My Journey to Naturopathic Medicine
My passion for naturopathic & alternative medicine comes from a deeply personal experience. This passion fuels me to keep learning, and support my patients in any way I can.
My health story starts way back in high school- my Grade 12 year. I was preparing to pursue a career in professional ballet- something I had been training for my entire life. In the fall, I started experiencing back pain while I was dancing. I didn’t think much of it at the time- I kept dancing, and started going to a physiotherapist. Things went downhill quickly- within a month or two of the pain starting, I was in excruciating pain constantly. I couldn’t sit for too long, or stand for too long, or lay down for too long. No amount of pain medications, muscle rubs, or any sort of brace relieved the pain. The only thing that really helped was extreme heat, and I had permanent burns on my back from my plug in back heater. In the months that followed, I went to over 15 health professionals- physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, acupuncturists, back specialists, pain specialists: you name it, I had probably tried it. I had x-rays, bone scans, CAT scans, MRIs, and ultrasounds. My mom and I became experts at online Scrabble since we spent so much time in waiting rooms. None of these treatments provided relief or answers- in fact, most of them aggravated my pain.
This was all happening during my final year of high school. I had to make massive modifications to my school year as desks were too painful for me to sit in. I ended switching a few of my courses to be online rather than in person, I had a ‘special’ chair in the corner of the room for my math class, and my attendance was just over 50% for the year. One of the lowest points that I can recall was leaving the house one night to see friends, and having to ask my mom to put my boots on for me as I couldn’t bend down to do it myself.
I eventually had to come to terms with the fact that my dance career was over. I applied to university for a business program and moved to Kelowna to start. It was great to have a fresh start, but I had lost my identity along with my dance career. I had no idea what my purpose was. The first semester of university was fairly smooth until finals. Having to sit and study for long periods of time flared my back pain, and it was excruciating. I couldn’t go anywhere without a plug in for my back heater, and I wore heat wraps to my exams.
When I went home after finals, a family friend referred me to her osteopathic doctor, who happened to be visiting Alberta. My mom and I drove 2 hours through a snowstorm, the day before Christmas, to see him. He quickly deduced that my back pain was stemming from not my back, but my front. I had kidney surgeries as a child, and the scar tissue from the surgeries was balling up and pulling on my back. He adjusted the scar tissue, and within 20 minutes I was completely pain free. It was such a shock- to spend well over a year in a constant state of pain to completely fine in such a quick amount of time. I put the fix to the test as I skied five days straight with my family that Christmas- something I hadn’t been able to do since the pain started. I immediately knew I had to pursue the field of alternative medicine- I needed to find people who were suffering like I had, and help them find relief.
Later that year, I was having a lot of trouble with my digestion- I was heavily bloated after meals, my face was swelling up and I wasn’t able to figure out why. I was eating as ‘clean’ as I knew how, but even a salad would trigger my digestive issues. I went to my doctor she tested me for celiac disease. That came back negative, but she had no other advice or ideas for me. I went to see a naturopathic doctor and he did a blood test for food sensitivities. Three months later, I had a completely normal digestive system and felt better than ever. This exposure to the power of naturopathic medicine inspired me to pursue it as a career: I had realized how large of a scope of practice naturopathic doctors have, and I felt that was the most suitable for what I wanted to be able to do.
Eight years later, I realize that my back injury, as painful as it was, lead me to my career. I use that as the driving force to help patients the way that I once needed help.