Inspired by Sheila’s letters to her former self, I would also like to share some of my life lessons. I feel particularly inspired to share what I’ve learned from the 20 years of mistakes I made, which left me with a self-induced curved spine. Hence, My Back Story.
To start, I want to let you know that I am physically and mentally in a good place now. I am not a medical professional, and nothing shared on Imperfectly Honest should be construed as medical advice. See our full legal disclaimer. I am sharing my own experience in the hope that others will avoid similar missteps and connect the dots with their own health.
As I mentioned in my previous post, for the first 40 years of my life, I tried so hard to be the person I thought I should be that I unintentionally altered the shape of my spine. This perfectly poetic but potentially permanent medical phenomenon is a constant reminder of my failure to find the literal and figurative backbone I need to be “me”. Twenty years of health- and non-health-related events led up to this spine curvature, which I am happy to share in great detail with anyone who is interested. I will attempt to share the TLDR version here.
I started my first business at 22. I’m wired to be a fast-moving, high-achieving entrepreneur; however, I’m not actually wired to work a desk job. I like to move and be outside, so I spent the first part of my career spending eight to ten hours in the office like I thought I “should”, while also training for long-distance triathlons to fuel my need to move. I failed to sleep enough. I failed to stretch enough. I failed to strength train enough. I would just sit all day and then run out the door to get moving.
When I was about 25, my body started to break down. My thyroid health plummeted, and my body stopped producing adequate hormones. My doctor told me that I was exercising too much and that I needed to gain weight. I wasn’t clinically underweight, but coincidentally, I was trying to get pregnant (I’ve since determined that being a mother is not my calling, but that is a whole ’nother story), so I decided that gaining weight was worth a try. I was also dealing with an SI joint injury, so I was forced to dramatically cut back on my exercise. I maintained a higher weight with little endurance exercise for an entire year, but my thyroid and hormone health did not improve.
Looking back on this through the lens of current thyroid- and hormone-related health science, I now realize that I was a sleep-deprived and stressed entrepreneur with questionable eating habits that likely contributed to my inability to heal. Additionally, I am genetically predisposed to GI issues, and my hormone and thyroid issues exacerbated this. For more on the correlation between sleep and gut and mental health, and thyroid and hormone health, I highly recommend The Adrenal Transformation Protocol. For a teaser, you can listen to this podcast episode.
My SI joint injury, thyroid, hormone, and GI issues started the vicious cycle of inflammation that created instability in my spine and misalignment in my hips, which caused mild discomfort for nearly 20 years.
Because I was simply “too busy”, I largely ignored these symptoms for nearly 20 years until I learned that I had a very large malignant ovarian tumor. I had surgery to remove that tumor and my left ovary. Knock on wood, I have been cancer-free since. However, about a year after the surgery, the pain down my left leg grew worse, and I started to experience pain through my entire upper-left side as well. Imaging revealed that my spine had curved to make room for the tumor and created muscle and tendon tears because it had been rubbing up against my shoulder blade. As icing on the cake, my curved spine was brushing up against my sciatic nerve, making it excruciating to sit.
As someone addicted to endurance sports endorphins, who had spent 20 years designing a social and professional life that revolved around active outdoor sports, this diagnosis was devastating. The fact that I enabled my spine to wreak this havoc by ignoring my health issues made this diagnosis debilitating.
I have learned and am still learning many lessons from this experience, which I hope to share with you through our podcast and blog. Subscribe to stay tuned.
