But back to the question, "How did you get into health?"

My Back

I became interested in health when my own was put to tests in ways I wasn't yet equipped to handle, starting at the age of 13. I injured my back while doing a high jump on an outdated gym mat that was way too hard for a young person's spine. After grade 7, I started to develop a lot of crippling back pain, which led to frustration, for I could no longer run as fast or feel coordinated. I slowly pulled away from competitive sports because I wasn't given the education to learn that my back wasn't just painful because of "growing pains." It wasn't until I was in my mid-teens - three years later, that I finally got an MRI and found out that I had a slipped disc that was causing herniation.

I didn't know what to do with that, though.

What does a young teenager do with back pain? No one around me complained about their backs, so I unfortunately just tried to forget, but the pain never disappeared. The pain sunk into my back permanently and followed me everywhere I went. It always felt like half of my body wasn't "right."

Pain is one of the most dramatic and in-your-face performers. Nothing stirs you to your present core more than pain. Nothing is as sobering or makes you want to take action as pain.

So there I was, young, my teens had passed me, and I had sat with debilitating back pain for the entire duration of my youth. I had tried countless therapies and exercises to help my back, but nothing helped. 

My Digestion

My pain was with me through everything I have experienced since I was 13. In 2016, when I turned eighteen, I graduated and flew to Spain. I then embarked on a year-long solo trip to 14 different countries, determined to not let my back pain hold me back. I worked on a tall ship as a deckhand, and we sailed the western coast of Europe, reaching 6 countries. It was hard to pull the lines on the ship and do the heavy work with my back, and I felt like a burden on the ship instead of a helper. It was a hard 4 months in damp climates doing night watches in ice rain and never having time to exercise or stretch my back. In June, I left the ship and then hiked across Scotland with a 55lb backpack, and my back pain was the reason I couldn't finish the entire 150 miles. From there, I traveled through Scandinavia and eventually to Asia, where I taught English, lived in a yoga ashram, and did a 10-day-long silent Vipassana meditation, and enduring that journey with tremendous back pain was immensely difficult. 

Along these big adventures, I, unfortunately, picked up parasites, worms, and PID, which eventually brought me to the emergency room more than once in Thailand. I could no longer eat food without being sick in bed for days. The pain in my back seemed to suddenly be a breeze compared to the sensations of 40-degree weather, and no relief from the crippling pain in my stomach that felt like someone was ringing out my intestines. I have never experienced pain like that. Blackouts, fever, and the feeling of an infection damaging my intestines to the point where I couldn't walk or even talk. It wasn't the very best ending to a year-long trip. When I returned to Canada in December, I had to do two more rounds of antibiotics that made my body bruise and clumps of hair fall out. 

Once again, I didn't know what to do at 19 with all this pain.

I didn't want what happened to my back to happen again with my stomach. I didn't want to settle for it. So I decided to take this project into my own hands. I spent the next three years learning and applying everything I could to regain my digestive health. I knew nothing else was as important as getting my original health back, like how I used to feel. Like I was blessed to feel as a child.

I began to read as much as I could on digestion. My previous books on writing, traveling, and painting were replaced with gut health, herbs, naturopathy, and vitamin books. I began to ferment foods such as wild herbs, kombucha, and water kefir. I made different bone broths, tried dozens of supplements, and ate clean food. The combination of the parasites and antibiotics gave me IBS, SIBO, and a lot of food sensitivities, such as dairy and gluten, and I started to learn how to cook without these staple ingredients. Through Permaculture, I discovered the importance of nutrient-dense vegetables and how vital probiotics, prebiotics, and enzymes are. I had been a vegetarian for two years but returned to eating wild game and bone broth to help heal my gut lining, returning to my ancestral Scandinavian diet.

After losing a lot of my physical health, this eventually rippled into my mental health. I lost my "good" gut microbiome from the many courses of antibiotics I had to take, leading me to have anxiety for the first time. It was horrible to feel a sense of dread for no apparent reason. I watched myself, almost from above, as I lost my sense of comfort in life due to this new villain in my life called anxiety. 

It was a hard three years, but I eventually cured my stomach pain and anxiety by learning, experimenting, and being patient with myself. I know now what I can eat and what will bloat me. I know that my body needs to avoid raw vegetables and cold foods. I know that icy water can ruin my digestive system for the whole day. I know that sugar, wheat, raw dairy, and high histamine foods can damage my digestion. I know my anxiety is just trying to tell me something. I have so many tools in my belt now. I know what I need, and I know how to help myself. And I am so grateful for what I have learned through the process of all of this pain. But it wasn't the end of my pain journey. Not in the slightest.

