Like many health professionals, my journey to this career started both because of a childhood dream and a personal health battle. First, when I was a child, I always wanted to be a doctor (pediatrician in particular). I had excellent grades, was in the gifted program and it was my understanding that the smartest people became doctors. I loved working with children (even if they were only 6 months younger than me) and spent my time volunteering in the special needs classrooms, teaching dance to younger students and babysitting. As I got older, my goal of becoming a doctor continued.
However, during my university years things began to shift as my health took a turn for the worse.
It started with mystery infections that would land me in the hospital. I was on antibiotics continually and shuffled to DOZENS of different specialists but no one had an answer. Or worse yet, I was given nearly a dozen different diagnoses, with no explanation about how things were connected or how a healthy young woman could suddenly be plagued with so many chronic, debilitating illnesses.
I was so sick of never feeling heard and began to lose faith in the medical system. I didn’t know that there was another way.
I struggled through the rest of my university years heavily medicated, feeling like I’d completely lost the person who I once was.
I went from dancing and playing sports daily, having high involvement in student activities and a very active social life to sleeping 12-14 hours/day, barely seeing friends or family and unable to do simple tasks like grocery shopping or drying my hair without taking breaks.
Despite my physical and cognitive impairments, I graduated from university and began preparing to apply for medical school. It was during this time, that I was venting to a friend about how I couldn’t believe that none of my doctors even COMMUNICATED with each other, when it was suggested that I look into Naturopathic Medicine.
“Naturowhat”?!
I literally had never even heard the word before. After a quick google search, I became obsessed. Now here’s the kicker: I pulled up the CAND website to look into if this was even a legit thing. The very first name on the list of Naturopaths was the same woman who babysat me as a child who I had not been in contact with for 15+ years (Dr. Katherine Ackland).
I seriously thought I was being Punk’d (erm yeah, that was still kinda a thing back in 2008). I sent her an email to inquire if she was in fact the same person whom my sister and I forced to watch Family Matters on Friday nights and lo and behold, it was her.
Now, I’m not a very superstitious person, and I believe a person is largely in control of their destiny, but on the other hand, I really believe that the universe sends you messages, sometimes subtle, and sometimes so loud & clear that you’d be crazy to ignore it.
The next several months were a whirlwind of learning about Naturopathy as a profession, visits with my new Naturopath and applying to the Canadian College of Naturopathic Medicine.
It was while I was sitting on the top of Machu Picchu in Peru on a volunteer mission that I realized that this was my calling.
I remember the moment SO clearly, and when I close my eyes I can feel the mixture of grass and dirt felt beneath my outstretched legs, hear the excited chatter of the tourists around me and experience the excitement as I contemplated my new future. It was just days later that I got news that I was offered an interview, and then just weeks after that in which I officially graduated from university and accepted the admissions offer to CCNM.
Atop Machu Picchu, June 2009
I started at CCNM the following year (I deferred my start date to travel, work and enjoy life) and the rest as they say, is history!
But actually….it doesn’t really stop there. Keep in mind, that my health was still an absolute mess and I was turning to Naturopathic Medicine for a miracle. I thought that as soon as I started treatment, I would take a few supplements and magically be better.
I hate to disappoint you, but I did not have an overnight recovery. What I did have though, was someone who for the first time in years listened to me, acknowledged me and committed to getting me better.
I’m not going to lie, it took years to get me where I am today, and there are some days that I still struggle with debilitating fatigue, pain and various ailments (4 years of medical school certainly did not help my recovery). It took years of supplements, botanicals, homeopathic remedies, hydrotherapy sessions, acupuncture, diet changes, lifestyle changes, self-care, self-care and more self-care.
While I did not have an overnight miracle, Naturopathic Medicine absolutely changed my life.
If I continued on the path I was on, with handfuls of pills to get me surviving through the day and fast food to “nourish” me, I really don’t know where I would be today. In some ways I like to think that my willpower and determination is strong enough that I would have pushed through, but given the state of my physical (and mental) health, I really don’t think I could have.
Naturopathic medicine not only gave me the tools I needed to survive, but it completely changed how I view health. My biggest frustration in the early days of my health struggle were that no one would try to understand how a previously perfectly healthy young woman could so rapidly deteriorate.
No one was trying to understand WHY it was happening, which is the beauty of Naturopathy. Treating the root cause. Treating the whole person. Giving a person the tools and resources that allow them to heal themselves.
And so my friends, here I stand. A steadfast advocate of Naturopathic Medicine, not only because it changed my life, but because I know it can change yours too.
