My Health & Career Journey 

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Short story long...

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I was every doctor's worst nightmare; symptomatic and subclinical. In my journey, I have learned that 75% of people are functional (lacking obvious diseases but are not quite healthy), 20% are healthy, and roughly 5% or so are sick. I was part of the majority of people who felt not quite right. Illness, and disease are very different. Illness is how we feel, and disease is an organic, physical manifestation like a tumor, a pathogen, or arthritis. It is measurable. Health is not the absence of disease, which is really important for doctors to understand as well as patients who have beaten themselves up for a problem that is not yet visible. Medical science, humans, and diagnostic criteria are far from perfect. To attest to this fact, I have a friend with neuroendocrine tumors who was mistreated for lupus for 8 years before doctors realized it was cancer. 

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I first felt very out of my skin when I was about 11 or 12. I was super athletic and was always involved in a sport. I practiced gymnastics since I was 8 and felt that my body was suddenly being taken over by someone else who might not have ever touched a balance beam before, gone running, or spent hours in the gym. I also experienced a complete lack of stamina at age 14, where my stamina is unable to be improved through any amount or pattern of exercise. It was at 16 when I had to quit gymnastics. The problem persists to this day, a decade or so later, still undetected by modern science, as incredible as it is. I first started experiencing palpitations at random times, exercise intolerance/ dyspnea (not being able to catch my breath), quick exhaustion, tachycardia, and chest pain. It got so bad that it felt like my heart would explode out of my chest if I climbed 2 flights of stairs without a pause. As years went on, I also experienced odd rashes that made my face feel like sandpaper, stomach upset, dizziness, nausea, fatigue, heat intolerance, hypermobile and subluxating (partially dislocating) of many joints, severe burning in my stomach, muscle and joint aches, constant colds, melancholy, bruising legs, allergies to everything, brain fog...you name it.

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The two most devastating consequences of my dyspnea have been a near-death experience when I was 21, and the forced cessation of practicing martial arts, which I had done passionately for 4 years. At 21, I was at the beach one day and wanted to swim out to the sandbar not too far ahead. There were about 20 people there already. Within 20 seconds of swimming, I suddenly lost my breath, got very tired, and started breathing very heavily because my body wasn't getting enough air. I felt my heart beating out of my chest. I realized I was exactly half way between the shore and the sandbar. I had to make a decision that would instantly change my life. Or I would drown. I had no energy to swim in either direction for even a second longer, but realized if I swam to the sandbar, I might get stuck there without help, in the middle of the ocean. The thought was terrifying. I knew I couldn't rely on anyone. I was actually with my cousin at this time who failed to realize how much I was struggling, even though I said I was in trouble and had to go back. No help was given.

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The more my lungs begged for air and made me breathe, the less air I seemed to get. It wasn't helping. I now realize I was expelling too much carbon dioxide. I forced myself against my instincts to slow my breathing. I was getting very lightheaded. I realized if I were to hold my arm up to signal the lifeguard for help, I would quickly sink. There was no lifeguard. I heard my mom's voice in my head and remembered her telling me that if I was ever drowning to float on my pack and paddle gently with my arms along the coastline. I did just that. (Thank you, mom). I asked my cousin a few times if the shore was near. I couldn't look back. All my efforts went into surviving. I couldn't die like this. Miraculously, I made it to the shore, very nauseous. I sat on the sand, looking at the water, and pondered my own weakness when I was tested against nature. If I were anyone else but me, without the insane will (and just enough strength) to survive, I probably wouldn't have. It had been more than near-death. It was happening. I felt what it was like to decide between life and death- and nearly missing. That level of consciousness remained as a permanent mark on my personality.

