Meet Rachel!

These above words seem so simple on their own. Together the impact is powerful. The things I say at the age of 43, some might have figured out much, much earlier. I hope to reach those people still swimming in the well of their despair.

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I did not know my nervous system was out of balance and deregulated.

I did not know my nervous system was always "on" in the well-known Fight, Flight, and less-known Freeze and Fawn state. 

How could I know any of this, when this state has always been my baseline?

How could I know the trauma experienced by the age of 5, or 8 or even 16 was changing the normal development of my brain? 

How could I know? 

How can you know?

I'm still shining light into the many ways my brain and body have been affected by the darkness suppressed as a young child just trying to survive.  

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Many of us develop social anxieties at a young age. For me these anxieties were crippling. A broken home with survival, safety and just getting by each day were most important than general love and play. Definitely not emotional intelligence and support.

I developed a "mystery disease" at 16.5 and would consume the next 1.5 years with tests and medical procedures to determine what was wrong with me.

NOTHING WAS DETERMINED. 

 A liver biopsy concluded I had less than 10% liver function. 

I needed a liver transplant.

To survive a transplant at age 18, with no diagnosis has always lived in the back of my soul screaming this is wrong. What is an autoimmune disease anyway?... just your body attacking itself.

I was told I had an autoimmune disease but no specifics. "My immune system is wacky" was the answer. 

....okay. But was it? I've never had any ongoing complications. What does this mean?

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After a slip and fall at work and a wrist fracture that wasn't treated properly, I developed Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS). This rabbit hole was what I really fell into that finally allowed me to see the whole picture. 

What happen to me, NOT what's wrong with me. And so, the healing began. 

Educating myself on CRPS, I found it isn't developed by the "weak." It's a disease that transpires out of enduring. For me it was the final sign from my nervous system screaming for me to regulate it. 

Understanding my ACE (adverse childhood experiences) score; and how these events in my early life changed my brain. They changed my body as a whole. Understanding this impact is the key. 

Finding a doctor that understood the nervous system, pain signals AND the connection with the mind and emotions. This profound knowledge is how I began to heal my nervous system.

I want to share my experience and science behind healing the nervous system and regulating the vagus nerve specifically. 

Healing the Nervous System to Heal Chronic Pain