EP071 | Healing From Chronic Illness: My Daughter’s Inspiring Recovery Story

What if your body wasn’t betraying you, but actually fighting for you?

When you’re living with a chronic illness, it’s easy to fall into self-blame, fear, and the belief that you’ll never truly heal. 

My daughter Aiyana knows this all too well after years of battling severe eczema, countless sleepless nights, and even life-threatening complications from medication.

But here’s the truth: healing isn’t linear, and it isn’t about perfection.

 It’s about patience, compassion, and learning to partner with your body instead of fighting against it.

BY THE TIME YOU FINISH LISTENING TO THIS PODCAST EPISODE, YOU’LL DISCOVER:

• How acceptance and patience with your body can open the door to healing.
• What it really feels like to grow up with a visible chronic condition—and how to move past shame.
• Why symptoms are not your identity, but signals guiding you toward wholeness.

By the end of this episode, you’ll see living proof that healing is possible, and you’ll walk away with a renewed sense of hope for your own journey.

OTHER LINKS MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

• Join our free Facebook group: Embrace Your Healing Journey
• Book – I Have Eczema, So What? on Amazon
• Blog – Chapter 9: Stop blaming your body
• Learn about the Body Wise Healing™ Framework

Write to me at anindita@aninditarungta.com. I'd love to hear from you!

Chapters

• 0:00 Intro & Why This Story Matters
• 1:36 Meet Aiyana Today
• 3:10 Looking Back: Talking to Her 7-Year-Old Self
• 6:41 The emotional toll: hiding, bullying, and the loss of confidence.
• 9:13 Book Spotlight: I Have Eczema, So What?
• 10:21 Sleepless nights, hospitals, and dangerous medications.
• 13:50 The mindset shift that allowed real healing to begin
• 16:30 How Aiyana lives today with resilience, joy, and new possibilities
• 18:53 Her words of encouragement for women who feel stuck or hopeless
• 23:16 Closing Reflections & Invitation

Transcript

I'm here for a very special episode that, you know, one episode that had been planning to do for a while now with my daughter Ayiana, and, uh, she is played a huge role in my life in the path that I am on today. It started many years ago, and I let her share her story. And then, um, when we take it from there. 

Welcome to Embrace Your Healing Journey, a podcast for women with autoimmune and other chronic conditions to help them navigate their illness without fear of isolation and uncertainty, and find relief from their symptoms. Your body is your guide and ally in healing. If you are ready to embrace this journey with compassion and awareness, then this show is for you. Tune in weekly as I, a Functional medicine Certified Health Coach, deliver tips and insights that demystify the healing process, guiding you towards the relief you deserve so that you can feel healthy and happy once more. 

So this story is about hope. It is about transformation. It is a journey through many, many challenges as a family, as you know. But I want her to share her part of the of her journey. So far I've always been sharing my my role in this and you know what we've been through. But today I wanted to bring her on and share about how she felt, how she overcame, and what she's up to today. So, Ayana, if you want to get started and start with, uh, let's start where you are right now, what you are doing currently, uh, maybe if you want to just share a few things about where you are now. 

Right now I'm attending the University of British Columbia. It's in Vancouver. It's a really good university. I love it there. And I'm majoring in English and psychology, so I just finished it my first year. Um, I'm going to start my second year this September. Yeah, we're also looking forward to that. So this is a exciting phase of your journey. And as parents, uh, I think we are, uh, we have we are happy and a bit sad, of course, to have a child. Yeah. Uh, leave home, it's always, uh, you know, struggle for parents. Um, so now I want to start at the beginning in the sense where it all started for you. And it started when things change for us as a family, and particularly for me, how I became a health coach in the process. But it's all about you. 

So if you could go back, let's start with, if you could go back and talk to your seven year old self in the middle of her worst eczema days, what would you tell her? Uh, what I want to share here is that what I had was extremely severe eczema. And I've shared my story before, but for if you if you haven't heard about it, and, uh, it was so severe that she was put on several medications, steroids, immunosuppressive medications. And that actually led to one of the worst crises that we have ever been through or a parent can ever go through. 

