Sandra was diagnosed with juvenile rheumatoid arthritis at the age of eight. Today, she also lives with osteoarthritis.
Arthritis has shaped many aspects of her life and has driven her to inspire others to thrive with different types of this disease.
As a radio and podcast host and producer, moderator and family caregiver, Sandra strives to create awareness about arthritis and the importance of arthritis research. Be sure to check out her podcast Chronically Driven, A podcast about being in the driver's seat when it comes to our health and wellbeing, mind body and soul and check out Arthritis Wellness Conversations https://www.arthritisresearch.ca/arthritis-wellness-conversations/
Follow her on Instagram and connect with her @ChronicallyDriven
September is chronic pain awareness month, and we welcome back Darren to talk more about his story living with chronic pain. Darren talks about living in chronic pain and how most painkillers don't actually work! He talks about the ups and downs of living with chronic pain, and his medical story! Connect with him by sending him an email darrenradke44@gmail.com check out his book here: https://www.amazon.com/Deceived-Within-Living-APS-Lupus/dp/1663222932
Celiac disease runs all over in Deanna's family, starting with her father-in-law, then to her brother-in-law, her daughter and son. Her daughter was six years old when she was diagnosed, she looked very unhealthy and had major gut problems but now she is very healthy - 10 years later, thriving as a 16-year-old! Strangely enough, her daughter decided to do a science project on Celiac disease and found out that her brother also had celiac!
Deanna's Journey with her family has certainly had its ups and downs, and they now have a great system in place to make sure that no one is harmed by their disease. She is excited that there are so many more options out there to consume for her kids, and her family for as well as so many different resources available.
She is a part of different blogs to learn more about the disease and the different products available for her family. If you have any comments or questions or want to get in touch with Deanna feel free to send her an email at DThorogood22@gmail.com. And check out these awesome links www.celiac.ca
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/canadianceliacassociation
This is Julie, she has lived with Lyme disease, she was diagnosed in 2016 after 6 years of misdiagnosis. After her trip to Asia, she quickly became sick, dealing with so many different physical symptoms, as well as major mental health struggles as well. She lived with depression and anxiety for years, and it wasn't until she worked with a naturopath that helped her get her diagnosis with lyme, who then helped her get in touch with a Lyme literate doctor. Indicating that she had Lyme and malaria, parasites and Epstein bar. So she started a 10 month protocol, a very expensive out of pocket protocol at that! This protocol was constantly changing her physical health and mental wellbeing. The Herxing effect was immense that caused so many severe psychological effects, she mentions that the words depression and anxiety don't even describe the effects that she was living with, feeling bouts of manic and psychosis - a complete roller coaster. She lives day to day, good days and bad days but continues to stay strong for herself and advocating for others.
ATTENTION: Some explicit content, at 14mins with his story and how he passed away.
I don't normally talk about his story, for whatever reason, but mental health, especially in the chronic community is so important! My brother passed away of suicide back in 2008, he was 19. I'm so grateful that I was able to spend 18 years of my own life with him, growing up with a brother even though today it is quite sad. I do go over what it's like experiencing suicide, living with him and without him, so many emotions and feelings that I have gone through after experiencing suicide. I also do talk about very specifically how he passed away so if you are having a great day, maybe listen to this podcast on another day.
I appreciate everyone's support and thank you so much for listening to my story and following this podcast.
Follow me @CureChronic and if you have a story to tell check out my website www.CureChronic.com
It took 5 years for someone to just listen to him. He was finally diagnosed with APS and lupus, he struggled for years with being misdiagnosed, given medications that weren’t helping plus being manipulated by specialist, once he found out his true diagnosis he was finally able to take some control over his life and his health. He nows lives on disability, which was a struggle on its own to acheive, and as he says it’s not all what its cracked out to be. But he was able to write a book about his story and all of the troubles he went through.
Connect with Darren and send him an email at darrenradke44@gmail.com
Check out his APS and Lupus Fighter Logo merchandise: https://www.cafepress.com/apsfoundation/17161390
Be sure to follow his blog: apsandlupusfighter.blogspot.com
Lastly check our his book!
