What Actually Made Me Sick – The Real Story

$927 A Month. Then $6M A Year.

$927 a month. A converted garage on a miniature pony rescue ranch. Bunk beds in her 40s. $15,000 left under the bed — and a $14,000 decision that left her with $1,000 to her name. This is Episode 9 of Diagnose This. Every number. Every jump. The one moment she genuinely didn't know if it was going to work. She signed a lease for $700 a month when her disability check was $927. Made $3,000 the first month. Kept going. $240,000 the first year. No investors. No loans. Just her, doing the work one patient at a time. Then COVID. Mexico at 49. $7,000 in February 2023. $700,000 by August. 170x in less than a year. From a laptop. Still sick. Still doing weekly infusions. The number that matters most to her isn't a revenue number. It's 52 people across 10 countries building this with her. And when it sells — every single one of them wins. This episode also has the number she's never said out loud in this context before. You'll know it when you hear it. In this episode: * The $15,000 decision that left her with $1,000 to her name — and what was riding on it * $927 a month to $3,000 the first month to $240,000 the first year * Shutting down the clinic a week before California — and saving $60,000 while everyone else got stuck * Moving to Mexico at 49, releasing the clinic, and finding virgin piña coladas * $7,000 in February to $700,000 by August — 100x in seven months * 52 people across 10 countries. And why they all win when this works. If you've ever been told "you're fine" when you know deep down you're not, Dr. Z was you. Now she's fixing what dismissed both of you. Seven specialists. Eight prescriptions. Her brain electrocuted 20 times for what turned out to be an infection. They labelled her permanently disabled. Told her she'd never work again. So she's fixing the system that failed both of you. This isn't just a podcast. It's the platform she desperately needed when she was sick, dismissed, alone, and searching for answers at 2 AM because no one else was asking WHY. 👉 Take the Ask WHY Quiz: https://diagnosethis.com/home Your symptoms aren't random. Your dismissals aren't coincidence. Get your personalized WHY Report in minutes - the framework that helps you walk into your next appointment prepared to be heard. Keep going: Follow DiagnoseThis on all platforms → https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/ [https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/]→https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/ [https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/]→ https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this [https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this] #DrZ #DiagnoseThisPodcast #BuildingFromNothing #927AMonth #FunctionalMedicineFounder #RevenueGrowth #100xBusiness #NoInvestors #SingleMomEntrepreneur #ChronicIllnessEntrepreneur #MovingToMexico #COVIDPivot #FunctionalMedicineBusiness #OriginStory #WomenInBusiness #FemaleFounder #EntrepreneurJourney #BootstrappedBusiness #StartupStory #BusinessGrowth #WomenEntrepreneurs #ResilientFounder #HealthEntrepreneur #MissionDrivenBusiness #FounderLife #BusinessTransformation #SelfMadeEntrepreneur #WellnessBusiness #ScalingABusiness

