Latest / Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast / Episode 7 - Interview with Aimee @fernandflo

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Episode 7 - Interview with Aimee @fernandflo · Tom's Hirschsprung's Podcast

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You are listening to Tom's Hirshbrung's Podcast, where I provide a look into the
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remarkable experiences of the most inspiring people around Hirshprung's disease and sports. Hello and
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welcome to episode seven of Tom's Hirshprung's podcast. This week I have Amy Withney,
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who is a pilates instructor, a Bachelor of Health Science and Nutrition and
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the owner of a holistic health and well being company called Fern and Flow and
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also a Happy Rare Disease Day to you as well. Amy, Welcome to
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the podcast. Thank you for having me Tom. It's lovely to meet you
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you too, Thank you, Thank you for coming across. I must just
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remind listeners as well. This is taking place across several time zones, so
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it is about midday where you are, in two am where I am.
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So it's it's if I sound a bit ropey or a bit tired that I
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do apologize. GRAVI a patient. Absolutely, We'll go straight into it and
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kick things off with your diagnosis of Hirschbrung's disease at around about twelve twelve days
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old, which is sort of generally within sort of the first three weeks people
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tend to be diagnosed. You described your diagnosis as one of one of the
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worst documented. How how and why? How's that that become? Well?
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I was born in nineteen ninety, which isn't really that long ago, but
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in the world of Hirshbrung's disease it kind of is. And I was born
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in a small country town and you know, my mum gave birth to me.
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Everything was going well, and just within a matter of days they realized
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when I wasn't passing maconium and my tummy was very distended. I was obviously
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very uncomfortable that something was not right, and no one in this country town
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was able to diagnose me. They tried, obviously everything that they could,
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and as far as I'm aware, I was popped into a helicopter and taken
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to Brisbane, which is one of our major cities here in Queensland, and
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it pretty much just escalated from there. I was admitted under the care of
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doctor I know, a doctor Fred Leditski. Now, if you google doctor
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Fred Laditski in the nineteen nineties, he was the Bee's Knees and one of
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the best pediatricians going and he knew apparently he knew quite quite quickly what was
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going on, and yes, at twelve days old, I was taken into
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surgery and that's when they realized how hectic my diagnosis was. I obviously was
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missing a lot of those ganglion cells. And it didn't just affect the small
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portion of the intestine or colon that it normally would. My whole large intestine
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was affected, my colon, parts of my small intestine. It was just
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it was a wreck. So they removed watch what they well, I guess
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what they call called the bare minimum at the time, and popped on popped
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through an iliostomy, and then anyway, as the years went on, I
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just honestly I kept getting sicker and nothing was really improving. I was alive,
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obviously, but life was very, very very difficult for obviously me,
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but my mum and dad as well, because my health just wasn't improving.
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So at the age of seven, they decided to do a total collect me.
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So they went in and pretty much took everything and left me with what
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I needed to survive, which was one hundred centimeters of alien that's all.
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Wow, wow, just to just take take the whole the whole lot,
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just just leave you with the absolute bare minimum. Literally, yes, so
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my iliostomy became permanent. You know, I have had doctors insurgeons over the
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years suggest me maybe trying a reconnection, but I guess when you're growing up
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with this iliostomy, that's the reason you're alive. The thought of it being
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taken away, it's a bit scary, very much. So, yeah,
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very much. So. I love the way that you can remember your doctor's
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name because I can remember mine as well, doctor Edward Kylie. I guess
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it's probably one of those things that just always will stick with you forever.
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And I absolutely you know, doctor Fredloditsky. He was my main specialist from
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twelve days old right up until I was sixteen. Classed as an adult here
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in Australia, once you're sixteen, you are no longer in a children's hospital.
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You are moved over to the adult's hospital. So I had him for
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you know, a good portion of my life. Yeah, very similar to
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over here when you go from I was a hospital called Great Ormond Street in
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London, and you go from there and then you move into the more adult
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warder. I want to say sixteen, I believe, but yeah, no,
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very very similar. So if we take from there, you originally wanted
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to become a hairstylist when you moved to have I got this right to Womba.
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Yes, sounded like a native there. Absolutely, you moved from the
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South coast to to Womba and became interested in real estate, and from what
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I understand, became very successful in real estate. And then after that you
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are founding or doing what you are what you are now in health, lifestyle,
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well being and nutrition. Was that something that you were always interested in
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or is that something that's come through recently. Look In all honesty, I
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lived my first thirty years of life in fintal Flight, and I feel like
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my personality is very much just energetic. I've got such an energetic personality and
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persona that I feel like the hairdressing I did eight till nine years of hairdressing
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and then went into real estate and they were just such full on, energetic
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jobs. And the best part about those jobs was they kept me physically active.