Amazon: Deceived from Within: Living with APS and Lupus: Radke, Darren: 9781663222930: Amazon.com: Books
Barnes & Noble: Deceived from Within: Living with Aps and Lupus by Darren Radke, Paperback | Barnes & Noble® (barnesandnoble.com)
iUniverse: Deceived from Within By Darren Radke (iuniverse.com)
After 6 years, she was finally diagnosed with Endometriosis. Doubled over in pain every month with her periods, she was always told that “it will get better as you get older”. Her pain was so traumatic it caused more than just problems with her uterus, she experienced vomiting, bowel problems and more. She dealt with trial and error drugs, and felt like no one cared about her pain and what she was experiencing. After years she would fight with doctors, because of their ignorance towards Endo, she felt like the doctors wanted to just mask the symptoms, with no action of what they are going to do about the problem. She started feeling crazy, like she was making up her symptoms. She had to stand up and tell these people that she knows her body best! Listen to her story, and be sure to connect with Dee on Instagram @endowarrior_x
Lauren has Lyme, POTS and EDS plus she is allergic to everything! Living with both diseases, she lived with a huge sense of loss and not being able to live the life she used to live, not being able to eat the foods she wants to eat - she has had to completely alter everything in her life! Her silver lining is discovering her new passions in life, after being diagnosed. Her love for nutrition and cooking, being creative in the kitchen and how she can make the foods she eats tolerable for her but tasty! Plus connecting with so many amazing new people, that understand what she is going through! She does PT and pilates to help her EDS and she tries to incorporate and manage her lyme through diet and supplementation, using an infrared sauna really helps her as well. Be sure to connect with her on insta @lesswithlaur or send her an email: lesswithlaur@gmail.com
It is so important to have a self care regime, especially to keep up healthy when we are healthy. If there is a way we can prevent illness, prevent hospital visits and flare-ups then that is what we need to do. Be sure to follow Sandra @ChronicallyDriven and check out her podcast Chronically Driven!
Alex has been living with endometriosis and thoracic disease since she was 14. Although her mother dealt with the same disease, it still took the doctors 5 1/2 years to diagnose Alex. Unfortunately she dealt with gaslighting, not being believed or being told lies about the disease causing her to suffer for 5 1/2 years with symptoms, without a diagnosis and without any type of treatment. On average, globally, it takes 7 to 10 years to get a diagnosis for endometriosis and approximately 1 in every 10 women have endo. However, because of the time it takes to get a diagnosis Alex believes that that statistic about endometriosis is much higher. Especially due to the fact that 40 to 50% of infertile women actually have endometriosis.
Alex started the endometriosis foundation of Canada in order to start advocating for women in Canada but also all over the world to help reduce this lengthy diagnosis time and help women all over the world with this medical condition!
Check out Endo Canada: www.endometriosiscanada.com
Follow Alex On Facebook and Instagram - yellowbowsxo
Sandra is the voice of the podcast Chronically Driven and in this podcast we get to hear a bit more about my story, what I learned and how important self care it! Be sure to listen to her podcast and how we are in the driver's seat to our health and wellness and follow Sandra on Instagram @ChronicallyDriven!
Diagnosed with Ulcerative Colitis when she was 22 years old Kim actually went into remission for years and forgot about having the disease!
After years gone by she started to have some really strange symptoms and she was told that it was her female parts (unreal!) Then FINALLY they told her these symptoms are caused from her Ulcerative Colitis! Her symptoms became increasingly worse as the she dealt with major stress from a custody battle for her daughter. Then in 2016 she had excruciating pain and was told that she was overreacting about the amount of blood she was passing and pain she was experiencing. Thankfully she is mostly in remission from medication and has her own podcast called This is Your City! Check it out at ThisisYourCity.ca and follow her on Instagram @thisisyourcitynow
From getting skin cancer diagnosis, to Hashimotos from black mold, she has learned to take care of herself, by listening to her body more, and understanding what foods she is putting in her body. Diet and exercise are tools to use to heal the body, but understanding that exercise can be a stressor as well. Releasing the stress in the way our bodies can, and learning when the body says no and how important down time is! Listen to your body, the experts don’t always have the best answers for YOU. https://wholistichealthboss.com and Instagram: @Wholistichealthboss
After not healing from a shoulder surgery in 2012, to being misdiagnosed with a neurological disorder then having to go to the Mayo Clinic to find some answers. Then being put on all kinds of medications to control seizures, tremors and more, but Lisa knew that the medication was not working, or helping. The docs were just trying to find medications to mask the symptoms, instead of diagnosing the actual problem. She finally had to take her health into her own hands by researching her medications that she was on, and getting answers for herself. As Lisa started to advocate for herself, she was getting the run around from her doctors, leaving her with more questions than answers. Her health deteriorated so badly, that she thought she was going to die. She found out that part of her health deteriorating was due to medical negligence. She finally decided to get a whole knew medical team, that she was going to interview and when she started being taken off medication, she soon realized that these medications were masking symptoms of severe POTS and EDS, as well as a major heart defect from birth! From her experience, she now has the ability to advocate for herself, and ask more questions and stand up for her life and her health.” Connect with her on instagram @conroy_lgc and she just launched her website and respectively rant! ChronicallyConroy.com
After walking her dog through a trail in Connecticut, she found a tick on her neck 5 days later! (Yikes!) then after 30 days later she started getting very sick with all sorts of different, and very strange symptoms! As the illness got better and got worse, she saw her doctor and got tested several times for lyme and it kept coming back negative! Overtime she kept getting worse, after getting tests and more tests done for a year straight she started losing hope. But then she took matters into her own hands and sought out a Lyme literate doctor that she paid for out of pocket. The doctor said “You are classic Lyme disease, Gina” and she felt a surge of relief. However, that was just the start of a journey with Lyme!