My Legs

I healed my stomach, for the most part, yet my back pain was still present. At this point, it had been eight years. I felt almost okay with it. At least my stomach was better. I knew that if I continued to sleep on plywood each night, my back wouldn't flare up so badly. I didn't know what else to try.

In June 2019, I worked on another tall ship. After I left, I felt more out of shape than usual because I had lived without any ground or equipment to work out on. I made the biggest mistake of my life by throwing myself into a grueling and intense workout after not exercising my body correctly for years. I was ignorant and didn't realize how much my fascia and muscles had shifted to compensate for my weak back. I didn't know. I knew I shouldn't just dive into a workout routine. I found "boot camp" workouts online that proposed I try a hard workout every day for 2 weeks. I ignored the pain in my body and dove into a hardcore workout without knowing if my form was accurate, without realizing rest days were vital, and without thinking much more other than, "This will help me get fit and healthy soon." 

About seven days into this intense, heavy-repetition workout, I started to feel extremely exhausted all over my body. I thought I was doing something right because I could feel it. Right? But by day 14, I could no longer activate my legs. It felt like I was using all the skin around those muscles to move them rather than the muscle itself. The challenge had ended; I had completed it! But I didn't feel strong. I felt fragile. Two days later, my legs still felt like I had been hiking Everest. They felt achy, tight, heavy, bruised, sore, and painful. It was horrifying to wake up each day and grimace as my leg pain was still there, and I started to realize they weren't recovering. Day after day after day. 

After about a week of this, I went to the doctor, and they ran nerve conduction tests and checked my vitamin and mineral levels, but everything returned normal. They didn't know what else to check for. I flew to Vancouver for more tests later that month and learned nothing. I came home defeated but determined to heal this mysterious injury, no matter how long it took. I remember crying so much during those weeks, and my tears burned my cheeks because I felt frustrated and exhausted. They were angry tears. I had just endeared so much with pain in my back and stomach, and now this? I grew depressed and felt like a wild cat, once again caged in pain, unable to be creative, travel, or feel like myself. It affected my relationship, my work, my creativity, and all sides of my health.

My leg pain stayed with me for three and a half years after this. I don't have the words to explain how consuming and life-altering this was. My legs are half of my body. It was hard to feel that amount of pain and still smile and act like a young and healthy person. A lot of days throughout those three years were spent in bed.

One night, I lost all sensation in my legs, and I had to go to the emergency, and my legs continued to go through muscle atrophy. After restrictions gradually lifted in 2021, I tried massage therapy, rolfing, craniosacral, Ayahuasca naturopathy, physio, diets like the Paleo, tons of supplements, books, yoga, foam rolling, gua sha, and somatic retreats, but nothing really propelled me closer to healing them than Chinese Medicine.

I had never tried acupuncture before but was willing to do anything at that point, so I started getting weekly treatments. Initially, my acupuncturist couldn't put needles into my back without it spasming since the muscles were so tight, so she avoided working directly on my back and chose different acupoints around my legs and hands. It was fascinating that she worked on my hands, feet, ears, and legs to help my back pain. After about 8 or 9 treatments, 90% of my back had vanished. I had trouble believing it because I had lived with my back pain for over 8 years. It was surprising to no longer feel the almost decade-long dull ache. I held my breath and hoped the pain wouldn't return; three years later, it still hasn't. 

When I moved to the Okanagan in May of 2022, I started to get more acupuncture treatments from a master acupuncturist that had trained for 10 years in Taiwan. My legs were still sore and heavy at that point, maybe only about 65% better. But this acupuncturist helped me diagnose my "mystery" leg injury. Soon into treatment, he suspected I had blood stasis, a term that isn't widely known in the West. He believed that the intense strain and repetition I put on my legs in 2019 caused blood stasis, where certain body parts lose blood supply, oxygen, and circulation. My legs weren't receiving enough oxygen for my muscles to properly function and activate. After only a few acupuncture treatments, including blood-letting, most of my three-year-long debilitating leg pain vanished. I didn't feel like I was treading through thick water anymore. It was incredible and changed my life. I feel like I've been given another shot. I promised I would never take my legs for granted and never allow myself to be unhealthy or not stay fit and active. This is the promise I am honoring to myself.

I am pleased to write that I am now pain-free. I still have good and bad days but I feel equipped to help myself, which is huge. I know what I need to do now. I am so thankful for all the health practitioners that helped me over the past 8 years and my determination to not give up. I have never once told myself that I won't heal, but I value what pain has taught me for half my life now. 

I think my love of life fuelled me to heal my chronic pain, and I wanted to be pain-free so I could go on thoroughly enjoying life. Thankfully, through the knowledge I have learned, I feel I can look after myself.

I am now slowly balancing out my bookshelf. Previously it only had health books, but now I am at a point of feeling better where I can add my art, music, and traveling books back on it.