Episode 5: Erica Carroll & Allison Butenschon

SHOW TRANSCRIPT

For two decades Erica Carroll struggled to discover the source of the wide range of debilitating symptoms that destroyed her health and interrupted her career as an actress. When traditional treatment failed her, she turned to a naturopath who diagnosed her with Lyme disease and set her on a path to recovery that has included the restorative benefits of bioenergetic science and the wearable NIKKI. She is eager to share strategies for dealing with Lyme on her upcoming Alchemy of Healing podcast.

Entrepreneur Allison Butenschon is also a passionate Lyme sufferer and recovery protocol advocate with over 25 years of personal experience battling this complex condition. As a mother of two children who were born with congenital Lyme and wife of a former professional hockey player who also contracted Lyme, Allison brings a unique and personal perspective to the intersection of Lyme disease and bioenergetics.

Both Erica and Allison emphasize the importance of community and shared experience as key elements in navigating the journey to recovery from Lyme disease.

Heather Gray: Thank you so much, everybody, for joining us for another awesome episode of Bioenergetic Beats. I’m Heather Gray, a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner and Certified Bioenergetic Practitioner. And this episode is brought to you by NIKKI, Unleash the Wellness Within. It’s a non-invasive, easily affordable, and highly effective approach to wellness. It’s a wearable device that puts frequency better-based life on your hands and on your wrist. Make sure to stick around to the very, very end because we have an awesome giveaway that you’re not going to want to miss out on, but you’re not going to want to miss out on one minute of this episode. We’ve got two amazing guests. We’ve got Ms. Allison Butenschon, and we’ve got Erica Carroll. And I think I probably, we were talking about butchering her last name. No, Butenschon. I think I said it right. Anywho, you might recognize that last name as she’s got a famous husband, you know, hockey player, you know, those Canadians up there and their hockey. We love it. But anywho, we’re going to get started today. We’re going to go deep dive into Lyme, these stories, how these devices have helped, and just, you know.

Heather Gray: Hope, right? That’s why we do this stuff, is to spread awareness, to educate, and to give people hope. So welcome both Allison and Erica to the show. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Hey, Allison, I’d love to start with you. I’d love to learn a little bit about your background. Most people don’t get into this type of, you know, technology without some sort of a backstory. So what’s your journey like with Lyme?

Allison Butenschon: Okay, well, I actually, I didn’t know I had Lyme for years and years and years. I got it when I was 18, I was living in Banff and it was, I was really, really sick. It was doctor after doctor, after doctor. I was diagnosed with everything under the sun and misdiagnosed and then told that that’s not what it is and just struggled for years and years and told that there was nothing wrong with me. And when it came time to have kids, I went to the doctor and said, you know, am I healthy enough? Can you, like, I’m not well. And they were like, there’s nothing wrong with you. Anyways, proceeded to have my son first, debilitating symptoms after I had him. Like literally could barely hold him or look after him.

Allison Butenschon: And I was a little bit better with my daughter, but she came five and a half years later. Both my kids, I gave them both congenital Lyme and my husband as well, as it turns out.

Heather Gray: Wait, wait, wait, let’s pause. That’s a really great point that not a lot of people know about. So what is congenital Lyme?

Allison Butenschon: You pass it to the baby in utero. When you have active Lyme, it’s a spirochete, and it does enter the placenta into the baby. So you can give it to your unborn child.

Heather Gray: Yeah. And you said that you also gave it to your husband. So that’s another thing that a lot of people don’t realize is that Lyme disease can be sexually transmitted. Yes.

Allison Butenschon: And he was playing hockey like during that time. So yeah, so didn’t find out that it was Lyme disease until my daughter was about four. And I was living in Germany. My husband was playing there at the time. And we went to a clinic in Augsburg. Everyone knows it’s sort of like the original Lyme clinic. And discovered, like did some tests and discovered that it was in fact Lyme disease and multiple co-infections. And then they suggested that I test the kids as well. And we

Allison Butenschon: all tested positive for pretty much everything, really.

Allison Butenschon: Yeah, and that started our journey.