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And I feel like when you have a disease like this, if you
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don't stay physically active and busy, you feel everything, if that makes sense.
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So I feel like I lived my whole first thirty years trying to ignore
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what actually was with me. It's very obvious that I have about disease,
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and I have an iliostomy, and I've had a bag my entire life.
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But I'm such a driven person that you just don't tell me no. Just
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don't tell me no, and if you do, I'll only go one hundred
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more percent. That makes sense, and I feel like that's just what I
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did. The hairdressing was a busy job. It kept me busy. That
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real estate was very, very busy, so I was constantly active and just
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putting my internal well being to the side because that was too scary for me.
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I could deal with the physical aspect, but when I actually had to
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sit still and focus on what was actually going on in my life, I
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didn't deal with that very well. So the best thing for me was to
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just stay busy. So I did that, and then I had a daughter.
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Many many years of IVF, pretty much my entire twenties. My husband
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and I spent doing IVF, you know, followed by lots of miscarriages,
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lots of loss, lots of heartbreak. We ended up conceiving a baby that
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is now seven. She is seven years old through surregacy, so my beautiful
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younger sister was able to carry our daughter, Francesca for us, and that's
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when things changed. I was forced to sit still. I was forced to
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be at home in my own I guess oasis, in my own zone,
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and I was just me and a little baby, and I had to do
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a lot of inward work. And it became very evident once I became a
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mother, especially to a daughter, just how important the mental well being is,
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as you know, as well as our physical wellbeing. And I spent
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a lot of lot of time at home with her, and then very quick
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we went back into real estate and from there that's where my life pivoted,
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because once we'd had our baby, it was no longer on our radar to
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conceive anymore. So I started having recognizing a lot of my reproductive issues.
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So from having years and years and years of surgeries pelvic surgeries, you know,
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abdominal surgeries, we found out that the reason I was never holding onto
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these pregnancies was all the scar tissue from all of my bow surgeries had actually
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grown onto my reproductive organs. So my uterus, my flopine tubes, my
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cervix, everything was gummed together with scar tissue, and that's why the babies
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could never grow, because the scar tissue would just tear up and I would
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lose everything. And those miscarriages were horrifically painful, and I thought that was
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normal. I know miscarriages are not comfortable, but I thought that the hospitalization
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type pain after a miscarriage was normal. Yeah. So I went through a
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couple of days after I turned thirty, I went through a full hysterect to
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me, and when I say full hystorrect to me. They took my cervix,
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tubes, ovaries, uterus, and my colon because my part of my
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colon was attached to my uterus. That's how much pressure was in my body
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in you know, scar tissue. It was just a big old mess.
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So that surgery, I would say, despite having my iliostomy, I would
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say that surgery was probably the most excruciating, life changing aspect of my life.
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And it was almost like that closing of the door. It was just
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whatever they took with them, they took a part of me and it never
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returned. So that's when I went down that big old rabbit hole. I
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was forced to be on bed rest for almost eighteen months because you know,
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typical amy. That one hysterectomy then led to five more to corrective surgeries because
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I just ended up with infection, more scar tissue adhesions, infections. It
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was just it was a crazy, wild, scary time and I feel like
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coming out of that, it was like I had another chance at life and
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I was born a different person. And that's when I fell into the holistic
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space, just really being forced to take charge of my help and well being.
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Yeah, that's a fantastic story, And I'd just pick up on something
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you said there about mental well being being so important because obviously a lot of
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people with not just stomach conditions, but a lot of chronic conditions can deal
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with the physical pain. You can deal with that that sort of whether it
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be day to day or when things flare up and get bad and they get
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you get really bad physical pain, and you deal with that physical pain.