What Actually Made Me Sick – The Real Story

For 35 years, nobody knew how to look. For three years after that, seven specialists and eight prescriptions didn't find it either. Nearly a million dollars a year in medical care. Constant hospital visits. And not one person asked the right question. This is Episode 8 of Diagnose This. The one where she finally tells you what actually made her sick. It was found by accident. A hematologist ordered a lab. The lab ran the wrong test by mistake. And there it was — Common Variable Immunodeficiency. IgG and IgA too low to fight infection the way most people do. Once they saw it, the pattern was undeniable. Tonsillitis eight times a year as a kid. Infections that never fully resolved. A body fighting a losing war for decades. So obvious. So completely missed. But CVID was only part of the picture. Four rounds of antibiotics wiped out her microbiome. Systemic candida reactivated Epstein-Barr virus. Her brain autoimmune panel came back with four out of five markers positive — her immune system was actively attacking her own brain tissue. Two Lyme-associated bacteria. Traumatic brain injuries that made everything hit harder. And a decade of chronic fear from a sadistic divorce that did measurable, documented biological damage every single day. None of it was hidden. All of it was findable. She found it herself. At midnight. From PubMed. While raising her daughter alone. While her brain told her every day for 18 months that the most logical conclusion was not to be here. They were electrocuting an infection. That's what the ECT was. That's what she's still a little pissed about. This is why Diagnose This exists. Not to replace your doctor. To make sure you never feel as alone as she was. To make sure someone is asking why. Find out about: * CVID — what it is, how it went undiagnosed for 35 years, and how it was finally caught by mistake * Four rounds of antibiotics, systemic candida, reactivated Epstein-Barr, and a complete system shutdown * Brain lesions, traumatic brain injuries, and what chronic fear does to your body at a biological level * A brain autoimmune panel with four out of five markers positive — and what that actually means * Why the system isn't just broken — it isn't designed to look for this * What she wants you to bring to your next appointment If you've ever been told "you're fine" when you know deep down you're not, Dr. Z was you. Now she's fixing what dismissed both of you. Seven specialists. Eight prescriptions. Her brain electrocuted 20 times for what turned out to be an infection. They labelled her permanently disabled. Told her she'd never work again. So she's fixing the system that failed both of you. This isn't just a podcast. It's the platform she desperately needed when she was sick, dismissed, alone, and searching for answers at 2 AM because no one else was asking WHY. 👉 Take the Ask WHY Quiz: https://diagnosethis.com/home Your symptoms aren't random. Your dismissals aren't coincidence. Get your personalized WHY Report in minutes - the framework that helps you walk into your next appointment prepared to be heard. Keep going: Follow DiagnoseThis on all platforms → https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/ [https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/]→https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/ [https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/]→ https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this [https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this] #DrZ #DiagnoseThisPodcast #CVID #CommonVariableImmunodeficiency #WhatMadeMeSick #MedicalGaslighting #EpsteinBarrVirus #EBVReactivation #SystemicCandida #BrainAutoimmune #PANS #PANDAS #AdultPANS #AdultPANDAS #FunctionalMedicine #OriginStory #ChronicIllness #ChronicIllnessAnswers #InvisibleIllness #ECT #ElectroconvulsiveTherapy #PatientAdvocacy #InformedPatient #AutoimmuneBrain #ImmuneDisorder #ComplexChronicIllness #HealthJourney #RareDisease #MedicalMystery #HealingJourney

The Garage

Her mom was selling the house. There was nowhere to go. $927 a month in disability. A daughter who needed her to figure it out. And absolutely no idea what she was doing. This is Episode 7 of Diagnose This. The one where things turn. Not because everything was suddenly fine. Because she decided to show up anyway, one more time. She signed a six-month lease on a $700 a month office because six months was all she could commit to. The disability check was $927. She was terrified. The goal was $1,000 the first month. She made $3,000. She kept going. None of it was on the dance card. All of it started in a garage. What you’ll learn about: * The improv class, the bag with her face on it, and the worst nightmare that happened in five seconds * Signing a six-month lease on $927 a month because she was too scared to commit to a year * $1,000 goal. $3,000 first month. $240,000 first year. No investors. * The converted garage, the bunk beds, the 20 miniature ponies with special diets * Meeting David — and why falling in love again was one of the bravest things she ever did * Closing the clinic before COVID, moving to Mexico, and 150Xing revenue in seven months Stay connected between episodes. Follow us everywhere here → https://get.thedrz.com/beacons [https://get.thedrz.com/beacons] #DrZ #DiagnoseThisPodcast #FunctionalMedicine #FounderStory #BuildingFromNothing #StartupJourney #EntrepreneurLife #SingleMomEntrepreneur #WomenInBusiness #FunctionalMedicineClinic #ChronicIllnessEntrepreneur #OriginStory #BusinessGrowth #RevenueGrowth #COVIDPivot #MovingToMexico #GarageStartup #ConvertedGarage #BootstrappedBusiness #HealthcareEntrepreneur #PodcastClips #WellnessBusiness #FunctionalHealth #ImprovClass #FemaleFounder #MedicalEntrepreneur #ClinicOwner #StartedWith927 #FromNothingToSomething #EntrepreneurMindset

