12
ON FIRE
Kelly
In April of 2013 I graduated from massage school.
In June 2013, I opened up my business, “Helping Hands Therapeutic Massage & Body Work”. I was a young entrepreneur who was literally jumping right into a new career. It was exciting, nerve racking, full of uncertainties, and all the while enjoyable!
I was juggling a lot of self-imposed challenges in addition to my new business. I was exercising too much; running anywhere between 4-13 miles a day, and biking a few days a week in addition, all because I thought doing a triathlon was important. I was training for not just one, but two triathlons that summer… proving to myself that I could do those. I can look back now and see I was addicted to the “adrenaline high”, wanting my next “fix” in the workouts, and then final outcome of both triathlons. My body was not taking the added stress too well.
I had stress building–coming from different areas in my life, mostly from my continued downward spiral of health. Life was a battle physically, mentally, and emotionally. I was angry, bitter and resentful towards certain people, and situations from my past. And, I was still trying to figure out what I could eat that would sit right with my gut. By August, the severity of pain in my left side and symptoms had increased even more-so than it had at the end of massage school.
The pain I had extended from under my ribs to just below my belly button. The left side of my abdomen hurt deep under my ribs where I couldn’t reach. In addition, I had a dull, achy low-back pain, mostly on my left side, that extended from the low back then up into the lower third of my rib cage. I had headaches 24/7. It didn’t matter if I slept, ate, drank water, used a heat pack, or essential oils, the headaches just wouldn’t go away. My stomach was bloated and I was gassy. I had hot and cold sweats during the day, and sometimes at night that woke me up. I was losing more weight and muscle tone. My energy was decreasing. Nausea became a daily battle, hitting me at any given moment in a day. I’d started developing a yellow spot in the whites of both my eyes. My appetite lacked. I had diarrhea many times a day, in addition to “regular” bowel movements. My skin tone had become paler, and I had an appearance of being malnourished. At times all I desired to do was sleep, but I kept up with doing my “normal” daily work, chores, and activities. My hands and feet had been cold in the past, but now my whole body was cold despite we were in the height of summer’s warmth. I was fatigued and generally felt “ill”.
Mom and I talked about how I wasn’t seeing much of any improvements in my health while working with the acupuncturist those last couple months. Mutually then, we decided to put a phone call into the holistic practitioner/chiropractor/acupuncturist that Mom had gone to ten years prior, Dr. Ann.
Mom called Dr. Ann’s office and the receptionist told her that, “Dr. Ann is scheduled out a month and a half. Kelly is going to have to wait, unless we get a cancellation.” We took the first available appointment. The month-and-a-half wait was painfully long, every day being a battle.
I continued to work, building a clientele in my new business. I was enjoying my new career. I wasn’t going to let my health stop me from doing my job. Many days were a real struggle, but I stayed focused taking each day as it came.
During the course of my schooling for massage, I’d met some pretty neat people! One dear friend I’d made during that time was Hallie. Hallie and I kept in touch regularly after graduation. We lived three-and-a-half hours apart from one another. She knew the history of my disease: left-side pain, food allergies, and other symptoms. I went to her regularly for massage therapy after graduation. Often times, Hallie would massage my abdomen, as it helped to decrease the abdominal and back pain, therefore relaxing all the tight muscles surrounding the areas. My abdomen and back muscles were always really tight due to the muscles trying to protect the area that pained me the most.
One fall day in 2013 while Hallie was working on my abdomen, she gently stated, “It feels like your left side is ‘ON FIRE’, Kelly.”
I nodded my head, “yes,” and added, “It feels like it’s on fire most of the time.”
“It feels like a slow burning fire. A very hot fire. A red-hot fire,” she murmured. “It’s like it’s burning deep inside and penetrating outwards.” She’d just confirmed to me my very real everyday pain…
13
Fire Confirmed
Kelly
Fall of 2013. Mom and I sat in the waiting room as Dr. Ann walked in. Dr. Ann had olive-colored skin with a beautiful sheen. She over-all had a look of vibrant health. She introduced herself and we went into one of her therapy rooms.
As the appointment started, Dr. Ann asked many questions that I would answer one by one, such as, “Why are you here today? Where is your pain? Describe your pain. What are your symptoms? What does your daily diet consist of? How are your bowel movements? Are your periods regular? Do you have headaches? Do headaches get worse of better when you eat? Are you currently taking any supplements? How much water do you drink in a day? Do you have a history of chronic illness?”
When she asked the questions, it was literally as if she already knew the answers I’d be giving. She appeared to be pretty intuitive. Dr. Ann was intelligent, thorough, and I could tell she truly loved her work helping her patients. Then she asked one more question, “Kelly, have you been working with anyone prior to me for this left side pain?”
