Nature is the perfect combination of beauty and brutality. Every action has reaction. The formula may feel ferine, but the result is always an infinite circle of solution measured in millennia and not minutes. 

For 22-year-old River Falls native Elise Foley, the nature of her three-and-a-half-year health struggle may have seemed like three decades, but it has come full circle.

The journey started with a future in volleyball and aeronautical engineering at Hamline University, but the path led Foley to an extended linguistic stay in Russia, authoring three books, and opening up her own craniosacral therapy clinic.

Foley was 18 years old in the Spring of 2021. She was healthy as any college-bound athlete. She was playing club volleyball for Minnesota Select and had signed her letter of intent to play libero at Hamline in the fall. She planned on studying aeronautical engineering. Injuries happen every day in sports and when a teammate's shoulder accidentally hit Elise Foley in the neck and lower head area, the worst-case scenario seemed to be a concussion. Enough to be concerned about, for sure, but a common injury, and with rest and time, fully recoverable.

Except, according to Foley, the doctor said she didn't even have a concussion. So, that's a good thing, right?

Maybe the volleyball collision had something to do with it and maybe not; nobody knows, but her health took a turn for the worse.   

"One day driving home from practice I had a seizure," said Foley. "And it all started there."

More seizures, slurred and stuttering speech, and tremors in her arm followed.

"My mom (Julia) rushed home from work because she thought I was having a stroke when I was slurring my words," said Foley.

Then, one morning shortly after, Foley woke up with a Russian accent. Not a slight one, it sounded like English was her second language and she grew up on the streets of Moscow.  

"I couldn't finish sentences or say plural words because I would lose my train of thought," said Foley. "When I went to prom, someone I didn't know asked, 'where are you from?’ I told them I was from River Falls, and then they asked, 'no, where were you born?’"

"Woodbury," said Foley, sounding like a female version of fictional boxer Ivan Drago.

Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a very rare, but real thing. It is caused from damage to the brain controlling speech, rhythm, and melody, according to the National Library of Medicine (NLM). Also, according to one NLM study, it showed a psychogenic and neurogenic connection between FAS and Covid-19, similar to patients losing their sense of smell after Covid-19.

The doctors ran every kind of brain scan with every acronym available on Foley at the Mayo Clinic to every specialist around. From CT, MRI, PET, fMRI, EEG, you name it, she had it. Nothing seemed to provide answers. 

"They thought I was schizophrenic," said Foley. "They all just said I needed cognitive behavioral therapy. I knew I wasn't making it up, but I felt horrible every day and I had this crazy Russian accent. I did think I might be crazy because every doctor was telling me I was."

It wasn't just the Russian accent. Foley was still having blackouts, severe fatigue, and baseball-sized bruising on her hands and arms. 

"About two years into the whole thing, the doctors did find a benign tumor on my ovaries and removed it, but that didn't change anything that was happening," said Foley. "We tried natural doctors and crazy ‘out there’ things, but I just kept getting turned away."

Finally, Foley went to see Dr. Bradley Bush at Natural Medicine of Stillwater.

"I think he was even on his last resort option, too," said Foley, "but he kept trying and figured it out."

According to Dr. Bush, Foley has a genetic metabolic disorder. It affects the way her body absorbs nutrients and vitamins from food. Her body was not receiving the nutrients it needed.

"I eat all natural foods and stay away from sugar as much as possible," said Foley with a western Wisconsin accent. "I have finally felt incredible for the last six months."

The entire process was a little over three years and there were many nights the only prescription doctors could offer was as little outside stimulation for her brain as possible. This included no music, no TV, and little interaction with others. Foley spent countless hours in self-reflection, by herself, in her bedroom.

She had always liked to write but was always far too shy to let anyone read her thoughts.

"I noticed how society shapes us in certain directions," said Foley. "That time by myself made me less afraid to be different. My style changed and I grew and changed."

Part of Dr. Bush's treatment for Foley was called craniosacral therapy. Foley was a big enough believer that she became licensed in it as well and has her own business, Light & Shade Healing, inside the Kinni Valley Chiropractic office on Second Street in River Falls.

Foley has written three books. Her first, "earth, i am you," is about her health journey described through poetry and was published last August.

"We all go through different changes and different seasons," said Foley. "And it's important to continue growing. The winter is when we grow the most and allows us to have those happier summer times."

Her second book is titled "The Earth Has Faults" and her third book is titled "A Page at a Time."

"They're poetry books," said Foley. "People can take one idea and expand on it themselves. There's no right or wrong."

Foley finds herself most at home in nature, barefoot, touching and connected to the Earth. It’s her routine for staying grounded; the soil is both the outlet and power cord, her skin receiving the charge. 

“Spirituality is a broad term,” said Foley. “I am a spiritual person now. There are so many different ways to look at one thing.”