kind of been working off the ventilator. Ventilator. And that was a real success in and of itself. And then he caught the flu, and then he caught some other kind of bug from our kids who are still quite young, and at the time they were even younger and things being passed around daycare all the time. And so there was some other kind of bug that he got. And, and, and then he just, he had a really hard time since kind of getting back to where he was. So he's, it's like his story is two steps forward, one step back. So we're, we're still, were moving in the right direction and that there's, you know, he's getting stronger all the time. However, again, if you looked at him without knowing how down he was, you would probably say, oh, my goodness, this man is unbelievably sick. And he is, but he is definitely stronger than he was six months ago, for example.

Yeah, that's good. That's good. Well, what, what lessons can listeners take away from this experience? You know, any action items, any. You know, I guess maybe the first one is don't trust the medical establishment. That's for sure, which I've heard all too many times. And with our recent political climate, it's probably going to be worse.

I know it's really such a mess. It's hard to find the treasures. Those treasure doctors, they're there, thank goodness. But I think it's unfortunate the way our healthcare system is set up to, you know, obviously you have people entering the medical field with extremely good intentions. And then it's like the way that the system is set up, it forces this ultimately, you know, in and out, in and out, in and out, ignore, ignore, ignore, kind of system that we seem to have too often. But fortunately, you know, one sort of action item that we learned definitely is to be mindful of your own gut instincts and to, to keep plugging along and waiting for that good physician to come along. Because I would say to Jim often enough when we would get discouraged, we just need one good guy. We just need one. And it took us a long time to find that one. And then we had so many awful other people that we encountered in the hospital and everything. But since that time, I think we now have four good guys on Jim's team. So I think that's huge. And that comes from just, again, believing in yourself, you know, not listening to all of the reports and saying, wait a minute. You know, I'm an intelligent person. I've done my research. My vision is a lot longer than this physician who might be looking at the computer screen and Jim's data for 15 minutes and then coming to a conclusion. Right. I've got, you know, years of his ups and downs and, you know, the whole story. And so I think that's really important. We tend to, as a society, really put so much faith in other people's opinions, especially if they're an expert, that we ignore our own gut instincts, which are so valuable.

Okay, what others? Other lessons.

I think that traditional medicine has its place, and Jim would not be here with all the modern technology that is available to us. So he would not be alive without his ventilator, for example. However, there's such fabulous alternative kinds of support and different modalities out there.

So any you recommend? Like what? Acupuncture. Any other ideas?

He did acupuncture for a long time, and he really enjoyed it. And then it was just too hard to do everything. What we are really enjoying right now are Reiki. So, Jim. I do Reiki on gym, so I got some training. And then also there's something called a wet cell battery, which was totally new to me up until about a year ago when I was like, what is that? And this is something that is. As its name implies, it's a battery that I make up with all these liquid chemicals into, like, this large paint can. And you run a solution through it, and you rotate the solution so it's a new solution every three days. Like, it could be iodine or camphor or silver, and. And then you hook it up to Jim's body, and it runs a current through his body, and it's supposed to stimulate his nervous system and his muscles. And then after. And he meditates, which is, again, I think, something that's really important. So while that's kind of going through his system, he meditates, and then 30 minutes later, he gets a massage over his arms and his legs and his back. And we've seen some real progress with that where his breathing seems to be better as a result of trying this wet cell battery. So we're excited about the possibilities.

Good, good. Any recommendations on where someone finds out. Where did you find out about the wet cell battery?

Well, it was one of these sort of fortuitous things, you know, like somebody says something, says somebody. So I was talking to a woman who is involved with the Lyme group in Georgia, and she mentioned a book to me, and I said, oh, I don't. And she said, oh, it helped me so much. So of course, I ordered it right away. And in the book, they mentioned the wet cell battery. So as Jim and I are reading this book, we're like, what cell battery? What is this? What is this? And then it led us to the company that makes the wet cell Battery, which is Bar B A A R bar dot com. And the gentleman, it's a husband, wife, team. And Dr. Barr talks to you over the phone and kind of, you know, tries to get a sense of what you want to use it for. And when I told him that, you know, Jim's got Lyme disease and he has ALS symptoms, they have this whole protocol for, again, what to do, what solutions to do, and they have some data to kind of back up that, you know, this might work.

The wet cell battery kit is $238. I'm looking at their website now. That's very interesting.

Did you just call it right up, as I said that. That's great. Yeah. And Dr. Barr is really great. I mean, just nice. Nice guy.

Is there. Is there one more recommendation that you have?

Well, I do. Again, Reiki, I find very. Yeah. Very enjoyable and very helpful. And then, you know, there's. There really is power in meditation and. Or prayer, depending upon your beliefs. We have some men from church and just some good guys in the community that come over. And there's something really great about men caring for men in that kind of supportive way that women can't do. And I think, likewise, women supporting women has a really special place, too. And there's something about getting these little groups together and they're just cutting up with each other and just, you know, telling stories. But it's that nice connection. It's like that positive energy and that. The power of feeling good, the power of the mind.

You know, Norman Cousins, you know, really wrote about that extensively in his famous book, Anatomy of an Illness. You know, that. That part about. He was diagnosed in the 60s with some rare incurable blood disease. They told him he had a very short time to live. And I think he lived into the 90s or 2000s, you know, and he did it by watching Candid Camera reruns.

And I was going to say he commented a lot on the power of laughter.

Yeah, yeah, the power of laughter. Very, very important. Getting those endorphins flowing. So good stuff. Well, very, very good stuff. Thank you so much for sharing this story and give out your website. Tell people where they can find out more.

Yeah, so our website is called Bounce to resilience. So bounce to resilience.com and we have some sort of our philosophy on there. We call them our game strategies of how we've made it this far with such a grave illness. And we also I write often for some online magazines and so I have several of my articles on there. You can get a copy of the book Miracles for Daddy on the website or you can also get the book at Amazon as Well.

Fantastic. Well, Dr. Erica Kozol, thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this touching story. And we wish your husband well and your family well and keeping the faith, obviously. Very important. Great, great story.

It is. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

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