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In many efforts to solve the very unusual dyspnea problem, I have had heart monitors, ultrasounds, and stress tests- all revealing nothing except unexplained tachycardia. Beta blockers did nothing to help calm my erratic heart. It went along with the rapid breathing by body seemed to need to do during exercise. I also had an exploratory electrophysiology study, where the cardiologist put a catheter through my leg and up to my heart, stimulated it with a bunch of adrenalin (my actual worst nightmare), and still found nothing wrong with my heart. I was put under general anesthesia and actually felt a severe stabbing pain in my leg from the catheter, and woke up during surgery and felt every last bit like Frankenstein as they electrified my heart to the point of severe tachycardia. (Not to mention it was Halloween). I was a modern-day Frankenstein. I was really afraid for my safety then, feeling like if the intense pounding didn't slow down, I would have a heart attack right there on the cold slab of a surgical table. They found no hyperactive part of my heart to ablate (burn). I was woken up, told they couldn't help me, and I just remember being really upset and screaming; "Everyone is getting help but me!" It was a really dark time in my life. My cardiologist saw me the following week, and despairingly stated, "Maybe you have dysautonomia. That is my last guess." The term was so elusive, that those words held little meaning for me. I left this part of my life on the back burner, leaving with no treatments. 

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Since then, I've seen an immunologist who actually discovered I had mild asthma, as revealed on a routine lung function report. I had to blow out the imaginary candles on the monitor with all my strength with the goal of blowing out all the candles. I did as I was instructed, but the nurse repeated the instructions, thinking my subpar results were from insufficient efforts. "Blow them out with all your strength!" I did so again, and I still barely blew out 4 of 10 candles. My immunologist reviewed the report and took it seriously. Once he heard my cardiology journey, he and I both felt there was something more going on, and he sent me to get a pulmonary function test (PFT).  I thought I'd finally get answers. BUT, it came back normal, showing only mild asthma. The immunologist agreed that my results did not explain the severity of my symptoms. I refused to take steroids and found herbs that were even more effective than the best mast-cell stabilizers. I was after having less symptoms, not more. 

 

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I was then sent to get a higher tier test- a metabolic stress test (MST). That test results came back normal as well, only suggesting that I was "deconditioned," AKA unfit. The new doctor asked if I worked out, and I said not much these days. He tried to pass that off as an explanation for my windedness. I said it made no sense, seeing as I only recently stopped martial arts because of the problem-which always worsened upon exercise. Needless to say, he had no good explanations, but told me about a test I should take- the master of all tests: the invasive cardiopulmonary exercise test (iCPET). The invasive form of this test is the highest tier test that detects issues that no other test does, and it tests other, more common problems in a much more efficient way. To this day, I have yet to take it. Two years ago, the test at Massachusetts General Hospital without insurance was $38,000. The one in town is $63,000, as they don't take my insurance (which is crazy). Very fortunately, I now have good insurance and asked Mass Gen for the price estimate again. IT IS FREE!!!! Just the other day, in 2021, I discovered this and feel like I really won the lottery. This journey is to be continued! I hope to complete the test within 2021.

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Going back, when I was 16, I remember sitting in bed thinking about what I wanted to be when I grew up. I looked on my bookshelf and saw a manual for craniosacral therapy that was given to me by a neighbor who was a healthcare practitioner. The idea struck me. I want to be a holistic doctor! Why hadn't I seen it before? I loved all kinds of alternative healing modalities. That year, I became certified in reiki level 1. I also learned about crystal healing- a method that may seem more magical than scientific, but when you delve into it, you will find out all the ways which humans use crystals for their natural energetic properties. Think of Swiss watches, lasers, and how atoms are shifted around in quartz rocks to strike a fire for camping purposes. Most watches today use what is called 'quarts movement,' where the watch's battery sends electrical currents through the crystal component creating electricity within the crystal and creating 33 vibrations per second. This drives oscillating movement which powers the motor to move the watch hands. In terms of health, a crystal's vibrational energy mingles with our own, and we can manifest healing. I used crystal therapy to rekindle a broken family bond and find forgiveness.  It was no small feat. 

 

 

In my last year of high school, I kept busy, applying to colleges that would get me on the path of becoming a naturopathic doctor (ND). I had gone through a lot of family troubles by then and was living with one of my parents in a trailer. I didn't let anything phase me. I actually first lived in the trailer at 15, and for a third time at 21. I had the knee surgery at that point, and recovered in that trailer. 

Looking back on high school for a moment, a silver lining of all my struggles as a young person  was that I won the True Grit Award during graduation. The principal had previously announced that there would be a surprise winner. It was a beautiful moment that made my struggles feel so vindicated. It was something I truly earned. Something funny was that I felt that I might win this, but during graduation, the announcer first accidentally said someone else's name for the award. I totally waited for them to hurriedly announce the right name. And they did!

