The beginning of my health story
As I mentioned before, I worked in politics for many years. I absolutely loved working in state and local politics! I loved the tangible feeling of helping someone every day. Knowing that I made a positive impact on someone’s life. However, it is a rock star kind of lifestyle – incredibly stressful. For years I lived on antacids, caffeine and sparkles. That lifestyle did a number on my body physically, mentally and emotionally.
Years ago, when I started working for my last political figure, I had a few fibroids, the sizes of nickels and dimes. A year and a half into the job, I was in the hospital getting blood transfusions for blood loss. How did I get here? Well, this is part one of my story of how I changed my lifestyle and was called to health and nutrition.
Disclaimer: My goal is always to be as authentic as possible. This story contains some graphic language and descriptions so that others with these conditions will not feel alone.
During my first year of marriage, I was experiencing some health issues. For the first 6 months of my marriage, I was on my menstrual cycle. I bleed for 6 months straight, non-stop. As you can imagine, that was an extremely hard time for me.
My husband and I dated for seven years before we got married, and we were celibate for most of that time period. (Different story for a different day!) I genuinely believe that time prepared us for the first 6 months of marriage. I really felt kindred to the hemorrhaging woman in the Bible (Mark 5:25-34) during this time.
One day while working in politics, my best friend, who I had the pleasure of working with at that time, became very worried about me as I was on my third change of clothes by 1 p.m. At this point, I was used to changing clothes throughout the day, as I would often bleed through them. To this day, my wardrobe has a lot of black and dark colors to camouflage the embarrassment, pain and hurt of the blood that leaked onto my clothes.
My friend commanded me (she’s a little bossy sometimes, but we have that in common lol) to leave and go to the hospital. I refused because we were in the middle of preparing for one of our biggest events of the year. Also, this has been my life for a while – why miss work for something normal to me now? I had rough periods since the age of 11; which runs on both sides of my family. I was used to buying pads in bulk and having periods last from 8-13 days. I lived like this for years. Yes, the constant bleeding and pain were rather new, but I had been to doctors several times. We were trying methods that did not work, but it was a process.
So now she threatened me. “If you don’t leave here and go to the doctor right now, I am going to pick you up myself and take you,” she said. I believed her, she could do it! I called my husband, who picked me up and took me to the hospital.
By the time I signed in at the registration desk, I started bleeding through my clothes for the fourth time, so I asked to be admitted immediately. I was asked to wait my turn, and they gave me something to sit on. Twenty minutes later, I had completely bled through my clothes, the items they gave me and the chair.
I went back to the registration desk. The long, dark purple shirt I was wearing was so drenched with blood from the waist down it now stuck to me. “Now can I go back?” I asked as I pointed at the chair. Dismayed as though I was the issue, the person at the desk replied, “Yes, we have a bed ready for you.”
While in the hospital, I continued to pass clots as big as my fist. I was greeted by INCREDIBLE nurses and received AMAZING care. They didn’t seem phased by all that I had going on.
I spent a few days in the hospital. I received two blood transfusions. My OBGYN moved up my already scheduled myomectomy (fibroid removal surgery), I was placed on iron, instructed to increase my vitamin K, and off I went, to Pittsburgh. My paternal grandmother had just passed, and I had to attend her funeral. I do not recommend airplane travel under those conditions; nor do I recommend attending an emotionally stressful activity like a funeral after your body has undergone such strain and stress.
Now I know what you are thinking – LB, I know many women with fibroids, and they did not go through all of this! Well, I had a few fibroids and one was embedded into my uterine wall. My body was doing what it was supposed to do, shed anything that was not a fertilized egg off of my uterine wall. Well, one fibroid was stuck, so my body was constantly in this process for months. The doctor said by the time I got to the hospital, I was technically having contractions.
It was terrible – I was anemic, constantly tired and my back, hips and abdomen were constantly in pain. A few weeks later, I had my surgery. The fibroids were removed, and I was officially diagnosed with endometriosis. My surgery went three hours over, and I lost a lot of blood. It was a tough recovery, but I started to feel better in weeks. After that, I told myself I never wanted to be here again. (It did happen again but differently, another blog post for later.)
I did an elimination diet starting with no processed foods, sugar or animal products. I slowly added things back and stopped at an ovo-pescatarian. This means I eat fish, seafood, eggs and plants. I eat cheese very sparingly and only certain types. While this process took a year, it was one of the best decisions I ever made! My body felt like itself for the first time.
As a nutrition advisor, I am not going to force a particular diet on you, but tell you to do the work. Figure out what’s best for your body and what is best for you. Only you know that – not even your doctor knows what it’s like to be you. Take the time and put in the work to really explore what makes your body feel its best. It’s ok to not know yet and if it changes all the time, but know that you cannot do what you were placed on earth to do if you are not feeling your best.
You cannot shine your light onto the darkness that you were asked to defeat. Health is an ever-evolving journey – some parts great, some not – just know that we all can be empowered to lead the mission of becoming our best and healthiest selves.
My doctors performed my surgery, but they did not tell me to change my diet. They did not tell me to start investing in my health. They did not tell me to remove the unhealthy things from my life. That was my decision, with the Lord’s guidance.
Be empowered! You are the leader of your health!
You are the captain of this ship! However, if you are not sure where to go, where to start or even how to do it, I would be honored to assist you on your journey to becoming your healthiest and well self!