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But it's the emotional side as well, that then, I think gets a
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lot that gets overlooked quite a lot, and I think making people aware of
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that as as you do, I think is really really important because both are
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I would say both are equally as important as each other. Both emotional and
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physical well being are both incredibly important. But yeah, no, that's that's
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what a story. That's a fantastic sorry. And all the surgeries as well,
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and he said that they've they've taken obviously a lot out of you,
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and that caused you quite a bit of pain. Does that pain stay with
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you or is that pretty much pain free? Now? I wouldn't say pain
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free. I would say the pain is different. Yes, there is still
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pain, what I call phantom pain. And I've been working through this with
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a with a women's physio because once your colon is removed, you essentially are
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left with nothing, but the body doesn't recognize it. So, you know,
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it's hard to say, but for a long time, I don't think
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my body was registering what was going on. I mean, we knew on
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paper that the colon had been taken, along with the uterus and all this
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other stuff. But the pain in the lower part of my back was excruciating,
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to the point where I found myself holding my breath a lot, which
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is not good because then that affects the oxygen that we need in our body
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to keep going. I noticed my blood pressure was changing, and I think
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it was because I was instead of breathing in through the nose and out through
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the mouth, as we are taught to do. I was taking short,
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sharp, shallow breaths because that's all I could do with the pain. So
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that is also where I fell deep down and I hit the books. I
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just I hit the books. I thought I can't live on pain medication.
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I wanted to finally get all this stuff out of me so that I didn't
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have to live on any more medication. Because I don't know about you,
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but it's all good and well to live on these medications that block out the
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pain, but that just causes other issues because it stops you from feeling what
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you're supposed to be feeling. And that's pretty much I feel like what happened
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to me is I was just brought up on so much medication that I never
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was actually able to feel where the pain was coming from so that I could
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work how to push through that specific pain spot. So I have very much
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learned to just breathe. I know, it sounds absolutely incredibly insane because the
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pain can be so horrific, and you would think breathe. Of course,
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I breathe when I'm in pain, but we actually don't. Our breathing pattern
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changes and the oxygen is not getting to where it's supposed to be. And
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once again, it's all in the it's in the mind. You've got to
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work with what's happening in your body. We're so you, we're so accustomed
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to just taking a pill and for getting that the pain as they are.
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But I had to really stick to what I wanted to do, and that
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was getting off all that. I was in plexia for a long time.
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And you shouldn't actually be on plexia for longer than twenty eight days because then
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it can become addictive. And I lived on plexia. I would do my
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twenty eight days and I would have a break, push through the pain,
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and then I'll go back on. But it did get to a point after
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my hysterectomy where the plexia just didn't do anything. So yeah, I had
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to learn how to breathe. So yes, I very much do still experience
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the pain, but I know the too. I have the tools now to
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work with it. And is this where your current business kind of stems from.
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Absolutely? I think you've probably received this over your lifetime as well.
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When you do talk to these the doctors and the specialists who I will ever
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forever be grateful for. But when you try to ask them about nutrition,
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you know, is there certain foods I should be avoiding? Is there certain
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foods I should be consuming? Do I need more protein? Should I Just
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all the questions, and usually the answer is no, no, You'll be
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fine, just eat whatever you want or they I have had a few doctors
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over the years say, oh, you know, stay away from this food
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group and stay away from that food group. And now that I'm educated,
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they're the food groups that are so high in nutrients that our body, more
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than anyone else's, should be sustaining every day, consuming every day. So
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I did. I just jumped straight into a degree, as I do.
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I said to my husband one day, I'm quitting real estate and I'm going
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to UNI. And that's pretty much what I did. And I'm I'm in
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the thick of my degree at the moment, and I've learned more about my
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disease and my body in the last eighteen months than I have in the last
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thirty four years. Does that come through as well? You mentioned before,
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and I know I've done the same where you just effectively sort of block out
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and you go right, I just won't think about Hirshprung's disease. And then,
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as you said, you don't tend to learn a lot about it if
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you just block it out, like with anything, and so, yeah,
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so learning them more about Hirshprong's disease. Was there anything in particular that you've
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learned through Hirshprrong's disease that you feel would be beneficial for in a more general
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sense, not directly just yet. I'm very much involved with the science in
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my degree. At the moment, I'm yet to delve further into the nutrition
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aspect. However, the Internet is a beautiful place, and because I have
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access now to the big, beautiful library of the university, I have gone
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and hit and hit the books, especially surrounding our disease. And to be
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quite honest with you, one thing I have recognized is that whether we have
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a disease or not, there is so many processed foods that humans should be
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staying away from. And I feel like we it's shoved down our throats so
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much that we need to live on all these fancy salads and vegetables. And
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don't get me wrong, they are important, But me, especially growing up,
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I was always told, you know, just be careful of eating you
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know, carrot or corn or all these types of things, but no one
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ever told me why. And that's where I'm understanding food now, in terms
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of how it sits in our gut and how it sits in our intestines.
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So I don't know about you, but I don't have a lot of intestines,
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so my metabolism is extremely quick. So if I've learned anything, it's
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it's a need to be making sure that what I am eating is extremely nutrient
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dense because it's not in my body as long. So what needs to be
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in that food has to have the protein, it has to have the fiber,
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it has to have the carbohydrates, the fats. Staying around those types
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of group food groups are essential, especially for someone with a bow disease.
