Lost Hope to Lullabies

“My mom had a hysterectomy, all seven of her sisters had hysterectomies and the majority of my older cousins have them too,” Krista says as she explains that endometriosis runs high in her family. “Of course, I would have endometriosis too.” She always wanted a big family, but the pain made her fearful of her own cycles and the possibilities for her future. Would a family be in her future with her family’s history?

Krista remembers laying on her couch in her early twenties. She was in so much pain she called her mom telling her that she wanted a hysterectomy. “I’m never going to fall in love anyway. Never getting married and never going to have babies.”

It had started as soon as she started her menstrual cycles. She says, they were miserable from the beginning. They were super inconsistent, always really heavy bleeding and clotting. She would get them often and sometimes twice a month.

She was exhausted during her periods because she had to get up hourly through the night to change her pads and tampons.  “Literally, the amount of blood I would lose in an hour or two is the same normal girls have for their whole cycle,” says Krista. “I would be in so much pain. I felt like I could hardly function through my cycles.”

She gave up on athletics to focus on music and other pursuits where her period would not get in the way. Where she knew the bathroom would be close by. Nobody knew how she felt.

Endometriosis and Unhealthy

Everyone who knew Krista thought she was the healthiest person they knew. She ate right, got 8 hours of sleep, drank lots of water and exercised every day. Something was off. Not only hormonally but she had digestive and thyroid problems too. She didn’t feel healthy.

She tried changing her diet, buying organic hygiene products, and eating organic yet nothing was working. Well some of it worked for a bit to alleviate some symptoms but not totally. She cut out gluten and felt better. Then there would be days she had watched her diet carefully but felt “glutened.”

“I thought I had no options except to suffer through this,” says Krista.  Her digestive issues, thyroid issues along with the hormone concerns left her frustrated and unhealthy.

When a tumor was found on her thyroid, she thought that might be what was causing her hypothyroid symptoms. She was sent to a specialist who told her half her thyroid had to come out. She underwent surgery and after it was over she still had symptoms. The doctors told her she was all better and her hormone levels were normal. “But I didn’t feel better,” says Krista.

Nothing Was Changing

Now think about this. Can you imagine not feeling healthy and having a doctor tell you there is nothing wrong with you? Seems like something isn’t right with that.

Her mom insisted she talk to her doctor again about her periods. The doctor told her the endometriosis was damaging her uterus and it was going to be very difficult for her to have babies one day, if she was even able to conceive. Then her doctor told her she had to go on birth control. This masked the symptoms but did not change the fact that her body wasn’t functioning.

When she fell in love she thought even more about how her body wasn’t functioning. Then they got engaged and the question loomed larger.  How hard would it be to be off birth control? Would she even be able to have a baby? When she got married to her love she knew if they wanted to have a family she would have to get off birth control to try, and she was terrified.

A New Approach

That’s when she started seeing postings on Facebook from her friend Nicole who was posting about Pathway To Wellness. They had been friends for years and both went on to nursing school. What Nicole was posting seemed to be a different approach than what was taught in medical school.  One Krista had been looking for.

Krista had to find out more, so she scheduled a consultation. She learned right away about the Swiss Watch Principle. The human body is like a Swiss watch. It is very complex and composed of many, many parts. If even the smallest gear is off it can impact everything including the bigger gears. Most noteworthy, the gears are working together.

She saw Nicole at Pathway To Wellness who tested her hormones, took a full look at the thyroid and test it properly to get a complete picture. They also tested her food allergies and found out she had a lot of them that were causing problems.

“It feels good to finally have solutions and answers not just a band-aid slapped over signs and symptoms,” says Krista.

“Now we know what’s wrong and how to help my body fix it,” says Krista. By cutting out food allergies, doing a detox and using supplements to support her thyroid consequently they got the gears of the watch moving together.

A Healthy Body

Nicole told her it would be hard the first few months after she went off her birth control as her body balanced out. “I was nervous to go off my birth control knowing it would be bad,” says Krista. “The first time I had a normal period I was so excited I called Nicole. This is what it’s like? I can live and go about my day and not feel like I’m bleeding to death, and function!”

She no longer had the symptoms of hypothyroidism that doctors had dismissed telling her she was normal. Also, her digestive system was working well. She was off the birth control so she and her husband thought, “Why don’t we just stop preventing pregnancy.”

Now Krista and her husband are expecting a baby girl.  “It was fast. I think it was just 2 months,” says Krista. “It just happened.”

“I’ve always wanted a family,” says Krista. They are just focused on the one, for now, but Krista is excited about all the possibilities of her new health. “Allowing my body to do what it was meant to do on its own.”

And Baby Makes 3!

(updated with a photo of baby Zoe on June 5, 2018! Congratulations happy parents!)