I was born in the San Francisco Bay Area in 1979.

I grew up like any normal kid in the 80’s and 90’s.  My mom made all our meals and packed our lunches every day for school.  I had all my shots and went to the doctor every time I was sick. I had no major health issues, and I didn’t get sick often.  I was active….played soccer…..did color-guard….played the cello. I went off to college and got a BS (Bachelors of Science…not Bull Shit….although I am a pretty good BSer) in Materials Engineering (WTF is that? Maybe later my friends), and started a normal 9-5 job in the medical device industry.  I always wanted to be a chef or a surgeon….random I know…but those are the things that interested me, and honestly still interest me to this day. Just in different ways than they used to.

I always battled weight issues, and by that I mean I battled peoples view of my weight more than my actual weight. While I did yo yo in my weight I look back and realize that I weigh/weighed a lot more than I looked and people would just be on me constantly about the number on the scale. It was ridiculous.  I had some underlying simple health conditions happening that I didn’t realize were problems and I just soldiered on through my early 20’s.

At 24 I was diagnosed with hypothyroid and put on medication, and then I wasn’t checked again for nearly 4 years.  The only reason I was checked again was because I asked to be once I learned that I should have been checked every 6 months to determine if the medication was helping.  I had a co-worker that had thyroid cancer and he was a PhD. We had lunch together most days, and it was my first exposure to someone who researched and was an advocate for their own health. In many ways he is the reason I am where I am at today. He pushed me to get more answers for myself and my thyroid, and explained I needed an endocrinologist not just a family doctor looking at a range of numbers for TSH.  The doctor he refereed me to is still my doctor today, and I am so lucky and grateful to have found her. She works with me, and respects that I want to be treated in the most natural way possible.

This was the turning point for me. It was the point that I started relearning what I thought I knew and be an advocate for myself and my health.

To be continued….