But coming back to you, if you could go and talk to your seven year old self, uh, during probably the worst days, there are many such days. What could you tell her? 

Well, I would probably the, the one of the most. One of the things that I used to think about the most was just the fact that I hated my body for doing this to me and my skin, and I always wondered why it was making my life so difficult. But now I've been thinking back on my younger self, and you know what I was going through? And now I would tell my younger self to be patient with my body because it's also trying its best. You know, it's also dealing with my skin and all of these issues. And it was and it did its best to support me. And you know, it could have been worse. It could. It was pretty bad, but it could have been worse in my life. So I feel like I would tell my seven year old self, no matter how hard, how hard it is to be patient with my body and be also be kind to it. And just give it some, you know, space to also allow it to heal. So the answer patient. Yes. There were a lot of trying times. Yeah. You remember the it's taken me a while to, you know, love my body as it is. 

So what do you think has helped in, uh, you know, accepting your body and I mean, some are there some things that you remember specifically that we did? Because of course, we did a lot of things together, but or something else that happened and something shifted. What do you what do you think helped? I mean, it was a gradual thing. I don't think there was like one moment where I was like, going to love myself right now. I think it was more of like, as I got better and as I learned to accept the fact that I had a skin condition and that I would have to live with it and also take care of it because it wouldn't go away, you know, for the rest of my life. I just learned to this is the only body that I have. You know, it's been through a lot for me. And I was realized I need to appreciate what's up for me as well. So I think I think it was just a thought of that. It was just one of those. I just, I my thought process was just the fact that I need to, like I said, be patient with myself and, um. Yeah, well, I like it. I like the way I am now. 

I'm so happy to hear that as a, as a parent and as a coach, both. But I think something that you mentioned here, I think it's really important for people to understand, because not many people, when I work with many people, I have over the years and I've struggled with it myself, uh, of dealing with chronic conditions, uh, that especially as women, uh, and actually, this is not, uh, this is not anything to do with a particular gender. It's about accepting that we have a particular issue or a particular condition. It's not easy to accept, because once you accept it, you can't hide from it. And then you have to do certain things with it, right? You have to accept responsibility for it. So I think what you said was, uh, I, I wanted to reiterate that because, uh, acceptance is where it starts. But I think the other thing that you said is patience. Yes. I mean, being patient, it's very hard when you know, you're going through. And, uh, we've both been there, so I, I know exactly, uh, I remember all the sleepless nights, the constant, uh, you know, itching. And, uh, I look back on those years of, you know, dealing with that and, uh. So yeah, there were many such nights, many, many years, actually, of those sleepless nights and the constant itching. 

And so what were some of the hardest parts of living with severe eczema as a child, whether at school, with friends or at home? I mean, from your side? Well, I mean, from what? From what I remember of myself when I was younger, living with, you know, what I had. I think it was just the fact that I looked different because as a child, it's more about what you see on the outside, you know, because children are very like upfront about things. So I was always worried about the fact or like concern about the fact that I looked different from my friends or that I had to eat different food, or I couldn't do a lot of things they could do. And that definitely made me feel pretty isolated or, you know, alone at home. It was fine because obviously I had met my family, was very supportive and loving, and that was pretty good. But yeah, I just outside of home, you know, at school with people that didn't know me or saw me for the first time. I was always worried. I was always worried about what they would think of me or, um. 

And I think, uh, again, as a parent, but as a person who saw what you went through, uh, the unfortunate part about it's actually pros and cons. The unfortunate part about eczema is it shows on the skin so everybody can see. And I remember many times that I had to answer the question whether it's infectious or not. Yes. Because people have no clue. And then they tend to look at you strangely, uh, and uh, yeah. Yeah. Exactly. Because if people, other people, it wasn't as common or people weren't as aware about it back then and definitely looked, well, it didn't look great. So people definitely, um, if it was more from an ignorant place, most of the time they didn't know what was happening. Or yes, I also didn't like I mean, I didn't mind, I don't, I don't remember if I did or not, I did, I did tell them what it was and there were some follow up questions. But yeah, it was just mainly that they didn't know. They didn't know. It's, uh, and usually what you don't know about you are usually scared off. So it's a fear of the unknown. So people tend to do, uh, look at you strangely, etc.. 