Allison Butenschon: And that was like heavy duty antibiotics. I had a PICC line, the whole deal. And it was just up and down for years. Like we tried everything. And every time that we would stop doing something or take a break from antibiotics, symptoms would slide back and we would do like a hard crash. But also it wasn’t sustainable. And I was literally harming my kids by constantly giving them antibiotics and antivirals. They had gut problems and it was just neither of them really functioning or going to school. I wasn’t functioning. It was a mess, just a disaster. So life kind of stopped for us for years and years. We just sort of hunkered down and tried new things. I mean, anybody could have said like, I have this magic potion and it’s gonna cost you, you know, $10,000. Will you buy this magic potion? I would be like, yes, I will try anything. Like my husband was such a champ that way. We were just like willing to try. And it wasn’t until I had sort of given up and thought I’m just gonna press pause on all things Lyme. There’s something coming our way. I know that there’s something out there. There’s gonna be something out there. And then this sort of

Allison Butenschon: fell into our lap and it was actually Erica who, because I knew about the wave one and I had known about it for a few years, but I was skeptical. I was just like, oh, one more thing. Like we’ve just tried everything that’s been so disappointing. And then Erica was using it. We met up in Whistler a couple of years ago through a mutual friend who also is now affiliated with FreeMedica. But Erica was wearing it and was telling me about it. And that was the first time it sort of popped into my head of like, I really need to give this a try. And then someone was gifted. It was my husband’s best friend was gifted this from Stephen at, was gifted a NIKKI. And he gave it to me to wear. And I thought, what the heck, I’ll try it. I started using it, but I wasn’t using it. I wasn’t using the Lyme program. I was using other programs. I was so sick. I was literally like, I knew something was going on, but I was like cross-eyed. And it’s because I hadn’t run the Lyme program first before doing that. Long story short, I get a call from Stephen who says, hey, I’m the guy that gave this to your friend. Why don’t you do the Lyme trial? So

Allison Butenschon: we started doing the Lyme trial. I was completely like

Allison Butenschon: prepared for it to not work.

Allison Butenschon: I what I was I was absolutely I remember it was funny when I.

Heather Gray: I was prepared for it. Absolutely. I remember it was funny when I started seeing things come across my social media, because I’m used to using a lot of different frequency. And the last frequency tech I purchased was $20,000. So here I’m seeing this tech come across, and this was before it went on sale for 1500. And so I thought there’s no way in hell this works. There’s just, there’s no way this works for 1500. Like there’s just no way. And finally it took about three times. And then I chased after Stephen to be on my podcast. And then once I met him, I was like, okay, I’m convinced. I want to try this.

Allison Butenschon: Yeah, I don’t know. I mean, it just is this magical thing that I still like, I think how could something this simple have been so effective for us?

Allison Butenschon: Like it just, we had spent so much money in doing like complex things.

Allison Butenschon: how could something that you just wear and press a button, you know, over time.

Allison Butenschon: Uh, make me feel so much better and my kids are still

Allison Butenschon: I’m not gonna say struggling, but like a year ago, no one was getting out of bed. Like Saturday morning, we were like looking at each other. We’re like

Allison Butenschon: up making breakfast, there’s music on, like my son’s gotta go somewhere, my daughter needs to go somewhere. We’re sort of like hustling around the house and I just stopped and thought, a year ago we’re all in our bedrooms, covers pulled over your head, just feeling sick, not enough energy to even take a shower or make yourself breakfast. It’s been so dramatic for us.

Allison Butenschon: Um, like I said, it’s just some days I’m like, I can’t, I can’t.

Heather Gray: That’s amazing, Allison. Thank you so much. It’s crazy. That’s amazing. All right, we’re going to put a pause before we dive any deeper. We’re going to switch over to Erica. Ms. Erica, welcome.

Heather Gray: Well, I thank you. Yeah. Tell us a little bit how you got involved and what, uh, you know, your, your Lyme story.

Erica Carroll: Well, I’d say it’s a joy to be here, but this isn’t really a club I want to be part of, but.

Erica Carroll: I’m here. Um, so for me, I grew up on Vancouver Island. One day I walked up Maple Mountain with my dog came home to my raincoat off.