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It's our gut microbiome. We need to be treating that as though we treat
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our expensive cars. And I think that's I think that's what's missing in schools
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these days as well as we're taught how to handle so many adult things,
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but we're never taught that above anything, our nutrient, our nutrient intake is
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so important. So without giving any directed advice, because that's not what I'm
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here to do. But my personal takeaway from everything so far is just focusing
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on those food groups and making sure that when I am eating, or when
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anyone with a colostomy bag is eating as well, drink before us. Set
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your gut up so we see a lot, you know, have a big
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drink of water after what we eat or drink during that food you know,
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while we're sitting and eating. Set the gut up, set the digestive system
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up. First, have your water, and then eat. I find with
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processing foods that's so much more comfortable. That makes a lot of sense.
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That definitely makes a lot of sense to set up beforehand. It's interesting you
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mentioned carrot and corn as things to stay away from. I don't think I
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was. I think I had the sort of general advice, you know,
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make sure you vegetables and yadd yadi ada, not too much spicy stuff,
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blah blah blah. But yeah, carrot and corn, that's a that's a
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new one on me. I never that wasn't because well, I think too,
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it's because those types of food groups they tend to come out the way
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they go in. So the god there are there are hard you know,
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there are hard food to break down. So once again, truth true food.
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That's where that's where good digestion actually starts. Is how we're chewing out
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our food, throwing your food back and really just hurrying up and swallowing it.
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That is so not good for our guts. Absolutely no way. Make
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sure you're taking the time to sit and chew your food before you swallow it.
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Yeah, I can definitely take that advice. I eat far too fast.
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I'd always have done that my husband, that is my husband. It's
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strange because I have an older brother who eats very very slowly and has always
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eaten really really slowly, and then I've always eaten really really fast, so
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whenever we had family meals, I was always finished sort of five ten minutes
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before he was, which was never a good side. And I knew it
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was wrong. So I've tried to eat a bit slower over the years.
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But it does take. It does take time. It does, it does.
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It's and once again, unless we're taught, we don't know. We're
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taught how to walk, we're taught how to ride a bike, but when
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are we taught to eat? We're just not. I mean, times are
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changing, don't get me right. The way I parent my daughter is very
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different to the way my mum parented me. I mean, when I was
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young, my parents were just in fight or flight, whereas now I I
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have that education and I have that life experience around me, and that is
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now what I plan to do with my business is to help educate other people
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on how to You know, I believe our gut is our second brain,
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and without good gut health, how are we supposed to function? Absolutely so,
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if we go onto your business further and flow, Am I right in
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saying it's it's not just nutrition, it's it's lifestyle, it's well being as
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well? Would that be correct? I'm very, very big on movement and
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exercise. I believe it's it's medicine. It is. It is total and
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utter medicine. Because we all, well, most of us who are lucky
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enough to have the ability to move our body and get out of bed and
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go and enjoy the life that we have. I feel like it's it's it's
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just a pattern. And if we're moving and we're doing all the right things
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to set ourself up for the day, it all comes down to mindset,
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so you know, not just physical but mental as well. Absolutely, No
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I definitely concur in saying that the business itself has been up sort of a
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few weeks, a matter of months. Is that that correct? Not very
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long at all. Yeah, it's very new and within that time, sorry
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that within that time you've you've started to share your your story on Instagram.
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Is there any reason as to why you're starting or sharing the story now?
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I think it comes down to, once again, I have just always kept
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myself so busy. I've never actually focused on my own story, and I
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didn't know the power that I actually had until I did start sharing little beats
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and pieces and I was receiving some very very deep and personal messages in my
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inbox, people sharing their own struggles, not necessarily with Hirshbroung's disease. Many
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women and men out there who are struggling with their gut health, their digestion,
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bowels, and it's just they didn't realize a lot of people did not
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realize that just because you've got a bow disease and a bag, that you
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can't go and still live a normal life. So that there is my message.