Follow her to learn her story with Lyme on Instagram @GinaVallesFit Check out her new venture on Instagram @immunewarrior_ and be sure to follow her fitness studio on Instagram @ginas_total_fitness
Getting back into the swing of things! Here's a bit of an update for me and I want to know what are you going to do? Are you getting the COVID Vaccine, or are you not? Let me know, connect with me on Instagram and Facebook @CureChronic or send me an email Info@CureChronic.com I am super interested to know your opinion and what your plan is! Finally a Big Shout Out to all of the advocates out there making a difference and changing lives, because of you we are creating this massive chronic community to help so many people with what they are going through, and making life better for others AMAZING!
If you have a story to tell about surgery, or some life altering experience book a time slot for a podcast here: https://www.curechronic.com/book-online
This year has been a crazy year and here we all thought that 2020 was bad! Starting this January I started feeling a bit of a flare coming on, and I was doing everything I could to help stop it, eating healthy, doing more meditation, exercise etc. But the stress of this year just became too much and the fear of the flare getting worse took over, and the flare got worse. I ended up in the hospital on the 25th of March for three weeks, in the middle of the flare up I ended up switching GI doctors, which I am so grateful for my new GI specialist, shout out to Dr. Chalmers-Nixon out of Fernie BC, you saved my life. While I was in hospital in Calgary, the GI team started me on Xalgenz, but after 5 days we found out it was not working and that prednisone was giving me this fake feeling of getting better, so on Good Friday, Easter weekend, I met with the surgical team and discussed having a full colectomy, to take out my entire colon. I have never had major surgery like this before, so it was very much a shock to me. I ended up having the surgery on April 5th and recovered in hospital that week, and was able to come home April 11th. I have been getting better and better each day, good days and bad days still, but I feel like I am getting my strength back and I am feeling back to my normal self again. Listen to my story and how everything happened so fast. *Yikes!* -Becky
Melissa is #Lyme warrior, entrepreneur, wellness fanatic, Voice First Pioneer and TedX Speaker. To say she is busy in as understatement, because she is also a Mom of 2 boys, and a published author. In business Melissa is the founder of The Güüd Company - a voice-first wellness company. Find our Flash Briefing, "Today's Health Tip" for Amazon Alexa or as a podcast on iTunes. Founder at The Scoop, Inc. based in Princeton New Jersey as PrincetonScoop, a hyper-local Social Media Marketing Consultancy. Founder of RestoreOurShore.com, a philanthropic movement in 2012 which raised and dispersed funds directly to charities in NJ hardest hit by Hurricane Sandy.
She is currently battling a lyme relapse and sharing the journey on Instagram and Clubhouse.
Be sure to follow her journey on Clubhouse: @melissaklepacki
Check out her website: www.wellnesswarriors.club
The The Güüd Company on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheGuudCompany
Instagram: @melissahallklepacki
LinkedIN: @melissahallklepacki
In 2019, after a year of life changing events; pregnancy loss, family loss, and a major job change, Rachel began experiencing numb/tingly hands and feet, vision loss (diagnosed as Optic Neuritis), and extreme brain fog and fatigue. Two months later, after many tests Rachel was diagnosed at 29 years old with Relapsing Remitting Multiple Sclerosis (RRMS). Now a year and a half later, Rachel is taking more control of her diagnosis and overall health and well-being living with MS. Through the support of her family, friends, community, and fellow warriors she has gained new perspectives on life with MS. She has become an activist for MS and Chronic Disease Awareness, championing her own team for Walk MS for the last two years. Rachel loves connecting with others and building a network of support – connect with her on social media!
@ms__rach (Instagram)
We welcome back Shamitris this episode and she has wonderful news about her journey into remission! Though it seemed like a long one, her story unfolds unexpected truths and hardships that she is grateful to have gone through. Be sure to connect with her on instagram @Shamitris and check out her story with Adenomyosis.