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The day after graduating high school, I got my drivers license, and the day after that, I moved across the country by myself and began a Biology major. I felt that naturopathy (ND) was the path for me. Due to stress and life events, I was discouraged from this path and quit college for the first time after one year. I felt that the monotony and busy work sucked my creativity and soul dry. I also had little emotional support or peers because it is not a common field or one that people often know about. I needed guidance. I was without friends in a strange new world. I took a year off, actually thinking I would never go back. During that year, I completed massage therapy school, which I loved. I was still lonely and unhappy with life in general and moved back to my hometown. I got a job at a spa, but the clientele was sparse, even though the clients I had asked for me for years after I left. I then cooked and prepped food in my father's restaurant for the next year. I had the idea of studying for my bachelors in alternative medicine to use to get into grad school for my ND. I signed up and paid for online classes, and then quit almost immediately due to family and life events. I was so discouraged. I had wanted to be a naturopathic doctor, but with all of these struggles and lack of support in this obscure field, I let the notion go. I quit college for the second time. The year progressed, and I continued to work for my Dad. In my mind, college was dead and over. I learned a lot about life then. And about other people. I knew I didn't want to work in the restaurant biz forever, but had no other direction. So I waited for a sign.

 

 

After having arthroscopic knee surgery (one of the most difficult experiences of my life) and physical therapy at age 21 for a gymnastics injury when I was 17 (17!!!), I decided I wanted to be a physical therapist more than anything in the world, and spent the next 8 years working rigorously at this goal, working on my BS in Athletic Training (AT is like rehab and emergency sports medicine for athletes). Not all my credits transferred, so I was technically a freshman twice, but only a junior for 1 semester. After a very stressful year in AT, I switched majors. Again. I couldn't burn out before grad school. I thought about Biology again, but remembered how un-gifted I was at math. I was lost and about to quit college for the THIRD time. I spoke to a school counselor and family friend, and was lead on the path of Psychology. I had no idea just how much this was the right path for me. I didn't realize it until 3 years after I graduated and started my medical career. For the first 2 years of undergrad at this school, I still had fears and doubts about if it was ever possible for me to graduate.

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Throughout my 4.5 years of undergrad (excluding the intermission), I was on a separate- but not so separate journey to discovering what was wrong with my health. I was gaining a bit of weight slowly and steadily without any diet or major lifestyle changes. After healing from surgery, I maintained the gym and martial arts, sometimes exercising rigorously for 4 hours, 3 times a week. And once more if I felt energetic. I got my red belt in Krav Maga! This was around the time when I began my whole cardiovascular exploration and had to wear a heart monitor on for a week, even while in bootcamp class at the dojo. That story ended with no conclusions. I also saw a myriad of other specialists. I saw an endocrinologist who misdiagnosed me with polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS). Two out of three criteria need to be met for this diagnosis, and I only had one. I only had mildly elevated testosterone. I realized my endocrinologist was wrong and begged her to help me find an answer for my symptoms. She said she could find nothing wrong and that maybe I needed therapy. I basically tore her a new one right then and there for being so heartless and naive.

 

 

I knew from that point on that just because something is unknown, doesn't make it nonexistent

Or as some say, the absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

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During these undergrad years, I also saw holistic-minded PAs. Although having somewhat of a thorough model for medicine, it was still too mainstream and didn't test for insulin resistance properly. I suspected it for a while now, but showed up as normal on almost every test. I went to a reproductive endocrinologist and found no answers, but gained a bit of medical knowledge along the way. I went to gastroenterologists and GI-focused PA's- all excellent in their field. But it wasn't them who was wrong. It was the model of medicine. More on this when I mention Dr. Berg. I even got an endoscopy for $25 while I was briefly living in Ukraine in 2018. Everything was normal. There was no explanation for nausea, and I wasn't somehow absorbing more nutrients than I was supposed to. That's not a thing. My medical knowledge was still developing.

