I always fell somewhere under the umbrella terms of chronic fatigue syndrome or fibromyalgia but those diagnosis didn't fit either. finally in 2012 I was diagnosed with stage 3 kidney disease. But they could not figure out what caused it. After a year and a half of tests, My doctor finally gave up, shrugged his shoulders and said: "Well . . . you are a woman & women are mysterious. Maybe you just have lazy kidneys". And out the door I went: with a sexist diagnosis that did nothing to help me. 

I refused to be a victim! 

This is when I became determined to at least try to help myself! 

So I studied at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, fell in love with my new healthy lifestyle & accidentally found my passion: Coaching others to gain optimal health & to achieve their health related goals. And that is how Body . soul . whole.  was born.

I was so thrilled that I had found my passion in coaching & loved witnessing the incredible life changing shifts of my clients, however I knew my own journey still had a missing piece. 

I was still fatigued & could not figure it out! 

Being a wellness warrior I kept on searching for answers because I owed it to myself to be whole!

in 2014 I was diagnosed with "joint hypermobility syndrome" which explained so many things! It was like a light bulb went off when my doctor told me! i was told that walking 1 mile for me is the equivalent to 10 miles for my body! it explained the aches & pains and random dislocations & subluxations (usually 4-7 a year) of the bones in my feet, hands, neck, shoulders and most painfully hips. it explained why walking long distances made me cringe and limp and surely it must be the reason for my fatigue! 

So I got orthotics, switched from yoga to pilates (yoga is great but encourages too much flexibility for me!), opted out of hikes and tried to rest more. 

Happily ever after, right? Ahahaha! I wish! 

I noticed my hair was falling out in chunks, my poor eyebrows were so sparse, I had an Increased sensitivity to cold, chronically suffered Constipation (TMI sorry!), Muscle weakness, Elevated blood cholesterol level (but I'm a health coach!!!), Muscle aches, tenderness and stiffness & Impaired memory. 

All my blood work kept coming back clean. I was free of autoimmune issues, diseases, no vitamin or mineral deficiencies, nothing!! 

It wasn't until july of 2017 that i finally found the answer!!!

Fucking cancer

Yep! For 15 years no one checked my thyroid. . . at least not physically. I had thyroid blood panels and nothing came up, not even as me having hypothyroidism although I literally have 99% of the symptoms of it!!!  

If one single doctor touched my neck, they would have felt the lump.

(I just thought necks were lumpy!)

I was given an ultrasound & fine needle biopsy and my diagnosis was confirmed: papillary thyroid carcinoma. 

A month later I had a complete thyroidectomy & 10 lymph nodes were also removed as the cancer spread to 4 of them.

This was followed up with radioactive iodine where I had to be in isolation for a week & pretended I was a radioactive superhero to pass the time. I didn't mind the solitude but I did mind that I lost my ability to taste for a MONTH!!! Water tasted salty and soup tasted watery. Anyone who has undergone radiation & lost their taste knows what I am talking about. It steals the joy of food right out from under you!

My surgeon explained that this was not a "5-Year Remission & then you are cancer free" kinda deal. this was called "chronic cancer".

at any time in my lifetime, one of those ninja sleeper cells that may have snuck through could active and start to grow cancer again.

So far, all scans are coming back clean & while I still have days where I am fatigued, I have more energy than ever! 

I'm hoping that through continuing feeding my body & feeding my soul I can continue to be whole. (even without tonsils or a thyroid! ha!)

I feel so incredibly lucky that not only was it caught early, but that I finally had an answer! With answers comes more targeted solutions! 

And that is what I hope to help you with. When you get to the root causes of your issues, you are able to tackle them and transform your life!

I am not telling you all of this to say: look at me! Look how much I have suffered. It is simply the journey that I was given & we are all given something. 

“Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness.” - Eckhart Tolle

CANCER WAS NOT THAT BIG OF A DEAL FOR ME

Because I had already laid the groundwork to handle it. 

I get to THANK my ear infections, my tonsillitis, my mononucleosis, my joint hyper-mobility syndrome, my kidney disease for all being teachers in life. They taught me to listen to my body, to be still yet content, to develop fierce self care, to remove toxic relationships, to be patient, to take things in stride, to find humor in pain.