Erica Carroll: I was taking off my sweater and my tricep was exposed, and I just caught a glance in the mirror.

Erica Carroll: And I just instinctively knew what it was. It was a tick in my arm.

Erica Carroll: And I just freaked out and I just threw my sweater over it and pulled it and threw it in the garbage. I was 16 years old. I didn’t know anything. If I didn’t have a bullseye rash, there wasn’t going to be a problem, right?

Erica Carroll: So, um, cut to 46 now.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, I, I didn’t have any

Erica Carroll: what I saw or thought were symptoms.

Erica Carroll: Just gradually things started falling apart physically. And that’s the thing that I think is so

Erica Carroll: sneaky about Lyme is that the symptoms come on so gradually and you start losing the ability to do things so slightly that as you know, if you look back over 20 years, you can see the decline, you know, but

Erica Carroll: Oh, I had my neck was sore. And then Oh, my shoulders locked for some reason. And then I started getting really bad anxiety and hypoglycemia. And then it was like, I got in a car accident. And oh, what a surprise. All my joints, my whole body got really sore just from

Erica Carroll: a tap of a bumper, you know.

Erica Carroll: my body was reacting so extremely to just small stimulus. And then I was working in film and TV as an actress, and I was building my career through my 20s. And

Erica Carroll: That’s pretty all-consuming.

Erica Carroll: my health, the headache, the pain, the eyes, the skin, the stomach, all of those things, the zapping pain in my body. It was just like, I just dealt with it because I was busy living, trying to live.

Erica Carroll: You know, I went to so many different doctors. Oh, you’ve got fibromyalgia. You’ve got chronic fatigue.

Erica Carroll: Oh, this is related to your mother’s death. Oh, like, literally, you don’t say anything. And I always remember circling back. I would always just be like, you know what, I was bit by a tick when I was 16. Is that something we should test? Should we look into that? No, you’re just depressed. Take these pills. Or you’re just…

Erica Carroll: maybe your iron’s low or you’re gaining weight because you’re 30.

Erica Carroll: Like, okay. I don’t know. And so.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, it just kept getting worse and worse. And one day, I just remember being with some friends, we were having a meeting, and I was sitting there, I was in so much pain, and my head was in so much pain, my eyes, my eyesight was messed up.

Erica Carroll: I was like, guys, I think I have chronic pain.

Erica Carroll: okay actually it’s like i think this is what people call chronic pain i just figured i mean how do you know you’re inside yourself you don’t know what other people feel like you don’t know i just figured everybody felt the way i did but they don’t they don’t at all and they don’t struggle to keep up as much as we do so

Erica Carroll: In 2015, I went to film in Russia and I got a couple vaccines.

Erica Carroll: just recommendation from my doctor.

Erica Carroll: And after that.

Erica Carroll: all hell broke loose. Yeah, so I just I experienced a rapid decline in my health and I kept

Erica Carroll: I kept trying again, I was struggling, I was struggling. And then I got a couple more in the spring and then.

Erica Carroll: That was it, my nervous system.

Erica Carroll: I just collapsed and it took about a year coping with those symptoms with lots of meds and stuff.

Erica Carroll: to then finally I found a Lyme literate naturopath in

Erica Carroll: After a friend came to my house and said, oh, I got a friend who just got diagnosed with Lyme disease. And I was like, you know what? That’s the one thing like I never got an answer for. I went, got tested, boom. And you know, a bunch of co-infections and all that.

Erica Carroll: And so now I was dealing with a lot of fallout and a couple.

Erica Carroll: pretty serious conditions, and then the Lyme and the co-infections. Funny thing is my story.

Erica Carroll: I knew a guy. I knew a guy who had…

Erica Carroll: been involved in.

Erica Carroll: creating this technology and he just so happened to be located up the street from my house, like two blocks away. In fact, he had worked with my dog who was sick at the time.

Erica Carroll: Um, he’s just, he’s a little bit of a wizard, I guess. I was told by another, uh, friend that I have that he, he was getting, this technology was being developed with some other people and.

Erica Carroll: that I should look into it.