It wouldn't have been easy. And I, um. Yeah, I mean, and I remember many of those situations because, uh, you could not really play many sports. You could not go swimming because the water is to always think baths was hard enough. Forget about swimming. If you remember. And there were so many places the skin was broken, so then you could have was difficult to do those. So yeah. So there were a lot of restrictions for many years. I mean, things have of course changed now. I mean, we are both very happy about it. Uh, but for many, many years, there was, uh, before we found a solution and before we understood what was really going on at the root. There was many things and I think, um. So we wrote a book about it, actually. I mean, we should talk about that as well. Uh, you know, to talk about it. Yeah. But it was about you. It was about us, our family, and about hope. About, uh, finding a way through it. Way through all of that. So the book is called I Have Eczema..So what? it's available on Amazon as Kindle app. It's based on a nine year old girl called Maya and her younger brother and her grandmother and family. And it's. And if you can check out the book on Amazon.

I think the lowest point again, speaking as a parent. Lowest point for us. And I, you know, wanted to see if you remember about that time was when, uh, one of the medications that was given, actually had a terrible, terrible, catastrophic side effect. And, you know, bone marrow shut down and you were hospitalized for a month and ICU for almost three weeks. So, uh, I remember all those terrible times. Um, yeah. It always still brings tears in my eyes. But What do you remember about that time? Do you remember anything? How it made you feel? Um. That was, I think, the lowest and the turning point. Well, a lot happened. It was like a month long period. 

 I remember getting really sick at the beginning. It was. I think it was after my first day of second grade, I came back home and I was really sick. And then I didn't go to school after that. Was it first? Yeah, I went to school in the first day and I came back and I felt really sick. And then, um, yeah. And then I got sicker and then I don't know how long I was at home for. And then you took me to the hospital when I got admitted and stuff. And I remember the first time that we carried in there because I couldn't walk. Yes. Uh, and then one of the doctors gave me. I know it was an IV, but he said it was a mosquito bite, and he put the needle into my hand. I know, we can smile about it now. I mean, I didn't know what's an IV earlier, but.  Anyway, so he gave me that, um. I don't know. I don't remember much after that. I remember being in the ICU because I made a friend with the nurses there. Mm. Um, which was nice. Those nurses were very nice. Um, you know, definitely painful. And I was always asking when I could go home and what was happening. I was I don't think I was aware about what was happening. I think it's not the first couple of years for sure after that, after that. And then they said they were taking me for an operation. And then I remember there was a line actually that was. Yeah. So that it became easier to give the medication. That's why because they get they couldn't keep pricking you every day for tests. They had to do that. So then IV line for such a small child is difficult. 

And then I remember all my friends, all the people and my friends in the second grade sent me cards and stuff. I think I remember that. Yes, that was nice. I still have some of them. And then. Yeah. And then after I got better, they put me in the a different room, and then I end up with all my other family members. And I was I remember feeling, um, well, definitely feeling I was feeling sad and scared. It was the best way I could put it, because I don't remember a lot of the things that happened. Um, yeah. It was, I guess, what it is. 

 I think um I can, I've shared with you earlier but I can share that the day we knew that you would get well was two weeks from when you were admitted, and that was the day that things started turning around with the blood markers, etc.. And I think it was the same day as your birthday, seventh birthday in the ICU. They bought a cake. Fruit cake? Yes. Okay. The nurses got a fruit cake and there was an hour. Yeah.They've got a banner on my door. Yes, they put a banner. Uh, it was still in ICU, actually. Yeah, it was still in the ICU. I remember that very thing. 