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Just because you had something that you are told is going to limit you
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in life, doesn't mean that you have to follow that. I wholeheartedly support
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that. One of the reasons I started this podcast is because I wanted to
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show or showcase people and interview people who have done extraordinary things and have lived
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not just a typical normal life, but have gone on to achieve fantastic things
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in various aspects like yourself and you in real estate, and in nutrition and
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in sport. And that's one of the reasons I wanted to start this,
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because I wanted to show people. And I've got a few messages from people
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who said, I never knew that, you know, there were people with
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Hirshprung's that did this or did that that have achieved so much. So yes,
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definitely definitely concur concur with that. And I guess lastly, as we're
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running out of time a little bit, but yes, lastly, where do
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you see your business going sort of in the future. I love working with
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people, obviously, because that's all I have ever wanted to do, and
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I think taking the opportunity to really focus on my own disease and my own
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life, I just honestly cannot wait to be able to go and work with
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other people who are struggling as well, not just with their physical wellbeing,
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but their mental wellbeing. I mean, I do know a thing or two
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about pushing through those hard times, in those hard days. So mindset for
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me is absolutely everything movement. I love to get people up and moving because
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if I see that people have the opportunity to get up and move, but
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they just can't push through that mindset, that is what I love. I
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love getting people out of their comfort zone. And absolutely nutrition, one hundred
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percent nutrition. I feel like that's what's missing in the healthcare system. And
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it's it's not to say that these amazing doctors don't want to do it,
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they just it's not in their degree. It's that's why there is nutritionists and
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dietitians. So I feel like I definitely have a hand up of actually relating
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to the client, to relating to actually how it feels physically, not just
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how it looks on paper. I can actually relate to people. So I
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really do, really do look forward to working with people closely and just building
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this platform around awareness and just inspiration. It has taken me nearly thirty four,
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nearly thirty five years to real realize that my story is quite impactful and
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I don't normally love the spotlight. So I think that's what I've had to
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really push through is I don't love the spotlight. I just love to get
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out and just live my life and do what I'm doing. But yeah,
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I have reached that point in my life where I'm just ready to help others.
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Fantastic. Yeah, I'd very true that personal touch I tend to find,
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and especially in a personal business like yourselves and the business I was in
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as well, tends to be incredibly important. If people can see that you
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can go through the hard times and come out the other side and be very
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successful, I think that's really really impactful, really really impactful. Wis it's
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not just one thing? I don't want. I feel really sad when people
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think that it's just one thing, but it's not. It's it's mindset,
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yes, but it is a physical opponent too, and what we're feeding our
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bodies. It is correlation of everything, And I feel like it's daunting at
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first, but if you have somebody in your corner who's there ready to cheer
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you on and hold your hand and pat you on the back and celebrate your
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wins no matter how big or small they are. Having someone that is in
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your corner who has actually been there and done it. It just it hits
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different. I feel like it feels different knowing that person that's in your corner
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has been through the trenches. Definitely, definitely totally agree. And finally,
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where can people find you? So I'm only on Instagram at the moment because
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I'm in very early stages of my business, and so just follow me at
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fern and Slow and I do share. I plan to share a lot more
32:52
on there, it's definitely in the coming weeks. And I also obviously have
32:58
a personal page as well, which is just Amy Morrisby, so definitely can
33:02
follow me on there, and I love a good chat. So if anyone
33:07
ever wants to pop into my DMS, I will always be there and always
33:13
happy to help wherever I can. Like I did, yes, absolutely that
33:19
I was so. I was so excited to hear from you because there is
33:22
so much awareness around Hirshbrung's disease now and it's great, it's great, and
33:28
there's still a lot of doctors out there who I've told. My husband recently
33:32
had diverticul artists had some bowels removed, and when I was explained to him
33:37
that I had hirshprungs. He kind of just looked at me. So it
33:39
is, you know, you just there. We need to remember there is
33:45
people out there that have no idea what these is, no idea. You
33:49
get that quizzical sort of her look. Yeah. Sometimes you say, oh,
33:57
you know Crohn's disease and they go oh yeah, yeah, kind of
33:59
like that. But yeah, longer name, harder to spell all of that
34:06
stuff. I know. The spelling drives me crazy. A full disclosure on
34:10
this, I've only just learned how to spell hirshbrums. I was always spelling
34:15
it with a bee and then I realized I had to do the podcast,
34:19
And now I've learned how to actually spell the name of the podcast. So
34:22
yes, I probably should have learned that a bit earlier, but we've never
34:27
had to have we we no, I'll just say it, and had adopted
34:32
her to write it for me. Well, I wish you every success with
34:37
your new business venture. I wish you a lot of success with that.
34:45
And thank you so much for coming on the podcast and spending some time with
34:49
us. Thank you for having me. It was lovely. Thank you take
34:52
care, Thank you for listening to the cast. Find us on Instagram,
35:01
Tom's Underscore Hirshbrung's Underscore podcast. Listen to previous episodes on Spotify by searching Tom's Hirshbrung's Podcast