The Root of Illness and My “Why.”

Everyone has a reason for their passion. Sometimes it is a life-changing experience, diagnosis, or a traumatic event. Sometimes it’s an accident, other times it’s purposeful searching. For me, it was a third round of the same diagnosis at the worst possible time and a mother-in-law’s loving suggestion.

I spoke about my reason for the blog before on my welcome page, but today I want to go a little deeper. I started this blog to share with you my journey from disease to wellness through nourishing recipes, helpful tips, product reviews, and many other golden nuggets I have learned along the way. My only hope is to inspire, encourage, and help you along your own health journey. I have the strongest desire to make the world healthier and happier by showing every reader the gift of joy, energy, and purpose I have been given by taking control of my health through holistic methods of healing when the conventional route failed me.

Where does illness come from? Environment, stress, diet, genetics, toxins, thoughts and emotions…there are so many theories out there. It might sound a little silly to think there is a connection, but when it happens to you, its a thought worth exploring. I have learned my disease was influenced by genetics, environment, diet, and some traumatic experiences in my life.

I am going to be very vulnerable for a minute. My first diagnosis came about 8 months after my relationship with my college boyfriend suddenly ended. This was my first real, deep relationship that I was planning on being in forever. After almost three years and a ten-minute long-distance phone call, it abruptly ended with terrible lies that left me so confused and hurt. I was emotionally paralyzed for a few days afterwards. I missed my college classes. I called in sick to work.

This was the most emotionally traumatic event I have ever experienced up to that point in my life. I was a young, naive girl with the single goal earning her Mrs. degree in college. This goal set me on a self-destructive path that was so far off who I was at my core, I couldn’t find my way back. I now know love was never a part of that relationship and I let things happen that completely compromised my faith and values. He was in high esteem with everyone we knew, but behind closed doors was a very different man. As the relationship progressed, I knew he wasn’t good for me. I could feel it in my bones, but I would push those thoughts away and keep going because I was submissive and let myself get railroaded over and over again. This emotional turmoil mixed with a family history of thyroid problems plus poor diet and lifestyle choices is, what I believe, triggered by first diagnosis of Grave’s Disease.

I went the conventional route of treatment with medication for a few years. In those years, I graduated college, moved to a new city, met the loveliest man, and landed my first teaching job. Now, I don’t if you know this, but first year teaching is STRESSFUL. A nine month constant state of exhaustion mixed with survival mixed with lack of sleep due to late nights exploring the great unknown with my now husband, Dan. Add an awful boss to the mix and you’ve got yourself a recipe for some serious adrenal burnout. After my first year teaching, I switched schools and took a job teaching 4th grade thinking I wouldn’t be so stressed. WRONG. It was worse. So now I was perpetuating my constant state of stress to the point of needing to leave my classroom of students because my unpredictable panic attacks would make appear with as much warning as smack in the face. By the second year of this stress cycle, poor diet and lack of sleep, my body had enough. My Grave’s came back with a vengeance. My heart rate was through the roof, the tremors were unbearable, and my anxiety was out of control. I was devastated. Newly engaged, planning a wedding and future life with Dan, and also trying be a good teacher. I was drowning. The doctor told me my only option was to do radioactive iodine treatment after another round of medication. If I did this procedure, I would need to be quarantined for two weeks to be sure I don’t give off radiation to anyone else, I wouldn’t be able to be intimate with my almost husband for 12 months after the procedure because the radiation could cause severe birth defects if we were to get pregnant. All this three months before my wedding. Awesome timing right?

Then, by the sweet, sweet grace of God, my mother in law calls and urges me to give functional medicine a shot. At this time, I hadn’t even heard of such a thing. I had a western medicine mindset and that was all that I knew. I was feeling pretty hopeless, so I said, “Fine. I’ll do it. I have nothing else to lose.” Little did I know this moment was the most pivotal moment of my life thus far. I saw the doctor she recommended and was in awe that there was a way to feel better without taking a pill. I had never heard of healing root causes of disease. It was so outside of my “normal” western medicine mindset.

Although it has been almost two years of treating my condition holistically and peeling back layers and layers of contributing issues to my illness, with each day I become more passionate about rebuilding health with lifestyle/diet changes, whole food supplements, and naturopathic healthcare despite the rollercoaster of symptoms, emotions, and daily struggles it can bring. I can confidently say I am so much healthier physically, mentally, and emotionally because of holistic healthcare.

It has been the most challenging 2 years of my life, both physically and mentally, as I rebuild my health by finding the root cause of my disease. I have had many days of breakthroughs, but I have also had many, many days of feeling doubtful, scared, and so tired of the process. It is a long, difficult road, but has been and will continue to be rewarding. I wish Grave’s disease on no one. It is an awful, daily battle when left untreated that makes crawling in a hole and not coming out sounds like a vacation. That being said, I would have never found my passion for health and wellness if it hadn’t have been for my 2nd Grave’s disease diagnosis. As awful as Grave’s disease is, I am grateful for it. I wouldn’t be the me I am today without it. I would have never discovered my passion for wellness.

Now, I take care of myself so I can be the best wife I can be. The best future mother I can be. The best friend, daughter and sister I can be. I want the people I love most to have the best version of me. The version of me that is so full of life that it seeps into their lives too. I want to pass along healthy habits to my children and grandchildren. I want to show them good accomplishing a goal feels. I want them to have the highest quality of life possible.

Here are my final words of encouragement. As much as I regret that college relationship, I am a better person because of it. It rebuilt my foundation, strengthened my values, and pointed me to the man I needed and the passion deep inside me born out of my biggest weaknesses and difficulties. It doesn’t matter how you discover your passion/purpose/your “why.” All that matters is that you do! God made you for a specific purpose. Bring Him glory by finding out what that is. Never settle until you find that one thing that sets your soul on fire and makes you come alive more than you’ve ever been before. You deserve the joy, confidence, positivity, and energy a passionate life provides. Press on until you feel it. I promise you it’s worth it.