Erica Carroll: And I didn’t trust it because I was like, nah, it’s too easy. It’s right down the street from me. It’s, you know, I’m like…

Heather Gray: That’s funny how all three of us were like, no, I’m not sure about that.

Erica Carroll: Oh, I’m not sure about that. Yeah, I’m like, eh. But then I’m at this dinner party one night, and this girl’s like, oh, I know someone who has Lyme. My friend’s aunt who lives in blah, blah, blah. You should give her a call. I call her, turns out it’s the same device as the person who’s down the street from me.

Erica Carroll: And yeah, I just invested. And this was the very first, the very first generation of, what’s that one?

Heather Gray: Yeah, you guys have got the wave your years of the first generation of the wave and then now we’re going into the NIKKI. Yep.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, so this is this is the second generation, because I had this one that was like this clunky, it was like $3,000 at the time. And I was like, Oh, I don’t know. But um, yeah, I put it on. And I could only do five minutes at the most. Like the herxing was so strong. Little did I know I was also living in mold. Didn’t know I was. So then all of my symptoms were also compounded. Everything was made worse by the by the mold.

Erica Carroll: but I started with the device.

Erica Carroll: And it took quite a few months of,

Erica Carroll: I got a lot, a lot of zapping. Like I was always, you know, my nervous system was jolting and zapping.

Erica Carroll: And then the newer devices came out with the upgraded.

Erica Carroll: What are they called, programs?

Erica Carroll: Um, and one that had, it was, they had mold. Cause at the beginning it was, it was just the Lyme protocol.

Erica Carroll: And so I had moved out of my house and was living in a another space. And I thought, oh, I’ll upgrade and get the Lyme or get the mold program because obviously that’s something I’m gonna be sensitive to. So, yeah, I haven’t got the NIKKI yet, but perhaps I’ll invest. But yeah, just a little quick story.

Erica Carroll: I’m not healed. I still experience a lot of symptoms. But I can sit up and I can walk and I can talk and I can think and I can sleep. So I know those don’t seem like big deals to people who are normal. But

Heather Gray: A quote unquote normal.

Erica Carroll: I know.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, like I think I’ve improved a lot, but I think my situation was quite complex and the

Erica Carroll: you know, the downhill slope was quite lengthy before I got treatment. So I do a lot of other treatment on top of that most Lyme people know they have to detox, you know, they have to help that process along.

Erica Carroll: I use PEMF, I use like red light therapy, all the things.

Erica Carroll: So, uh…

Erica Carroll: Oh, yeah. So

Erica Carroll: A couple months ago, I got a new device that I was going to try out for three months, and so I stopped using this, which I use on the daily.

Erica Carroll: And, um, I use the daily red light.

Erica Carroll: And so I stopped all those things, just so I could see what this specific device could offer me.

Erica Carroll: Only last week, I put this back on after speaking with Janis, with the company, and

Erica Carroll: put a different setting on the nighttime setting, and I consistently have pain down my spine.

Erica Carroll: and it has gone down.

Erica Carroll: considerably in less than a week.

Erica Carroll: which I’m just like, oh, okay. Taking that break from this, I’m starting to see how much it was doing and how necessary it is for me to keep wearing it while I’m doing other things as well, so.

Heather Gray: We’ve had a couple of stories like that of people who took advantage of the 30 day money back guarantee, right? They’re like, then work didn’t do anything. They sent it back in. And then it wasn’t until they stopped using it. Then they realized in all the ways that it was helping them out. And then they’re like calling us back going, um, I changed my mind. Can, can I buy a back from you? You know, so that’s actually a kind of a common story that we hear because especially with bioenergetic work, it can be so subtle, right? Sometimes. And just like how subtly we got sick. Some of us, you know, subtly we get better. And sometimes we forget how bad off we really were until, like you said, you stopped using it. And then you’re like, holy cow, why am I not functioning? You know? So, and it’s also a beautiful reminder that there’s no one size fits all of it. And I, I get a little, as a, as a practitioner, you’re frustrated with people who are like, I tried it for a month and it didn’t work. And I’m like, well, what was your sleep? Like, you know, what was your diet? Like, what was your nervous system? Like, what was your detox like? And they’re like, well, I haven’t really been doing anything else. And, you know, I ate McDonald’s three times a day and I’m like, no, it doesn’t work that way. Right. It’s not a magic bullet.