So there was a cake cutting which happened in the ICU. They got it specially for you. Uh, I don't think they would have done it for anybody else. No. So. But for a child. Yes. Because you were recovering from that time onwards. But. Yeah. So those were the. We'd come a long way since then. So you've been through a lot and we've been through a lot as a family. And we pulled together. And how is your life different now compared to those years? What can you do now? That once felt impossible, and I know, uh, horse riding became a big part of your life for many years, but what are some of the other things? How has your life changed once?

 I meanIt's also more of a mental thing because after I, I mean, I definitely went through it. It took a long time my skin to calm down like it has now finally. So even even if as I was going through therapy as I got older and, you know, infections and stuff, it was more of a mental thing where I was like, I like I said, I had to accept the fact that I had this and this would happen. So once I just learned to accept it and, and focused more on how to, you know, take care of it or make it go away or, you know, heal it. Um, I think it made it easier to deal with, even if things got worse. Because now, um, even if, let's say, my skin were to flare up or something, you know, like it does, it does. Sometimes not as bad. But even if it were to flare up or get that bad, I would. And I know how to deal with it now. And I also care less about what it looks like on my skin. I so care, but it's a little less than before because now I know. Now I know my body is, you know, trying to heal and help me heal it as well. And it's doing its best. So I want to instead of like, you know, don't hating my body or making it worse for myself, I probably would have learned how to work with my body instead. Yeah. 

So, um, are you more comfortable in a more experience now? Yes. Yes. Of course. Um, mentally and physically. So I think the way that I think, the way I look at my skin condition is a part of me, you know, and it's also taught me a lot, actually. So my life is definitely more, I don't know, peaceful or at least less conflicted about the fact that I have the same conditions. So What are, say, the top 2 or 3 things that it has taught you actually.

 Well, I think the what some of the things taught me, because I definitely know that if I did not go through what I've been through, I wouldn't I wouldn't be the person that I am today. So as much as I don't like the fact that I have a skin condition, I appreciate what I've learned from it and instead it's made me more of it, made me more grounded, I think, because, um, it's made me appreciate the fact that, you know, things can get hard and really appreciate the people around me that help me like my family. Of course, you know, my friends have stuck by me for a long time. Um, it's it's me.

 It's taught me to not definitely not judge people what they look like. You know, that's the way it's made me. It's made me, like, not really focus on physical appearances, because that doesn't really say much about a person. I mean, separately, you know, we can't help it as human beings, but it's definitely taught me to look deeper, you know? Um, yeah. Not just. I mean, they look like. 

It's taught me to be more resilient about things, um, emotionally as well.  Not just physically, physically, emotionally, certainly all that stuff. A lot of things taught me how to do you. It's taught me to like, it's it's hard on me in a way. It's taught me to not, you know, give up or not really, because if I gave up, my skin wouldn't give a lot of time. I probably wouldn't do too much. I think a lot of times. Yeah, exactly. 

So it's definitely taught me to I mean, it's taught me to also care less about what people think of me now, because, I mean, I just I've just accepted the fact that I, you know, I probably will I probably won't, very honestly, I probably won't like what I looked like at my skin condition sometimes. But also it's taught me to just accept that I can't really think about it. So I might as well just focus on, you know, living my life the way I want to. So it taught you a lot of things. And actually there are many sayings, but I think one of the things is you go through what you go through. So you've grown as a person. I mean, it it makes it faster than most. Yeah, we do faster because you didn't have a choice, but it gave you, uh, as you said, it gave you a lot as well as a person.  

And So we can't control that part. But yeah, what you can control is your response and our response. And as a family, because you were a child and now you are much older and now you do it yourself, now you're on your own in that sense on a day to day basis. So but you know, now you have what you need to do. You have all the tools now. So physical tools and other tools as well. 

So what would you say to another young person or their parent who feels like they have tried everything and, uh, but nothing is working, so what would you probably say? 