 

 

Looking back, I had gone through a near-death experience at 14 because I was unknowingly starving myself. I did not understand my body and didn't know I had  certain conditions. I started not eating very much at all. Maybe I'd have a few cheerios a day. Then once, when I was in a program, I decided to have a prepared meal. I got violently sick. I got some kind of food poisoning then-at the worst time ever when I was already barely eating, and it felt like everything including my very life-force was expelled from my body. I consider this to be the worst day of my life. I was in excruciating agony and dying on the cold, hard bed.  To this day, I don't know for sure what caused it. Either I had become anorexic without knowing it (It's almost impossible to decipher anorexia when you have lipedema. Google "lipedema anorexia")- and then I suddenly ate a normal amount of food, which is dangerous, OR I had some kind of severe food poisoning to the packaged food, which is less likely. Nobody where I was believed me when I told them I wasn't feeling well and that I was about to get sick. I was told to shut up because people were eating and I was grossing them out. How selfish and ironic people can be! was left alone for hours. I got very very sick. I was vomiting and more. I kept calling for a nurse or doctor, but nobody came. It was a disaster that wouldn't end. My body doesn't always know when enough is enough, and will react too strongly to toxins where my intestines will spasm out of control in efforts to save me. I learned just recently though genetic testing that I have less superoxide dismutase (SOD) and capacity to handle toxins. Even awful canola oil makes me nauseous. There was one other girl who saw what was happening to me. She knew I was desperately dehydrated and on the verge of death, and she brought me a cup of water. She was the only one who cared. She saved my life with that cup of water. I think she was the one who told the others that I really was sick. So, after hours of being ignored by everyone and violently ill, someone finally took me seriously and called 911. It doesn't matter what age you are; when you are about to die, you just know it.  As  I slowly sipped on the water in her hand from where I lay, I promised I would name my kid after her. She saved my life and was the only one around who cared. Although I will not be having kids, I will honor her here by mentioning her name; Venus. She taught me the value of listening to those who aren't listened to.

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I was NOT rushed to the ER (and should have been) for severe dehydration and poisoning. These people made me walk outside the building and all the way around to another building to a stretcher. It wasn't even brought to the front of the building I was in. There was zero excuse for this other than cruelty. I remember they were not able to give me any good explanation for why they couldn't bring the stretcher to where I laid. I had zero energy to walk, but I somehow did. I never thought I would make it. As I said, that was the single most painful and horrible day of my life.

I almost died at 14. But here I am.

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Fast forwarding again to 2014, I was mid-bachelor's . I was well on my way to self discovery via this incredible world of medicine that I loved long before I needed it myself. I was never a great math student, so I needed to take things a bit slower and focus very hard. I remember my very first time struggling with math in 4th grade. I understood everything that was going on, took a test, and my teacher sullenly and gently told me I got every question wrong. I've struggled tremendously and worked hard at math ever since, but it wasn't enough. I remember a 7th grade math teacher told me I couldn't do anything except add and subtract. Ouch! I was pushed back to the lowest level math, and somehow managed to progress in school. I was pretty good at everything else, especially creative subjects and writing. In college, the struggle continued. I would study in the math lab up to 8 hours every day/night after my regular classes. When the math tutors went home, I went home. Sometimes I would have to work out on the soccer field or in the athletic training clinic until midnight. I would then take a bus home- if I was even able to catch the last bus. Sometimes I couldn't and was stranded at school, exhausted and hungry. I was also waking up at 5:50 AM to catch the morning bus to make it to my Emergency Response class at 8. Not fun times. But I always loved medicine. I tried twice and failed miserably at Chemistry, a prerequisite for almost any kind of medical school.

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Also during this time, I had a nutritionists, horrible appetite suppressants, and self-hate (along with blame coming from others), only to find that the efforts to exercise more and eat less made me gain weight and lose muscle mass!!! As it turns out, increased cortisol and stress from exercising and excessive dieting makes people gain weight and it eats up muscle. I was never very big, but I was still not in my own body. I WAS AN ATHLETE. I loved veggies, and was obsessed with health by the time I was 12. This is so sad. I believe that one of the worst and most painful diseases in the world is anorexia. I didn't look anorexic, but that was because of 2 underlying health conditions that I will reveal below. So at age 20, medical science failed my own physiology, and my nutritionist accused me of cheating on my diet. And from then on, I learned even more to only deeply trust myself. Even if no answers were present yet. Not every specialist has a broad understanding of the complexities of the body and genetics.  

