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The Beginning
When I was 16 years old I was a normal healthy teenager, I was ranked first on my school's tennis team and was very athletic. I had always ached and struggled with minor pain but it was never anything serious. When I returned to tennis my senior year everything was different, I couldn’t move like I used to. I started playing all of my games wrapped in braces and struggling to be the player I used to me. This pain increased and continued to get worse over the next few years until I could barely make it through the day. The pain and fatigue was overwhelming, it felt that it took all of my energy to just exist.
The First Diagnosis
When I was 22, I was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, it was a relief to finally know what was wrong with me, but I knew that Lyme was going to be a lifelong struggle. Following this diagnosis my life flipped upside down, I was forced to withdraw from a graduate program I had committed to at Western University and focus on my health. I was put on strong antibiotics for over a year and during that year I spent my time in bed, too sick to get up completely engulfed in my illness. I watched life move on without me, forgetting I was even there. The isolation and loneliness that I felt was something that I will never forget.
The Other Diagnoses
After years overwhelming neck pain, hopeful procedures, confused doctors and random dislocations I was officially diagnosed with Hypermobile Ehlers Danlos Syndrome (hEDS) in 2020. hEDS is a genetic disorder that affects the connective tissue in the body. Essentially my connective tissue does not work well, leaving my muscles to hold joints and such together, which leads to a lot of problems.
This discover lead to a diagnosis of Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, sleep apnea, dysautonomia and a few other issues. Dealing with this pain and diagnoses has been so isolating and confusing. I have endured nerve blocks, nerve ablations, years of physical therapy, steroid epidural injections and have been put on dozens of different medications, and I never found any relief. For me hEDS is progressive and will continue to get worse as I age. Facing these realities have been difficult, but has made me a much more understanding and empathetic person.
Using My Story for Change
Through these past few years I recognized the extreme lack of resources for those with chronic pain and illness, it seems that we have been forgotten. I remember once trying to seek out counseling and being sent to an addictions counselor because it was the closest thing to a pain counselor they had. This was devastating and this made me realize I wanted to make a difference. I want to make a world that takes care of and nurtures their chronic pain patients, not ignores them. So I spent three years getting my master's degree in counseling so I could maybe make a difference for people like us. After the medical world failed me I started to study everything I could chronic pain and mental health and I discovered a powerful connection between people's minds and their pain. By taking control and training you brain you can gain power over your pain and learn to live beyond it. I have created my counseling practice around this idea, I believe that the mind is the most powerful tool we have again our pain.