Latest / Rooted Thoughts / When Your Body Knows First: My Adrenal Tumor Story, Self-Advocacy & Healing

Transcript

When Your Body Knows First: My Adrenal Tumor Story, Self-Advocacy & Healing · Rooted Thoughts

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Tierra, and welcome to Ruid Thoughts Podcast.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, as promised last week, I said that was going to be basically explaining, or we're going to be going over how important it is to advocate for yourself, particularly in the medical field.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: I am aware that this is a topic that is talked about a lot.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure how many people are actually willing to be transparent when it does come to this particular topic.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, that's their business, actually, or they're right.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody doesn't have to give you everything or tell you everything about what's going on in their life.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: But I do feel like it does help some people when you are transparent and let them know what you went through and how you got through it.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: Because just in case they're going through that same thing, or if they know somebody who's going through that same thing, it always helps when somebody doesn't feel like they are alone in a situation, right?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: But not only are we going to be talking about advocating for yourself, but what does it look like when you advocate for yourself?
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get right into it.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: So around probably mid 2021, I was talking to my medical provider at an appointment, and he made the suggestion or asked me, Have I ever been tested for ADHD?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, no.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: He sort of just lightly stated to me, well, maybe you should actually get tested for it.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm the type of person whereas as long as I know what's going on, if you give me a diagnosis, I'm not someone who usually runs the medication.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna see what I can do in my personal life um to actually make some changes to reduce the symptoms of whatever it is, diagnosis or whatever it is, right?
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So back in 2021, after doing all my research on ADHD and finding out what it was, you know, I sort of kind of agreed with him, okay, maybe this is what's going on.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because I think growing up, when usually when you heard about ADHD, you usually thought about it as somebody who's hyperactive and things like that.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: But that wasn't the case for me.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: So it never crossed my mind that that was something that I could be possibly experiencing.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: But once I kind of, like I said, educated myself, I decided I was gonna do a few things to kind of offset the symptoms and everything like that.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't want to be on any type of medication, right?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: So during 2021, shortly after that, that's when I actually made a decision to I stopped um red meat, pork, things like that.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: Um, significantly reduced um alcohol consumption.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I wasn't drinking heavy anyways, but basically I reduced it to basically bare, like almost none.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: The only time I would actually have a drink was um usually when I go out for like a dinner or something like that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I may get me a mixed drink.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And then I also made other lifestyle changes.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, one of those things being I also decided to stop all medication.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_00: When I say medication, I was never prescribed anything.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_00: I've always been pretty much just healthy, healthy as a horse, as people like to say.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've never really had any health, no serious health issues.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: I would say that.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: So I also stopped like Tylenol, cold milk, anything like that.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_00: I just went cold turkey.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not having none of that.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm a natural remedy girl.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: And if I feel like a sniffle coming on, I would start mixing up something in the kitchen real fast.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I made that change, well, all those changes back in 2021.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: And all these things actually worked for me for a very long time.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: Like I felt like I was stable, I feel like I was just flourishing.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think I felt like I was actually just I was maintaining, honestly.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Then come about September 2024, that was when I suddenly realized that I was having the most difficult time ever.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Especially when it came down to focusing, concentrating, just I felt constant overwhelmed.
• 3:39
  SPEAKER_00: It was just so much.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying I was forgetting things left and right.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about, I could not remember anything.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: On top of that, what didn't help was that I also had a very high stress job where I have a high stress job because I'm still at that job right now.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a high stress job where it's just there's not a lot of physical strain, but that mental load is crazy, right?
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: So in September 2024 is when I actually decided to go ahead and see a psychiatrist and um I actually started ADHD medication, in which, if anyone knows anything about that, you know it's a trial and error situation whereas you're trying to find what works for you, and then when you do find what works for you, it may work for a little while or a few months or whatever it is, and then boom, it no longer works again.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: The most frustrating thing, I swear it was.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: But one thing I do want to add as well, during that time, I would say from 2021 to about 2024, I was gradually losing weight.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I didn't think anything of it was because for one, I've always been naturally small.
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I did cut out red meat and pork, like I said in the beginning.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, and I think I also came off birth control because I was just trying to really just cleanse my body at this point.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so it wasn't alarming to me when I lost some pounds.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't, it wasn't like a whole bunch of weight that I dropped just really fast.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: It was very small, right?
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't alarming.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: I still felt gradually fine, I think with just a lot of mental stress I had going on.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: But everything else, as far as my in my physical body, I felt okay.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: So another thing I do want to add as well was that at some point in time in 2024, I was also noticing small changes in my body.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I pay very close attention to my body, and so I notice small changes.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, for example, um, sometimes I have a problem with my iron being too low.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And so usually if I feel like it is, I usually make a doctor's appointment with my primary care doctor and I go in and say, hey, feel like my iron is too low.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: Can you check it and see?