Erica Carroll: And I think to people who have had Lyme and are experienced with the process of healing from it, our gauge is so subtle.

Erica Carroll: You know, for me, it’s like, oh, I woke up and.

Erica Carroll: I could think this morning like that’s most people just get up and they do their things but it’s like there’s yeah the things are so subtle that we have to clock and be aware of and chart to recognize that we have progress and so people who who’ve just been living and busy and distracted.

Erica Carroll: they don’t notice how subtle this process is, so.

Erica Carroll: You know, maybe that’s a bit of a gift from all this for us. We’ve become.

Erica Carroll: Jedi Masters of the Simultees of Hell.

Heather Gray: Jedi Masters, Jedi, Jedi, yeah, no, I actually talk about the gifts of Lyme quite often. And there’s a lot of people, depending on where they’re at in their healing journey, look at me like I’ve got three heads and I’m the devil by talking about, you know, gifts of Lyme. But really, once you kind of get over a little bit, there really are so many gifts of Lyme. That’s a whole nother podcast. But this is a beautiful spot. We’re going to take a quick pause. Don’t go anywhere. Stay tuned to the very end. Because like I said, we got an amazing giveaway that you’re not going to want to miss out on. So stay tuned.

Heather Gray: Welcome back, everybody. We’re going to jump into more of the hopeful part of the show, right? The first part, we kind of get into the heavy part, the story. But we do that so that you can hear a piece of your story and somebody else and hopefully resonate, have some validations. Because there’s still a lot of folks out there who aren’t getting diagnosed as quickly as really they need to be, right? There’s still a lot of

Heather Gray: uh, you know, practitioners out there that are still a little on the ignorant side, you know, and it’s funny, I just actually had a Dr. Patterson on my podcast not too long ago. She wrote Women in Lyme and women are notorious for getting diagnosis a lot later and a lot less than men are because we have hormones and we have babies and we have these other things that sometimes we get dismissed on when we go to the doctors and we say that we have, you know, have energy problems or we’re gaining weight. You know, like Erica said, Oh, it’s because you turned 30, you know, that’s, that’s BS. Like just because you turned 30 doesn’t mean you just automatically start getting weight for as a week as a woman. Like it’s insane, but that’s why I love having these conversations. And so now we’re going to get into the hopeful part of this. So, uh, ladies, I would love for you to give us a little bit of, you know, some of the positive experiences from using the device, you know, things that you noticed, things improving and how, how it all works.

Allison Butenschon: Well, for myself, everything has improved. I think that…

Allison Butenschon: It’s for me, it has been so incredible that I, I actually forget sometimes how sick I was like it’s hard to even remember what life was like and how much I struggled to just.

Erica Carroll: We’ll send you some texts. What’s that? We’ll send you some of your texts.

Allison Butenschon: please. It’s kind of a miracle. Like I just kind of dropped out of life for the last 10 years. I just wasn’t. I couldn’t function. I couldn’t make plans. I couldn’t hang out with people. And now that I’m back to I’m not going to say I’m 100% because there’s still stuff there. And I do have some bad days where the brain fog, like especially if I haven’t charged the NIKKI or I’m not, you know, have given it to someone else to wear for a couple of days.

Allison Butenschon: I think that.

Allison Butenschon: the fog sometimes will creep back in, and then I’m reminded how far I’ve come.

Allison Butenschon: because it does.

Allison Butenschon: it does kind of like, it gives me anxiety to remember what that feels like, how difficult it is just to move in this world, to not be able to handle much noise or people talking or, you know, the busyness of stores or life or, you know,

Allison Butenschon: even to be able to make plans and actually keep them. Like I just couldn’t. I just came across as like the biggest flake ever. And all the while totally faking it through life. Like I never really wanted anyone to know just how bad it had gotten, which I think we all relate to.

Erica Carroll: Do you remember when we first met?

