Welcome to The Pretty Hot Mess. We are happy to have you here as a part of our family. We welcome questions and want to help you understand how our products can help you live a much more comfortable life.
A little bit about me and my story in a nutshell. I have been in the medical field since I was 16 years old, I started off as a nursing assistant and worked my way through years of college and graduate school, finally becoming an Acute Care/Geriatric/Adult Nurse Practitioner. I spent the last 18 years of my life working in Emergency Medicine. I was no longer finding joy in practicing traditional medicine and was tired of being told to write prescriptions for every ache and pain. I made the tough decision to leave conventional medicine in 2015 to pursue my dreams of owning my own business. I have always been a huge believer in holistic and natural medicine versus western medicine. I started studying and researching holistic medicine more in depth in 2015 and discovered essential oils. I began reading anything I could find on the medicinal uses of essential oils and quickly became intrigued and started making my own blends for friends and family. Through word of mouth, more and more people were coming to me asking for my oil blends, and what started as a hobby quickly turned into a blooming business.
I was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in 1998 after serving in the US Navy. When I was diagnosed I did a lot of research on the medications prescribed for MS and after talking with a lot of people that had been on the medications and others who treated it naturally, I made my own decision to not take the meds. In 2006 I was diagnosed with Stage 3 Melanoma. Between the MS and the Melanoma and countless surgeries for the Melanoma, my immune system took a huge hit. Since 2006 I have spent on average 2-3 months a year in the hospital. Over the last 13 years I have had shingles, meningitis, EBV, chronic fatigue, chronic pain, migraines, pancreatitis, gastroporesis, IBS, PTSD, anxiety, depression, you name it, I had it. I never gave in and agreed to the MS medications, but I have been prescribed so many meds over the last 13 years-most of them I refused to take. The pancreatitis and gastroporesis were a result of a medication overdose while I was inpatient in the hospital. One of the physicians treating me wrote the wrong dose of a potent cardiac med and it caused me to go into liver failure. By 2017 I was a medical mess. My cancer has come back 23 times in various places, but I’ve always come back fighting. In late 2017 I was on vacation with my family and my lower extremities started swelling and I was extremely tired and felt like I had the flu. About 7 days into the vacation I was in so much pain I could barely walk, my abdomen started swelling and I couldn’t eat. It got to the point I couldn’t move my left leg and in order to continue to be with my family I had to succumb to a wheelchair-my absolute worst nightmare. I wheeled myself to the corner of the beach we were at and sobbed. I had never felt so helpless in my life. When we returned home, I went to see my PCP, who told me that I now had psoriatic arthritis and was having an MS flare up. My lab results were one of the scariest reports I had ever seen. My doc put me on prednisone and told me I should be fine in 3-4 weeks. Unfortunately, my health continued to decline. I was admitted to the hospital in late November and there were so many things wrong that they didn’t even know where to begin or how to treat me. I had so many teams of doctors trying to treat a plethora of issues. None of them agreed with each other and everything one did, the other one would contradict. Every day was, “lets try this med or do this scan”. It got to the point I couldn’t eat anything without looking like I was 9 months pregnant. I felt like I was dying. They started talking about placing a feeding tube and infusions and you need this med for life and maybe a wheelchair? They were asking me about Living Wills and my wishes. They had me so drugged up I didn’t know what was going on. One day I woke up and saw my boyfriend and my oldest daughter both crying. Aurora said mom, you haven’t been using your oils for a long time. You loved them and you weren’t getting as sick when you used them. She was right. Trevor told me people had been sending him information on CBD and he thought I should try it. I kept saying no, you know how I feel about marijuana. He said you need to research it, it’s not marijuana. At that moment, I was desperate for any relief. That’s where my journey into The Pretty Hot Mess began. I wanted out of the hospital. I wanted to be a mom to my kids. I didn’t want to be in pain anymore. When I came home from the hospital, I called an old friend who is a doctor at MD Anderson and asked him about the CBD he was using for his patients. We talked for hours about CBD and he told me to do my research and to find a local farm. I researched CBD and visited various farms for months. I tried multiple products and wasn’t getting the relief I’d hoped too. I read an article about Luce Farms in Vermont and gave them a call. One of the owners drove 2 hours to meet me the next day and we sat and talked for hours. He brought products for me to try. Within 15 minutes of trying their CBD I was feeling better. He invited me to the farm and I went the next day, the rest is history. I had found exactly what I was looking for. Within one week of starting CBD, I felt “normal” and my pain level went from a 10 to a 2. The only medication I was taking was Effoxor for my anxiety, and within a week of using Full Spectrum CBD I weaned myself off of that as well. I have been prescription free since June 2018. I have not had any MS flare ups, no hospital visits, my cancer has stayed in remission, no illnesses (other than one 24 hour GI bug), no fatigue or chronic pain-I can't say that this is a result of the CBD, but I'll take it :) CBD gave me my life and health back. I will tell anyone that listens to my story that I truly feel that CBD saved my life.
I began selling my essential oil blends and Luce Farms CBD in June of 2018 after everyone saw what it had done for my health. We started off as a small operation out of my home and within 3 months we opened a store front. We went from 100 customers to thousands within a few weeks. We now have customers all over the world. I have several medical providers from multiple states and countries sending their patients my way for additional support to their health care regimen.
I have dedicated my life to helping others find ways to add natural alternatives to their health care regimen. My customer testimonials speak for themselves. I use the best and safest ingredients in all of my products. I do extensive research on all of my own blends and the products I carry. I am the creator of all of my proprietary essential oil blends. With my education and personal experience, I have created one of a kind “potions” to help others with just about any ailment you can imagine.
Welcome to our family,
Xoxoxo Angel