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: He does blood work and it comes back showing that it is actually a little bit lower than it needs to be.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: And once I get that information, I usually then go do whatever it is that I need to do to bring those levels up.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: So during one particular doctor visit back in 2024, I remember asking my daughter, like, hey, do you think that this bone, is this a lump in my chest?
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because it was like my upper, upper middle chest area, like right near your collarbone areas or whatever, well, right underneath your collarbone.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I felt like I could see like a tiny big bulge, but or a tiny bulge, but I didn't know whether or not I was stripping or not.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so he looked at it, he told me it was nothing.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just small.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, left it like that.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: So now fast forward to I think it was late December 2024, was when I actually made the decision to get a divorce.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: And then that January in 2025 is when I kind of started that paperwork and everything like that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: But if you're somebody who knows about that paperwork or you know someone who's been divorced, or if you've gotten a divorce yourself, you know that it is a lot of paperwork.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about a really lot.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: And so I got really overwhelmed with trying to do that paperwork.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: So I told myself, okay, I was gonna take about a week or two off um to kind of just reset because I do have a habit sometimes of when I see something that I want done or if I want to do something, I'll move and quit, like boom, boom, boom.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: I like to go ahead and get it done instead of just waiting and lingering and stuff.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: And so I took a little small break, but sometimes between sometime between January and February, I just felt like something was off in my body.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I could explain it, but I couldn't explain it at the same time.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: What I was noticing was that there will be periods that I would totally forget that I have not eaten for an entire day.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I would not be hungry, I would not be stomachs not growing, nothing like that.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: I just could give a day or two and not eat and not even realize that, hey, I haven't even eaten anything.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, granted, I was on ADHD meds too.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So what I initially did was I sort of kind of stopped that to kind of see what things change, but it didn't.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: So I stopped the medication for a few weeks.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: That didn't do anything.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: And not only was I noticing that I wasn't hungry, I was also noticing that my weight, I was significantly small.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: Not only that, I feel like my mental status was just declining.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like when I say declining, I mean like, of course, I know who I am, stuff like that.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not talking about that extreme, but I mean like my focus wasn't, it was not working, the medication wasn't working.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was tired of switching medication at that point.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: I think that I was having, I was still like my brain was so foggy, um, it didn't make any sense.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: I had like five or ten to-do lists, calories, and everything that remind me of simple tasks like pay this bill or get this at the grocery store.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I would still forget.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: But one of the main things was that that I was noticing was that when I would shower and got the shower, just looking at my body, it looked like I had like absolutely no muscle mass.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like my skin looked so thin.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: And on top of that, when I stopped at ADHD med to see would I gain weight off the medication, I was attempting to eat like a surplus of things.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about I was doing protein shades, using the protein powder, um, filling up with peanut butter.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was had the, what is it?
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It's like the insure, but it's like the high calorie insure.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: But no matter how much I ate, and I'm telling you guys, I was drinking a ton, making a ton of shakes and things like that.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: I would not gain not even a half of a pound, no lie.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: And every single day when I got on the scale, it's like my weight was like, it would like fluctuate throughout the day from one to two pounds, like all day long.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure there's normal, but to me, it was not normal.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I went back to my doctor and I'm kind of like, hey, something's wrong.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's wrong, and I'm hoping I'm not crazy.
• 9:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, I'm not sure if I need to start back eating red meat or something.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of wanted him to say yeah a little bit because I kind of wanted me to steak.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_00: But before we got there, um, he pretty much just told me, Well, I think that you're just pretty much as naturally small, but we can do some blood work still, and we can also do a stool sample to see, you know, um, is there any blood or anything in your stool?
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I hope I'm not being a little too too vulgar for you guys.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know, I don't have a weak stomach, so I just say stuff.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: My bad, if you're eating.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So immediately I was pretty much just like, oh no, I haven't seen no blood in my stool now.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he kind of just explained to me that sometimes you you won't actually see it, but it can test positive for there being blood in your stool.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: But I also do want to mention at the same time, this wasn't the first time I've had blood work done.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_00: Every time I would have blood work done, my blood work was coming back perfectly fine.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: It was nothing wrong with my blood work.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: So I had the blood work done, it comes back fine.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: But the stool sample, it did test positive as having blood in my stool.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: So that led to my primary care doctor basically just telling me, well, it's probably nothing, but I'm gonna refer you to a GI doctor because they are more experienced in this and they can get to the bottom of it.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I said, okay, cool.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I go to the GI doctor, she schedules me for a colonoscopy and the endoscopy.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: I hope I'm saying that right.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_00: But as well as a CT scan, if I'm not mistaken.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the initial two tests, they came back fine, but then with the CT scan, it showed a mass, a small tumor on my adrenal gland.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: So let me let me go back a little bit.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you guys this.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: For one, I am somebody who I have a habit sometimes of hyperfixating on things.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those things is my health.