Erica Carroll: And, um, my, our, our mutual friend introduced us and she was like, she has Lyme and she has Lyme. And we’re just like, just getting to find someone who just understood. I mean, that that’s why these podcasts are so important. I’ve listened to so many podcasts of people with their experience, because this thing can be so isolating because you have to isolate yourself because of the stimulation and everything. And it’s when you can just.

Erica Carroll: kind of lay back and listen to someone else. It just makes it feel so less lonely and validated.

Allison Butenschon: It’s, it’s isolating like I wasn’t living and I wasn’t even sure I wanted to live, like really, like it was like what’s the point I can’t not functioning I can’t do anything. I struggled to make a doctor’s appointment and actually make it to the doctor’s office for that appointment. That was so daunting for me to even get in my car and drive like it just.

Allison Butenschon: I mean, anybody with.

Allison Butenschon: Lyme understands what that’s like, but I don’t feel that way anymore.

Allison Butenschon: It’s just, it’s been so incredible for me. I know that Erica, you haven’t, didn’t get the same sort of quick benefit that I have, but

Allison Butenschon: Yeah, this has been a real game changer. I’m back.

Heather Gray: Well, what kind of, how does that, you know, I know when I was younger and undiagnosed, you know, I didn’t get diagnosed until my kid was nine or 10. I’d been sick since I was 13. And you know, so his whole childhood, right. Early childhood was with a very sick, reactive, out of it mother. You know, what kind of a mother were you then and how are you able to show up for your kids differently now? And what kind of a gift is that?

Allison Butenschon: Ooh, well, I mean, they have Lyme too, so, and they don’t know what it’s like to not have Lyme, where I actually have, I know what the before is like. They don’t. I guess.

Allison Butenschon: But having Lyme makes you incredibly, incredibly empathetic.

Allison Butenschon: I think that, uh,

Allison Butenschon: I always had so much empathy and compassion for them and myself in early motherhood. I mean, I obviously felt like such a failure just because there was no gas in the tank to do things ever. It was just such a struggle.

Allison Butenschon: Honestly, they were also struggling as well. We were all on the same.

Allison Butenschon: like we were all the same pace. So I think my situation is a little bit different because they both were sick all the time. My daughter was sick all the time, in and out of hospitals, didn’t know what was wrong with her.

Allison Butenschon: I mean, they told me she was dyslexic and then they’re like, she’ll never read and write. And then she started Lyme treatment and then started reading and writing. And they were like, maybe she’s like autistic. And then very quickly after Lyme treatment, she was suddenly not autistic. How crazy is that? Like, think of how many kids are struggling that that’s what it actually is. I mean, we were all going through it together, the kids and I. We still are.

Erica Carroll: What’s powerful about that, though, too, like when you were speaking about gifts of having Lyme.

Erica Carroll: the idea for a child to have these symptoms and have a parent who could recognize it, you know, and was going through it and, you know, from the adult perspective versus being a child and trying to figure out what’s going on, which is amazing, and then

Allison Butenschon: I can’t imagine what that would be like for a child for for those parents that haven’t that have no understanding like

Allison Butenschon: That child just suffers silently.

Allison Butenschon: And it’s shamed for.

Allison Butenschon: you know, their illness and not being able to do the things that other kids are doing. Like, I just can’t imagine.

Allison Butenschon: In a way, it’s a curse and a blessing that my kids, they ended up with Lyme, but we were in it together.

Erica Carroll: One of the things, too, about…

Erica Carroll: just a positive aspect is that we become so hyper aware of the symptoms. And now I’m able, you know, I’m sure all my friends are like, you think everyone has Lyme.

Erica Carroll: But the way that I’ve been able to help other people because of what I have gone through and how many people I’ve actually helped find a diagnosis, even though they’re really resistant to it because Lyme testing isn’t the easiest and most affordable thing to do.

Erica Carroll: But yeah, just the fact that you can help other people.

Erica Carroll: hopefully catch it sooner. You know, I was 20 plus years of decline

Erica Carroll: before I caught it. So, well, before I found out

Erica Carroll: caught it when I was 16. But anyway, so yeah, there’s some benefits, I guess, that we can take out of it. So

Allison Butenschon: Oh, for sure. I think it changes you as a person. I think it I.