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A year or two after graduation when I was in my mid 20's, I was back online, searching for an explanation as to why I was gaining weight in my legs- not my stomach like in PCOS. For whatever reason, I must have finally typed in the right phrases in regards to weight and legs, because the answer appeared in front of me. It was never suggested before, and I never heard of it in my entire life.

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LIPEDEMA:

An adipose tissue disease almost exclusively affecting women, where there is a proliferation of fat cells in the legs, depositing bilaterally and evenly. It gives a very nodular, cellulite texture and can be very painful, even with light touch. It can create 'column legs' and ankle cuffs for some. It happens in stages, and in the worst case can turn into lipo-lymphedema. It clinically differs from all other diseases including obesity and lymphedema. Lymphedema involves stagnant lymphatic fluid in the intracellular matrix. Lipedema is fluid and fat built up inside the fat cells themselves, and growing exponentially. It is a truly devastating and demoralizing disease. I almost starved and died from this disease. This condition is different than lymphedema, where fluids collect outside the cell wall and can be drained and manipulated with certain therapies. The only treatment that I have ever seen help is surgery-liposuction, and to a mild degree, the ketogenic diet. But the  diet will likely only burn up regular fat tissue, and not diseased lipedema tissue. It is NOT the same as regular adipose tissue, and behaves differently as well. It is not connected to the fat-burning metabolism. Keto can help the surrounding regular fat tissue interspersed in the legs.  

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A sensation washed over me. I knew this was me. The feeling of getting my first answer was unparalleled and unimaginably gratifying. I read articles furiously that week and told nobody of my discovery. I had to make sure. It took a few months to find the right kind of doctor who knew about and could diagnose lipedema. I saw a great vascular doctor, Dr. Carmel Celestin at Cleveland Clinic. I said nothing about my new discovery, wanting an objective opinion. I told her my symptoms; bilateral and increasing leg adiposity, easy bruising and leg pain. She did a full evaluation and then looked at me. She said "Have you ever heard of Lipedema?" And I got my first official diagnosis.  My oldest brother, being a lawyer, encouraged verification. I went for a second opinion and got the same objective answer. Lipedema. I went to see America's best lipedema specialist, Dr. Karen Louise Herbst in Arizona- a place I vowed, for other reasons, I would never return to. She gave me two full hours of her undivided attention, and I learned an incredible amount from her. She diagnosed me with lipedema and Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (EDS) on the same day. Revolutionary.  Dr. Herbst was the first person to suggest I also and POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), which was the kind of dysautonomia (dysfunctional nervous system) that I would later be diagnosed with. This was the third puzzle piece. I was finally able to go for testing a few years later.

 

Ehlers Danlos Syndrome:

This a genetic condition involving a collagen mutation. To oversimplify this, EDSers are very hypermobile with slow wound healing. Anything with collagen is affected (ligaments, bone, stomach lining, and skin). This even explained my other GI symptoms. Looking back, this was why I tore my ACL in the first place and had knee surgery. I could barely walk for 3 years, and then had a very difficult time healing after knee surgery.  My grandfather also got knee surgery at the same exact time as me, and he healed 6 months faster than me. It took me 12 months to heal and walk normally again. The PTs never understood why I still needed crutches a few weeks after surgery, and I never knew I wasn't supposed to need them anymore. I did physical exercises meant for others in the same healing timeframe I was in, only my body wasn't healing fast enough and wasn't ready. So some of the PT actually set me back to the beginning of the healing process.  It was very painful but eventually helped so much. I was inspired by the profession  and understood that it was also holistic in nature.  A side note about how serious these conditions are, they have each, individually almost killed me, as I previously mentioned the worst day of my life, and other aforementioned instances.

 

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Back to being in my mid 20's, I watched some of Dr. Berg's videos on keto and insulin resistance. I thought of how simple life would be if that were my problem. To just know... I called his radio talkshow and told him my symptoms; constant inflammation and my new lipedema diagnosis. He told me that any time there is inflammation, consider that there is insulin resistance (IR). I said I was checked so many times for that but it came back normal. I learned about the Home-IR test and how to test it properly. It can take up to 13 years to detect an insulin problem, and by then, one could be in serious danger of having diabetes. Doctors always test fasting glucose (blood sugar), but the body learns to spike insulin to clear the glucose from the blood, therefore making everything seem normal. Eventually, the body gets tired of pumping out so much insulin, and the cells become immune to it, that excess glucose is left in the blood-which happens only after so many years of exposure. Glucose is not the best way to test. The fist sign of IR will be INSULIN. Fasting insulin should be tested.

