The pain is real.

Every time my son’s little feet bumped against my stomach while changing his diaper, I winced in pain. I didn’t think much of it at first — just picked him up, kissed him, and moved on to the next task. After all, I thought, "A little pain is probably normal.”

Being a tired mom is just normal.

I was tired. All. The. Time. From the moment I woke up, I felt drained. Even squeezing in naps while my son slept didn’t help. When I mentioned the fatigue to my doctor, he simply said it was part of motherhood and advised me to get more sleep.

Along with the chronic fatigue and pain came extreme bloating, brain fog, and hair loss. As for these symptoms, he suggested eating more whole foods, drinking more water, and of course, getting more sleep. A year later, my daughter was born. Naturally, I expected to still feel tired and maybe a bit sore — hormones and pregnancy take a toll, right? At least, that’s what the doctors kept telling me.

The pain worsens.

Within a year, the tenderness in my belly had turned into constant, intense pain. A CT scan in the ER revealed that everything in my abdomen — liver, intestines, appendix — was inflamed. Doctors thought it might be appendicitis and almost removed my appendix, but instead, they diagnosed me with diverticulitis, prescribed heavy duty antibiotics, and I got "better."

But only for a few weeks… The pain, fatigue, and bloating all came rushing back.

Bed-bound and exhausted.

At this point, my son was three, and my daughter was just 11 months old. When I wasn’t with them, I was in bed, completely exhausted. I felt like I was missing out on my kids' childhood because I was sick in bed, watching precious moments slip by while I struggled just to get through the day. It was heartbreaking to not be fully present for them, and I knew something had to change.

Enter low-dose antidepressant and Prilosec.

I saw a GI specialist who suggested I just take Gas-X daily. It did not help. Another GI doctor ran an endoscopy and colonoscopy, which revealed no issues. He prescribed a low-dose antidepressant and Prilosec, a proton pump inhibitor to reduce stomach acid (despite warnings not to take it for more than two weeks, I was on it for a year). It seemed to help at first, but in the long run, it taught my body to stop producing stomach acid — causing much more harm than good.

But you don’t look sick.

Despite my bloated stomach that could swell to the size of a beach ball, I looked “fine” to most people. Doctors and friends reassured me with, "You don’t look like anything is wrong."

It was comforting in some ways, but it also allowed me to keep limping along, relying on medications that weren’t solving the root issues.

The turning point: Integrative Medicine

I had reservations about integrative medicine, thinking they’d just push supplements on me. But I made an appointment, and that decision became the catalyst for my healing journey.

I learned that masking symptoms wasn’t the answer — I had to get to the root cause of the problem. For instance, while I didn’t have an official IBS diagnosis, I learned it’s often used as a catch-all.

A full thyroid panel revealed Hashimoto’s.

An integrative doctor finally ordered a full thyroid panel. It, along with my symptoms, revealed I had Hashimoto’s, an autoimmune thyroid condition. I also learned that most standard thyroid tests only measure TSH (Thyroid Stimulating Hormone), and your levels have to be significantly elevated to show anything abnormal.

I was also advised to remove gluten from my diet. Gluten contains gliadin, a protein that resembles a thyroid enzyme, which can trigger the immune system to attack the thyroid in people with Hashimoto’s. Eliminating gluten helped reduce inflammation, brain fog, bloating, and fatigue.

The ThriveWell Method

Finally, I was on the road to real change. But I wanted a deeper understanding of how to truly nourish my body and what impacted it the most. I enrolled in the Integrative Health Practitioner Institute with Board Certified Naturopath Dr. Stephen Cabral and committed to implementing his proven protocol.

Certified and ready to help.

Now, I’m a Certified Integrative Health Practitioner. I’ve been where you are — experiencing undiagnosed issues, searching for answers, and wanting to finally put a name to what’s making us feel terrible. I know the frustration of looking for help and being told, "It’s just part of life."

I’m here to help you on your journey to feeling good again and living a vibrant, thriving life. It’s time to stop surviving and start thriving!