My Health Story
We all have a story. We all have a unique journey as to how and why we got to where we are today. A big part of what makes me who I am today is my struggle with health issues.
Knowing what I know now, I would argue that my health issues started when I was born. While everything from my birth up until this point is important in the broader picture, my journey into taking ownership over my health didn’t start until much later…
In this post, I will share my health story and the impact my issues with my hormones and severe acne had on me. Just a fair warning, this post is a long one - so saddle up!
Background
Unfortunately, I’ve struggled most of my life with a health issue of some form or another. That being said, I know things could have been worse. My childhood health issues mostly revolved around my ears. Doctors that I’ve worked with over the past several years believe that my ear problems were caused by a birth defect. Although they didn’t know that when I was going through it all. Just for context, this is a general overview of my childhood up to my middle school years…
Chronic ear infections as a newborn with antibiotics to treat them.
Tubes in my ears at one and a half years old.
The tube in the right ear fell out properly, the tube in my left ear did not.
The tube in my left ear caused damage to the eardrum. I had to have surgery to remove the scar tissue.
At age nine, I had surgery to replace my left ear drum (a procedure called a tympanoplasty).
After having the tympanoplasty, the doctors said I would still have slight hearing loss in my left ear, but nothing that I couldn’t handle. I went on with my childhood as a regular kid. Nobody even really knew about my hearing loss except for a few of my closest friends.
Now that we got that out of the way…
Where It Started
Middle School
Even with all of the health issues in childhood, my interest in health began around the end of middle school. When I was 14 I had an ovarian cyst burst, which is very painful. I went to the doctor and he put me on birth control. Then, I started gaining weight (which I now believe was due to the pill), and while I wasn’t desperate to be skinny, I did want to maintain a healthy weight. I was starting to drop some sports activities that I didn’t enjoy, but I still wanted to be strong and fit. Which I realize I was lucky to have a pretty healthy mindset around my body image. That’s when I found the youtuber, Cassey Ho, of Blogilates. I absolutely adored her (and still do)! I started doing her videos and following her workout calendar. She was like a friend to me (even though she doesn’t know I exist). What I admired most about her was how positive and happy she was. It inspired me to look at my mindset and try to be more positive in my own life.
From that point forward, I began scratching the surface on the world of health, nutrition, fitness, mindfulness, and more. I started watching videos, listening to podcasts and reading books, articles and blogs. I was like a sponge, absorbing any and all information related to health.
I also started thinking about my nutrition and what I was eating, which is something I had never really thought about before. I lived on a small hobby farm that my parents started as a small business and experience for my siblings and I. We raised grass and pasture fed beef, pork and chicken. I started to ask my parents questions about how our food is grown and why it looked different from every other farmer.
I started eating ‘healthier’, although at the time it wasn’t much healthier. But, I began to be aware of what I was putting in my body. Very slowly, I started incorporating healthier foods like more fruits and vegetables and (maybe more importantly), removing foods like sugary snacks and cereals.
High School
During high school I continued to learn about nutrition and fitness. I was interested in learning how to cook, and I even decided I wanted to study nutritional science in college. I was also active and took my workouts for different sports seriously. At the end of my senior year of high school, I did the Whole 30 program along with my mom. This included going off of birth control for the first time since I was 14 years old (4 years earlier). I wasn’t sexually active at the time and I wanted to see if I would develop another ovarian cyst. I was so proud of myself! I was eating clean, staying active, on no prescription medications, my energy was amazing, and honestly I looked pretty good.
However, it wasn’t all happily ever after after that.
My Lowest Point
Things took a turn right after my senior year of high school as I was getting ready to head off to college.
I decided to go back on the pill to protect myself from getting pregnant during a time when I did not want that happening. A very valid reason in my opinion. It turns out that was a trigger (along with other factors) that led to severe, painful, cystic acne. It was one of the lowest points of my life.
Instead of enjoying my new adventure of starting college and beginning my adult life, I isolated myself and had the lowest self esteem I’ve ever had. That’s when my deep dive into the reasons why this acne had manifested began, and what brought me to where I am today.
Where I am Now
My story of gaining back control of my health is a long one. Unfortunately, I am NOT an overnight success story. I battled my acne in various stages on and off (mostly on), for over five years. Eventually I did find a solution that finally cured my acne and got my skin where I wanted it to be, which I go in-depth about here.
Still to this day, I struggle with maintaining consistency with my health. I also struggle with anxiety that my acne will come back one day to the unbearable level it was before. But, it’s not all bad.
Silver Lining
While my journey with acne was one of the hardest things I’ve ever been through, if I could go back and change it, I wouldn’t. The bright side of having acne when I had it and for how long I had it, has made me the person I am today. I likely wouldn’t have dived so deep into the world of natural health and learned about so many topics that I had never even heard of before. Including red light therapy, benefits of sunlight, grounding, how to distinguish the bull $h!t from information grounded by sound science and common sense and so on. I wouldn’t have discovered so many wonderful humans who are providing education and resources through their books, social media, content, and recommendations. I wouldn’t have found out that I’m not alone on my journey; that so many other women struggle with health issues related to their hormones, the pill, and other conditions that often get ignored or are not taken seriously. Finally, I probably never would have started this blog, which has been one of my dreams for a very long time. I feel more confident in sharing information because of what I myself have lived through and experienced. I have been experimenting with all kinds of different health remedies, programs, supplements, diet plans, you name it ever since those first few lonely weeks in my freshman dorm.
Final Thoughts
I wanted to share my health journey because I felt like it was a good place to start. I know when I began diving into the natural health world I watched endless hours of youtube videos and read blogs about how people cured their acne. Even if I tried what they said and it didn’t work for me, it still helped because I felt less alone.
So if somehow there is anyone still reading this extremely long post, and you are experiencing a difficult time right now- for whatever reason- know you are not alone. Even if it doesn’t feel like it right now, things will get better. When you feel like giving up on healthy eating, exercising, meditating, or whatever it is you’re trying to incorporate to give yourself some relief, please try to keep going! Your future self will thank you and be so proud of you.
Thank you for being here. I’m excited to share more of what I’ve learned along my health journey, so I hope you stick around! 🙂