• 11:01
  SPEAKER_00: And so I monitor the portals, I'm looking at the charts and everything like that.
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: So that CT scan was actually done on a Friday.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: So when they posted the results that Friday evening, and I saw that, my first mind was like, oh no, the hell, you don't post this on a Friday evening, and I got to sit with this the whole weekend.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: So, of course, you guys know that by the time Monday got here, I had done did so much research and everything.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, Google done tried to kill me five times.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know how Google do it tells you that you're dying always.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: So when Monday comes and the GI doctor actually calls me, of course, she's giving me the good news first as though I haven't already seen the results of everything.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So she's giving me the good news first, and then she sort of just tells me there was a mask that was found on your adrenal gland.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna refer you to the specialist at the adrenal clinic.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_00: However, more than likely it's nothing.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: She tells me that, you know, adrenal tumors I found accidentally all the time.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, when somebody's getting a CT scan for something else, and in my mind, I'm looking like, woman, it was no accident.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like I knew exactly what I was getting a CT scan for.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I didn't think it was gonna be a tumor, but I knew something was going on.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And so, like I said, she was real nice.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: She was trying to reassure me.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: I could tell, you know, she didn't want to scare me or anything like that.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So she was just saying, I'm gonna refer you to the specialist and let them run some more tests and decide what needs to happen next.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: So just to kind of inform you a little bit about what the adrenal gland is, you have two adrenal glands.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: One sits on both of the tops of your kidneys, and your adrenal glands, they are what produces essential hormones that regulate your metabolism, your immune system, your blood pressure, and your stress response.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: So think about cortisol, all that stuff.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: So, me being someone who doesn't like to sit in, it's hard for me to sit in chaos or the unknown.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: I like clarity.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know how sometimes you go to a doctor and you need a follow-up or something, they like to schedule stuff like far out.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, that does not work for me.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I told them, I was like, no, I'm scheduling everything back to back.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I was having several appointments.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about multiple appointments per week while also still parenting, while also still working my very stressful job.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: So, yeah, I was doing all those things.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I went to adrenaline clinic and everything.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: They did some more tests, and they did this one particular test where they're testing your cortisol levels.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So that's like, think about um when your body goes into fight or flight, right?
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And your body releases that cortisol because that's what kind of pretty much just helps you to get in that state or fight or flight.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: However, it's not good to just be in that state for a prolonged time or just have like an excessive amount of cortisol just all the time because it can just mess with so much.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: So one particular test I did was um, I think it was like a cortisol suppression test where the night before you take some type of pill or something that's supposed to lower your cortisone levels, in which that next morning you're supposed to get blood drawn, in which in the morning time is when your levels are already as low as anyway.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, with me getting tested immediately in the morning, when your levels are supposed to be the lowest, as well as I also had this drug that was supposed to reduce my levels, my corazone was still four times the amount it was supposed to be, which is crazy.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: So the adrenal specialist had basically told me that, you know, basically the same thing like a GI doctor said that a lot of times these adrenal tumors are found accidentally, and a lot of times they're not doing anything to your body of to give them a reason why they would need to do anything about it at the time.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: Usually, if it's not doing anything, they just monitor every couple years.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_00: But if it is doing something to your body, then you would need surgery to have it removed.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: So because I had already been doing my own research and the symptoms that I was seeing online was the exact symptoms that I was experiencing for the most part, I already knew that the tumor in me was active.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: So I more than likely was going to have to need surgery.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna lie, my initial thought was, dang, God, I'm already going through a divorce.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_00: Like, why would you also throw this on me right now at the same time?
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's just crazy.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: But right after having that thought, I would say about maybe about five seconds later, I also had the thought that, well, maybe this is for a reason.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's something I'm supposed to learn or do during this process.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so I just need to get through it.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: So all these appointments and everything like that, that went on from the beginning of the year to around the beginning of June 2025.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then my surgery was scheduled for the end of July.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: And as you know, yes, I did try to get it scheduled earlier, but they called me to tell me that the surgeon hadn't had a uh vacation in like a year and she needed to go on vacation.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: I felt a little selfish, I ain't gonna tell you no lie.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: I felt like, what can vacation gotta do with me?