Allison Butenschon: I think it makes you a better person.

Allison Butenschon: I really do. You have so much compassion and empathy and you want to help other people because you know what it’s like to need help and not be able to ask for it or not want to take help.

Erica Carroll: and our capacity for

Erica Carroll: being able to.

Erica Carroll: hold someone when they are experiencing.

Erica Carroll: the fallout. You know, even for Allison and I, you know, texting back and forth at random hours of the night.

Erica Carroll: her in a flare or me just in a brain fog or whatever, you know, and even when you started the device, like, yeah, you know, she was able to, to message me and be like, is this normal? Is this normal? And just

Allison Butenschon: Probably lying in bed crying. Every time I have a flare, I would just cry and be like, okay, this is it.

Allison Butenschon: I’m going down.

Erica Carroll: Yeah. Erica, what do I do? Are you taking binders?

Erica Carroll: you know, some basic things.

Allison Butenschon: We built a pretty good community. Lyme people tend to like band together because.

Allison Butenschon: It’s pretty hard to understand.

Allison Butenschon: And now that I’m feeling better, I even have like a heart, like I have a hard time remembering how bad and tell him.

Allison Butenschon: You know, I don’t.

Erica Carroll: I got no problem remembering none at all.

Allison Butenschon: But I mean, that’s part of it too, because I’ve lost so much of my memory.

Allison Butenschon: Like short-term memory, long-term memory, like it’s during the sickest days, when I was really in a fog, they’re a blur. They’re really a blur.

Erica Carroll: That’s the thing when I think about my career choice. I think that.

Erica Carroll: Because I had to learn so many lines and do so many auditions and stuff, it kept my brain

Erica Carroll: very active in that respect, like I had to keep honing that tool.

Erica Carroll: So I’m so grateful because I honestly think that really helped me.

Erica Carroll: not lose a lot of my neurotic, you know, parts of my brain.

Allison Butenschon: but um you’re sure because your brain is neuroplastic i i honestly think that the Lyme for me hit my brain the hardest

Allison Butenschon: Like, that is.

Allison Butenschon: That was the most debilitating of my symptoms were.

Allison Butenschon: And my vocabulary just, you know, is, is ridiculous. Like, I used to have this great vocabulary and I would be like, what’s that word? Like, what’s that person’s name? What’s that word? What’s, you know, the thing-a-ma-thing, like.

Heather Gray: Tell me, Erica, how do you use your Wave 1 these days?

Erica Carroll: I usually just I put it on every day after my shower. That’s I tried to do the nighttime thing. You know, some people put on their ankle and stuff, but oh, no, it just

Erica Carroll: bright like if there’s any light in my room I’m awake so and putting it on my wrist and stuff doesn’t work for me at night but the daytime

Erica Carroll: um once i got all the NIKKI codes and stuff too because you know i can put it all on here as well

Erica Carroll: I just made a point of making sure I was using it every day, and as I said, three months ago I stopped using it.

Erica Carroll: And it’s funny because this is just a habit. I just put it on. I honestly don’t even give it any thought or any credit. Like, I was just like, what’s the thing I do? I don’t know. Does it work? I don’t even know. And then I took it off for three months and now I’m.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, I’m humbled by it now that I know that.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, I’m just, it’s interesting, but just on a daily basis, I wear it.

Erica Carroll: probably six or eight hours, depending.

Erica Carroll: I’m pretty much at home.

Erica Carroll: most days, like I’m not.

Erica Carroll: I’m still not back out in the world, so it’s just on my wrist.

Allison Butenschon: What about you, Allison? Sometimes I wear a few devices at once.

Erica Carroll: Oh, stacking. Fancy. I do. I do. I just

Allison Butenschon: I do, I do. I just like hit all these different programs, depending on what I need. And I just make sure that I do the Lyme program every single day. And then, and sometimes I’ll do it multiple times a day. I’ll just hit, keep hitting it because there’s so many different frequencies in there. And then on top of that, I’ll add other things, depending on like, you know, stress or whatever, depending on what’s going on. Allergies has been crazy, actually. I have a, this is a, this story is kind of nuts. I’ve had really debilitating allergies for years and years. And for the first time, I’ve had no allergies. Like I run that allergy, like as soon as my eyes start to run and I start to get like stuffed up and get that feeling, I run the allergy, stop, everything stops.

