My Story

The answer has to do with my own personal journey. Since childhood, I’ve suffered from an array of symptoms, including alternating diarrhea and constipation, stomach pain and bloating, headaches, and painful periods. My family didn’t have health insurance when I was younger, so we usually relied on some homeopathic remedy like peppermint extract, honey, a tincture of iodine, or a warm bath. It wasn’t until I got pregnant in high school that I realized how complex the human body really is.
(Yes, I was only 17 years old!)

A few months after delivering my daughter I developed severe depression, hair loss, weight loss, and had difficulty swallowing from a large goiter in my neck. After lots of blood work, ultrasounds, iodine scans, and biopsies, I was eventually diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It was a scary time for me because I didn’t understand what or why that was happening to my body, and at 18 years old, I definitely didn’t have the confidence to speak up. It wasn’t until many years later, in medical school, that I finally understood what my body had gone through. I felt bad for my younger self and wished I could go back in time and explain to her how to heal herself. But, alas, I am here now, trying to help other women not go through what I went through.

In addition to my medical issues, I was trying to make the most out of my difficult situation. I had dropped out of high school after 11th grade, so I had to go back and get my GED. I then went to community college where I fell in love with science and human physiology. I studied hard and transferred to Michigan State University where I graduated with honors with a bachelor degree in Physiology. I continued on through medical school and residency to fulfill my purpose of helping women have a voice and choice in their healthcare.

The answer has to do with my own personal journey. Since childhood, I’ve suffered from an array of symptoms, including alternating diarrhea and constipation, stomach pain and bloating, headaches, and painful periods. My family didn’t have health insurance when I was younger, so we usually relied on some homeopathic remedy like peppermint extract, honey, a tincture of iodine, or a warm bath. It wasn’t until I got pregnant in high school that I realized how complex the human body really is.
(Yes, I was only 17 years old!)

A few months after delivering my daughter I developed severe depression, hair loss, weight loss, and had difficulty swallowing from a large goiter in my neck. After lots of blood work, ultrasounds, iodine scans, and biopsies, I was eventually diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis. It was a scary time for me because I didn’t understand what or why that was happening to my body, and at 18 years old, I definitely didn’t have the confidence to speak up. It wasn’t until many years later, in medical school, that I finally understood what my body had gone through. I felt bad for my younger self and wished I could go back in time and explain to her how to heal herself. But, alas, I am here now, trying to help other women not go through what I went through.

In addition to my medical issues, I was trying to make the most out of my difficult situation. I had dropped out of high school after 11th grade, so I had to go back and get my GED. I then went to community college where I fell in love with science and human physiology. I studied hard and transferred to Michigan State University where I graduated with honors with a bachelor degree in Physiology. I continued on through medical school and residency to fulfill my purpose of helping women have a voice and choice in their healthcare.

The surgeon told me I needed to have my back fused with plates and screws, and that eventually I would herniate above and below and require more surgery. He explained, “Back surgery is like Lay’s potato chips, you can’t have just one.” That scared the crap out of me, so I went for a second opinion (to another orthopedic surgeon) and he said the same thing.

I left that office determined to find a different way to heal. As difficult as it was to, I took 4 months off of work to completely focus on my healing. I started the Whole 30 program and went to physical therapy twice a week. I started listening to podcasts by Dr. Mark Hyman and Dr. Amy Myers and eventually found the world of functional medicine. I loved the idea of getting to the root cause of my illnesses and not just keep putting band-aids on my situation. I needed an entire overhaul of my life to heal myself. I needed to learn how to say no to things, how to eat clean, healthy food that I prepared, and to eat in a calm manner without distractions (aka, not while working and doing ten other things), how to integrate daily self-care into my life (how to listen to my body when it’s screaming clues at me that something is wrong), how to get on a schedule that allowed me to get enough sleep, how to exercise regularly to hopefully avoid injury in the future, and how to have faith that God will show me the way if I am open and I listen to what the universe and my body are telling me.

I have learned so much along this crazy, difficult journey, and I feel obligated to share it with everyone. I want you all to learn from my struggles and my mistakes, and start making changes today to get on a better path toward health and vitality!