 

 

Shortly after, I found the most incredible and brilliant doctor who I truly credit for saving my life- Dr. Gloria Moreira. She happened to test everything all in the right way, and we discovered I had insulin resistance. Not only that, but she evaluated my genetics and discovered genetic predispositions for diabetes and heart disease. Immediate action ensued, and as per her recommendations, I began keto and intermittent fasting (IF). For the very first time in my entire life, I cracked the code of my own physiology, learned how insulin works, what and when to eat, and lost weight! 15 pounds is a lot for someone who never lost a single pound in their entire life- even with misconstrued attempts at self-deprecation and starvation. 

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I highly encourage others to follow Dr. Berg, Thomas Delauer, and Dr. Jason Fung on YouTube. 

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After (F-I-N-A-L-L-Y) graduating Magna Cum Laude with my BS in Psychology during my mid 20's, (and after other prerequisites in the previous years), I prepared all summer and took a physics course. During this time, I was informed that all my prerequisites and course credits had expired!!! It felt like 8 years wasted. But that's not what made me quit. If I needed to re-take some courses, I would. I was seriously relentless in accomplishing my goals. There was only one PT school in the whole country that might accept me and that didn't require Chemistry, just Physics. So I went for it. What made me quit was a realization I got from a feeling. A month into Physics 101, I felt the familiar and uncomfortable feeling that I was a freshman again for the third time, starting my college experience from scratch like everyone around me. The last 8 years flashed before me, and I thought about everything that has happened, everything I did to get this far. It was too much for such little reward. I was miserable, sitting in this classroom as I would have 8 years ago. I needed creativity and passion back in my life. I realized I no longer cared about being a DPT.  I wasn't willing to spend another second being miserable for the minute chances of being accepted into a school that would further beat me into a pulp. 

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I stood up and walked out of that classroom, acknowledging that I was changing my life by doing so, and that the future was completely uncertain. The whole process made me really trust in my intuition and accept that it was okay not to know the future- I would be the person I was meant to be, regardless. I would find a way to help others how I wanted to. I just didn't really know...how. 

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Short story long...

This begins the journey to a new self-REdiscovery. After stopping college and beating myself into the ground, I figured I would try something new in the meantime while I waited for my big epiphany to happen. I took a year, during which I decided to become a private investigator (PI). I finished the course and completed the exam with a perfect score. After a lot of job hunting, I couldn't get hired, thus preventing me from completing the 2 year required internship for licensure. I had to put that job aside as well. It was actually only at this point that I went through the pulmonary testing with no answers and essentially quit my whole life.  If college taught me anything, it is that it's okay to stop one path to find another. Actually, a beautiful soul I met on the first day of junior college, Raina, taught me that. I guess the lesson came full circle. She said, "If you ever find yourself on one path but need to start a different one, don't be afraid to change directions. Ever." Change is a good thing. Not all 'quitting' is bad. It liberates me so much to say that I quit my whole life and started a new one. Thank you for those wise words and confirmation, Raina. I quit school, had to quit martial arts due to extreme fatigue and dyspnea, quit PI, quit being a pescatarian which I was for 10 years and started keto, quit my painfully failing long-term relationship, and quit even the very place I lived. I packed up my life and drove 13 hours in one shot to a new and beautiful destination. I chose to  live in the place where I feel I became an adult at the age of 16. This was a place where I attended wilderness camp, where I learned about myself,  others, and the world. Maybe even a bit about the universe and how I fit into it. (But that's a whole other story). 

