My Healing Journey, Part 4

Life After Pregnancy

If you’ve been following me for a while, you know I have six children—my youngest was born after I had spent nearly four years on a low vitamin A diet. At first, everything seemed to be going well after his birth, and I felt like I was recovering as expected. But a few weeks later, things began to shift in ways I wasn’t prepared for.

I resumed taking niacin and the supplements that had supported me in the past, but this time my body seemed to react differently. During pregnancy, I’d experienced a couple episodes of what I thought was gallbladder pain, though my doctor assured me it wasn’t. About four weeks postpartum, I started noticing that my energy wasn’t as strong as it had been, and over time it felt like it was quietly slipping away. My milk supply also began to dwindle, and I struggled to keep up with my growing son’s needs.

I eased off most of my supplements, holding on only to niacin, charcoal, and magnesium carbonate as a buffer, but around six to eight weeks after delivery, I experienced a gallbladder attack. This one felt different—less sharp pain, but a deeper sense that something was seriously wrong. Trusting my instincts, I went to the ER, where tests confirmed the need for emergency gallbladder surgery.

The surgery went smoothly, and though the doctors said my gallbladder contained some stones, they noted it was mostly filled with clear fluid instead of bile, which struck me as odd. I was discharged the next day, and thankfully, I recovered quickly. I only needed one dose of pain medication, shed the post-surgery weight easily, and even felt my strength returning. For a brief time, I thought the worst was behind me.

But it didn’t last.

In hindsight, I now understand that low calcium played a major role in my gallbladder issues, and resuming nicotinic acid after surgery only made the deficiency worse. Once I restarted niacin, my milk supply dropped again, and I began experiencing tight, tense muscles, tension headaches, cramps, and spasms that magnesium couldn’t relieve. My son’s joints also started popping and cracking, and even topical magnesium offered no relief—for him or for me.

Determined to figure it out, I stopped niacin but continued with charcoal and magnesium, only to find my milk supply still lagging. When I tried adding niacin back in with magnesium as a buffer, the situation didn’t improve, and soon after, I found myself fatigued in a way that felt unlike anything I had experienced before.

Sensing that my thyroid might be struggling, I asked my doctor to check my hormones. In the meantime, I started taking iodine as a precaution. By the time my labs came back three weeks later, my thyroid hormones were high—even after taking high doses of iodine, since smaller doses had never been effective for me.

When I reviewed the results, I noticed my calcium was on the low end. Hoping it might help, I began taking calcium citrate, thinking the citric acid might help direct the calcium into my bones. For a while, it worked. I was able to stop iodine completely, and everything seemed to be stabilizing—until I tried to reintroduce nicotinic acid.

Once again, acidity crept back in. No matter how carefully I approached it, niacin just didn’t seem to agree with me. I eventually reached out to Kelsey to ask if I could buffer nicotinic acid with calcium carbonate. She confirmed it was possible and provided the ratios. After ordering calcium carbonate and trying it out, I noticed some improvement, but I had to use significantly more calcium to buffer the niacin. Even then, my milk supply remained fragile, sometimes requiring days off niacin before it would recover fully.

A few months later, I had my thyroid retested, and this time the numbers were perfect. However, my vitamin D levels had dropped, and soon a different kind of fatigue began creeping in. On one particular day, I found myself needing to spend nearly the entire day outside in the sun just to feel well. Each time I went indoors, my energy plummeted almost instantly.

In September, I developed an odd habit of sleeping with my right arm stretched straight out to the side. Over the course of several weeks, I noticed increasing pain in my upper arm. One morning, I woke up, turned my head to the left while still lying with my arm extended, and felt a sharp, tearing pain. It seemed impossible that I had torn a muscle just from sleeping, but the pain was undeniable.

Despite trying physical therapy, niacin, magnesium, potassium, and everything else I could think of, nothing seemed to help. Then, without consciously changing anything, I noticed my arm was improving. It dawned on me that the only consistent factor was my calcium intake.

To test my theory, I stopped taking calcium, and the pain quickly worsened. When I resumed it, the pain eased again. That’s when I realized calcium was the missing piece.

At the time, I was still taking high doses of other minerals, B12, and folate. I even learned how to make 1 mg molybdenum capsules from Kelsey to simplify my routine. Meanwhile, my doctor was keeping a close eye on my zinc, copper, liver enzymes, and kidney function—all of which seemed to be trending in the wrong direction.

After my gallbladder was removed, I also began experiencing pancreatic and liver pain. My energy dropped so low that I couldn’t even push my baby’s stroller without becoming short of breath. At a November appointment, I asked my doctor for B12 injections, knowing how much they had helped me in the past, but she refused because my levels were already high. She pointed out that the B12 was clearly antidoting something, and although I knew she was right, I stopped it cold turkey.

Soon after, I noticed my cravings for calcium skyrocketed.

By then, molybdenum was the only supplement I could tolerate, and I leaned heavily on calcium carbonate. Almost immediately, I began to feel better. My energy and strength returned, and for the first time in months, I felt motivated and alive again.

When my labs were checked again, nearly everything—including copper and zinc—had normalized. My blood copper had jumped from 50 to 100, and I hadn’t even increased copper-rich foods.

Even my iron sensitivity began to fade. For months, I couldn’t tolerate chicken or even wear stainless steel earrings because my ears would swell, itch, and become painfully inflamed within 30 minutes. That, too, began to improve.

Calcium had completely changed my trajectory.

Thinking about what Garrett says about when something goes wrong, think about what you did last because that is likely the cause. Well, before my gall bladder was removed and before things got significantly worse, I started nicotinic acid. I had been doing mega dosing of molybdenum for years before that and no issues. Then, I started nicotinic acid and I got much worse.

Stay tuned as I share more about how this one mineral became the key to unlocking my health.

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