Well, I probably say that you actually haven't tried everything because you never know if you've tried everything or not. Um, so it depends on. I mean, I guess it depends. I would probably tell them to, you know, calm down for a second and stop for a second, because I know that when you do things like that, it'll be desperate. And I think it feels more like survival than looking for a cure or something. So I would tell them to relax for a second, think about things. And also, like I said, probably probably haven't tried everything. And um, because, I mean, we felt that way and then we, we found a relatively easy way to, you know, easy a more effective way. Exactly. So clearly, what we were trying before that was not working. So and different things were for different people. 

 I would tell them to not really go by what other people are saying. Work for them and focus on their own, like the condition that they have because they know their child's body or their body the best. And then I would tell them to, yeah, just like the hardest thing to do in that situation is slow down and think, but that's what you have to do to effectively look at the condition and then see what's going on. So. And I would also tell them that this is not the end of the world. And even if even though you had this and yes, it does, and yes, it does suck. Um, I would tell them to, you know, you can actually tell them. I mean, you can see. Okay, so like I said, the hardest thing to do in that situation is, you know, have some kind of hope that things could get better or to slow down and think for a second. 

But I would definitely tell them to just, like, acknowledge the fact that your body is also trying its best to heal itself and it's trying to help you. So I think you should listen to try and try and listen to what the body is telling you or what you feel like, what your child is feeling like, and then go from there.  And that, that things it doesn't it doesn't look like it or doesn't feel like it right now, but things will get better. Yeah. And the what you're going through right now does not reflect who you are as a person. So yeah, right. Definitely does not. 

Thanks. A lovely message because I feel like one of the first things I, um, I wanted you to know that eczema is not who you are. It's just a part of that's I think one of the things you said. Well, there's a difference in not being all that I am and also being a part of me, because, like it or not, it is a part of me. But it's not everything. Yeah, exactly. It's not everything. It's definitely not the only thing that I am. And without it, I wouldn't have had horse riding. Because you were forced to choose another sport and the national level. 

And I also wouldn't be there. Everything is a chain reaction, so I wouldn't be here where I am. Yes, yes, it hit you and you wouldn't be here helping other. Yes. I wouldn't be here helping other people as well. So it is the main positive, positive thing that have come out of it. I think that's what matters in the end and what you make out of it. Uh, rather than uh, you know what? You had to go. I mean, of course, what we had to go through, and nobody wants to. But that's a beautiful message, Aiyana. So thank you for sharing that.  If actually if you want to know where you want to start. I mean, if people wanted to really know where they should start, anything that you think would help them, any any particular area, where should they start or what do you think? 

I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of ways. I mean, the most common way to do this is physically, you know, the foot creams, the for steroids, the for medicines, the for other ways. But and people like you, you there are a lot of good resources for that too. But I think um, in not looking back on it now personally, for me, I think one thing that helped me focus on, um, or help help me get better or live with it better is looking at it from a different perspective, because it's really easy to hate yourself and, you know, not like yourself or beat yourself up or hide yourself because you don't want people looking at you or, you know, the it just it it takes too low self-esteem. It takes toll on what you look like. It takes self-confidence. It takes a lot of mental. Yeah. So I think, um, so I've said this a bunch in this interview, but I think one thing that maybe you should start with is giving yourself, giving yourself or, you know, whoever's going through it or telling them to at least some time and some patience, um, and working with their body, not against it, because your body is not trying to. It's not out to get you. It's not trying to make your life difficult. It's actually trying to heal.  And it's also sending you messages. Everything, every every skin reactionary flare up, every pain, all the pain and suffering is a signal from your body that it's going through. And I think it'll definitely make it easier or relatively easier to, um, live with, to accept the fact that you have this condition, that it might not go away ever, but you have to live with it forever. And just to live with live with that fact that you it's it's not a very you can still be better than what it is. And once you once you accept that fact, that's when you focus on, um, instead of looking for ways to make it go away, you can fix it or fix it because there's nothing to fix, honestly, like this is it is what it is. You can't like it or not. You cannot fix it. But you can, you know, help your body make it get better. You can help yourself feel better. So that's what you should be focusing. 