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25 days after moving here, I made a major decision that begins a new book. Not a new chapter, but a whole other story within my life. It was a clear break. The moment of my epiphany was to arrive. I was still working with Dr. Gloria Moreira, as she held more answers and solutions than anyone I've ever met, (alongside Dr. Herbst). She inspired me to redirect my efforts back to my original plan and passion- holistic medicine. It didn't matter than I had no idea how to achieve this goal. I was already liberated from all other career paths. I wrote up a list of all possible things I could do, and the thing I circled about 10 times that I wanted to do the most was

 

MEDICINE

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I had to do it. I also saw absolutely no way to do it, seeing as all ND schools were not available to me. It just so happened that when I moved, I moved in with a cousin of mine who was close friends with one of the CEOs of a school called Quantum University. Being the skeptic I was, I researched for hours every day for about 2 weeks. My initial conclusions are far from the conclusions I have today. I am so incredibly grateful for being able to attend this school and that someone had the courage and wisdom to start it 20 years ago (as I write this in 2021). I'm so grateful that there exists a school not exclusively for people who are severely left-brained. It is a place where I can learn medicine, and also think outside the box for creative healing. Since medical solutions are not 1 size fits all, creativity is absolutely needed. When this doesn't happen, you get people who fall outside the criteria for conditions (and are limited to what conditions those might be), and get discharged still being unwell. Or perhaps discharged for the 10th time for the same problem. I want to decrease this problem. This school is a school that offers a dual degree program in natural medicine: DNM- Doctor of Natural Medicine, and a Phd in Natural Medicine. I am completing both. 

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I never thought there was a form of medicine that could get deeper, more root-cause than naturopathic medicine. But as it turns out, this model, as amazing as it is, and as much as it offers a very wide variety of holistic modalities, is still based on a western medical model which deals only with the physical-and in 30 minutes or less. But what about the physical? Like...actual PHYSICS? And at the same time, something completely un-physical, but energetic? Even electric? This is when I discovered quantum physics. What I'm learning in quantum medicine is tying together all forms of medicine in a beautifully eloquent scientific model that is redefining the way people are healing. The quantum doctor's philosophies are based on the quantum model, where we are very much more than just our physical bodies, and those fields, those forms of energy that flow through us, connect to the physical in ways that can be empirically seen and tested. Please read my blog titled 'Quantum Medicine' to learn more about this high-tech, innovative, and ancient medical field. Without getting too specific, there are well-documented physical and philosophical theories behind the notion of consciousness and energy and how that relates to our bodies and selves. I never realized until recently how relevant and useful my degree in Psychology is! It's all coming together. I've been using my medical and physics knowledge to self-heal. Every new discovery adds to my tool belt to benefit my future healees.  I am now learning how to blend traditional Chinese medicine with Ayurveda, indigenous Hawaiian medicine, energy medicine, and current medical knowledge into a special field called natural medicine and psychoneuroimmunology.

 

Sometimes, the root cause is not something one can see,

and that is deep.

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XO, Basha 

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A little PS, from Einstein;

 

"Everything is energy and that’s all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics".

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                                                      Epilogue

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But wait! I can hardly call this an epilogue. The course of my life will indeed be long, and this is merely the amuse bouche.

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You're probably wondering what happened with my exercise intolerance (heart) journey.

At least, if you've made it this far, you are. As I complete this bio with my epilogue on September, 2021, there have been new developments. About half a year into my medical studies, I was reading a chapter in my textbook on heart rate variability. That's when I had a major eureka moment and realized it was my nervous system that was functioning improperly! Of course! I learned all of this in Anatomy in undergrad. The brain controls everything. I then sought a neurologist right away. I was given a massive, several-hour-long test called the full Autonomic Function Test. This has been the most difficult medical test so far.

 

This definitely had to be my golden answer!! 

An explanation for why it is I have no stamina whatsoever and get severe chest pain.

 

This includes a tilt table test to see what my brain and neurotransmitters (brain hormones) are doing when my position shifts. In POTS, the brain can accidentally signal too much stimulatory hormones to secrete while doing simple tasks. I was seeking a POTS diagnosis, as it was suggested by Dr. Herbst. This was much more specific than simply dysautonomia, although how correct it was. Those with POTS have orthostatic intolerance and can get dizzy or faint upon getting up. There are too many other symptoms to list. So, this tilt table test also incorporated a blood draw to test epinephrine and norepinephrine (adrenalin, noradrenalin). Then there was a valsalva test to measure heart rate variability, an EEG to see brain waves, a nerve conduction test, and an EMG (electromyograph), which is the most painful thing EVER. And guess what?

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