Nashville Woman Orders Takeout Sushi. Then It Makes Her Sick For 17 Months: ‘Disturbing’

For many of us, parasites are our worst nightmare. And after this Nashville woman’s story, you may well be put off sushi for life.

We’ve heard of parasites being found in Whole Foods’ sea bass and certain Taco Bell items. But in her series of TikToks, which have collectively amassed over 100,000 views, user Katherine Firsching (@katherinefirsching) has shared about the dangers of sushi.

She starts by explaining how, on Feb. 4, 2025, she had takeout sushi from a “reputable restaurant.” One hour later, the problems began. She says she developed a burning stomach and threw up all night. Then, she says she ended up being “violently ill” for two days. On the third day, she says she went to work and described how she felt as if she’d fall out of her chair.

“I felt like I was moving and the whole world was still,” she says. This sensation continued to come and go for a few weeks. Later, Firsching says she found out this sensation was neuritis, an inflammation of inner ear canals that can cause vertigo.

While she tried to carry on with normal life, she says the sensations got stranger, and she started getting other symptoms. These included feeling like she was “floating,” light sensitivity, constant nausea, an amplified sense of smell, and a feeling that everything was too loud. It got so bad that, by the autumn, the TikToker says she couldn’t leave her apartment nor drive for a week. After multiple visits to urgent care, she says she was told she was fine. She says she went to the hospital and had multiple tests: a heart monitor, an EKG, a heart ultrasound, and an X-ray. When all these tests were done, the creator says she was told by a nurse that she had anxiety.

A Vertigo Specialist And A Rehabilitation Center

After this, Firsching went to a vertigo specialist. Despite never having migraines, she says she was diagnosed with vestibular migraines and told to avoid certain “triggers,” like types of food, along with medication. But her condition didn’t improve over the 2025 holiday season. When Firsching returned to work in the new year, she says she deteriorated.

Subsequently, she did her own research and found a vestibular rehabilitation clinic. At that point, the creator says she had been sick for approximately 15 months. After running some tests, the doctor said her cognitive test was like that of a dementia patient. Further tests suggested that part of her inner ear canal was receiving sensory input worse than a 75-year-old.

In turn, she was fast-tracked for vertigo rehab. This involved wearing VR goggles while being flipped over in an AI Axis Rotary Chair.  She was shown images going by at a different rate, to which she was moving in her chair to force her ear canals to work overtime. While Firsching improved on paper, she got extremely tired. Because of the energy needed to recalibrate, Firsching says she felt like a “walking zombie.” After this exhaustion caused her to feel like she was going to collapse from it at a work event, she decided that enough was enough. She decided to take medical leave to get to the bottom of this.

Then They Consulted Further Doctors

After this rehab, her inner ear was processing sensory input correctly. However, this didn’t fix her issues. Subsequently, she started working with a doctor specializing in personalized repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation. This treatment involves using magnetic fields to stimulate certain brain cells. The doctor also did an EEG on Firsching’s brain. The data graph, typically, should show a peak in the middle. But Firsching’s one was completely flat. According to this doctor, those kinds of results are more common in a soldier who has been in a blast. This doctor also couldn’t pinpoint the reason for her illness. Still, he started on her treatment. Firsching says that while this treatment helped her acute vertigo, she still felt something was ‘off.’

Things got better after a person she knew from work referred her to a functional medicine doctor. Through them, Firsching got blood work, DNA work, and bioenergetic scans done. The results suggested that she had an extreme parasitic infection. These symptoms, like difficult bodily sensations and other sensory issues, are actually very common.

She was put on a very intense treatment protocol to get rid of the parasites and rebuild the damage they had done.

To make matters worse, Firsching says she was told she had the most dangerous type and that it could be gotten from eating raw fish.

What Caused It?

After many months, Firsching finally had her answer: It was a parasite. Upon reflection, she notes this made sense to her. As a result of them consuming all the nutrients, she felt hungry—a lot. And at night, when parasites were more active, she had insomnia.

Specifically, she had liver fluke parasites, which can embed in the liver and other tissues and organs. Because the liver is responsible for processing toxins, this made things worse. The TikToker said that, essentially, the toxins were recirculating in her body and reaching her brain. Consequently, she started an herbal parasite cleanser and then medication. The problem is, when parasites die, they release material like heavy metals, toxins, and mold. And given that the parasite had already impacted her liver, Firsching said this made detoxing near-impossible. She also had to have two hydrocolonics.

She started feeling better in August 2026.

“Even though this is all really gross and disturbing, I did just want to spread awareness,” she said. “We all have some level of parasites in us. Obviously, I got the motherload. There are so many ways that people get parasites on a daily basis. It’s … very prominent in the U.S. And though Western medicine doesn’t really pay much attention to them, they are at the root cause of so many issues.”

The creator goes on to add that she has spoken to people through the grapevine who struggled with IBS and vertigo for a long time before functional medicine doctors cured them and found parasites. She claims that parasites are hard to catch and argues that they don’t always show up in things like stool samples. This, she says, is why a functional medicine doctor is important, because they know how to investigate and diagnose.

She adds that while her issue is not over, she sees light at the end of the tunnel.

But one thing’s for sure—she says she probably won’t be eating sushi again.

BroBible reached out to the TikToker via Instagram direct message.

What Is A Liver Fluke Parasite?

Liver fluke parasites, as explained by Cleveland Clinic, are worms that can affect your gallbladder, liver, and bile ducts. Sheep, cattle, cats, and dogs are also known for contracting this type of parasite. While eating raw fish is a common cause for it, it can also be contracted from drinking contaminated water or eating certain water plants or watercress.

There are various types of liver flukes, including clonorchis sinensis, opisthorchis, and fasciola. Symptoms include nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, constipation, fever, chills, diarrhea, rash, muscle aches, shortness of breath, swollen lymph nodes, and sore joints.

While they aren’t fatal on their own, if left untreated, liver fluke parasites can cause serious health complications. These include malnutrition, an enlarged or scarred liver, inflammation of the gallbladder and bile duct, and bile duct cancer.

‘Vertigo Is The Worst Sensation’

Some commenters commiserated and related to her ordeal.

“Vertigo is the worst sensation and episodes of it can throw off your balance for years,” one wrote.

“My sister almost died from a parasite because it took doctors so long to figure out what it was,” a second said. “They think it was sushi too.”

“I eat sushi all the time and I’m always dissociated and feel like this, but this just tells me I wouldn’t know the difference between parasites and what was caused by severe trauma,” a third remarked.

And a fourth added, “The scariest thing is doctors telling you there wasn’t anything wrong.”