-Featured In-
Certified Integrative Health and Nutrition Coach, Institute for Integrative Nutrition
Graduate of The Health Professional Academy
Master’s in Special Education
After years of teaching medically frail children in the classroom, Kim faced her own autoimmune and kidney diseases. After almost losing her life twice she figured out how to completely alter her life trajectory. She studied health and wellness like her life depended on it, avoided a kidney transplant, rid herself of the wheelchair that Multiple Sclerosis put her in, and improved the debilitating symptoms of her own medically frail child. Kim is now a certified Health Coach teaching women how to optimize their kidney function and boost their immune system. She lives in Western NY with her husband and 3 children.
I had everything I needed to be content in my life. I was active, educated, had a career I loved, met wonderful people, met a great guy, and had three beautiful little girls. Albeit I always had odd symptoms during childhood. Tics, intractable migraines, even shingles at age 12. But I could live with that. I was managing and still living the life I designed for the most part.
Shortly after the birth of my third daughter a level of fatigue and weakness set in that I had never experienced before. Severe joint pain, mysterious rashes, IBS, sleeplessness, and even after becoming a veteran in coping with inextricable pain, many trips to the ER with unbearable migraines. It didn’t make sense after a life of eating “healthy,” being a dancer, and juggling all of life’s wonders with ease. The doctor said it was low iron, but each symptom intensified. More meds were given, but still no improvement, just further disease. Over the course of 8 years, I ping-ponged from specialist to specialist. Each one compartmentalized my symptoms, fitting me into their box. As each doctor gave up or said “this is just how it is” they referred me out. I went through diagnosis after diagnosis. Raynaud’s Syndrome to Lupus, Rheumatoid Arthritis to Neurological Lyme, hypoactive thyroid, and of course all of the mystery symptoms that didn’t fit into a label. My Multiple Sclerosis finally put me in a wheelchair, I gained 40 pounds of fluid and even lost vision in one eye. My immune system plummeted to the point where I developed an aggressive tumor subsequently leading to Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The absolute worst gut-wrenching part was that I was missing milestones in my children’s lives at such an early age. I couldn’t care for them, I couldn’t give them what I saw other children being given. I watched them grow from my couch or alongside them in agonizing pain.
I was the perfect patient. I followed all of the doctor’s orders and went to every appointment. I tried every fad from PALEO to KETO, from high fat to fasting but still, my symptoms became more crippling. I was exhausted trying to discover what works and what doesn’t, spending tens of thousands of dollars on hope after hope. The chronic fatigue I was trying to alleviate was compounded by the fatigue of trying to find answers. The symptoms that were stopping me in my tracks and bringing me to my knees forced me to redesign my life around feeling unwell.
I wish I could say that I took my power back and regained control of my health before the night my children had to watch an ambulance rush me to the hospital. It wasn’t until almost losing my life twice in that 2-week stay, having pleurisy in my lungs, a dangerous blood clot in my leg, poor liver functioning, and learning that I had kidney disease so severe that my nephrologist expected the need for a transplant in 6 months, that I finally said enough is enough. I needed to HEAL, not suppress symptoms. I needed to change my very rigid way of thinking and I needed to put ME first. Mind, body, AND soul! I needed to allow my body to do what it was designed to do. I needed to question everything and stop with the cookie-cutter “treatments.”
I had a miraculous recovery. While addressing my kidney disease, I subsequently addressed my MS, migraines, rashes, joint pain, tremors, dizziness, and am even wheelchair FREE now! I play with my children, I make it to their activities, I have the stamina to homeschool, and I am even back to work!
I’m sure you’ve been confused and intimidated in the realm of health. Eat this, not that. Think this way, not that way. He said, she said. It’s like a tornado and you are standing in the middle screaming “slow down and help me” even though the people helping you have no idea what it’s like. It’s a soul-sucking feeling when you realize how symptoms snuck in with stealth-like action and all of sudden you find you are living a new normal that you never intended for. Why should we accept a life of disease as normal just because so many are inflicted? It doesn’t have to be this way, not for you. It doesn’t have to take almost losing your life to make a change. If you are someone with kidney and autoimmune disease, click the button below for my free starter kit, Revive To Thrive.
If you are ready to take your power back and support your body’s natural mechanisms to heal itself, if you are ready to optimize your kidney function, boost your immune system and design your life around feeling WELL, then let’s have a chat.
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Do you find yourself redesigning your life around your symptoms? Are you ready to break free from those symptoms and find renewed energy, excitement, and purpose? Book your complimentary consultation with me today!