Heather Gray: crazy. I believe it. My husband will sneeze and sneeze and sneeze and I’ll be like put on your NIKKI. He puts on his NIKKI every single time sneezing stops. It’s not just a coincidence. Oh one time it stopped every single time it stops.

Erica Carroll: There’s a difference on this one. I don’t have the ability to kind of change settings and things like that. Mine’s like a set program. But what is interesting just hearing you speak about the allergies,

Erica Carroll: Two, two and a half, three years ago, I think I got the mold setting and I moved out of mold. Now I had such extreme vertigo, I could not stand up.

Erica Carroll: and it would come back during, you know, mold season, like at the beginning, when we changed from summer to fall and then spring into summer.

Erica Carroll: Uh, vertigo.

Erica Carroll: that those were the two times in the year that it would come back.

Erica Carroll: I haven’t had it for two years. I haven’t had any vertigo.

Erica Carroll: I took the…

Erica Carroll: And at the beginning of September, I woke up with level 10 vertigo.

Erica Carroll: Like I was like, what is going on? Was it like, you know, the, the Lyme game? Was it the, this, was it the air forest fires? Was it the, did I go into a moldy building? You know, all of these different things. And I, and you know, I’m working through it all with my husband and just being like, you know what could it have been? And I was just like, I put the, I put it back on.

Erica Carroll: And, uh, yeah, the vertigo is gone, so.

Heather Gray: That’s incredible, that’s huge.

Erica Carroll: Well, yeah, I mean, I’m talking.

Erica Carroll: I could, I cannot move my head. Like I’m lying flat and I can’t even turn to the side. It’s that intense.

Erica Carroll: Yeah, it’s cool, and I’m glad I took that break. I mean, I wasn’t, I’m not a fan of getting vertigo, but it’s just nice validation.

Heather Gray: Wow, I was doing something. Those are both just absolutely incredible stories, both of you, I’m just so impressed. And like I said, very different, but still very hopeful in their own rights. As this episode comes out, we’ll be launching the new NIKKI Plus Lyme. And so before it was either, you had to wear like the wave one, like what Erica has, or you wear the NIKKI. But now, and people who already have a NIKKI can actually get the Lyme frequencies on the NIKKI for an added cost. But it’s so much easier, because as Erica was saying, they know that she can’t like pick and choose like we can with the NIKKI. It’s got a touchscreen and we can just scroll through of like, oh, I’m needing a little bit more energy today, or oh, I have stress and anxiety. I love the ease of that. So that’ll be launching as the day that this podcast comes out on October 18th. So super exciting. But ladies, I wanted to thank you so much for joining me today. And make sure, so the exciting part is, is we love our customers so much that we want to show our appreciation and we’re going to give away a NIKKI on every single episode. So make sure that you go to the show notes and there’s details in there on how to enter. Good luck. And thank you for joining us. And for everybody else, make sure that you go to wearenikki.com slash podcast and enter in BioBeats for a 10% off discount. So we love to give back and we’d love it if you would like, share and subscribe, because that’s how this information gets out there. Just like Erica was speaking at the beginning is that she learned so much listening to podcasts. That’s how I became a functional practitioner and learned that there was another way was listening to podcasts. So don’t, if you were inspired in any way, shape or form, make sure that you like, share and subscribe. Everybody else have a healthy day. Thanks for joining us.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Erica Carroll?

Erica Carroll is a Canadian actress, born in British Columbia. Erica’s childhood was divided between Fort St. John and Duncan, British Columbia. On TV, she is known for her performance as Dottie Ramsey on When Calls the Heart, angel Hannah on Supernatural, the character Mrs. Rivera on the series Almost Human, Inza Nelson in Smallville. She has acted in Apollo 18 and Pressed, as well as acting and producing Afterparty.

Erica was nominated for a Leo award for Best Performance by a Female in a Short Drama in the short film When Jesse Was Born (2005). She also received a win for Best Female Performance in the Sacramento Film Festival for the same role.

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