“Yes. I have been to a reflexologist, I get massages once a month, and I have been working with an acupuncturist.” I replied. Turns out, Dr. Ann and the acupuncturist knew one another! Small world, I thought.
Mom was sitting in a chair a few feet away from us. Dr. Ann now gave Mom her full attention, eyeing her. “You look familiar,” Dr. Ann stated.
They reconnected after a few shared memory boosts from Mom. I enjoyed hearing their laughter from Mom’s memories of when she had been seeing Dr. Ann for her health issues so many years back. Dr. Ann registered who mom was from those memories.
Next, Dr. Ann did some muscle testing with me, using Chinese medicine modalities. She did acupuncture, tapping, and a few other natural-healing methods to see what she would find going on within me. She didn’t speak as she worked, other than telling me to put pressure against her arm or move my arm or leg. After a long time of silence, she spoke saying, “Your left side feels like it is ‘ON FIRE’!”
I was speechless. I hadn’t told Dr. Ann what Hallie, my friend and massage therapist, had recently told me. Did she REALLY just say “ON FIRE”? I was silent while my mind reeled. Mom spoke to Dr. Ann while I was lost in my thoughts. Talk about confirmation!
It was obvious something serious was going on with my left side. We needed to get to the bottom of it! Then we three talked lengthy about what was going on, what Dr. Ann had found during her examination. My adrenal glands, liver, spleen, and gallbladder weren’t working how they should be and were stressed, and my pancreas especially. My digestive tract was very stressed.
Mom next shared some insights as Dr. Ann listened. “Kelly did two triathlons this past summer and has still been exercising pretty hard-core. In my opinion, I think this depleted the little bit of energy that she had left in her body. I believe that’s what’s aided in her health spiraling downhill so fast in the last months. Is that possible?”
“Yes, it is possible!” Dr. Ann exclaimed. “Kelly’s body, her organs, were already compromised prior to her doing the training and the triathlons. The training in itself used energy, but the triathlons used up the rest of her body’s reserved energy. This depletion of energy would have ultimately happened in a year or less had she not done the training and events.”
Turning to me, Dr. Ann continued, “Kelly, your body is malnourished, tired, and fatigued. You show many signs of having a leaky gut. Our focus now is to get your body functioning properly and back to health again!” Dr. Ann smiled, genuinely. Then, she sat in front of me with a pad of paper and pen. She began writing while making her suggestions of implementing changes. “We need to talk about some lifestyle changes that would help you to become more ‘well’ in your health.”…
…The fire growing deep inside of me was now being directly addressed by Dr. Ann during the fall of 2013. With Dr. Ann’s and mom’s help, I was on my way to improvements in eating an all-organic diet, and supplementing with nutrients I lacked.
During those first months with Dr. Ann, my energy and overall health seemingly was improving as my ashen skin tone disappeared and I gained some needed weight back… but that was only for a season of time. Time was something I didn’t feel I had much of that fall going into the winter. Overall, my health felt out of control. But, with a lot of help from the right people, I would gain my health back, eventually. For now, though, I was literally living one day at a time.
-End of Read More-sneak peak-
We hope you enjoyed this sneak peak, so much so that you might go online and preorder our book, “Your Life Your Choice Let the Healing Begin A JOURNEY OF DIS-EASE TO EASE Healing Holistically of Pancreatic Cancer”. Anyone can preorder the soft cover book before its release on Sept. 8, 2022! We encourage anyone interested in reading our book to preorder it at these sites:
Amazon https://www.amazon.com/Choice-Healing-Begin-Journey-Dis-ease-ebook
Barnes & Noble https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-life-your-choice-let-the-healing-begin-a-journey-of-dis-ease-to-ease
Walmart
Powell’s Books https://www.powells.com/book/your-life-your-choice-let-the-healing-begin-a-journey-of-dis-ease-to-ease-9781667854175
Books-A-Million https://www.booksamillion.com/search?filter=&id=8596316067004&query=your+life+your+choice+let+the+healing+begin
Ingram
Baker & Taylor
Nacscorp
Christian Book Distributors
Bookazine
Diamond Comics,
BPDI Corp
Any preordered soft cover book will not be charged on the buyer’s credit card until the book is shipped. We have an Ebook version available online as well with the same distributors noted above, and it is available to purchase and download now!
Thank you so much for any interest in purchasing our book! If you would please share this blogpost on your social media sites to help us get the word out, we would really appreciate it! We will also be available for book speaking engagements in the near future, so if you know of a group or church that would be interested in having us come and speak, please contact us on this website and leave us a message! Thank you!
Your Life, Your Choice 