My Story
My life-changing experience began...
On an ordinary day in January 2024, my life-changing experience began with casually feeling a lump in the side of my neck. As a nurse, I knew feeling a lump in the neck was unusual and certainly abnormal. I wasn’t fearful it was cancer right then, but I knew enough that I should have it checked out. Just two weeks later, after seeing my primary care physician and being referred to an ENT, I was told it was an infected lymph node.
The Shrinking of the lump
that occurred after a round of antibiotics reassured me that this was the case. I was advised to report back to the ENT specialist if the lump returned or worsened. Just 3 months later it was back, but this time much larger and it wouldn’t shrink with antibiotics, not even after 4 more rounds!
Now I felt scared, frustrated, and like my life was spinning out of control!
Another needle biopsy in June and a pathology report confirmed my
biggest fear, it was CANCER!!
The Pet Scan a few weeks later...
showed I had stage 4 Diffuse B cell Lymphoma. I felt angry at God and scared for what awaited me. I had already been through so many health battles in my relatively short life: a heart defect at birth, kidney failure at age 3, 6.5 years of dialysis, fungal peritonitis, a kidney transplant, more than one chronic tickborne infection and now cancer?!
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​It was too much and it felt so unfair. Why me? Why cancer? Why now? My mind was consumed by fear, anxiety, stress, and overwhelm for the first month after the diagnosis. Gradually, I was able to pull myself out of most of these feelings. I knew I had a choice to make in how I chose to show up each day as I took this journey one painful step at a time. I also realized that while I couldn’t change the diagnosis and even had limited impact on the final outcome or how I responded to the chemo treatments, one thing I was in full control over was my mindset and my perspective.
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It took a lot of intention
and daily practices to help me center in finding hope and even gratitude in the midst of the hardships. I began meditating not just once, but at least twice every day and sometimes for over an hour at a time. I read Victor Frankl’s poignant work, “Man’s Search for Meaning” and took away many insights from it for how to deal with any tragedy in life. I journaled what I was feeling in my emotions each day to help me identify them and release them. I started writing out what I was grateful for even in the small and mundane things I encountered. I found inspiration from sitting outside in nature to write a poem expressing my gratitude.
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I was working with a coach at the time and she encouraged me in my daily practices and to center my mind on positive thoughts. The journey got much harder before it got easier. I almost came to the breaking point several times especially after the third round of chemo. It felt like a daily war with myself and my own thoughts to keep going and keep showing up for the chemo treatments, the doctor appointments, the alternative energy therapies I chose to do, and drastically changing my diet to be less inflammatory and health-promoting.
There were days I didn’t feel like
getting out of bed. There were days I wished I were dead. Then there were days I thought about giving up or finding a way to end my life. But I kept asking myself, “Are you going to choose to show up today? Just for today, what are you going to do?” I would make the choice to show up for that day ahead of me; just one day at a time. I didn’t know if I had what it took for the next day, but I decided to make it through one more day. I tried to focus my mind on any bright or positive thing I could find. The caring cards and flowers from friends. The tasty meal my parents took me out for. The kindness of friends and family in fixing me delicious food and doing chores for me. Seeing a butterfly or a bat flying outside.
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One of the best days was March 20th when I found out from my oncologist that I was in full remission and my scans showed no signs of cancer anywhere. I went to a local yoga studio that evening and joined in ecstatic dance and allowed myself to feel the joy and freedom of knowing there were no signs of cancer. I shared my incredible news with family members, friends, and people in my circle. I am continuing to practice embodying joy, life, radiance, and energy in my daily life through movement, dance, connecting to my heart center, and speaking gratitude over my life.
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“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
Victor E. Frankl , Austrian Psychologist and Holocaust Survivor
I am no stranger to health challenges or dis-ease in the body. I seem to have been born with illness attached to me like a nametag…but…I was also born a healer. A strong desire to help others is what drove me to become a registered nurse and later to seek further training and certification as a board certified health coach.
My desire to help others in their own healing journeys comes deeply from my own and learning what it takes for a human to heal on a deep level: body, mind, and spirit. For me, all of our experiences teach us and grow us in various ways. Life is the greatest teacher when we choose to see it that way and listen to the lessons we get to take away from whatever we encounter.
Education | Experince
Registered Nurse over 20 years
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Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach (FMCHC)- Functional Medicine Coaching Academy since March 2020​​
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​​​National Board Certified Health Coach (NBC-HWC) since 2021​
Over 20 years experience in serving adults with chronic health challenges​
Over 5 years experience teaching children in various capacities
Kidney Transplant Recipient of over 28 years
Overcame tick borne infection Bartonella/Lyme Disease
Stage 4 Lymphoma Cancer Survivor/Thriver
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