Hello and Welcome to Vital Rejuvenation!
Many of you are here because you are seeking a simpler approach to Health and Wellness. You may be losing that glow and polish you had in your youth. You may feel poorly and want to optimize your health.
I, too, have a similar story……
We all have journeys in life, they are never a straight line and often with many twists and turns along the way.
My journey began relatively late in life, I started medical school at the age of 32, when many of my colleagues were still in their early 20’s. Penn State College of Medicine was my school of choice and I remained there at Hershey Medical Center for my residency in surgery. This was followed by a rigorous two year fellowship in Breast Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
Despite all of that training, hospital medicine was not my niche. Therefore, I began a career in bedside wound care in Central Florida.
While 11+ year of medical/surgical training had taken its toll, I had passion for patient care and the discipline to back me up. I added one facility after another to reach as many patients as possible. It was during this time that I met my husband, Don.
When we met, I was rounding in 12 buildings a week, seeing approximately 80 patients per week, and exercising 3-4 times a week. Proudly, I took on more buildings to see more patients…at one point I was in 18 buildings a week with a patient load of 120-140. As you may guess, exercise had stopped. I was on the self-induced, Western Medicine treadmill of professional achievement.
Soon after getting married, I began to gain weight. I was no longer exercising, and was eating a fast food diet. I was a stressed out, burned out, insomniac beginning the early stages of perimenopause and didn’t realize it. Much to my husband’s chagrin, I kept on pushing my career.
Antidepressants, sleep aids, focus medications, and pills for reflux would get me through it……
Through what?
Another 10 years since training had passed and I started really looking closely at the patients I had been treating. Many of them were demented with little to no movement, or even bed-bound. They were taking upwards of 20 medications a day and their diets consisted of pureed mush. The majority had diarrhea and loose stools, so I knew they weren’t absorbing most of their medications. More importantly, they had lost their vitality.
Fear welled up within me as I slowly realized my ultimate fate. “How did they get here?” was constantly on my mind. How could I prevent that similar path, how could I make sure that didn’t happen to me?
The weight piled on and the hot flashes began…..my 20 year dose of thyroid Levothyroxine was no longer working, I couldn’t sleep, I couldn’t relax, and I began to get irritable.
Poor Don, all he could do was love me through it. One doctor said this, another said that……I was the definition of a “hot mess” to say the least.
My next journey began when I found A4M. The American Academy of Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine taught me what I had suspected all along…..medications weren’t necessarily the answer.
Pharmaceutical medications are intended to treat a condition that then goes away. But, why were so many of my patients still on these meds and getting worse? There seemed to be a great disconnect between treatment of a condition and its resolution – in fact, there was no resolution!
Well, I certainly wanted resolution!……I was up to 5 or 6 medications and I did not want anymore.
A4M taught me to take back my life, make adjustments in how I was living it, and regain my vitality. I learned to breathe again, take breaks, walk in the fresh air, and relax more. I learned to eat better and stay away from foods that irritated my thyroid condition. I learned about bioidentical hormones and proper supplementation and how critical they are due to our poor Western diet. I learned how to integrate healthcare and vitality for myself, and I can share that Knowledge with you!