What a lovely place to start, and I think I have done my job here over the years. I'm so proud of you. You know, from what you've shared today, from where you have come as a mother and, uh, also as a functional medicine coach, I'm so happy to hear that the messages that I've been sharing, um, at home and outside my home is, uh, you know, that's that's a message we want to spread. The message of hope, the message of the empowerment. Uh, not to give up, um, not to stop looking for answers, but in the right places. 

Because you're right. I was desperate for a long time, and I also didn't. A hard situation. It's a very hard situation. But there are answers out there. And if you look for them, if you try and figure out what the root causes are, uh, if we as you, as you've been saying and as I say in my body wise healing approach, that it is more about understanding what your body is and it's not out to get you. It's not your enemy. Your symptoms are talking to you. They are messages. I think you've said all of it. So I don't need to read. You know, I don't need to say that again. But it is important, which is why I'm reiterating that it's the these are messages from your body. And once you start listening, your body starts to soften. And that's when you start getting answers. And then you know what is the right path for you. 

So and for you, I mean, I did that as a parent because I was the primary caregiver. But if you are struggling with some health issue, then you need to do, you know, advocate for yourself and try and, you know, find out this part. But it is possible. And in fact, I just you know, we are right at the end of the interview today. Um, but I wanted to share and I'm going to share that in the show notes, and I'm going to share it in the link. I have a free guide. It's called the Autoimmune Healing Toolkit, which actually will help you get started with this, with listening to your body, with, you know, there's a three step process. And with self-compassion, I think, uh, you know, that is something that is often missing from many of the programs because, uh, as Aiyana has been saying repeatedly that you need to accept and you need to be kind to yourself, to your body, and that is what self-compassion is all about. It's about kindness in a moment of suffering, we don't talk about all these things. Appreciation. And as mentioned earlier, again, appreciation is gratitude. I mean, in terms of gratitude towards your own body for what it's doing for you and how it has kept you alive and what you know, how it is fighting for you. So make sure that you grab the, uh, free guide below. I'm going to share the link. 

Anything else that I haven't asked you, uh, that you know, you would have like to share or any anything else that you want to share with, or maybe a question that I haven't asked. 

 I just think, I mean, when I was going through it back then, I did not think I would ever be who I am right now. So I hope that my younger self is, um, proud of who I am as a person right now and what we're doing. But I think of it as we not, you know, me and her, so we like that. I like that. Yeah. So I think that she, I think she, she'd be she wouldn't believe that we're going to university in a different country, you know. And doing well. And doing well and enjoying life there. Yeah. Because like I said, I definitely I used to feel like I had to, you know, hide myself away or I didn't want people to see me for different reasons, mostly because of the fact that I like it looked very different. Um, or that people just people would just like, keep asking questions or judging me for what I look like. So, um, but like I said, I also I've learned to, like, not really think about what people, you know, think about me anymore. And that's freeing. Actually, it is very freeing. So and that also comes from a place of acceptance about the fact because, you know, I have this. I can't make it go away. I won't make it go away just because you want me to look a certain way or something. So, yeah, I think I think it's just, you know, if you if you're going through it, um, what helps us to just accept the fact that it's a part of you, but it's not all of you, so. And you can definitely. And parts of you will keep changing, you know, as you grow. So I think you should be focusing. I think we should all be focusing on, um, growing the parts of us to fit together better, not changing them out because they don't fit. 

Yeah, I love that. I love that last part. And, you know, I, I'm sure your seven year old is proud of you, but your mom is certainly proud of you. So thank you so much for such a lovely discussion. I've been wanting to have this discussion for a long time now. Uh, but I think this was the right moment, and I have been thinking about this for the last year or so, but sometimes just things fall into place. And I'm glad that you got to share your part of the, uh, side of the story. I would say I've been sharing mine, but I wanted to hear from you, and I think I want everyone else to hear as well. So thank you for joining me, for having me.