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_00: But then you but then at the same time, I was like, you know what?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, let me get her when she's back and she's refreshed and everything like that.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the kind of way I just looked at it and everything.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_00: So at the end of July, I actually did have my surgery and had that adrenal gland removed.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: They sent it off for testing, came back that um it was non-cancerous, thank God.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, something else I forgot to mention is that usually when someone has like a high level of cortisol, like for a prolonged amount of time, it creates this um syndrome called cushion syndrome.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_00: And usually, cushion syndrome usually presents as people usually gain weight, especially in the upper area and face and everything like that.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: However, mine said that opposite.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: So I actually lost weight.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_00: And so that was one of the main reasons why they were thinking that, oh no, it's probably not active, nothing's wrong, because I didn't gain a significant amount, I just lost weight.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: So that was a little crazy thing.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: But the doctors did explain to me that after I had my surgery and had that gland removed, that you can operate with only one adrenal gland.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: The second one just has to wake up and realize that it needs to start working.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: And they don't know how long that takes.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_00: For some people, maybe days, weeks, months, years, and some people, their second adrenal gland never wakes up.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they have to take steroids for the rest of their life to kind of produce those hormones because it's they're not being produced naturally.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: So thank God for myself.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um, mine's pretty it woke up pretty fast within the matter.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: I think I went to a follow-up appointment maybe, maybe about two weeks later, and my adrenal gland had waken up and I was able to stop all the medication because they did have me on a significant amount of medicine.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was also told that once the gland is removed, I will immediately start to see improvements.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_00: I will immediately start to gain my appetite back, and they was not lying.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I was so happy about that because I do have a love for food.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know, I just love a good meal.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_00: So that was that was very heartbreaking to me that I could not enjoy or I was not enjoying a lot of the meals that I used to enjoy.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I would say that after I had the surgery that next day, like, oh my gosh, like food amazing.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, I started to get much more clarity.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was able to go ahead and resume the process of the divorce and everything like that.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: And not only that, your girl gained 20 pounds in a matter of probably like three weeks, in which that was actually quite funny because I gained that weight around the same time that my divorce was actually finalizing.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And so I think like some people, I know my one of my sisters particularly, you know, they just had this idea in your head that like, oh, you ended with this one thing and now you done gained weight as though this situation had me just losing weight.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, girl, no, I had a whole tumor.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: But another thing that I am grateful for that I gained during that process was that I gained a totally newfound respect for myself.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, my respect level for myself was already pretty significantly high.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_00: But that was just another one of those things.
• 18:46
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, girl, you really are badass.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Like, you just grab things by the balls and you deal with it.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: So that's my story and my experience of what took place when I actually had to advocate for myself.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think with my situation, especially when it comes to my doctor, um, it wasn't one of those situations where I feel like I was just being ignored.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he was actually hearing me, but he just wasn't seeing the same thing I was seeing, or he wasn't, the numbers wasn't showing that nothing was wrong.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: And so if it wasn't for me just deciding to keep on pushing, who knows when we would have actually found out what was going on.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so I would say to people, when it comes to medical things, know that doctors do not know it all.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: And they know that they will tell you they don't know it all.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And most good doctors will not pretend to know it all, like know every single thing.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: They tell you that it's something that they're constantly learning, they're constantly trying to figure things out because everybody's body is different.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes people are not the most honest when it comes to what they're doing at home or what they're taking and what they're eating and things like that.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: So when things go wrong, it's not like there's a book that says, okay, if you have these particular symptoms, it's definitely this thing right here.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_00: No, because symptoms can like, I guess the lines are blurred because there are so many symptoms that fall under so many different categories, right?
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: So that's the reason why when you do have things that are going on, they have to run tests.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And as we all should know, I try to explain to my clients a lot of times that medicine, doctors are studying medicine.
• 20:17
  SPEAKER_00: So it's one of those things whereas you would never just have every single answer.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: For myself, if it would have become a thing where I felt like my doctor was not listening to me or was just bypassing me or anything like that, I would have gone for a second opinion.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: I already had that in my mind.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, okay, if I go for this one time now and he don't test for something, I'm just gonna find me another doctor to get me another opinion.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And that is your right.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: Like, please advocate, advocate, advocate for yourself.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody else in this world is gonna care about your body the way that you do.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: And you should care for your body with the utmost love, the utmost respect, and everything else.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But also trust your intuition, trust your body.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_00: If you feel like something is off, you know your body, you are in this body, this vessel.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_00: So if you feel like something's off, say that.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like not only just say it, but also try to make changes to correct whatever it is that's going on.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: And if you see that you're making changes, but there's still nothing that's changing, get help and always just trust the process.
• 21:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm your host, Tierra, and this is Free Thoughts Podcast.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: Bye bye.