The Disappearing Years

She had a seven-figure business. A bestselling book. A daughter she was raising alone. Things were finally good. Then a UTI became a kidney infection. The kidney infection became seven specialists and eight prescriptions. The prescriptions didn't work. And one day she woke up and couldn't get out of bed. This is Episode 6 of Diagnose This. The one Dr. Z calls her disappearing years. Three years she's carried shame about for almost two decades. She's putting it down here. She went inpatient three times. She had ECT — electroconvulsive therapy, bilateral, 20 rounds — because nothing else was working and her mom was desperate to save her kid. She lived on $927 a month. She was told by Social Security she'd never work again. For 18 months, her brain told her every single day, calmly and logically, that she shouldn't be here. She was a single mom. She stayed. But it was close. Closer than she's ever said out loud. The disappearing years weren't wasted. They were education from the inside out. The kind she doesn't wish on anyone. And they are the entire reason Diagnose This exists. Inside the episode: * Four rounds of antibiotics, a kidney infection, and the collapse nobody saw coming * Seven specialists. Eight prescriptions. None of it working. * ECT, inpatient, and the shame she carried for almost 20 years * 18 months of a brain telling her the most logical conclusion was not to be here * The book she made for her daughter in case she didn't make it * Stand-up comedy in the middle of the darkest years — and making the semifinals * The moment she decided nobody would ever make decisions about her health again Stay connected between episodes. Follow us everywhere here → https://get.thedrz.com/beacons [https://get.thedrz.com/beacons] #DrZ #DiagnoseThisPodcast #FunctionalMedicine #FounderStory #ElectroconvulsiveTherapy #ECT #ChronicIllness #InvisibleIllness #DepressionAndChronicIllness #PrimaryImmunodeficiency #PatientAdvocacy #MedicalGaslighting #WomenEntrepreneurs #FunctionalMedicineDoctor #OriginStory #StandUpComedy #SingleMom #HealingJourney #ChronicIllnessAwareness #MentalHealth #HealthPodcast #MedicalJourney #InvisibleDisability #AutoimmuneAwareness #TraumaToTriumph #WomenInBusiness #PodcastLife #FunctionalHealth #HealthAdvocate #ResilientWomen #DisappearingYears

The Girl Who Said Goodnight

It was the way she said goodnight. That was it. Just something slightly off in the tone. And she leapt off a mattress on the floor and shoved her foot in that bathroom door before it could lock. She was right. This is Episode 5 of Diagnose This. And it is one of the most important episodes Dr. Z has filmed — because this is the one where the pattern finally has a name. Dr. Z was 18. Summer. University of Oregon. Elmo boxer shorts. A sorority sister she barely knew said goodnight in a way that made something fire in her gut. She got her foot in the door. Called 911. Rode in the ambulance barefoot. Stayed with that girl for two days because the university president looked at an 18-year-old with no training, no credentials, and no plan and said: I'll leave her in your hands. She also shares something in this episode she has never said out loud before. Something that happened to her that same summer. Something she's carried for two decades. She's putting it down here because she's tired of holding it. And because she doesn't want anyone else to feel like they have to hold it either. The girl on the mat. Terry. The tire. The robbery. The bathroom door. Every single story this week has been the same story. She sees what other people don't. And when nobody moves, she does. This is the episode where that finally makes complete sense. What Dr. Z discusses this episode: * The tone of voice that told her something was catastrophically wrong — before anyone else knew * What she did when a university official handed her a crisis and walked away * What happened to her that same summer that she's never said out loud until now * Why there was no justice — and what the best they could do looked like * The through line that became the entire reason she's building what she's building If you've been told "it's all in your head" - Dr. Z was that patient. Seven specialists. Eight prescriptions. Her brain electrocuted 20 times for what turned out to be an infection. Years on disability at $927/month while doctors kept saying her labs were fine. Dr. Z built DiagnoseThis because she needed it and it didn't exist. This isn't just a podcast. It's the platform she desperately needed when she was sick, dismissed, alone, and searching for answers at 2 AM in a garage because no one else was asking WHY. Join us in the DiagnoseThis Community - where dismissed patients finally find the answers the system never gave them. 👉 https://community.diagnosethis.com [https://community.diagnosethis.com] Keep going: Follow DiagnoseThis on all platforms → https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/ [https://www.instagram.com/_diagnosethis/]→https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/ [https://www.facebook.com/diagnosethisofficial/]→ https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this [https://www.tiktok.com/@diagnose_this] #drz #diagnosethispodcast #functionalmedicinefounderstory #suicideprevention #sexualassaultsurvivors #whennobodymovesimove #toneofvoiceintuition #invisibleillness #patientadvocacy #medicalgaslighting #womenentrepreneurs #originstory #functionalmedicinepodcast #chronicillness #primaryimmunodeficiency