What is a spondy? This is an autoimmune condition I had never heard of. Join me as I interview Julianna Coughlin who is thriving despite the rather severe illness that she can have as a spondy also known as Ankylosing spondylitis. We talk about a variety of things including the damage that fad diets can cause, how each person needs to follow the diet or eating plan that best suits them, what she has learned as a dietician working with people with autoimmune conditions and other illnesses and at the end she tells me what Harry Potter house she thinks I come from. Discover what it is like to live life as a spondy and how you can thrive no matter what.
Bio:
Julianna is a podcaster, runner, Harry Potter nerd (she’s a Hufflepuff), demisexiual, dietitian, “spondy” and dog mom. Julianna lives on Cape Cod in Massachusetts with her pittie Myrtle. Her two podcasts, Puffcast (Your Harry Potter Happy Place) and Into the Fold (A Grishaverse Podcast), are independently produced by herself with her two best friends Mel and Geoff. By day, she works as a registered dietitian for the VA. When she’s not walking her dog, podcasting or talking Potter she can be found running. She has run two Boston Marathons and a Chicago Marathon and has her eyes set onthe NYC marathon next. She also has a chronic illness called Ankylosing spondylitis(see “spondy” above) and is currently on the journey to finding her best treatment plan to combat this condition.
Links
Instagram: https://instagram.com/
Nutrition counseling: https://ondemand.
Puffcast Podcast: https://linktr.ee/Puffcast?
Into the Fold Podcast: https://linktr.ee/intothefold?fbclid=PAAaYcG40eroDhDZtT17J1QFl2kz4jTNi3s7nFfx2_rWRiLnU6tnih0rbB38E
End the fatigue and get your energy back strategy session
Interview Transcript
Hello, this is Anna Laura Brown, host of the Autoimmune Rehab Podcast, where we explore ideas, solutions, and helpful hints to help you in your autoimmune healing journey. We strive to transform your health and inspire helping you so that we can help you with your emotional healing and self-care, and some of your physical healing.
Things like diets, that kind of thing, which you know, you would find on. Podcast on autoimmune wellness. Find all the episodes with show notes@autoimmunerehab.com. And now without any further delay, let’s get started. This episode is sponsored by doTERRA essential Oils and Wellness products. Curious how essential oils can help you boost your immunity and help you sleep better and more.
Go to annalaurabrown.com/essentialoils. Let’s talk about it and request your freedom. Hello ladies, and welcome to this episode of Autoimmune Rehab. Today’s episode. I am super happy to have a guest here with me. Her name is Juliana. And Juliana, why don’t you go ahead and get started and introduce yourself to us.
Hi. Well, I’m, I’m so glad to be here. I am kind of a newcomer to the autoimmune deficiency slash disease slash conditions, uh, community, just because I only discovered that I had one of those about two years ago now, a little, a little over two years maybe. Um, but my name is Juliana. I am a dietician by trade.
I work for the Veterans Association, so I see all my, all my, all my peeps there, and I am also a podcaster. I am not in the. Health Autoimmune spear for podcasting, cuz that’s where I spend most of my day jobs. So I have a Harry Potter podcast and a Grisha verse, which is the universe that’s connected to shadow and bone, if you’ve seen that on Netflix and two Life Kiki podcasts.
I also have a dog named Myrtle. My favorite color is purple and I live on Cape Cod. So just a little dating profile for you right? That’s funny. That’s cool though. Yeah, I’m not really that familiar with that show, but you know, that’s, yeah, that’s cool. I am a big Harry Potter fan though, so you know. Ooh, okay.
What hog? What’s your Hogwarts house? What? Hell no, I slithering maybe. Okay. So what’s gonna happen is I’m gonna sort you by the end of this, cause I love sorting people because I feel like I have a good grasp on what exactly each house’s vibe is. So by the end of the episode, I’m gonna sort. You are.
Okay. That’ll be cool. That’ll be interesting. . That’ll add an interesting twist to the story . Same time, you know, Harry Potter’s so popular that I’m sure that a big chunk of people that are listening to us have probably seen and watched Harry Potter. At least, you know, some of them read in the books and stuff, so that’s cool.
That’s awesome. So you said for your day job, so you do, you work as a dietician with people that have autoimmune conditions as part of your day job then? . Yeah. So because the VA is a very interesting setting, it’s a lot different than a lot of other outpatient clinics. That dieticians could work in. But essentially because veterans have all of their healthcare, mostly paid for under the government, they can see a dietician for literally anything.
So I see the whole gamut of people. I have people who are lying to lose weight. Gain weight. I have a lot of post covid people who have lost their taste, taste, sense, and smell a lot of diabetic. Heart disease, heart conditions, autoimmune diseases, you name it. I’ve probably seen that person at my clinic because literally anyone can utilize my service, which is really awesome and I really appreciate that as being part of their healthcare that they can get as veterans.
But yeah, I do have, I have a few people who are kind of sticking out in my head right now, but I definitely have a lot of autoimmune people. Definitely a lot of people because the cape is a lot. Uh, Cape Cod has a lot. Like densely populated elderly, pro elderly, I sorry, a much higher elderly population than a lot of other areas in the country, just because it is kind of like a retirement home, uh, almost, but.
I have a lot of people with arthritis or other conditions that are related to that. But yeah, I do have a good, a good chunk of autoimmune disease people who I work with. That’s cool. So it’s probably giving you a pretty unique perspective now that you know you’re on your own. The zone journey, it’s like, okay, now I get to be my own dietician as well as the dietician for other people.
Yeah, it’s, it’s, it’s been interesting for me too in a way because now I am more hyper aware of what things, I would definitely send people who are like needing a rheumatologist or something like that where like what those signs and symptoms are, because I’ve seen them in myself and so I’ve actually had a lot of people who have come into, not a lot, but like at least like 10 or 12 people have come into my clinic and they’re telling me all these things and I’m like, this feels like exactly like what, how I felt when I was un.
And I usually put them in, put them in for a referral to see the rheumatologist. And I can tell you what all of them have come back and been like, that was so helpful. Thank you for setting me over there. I’m like, yeah, I know. I’m not like an actual expert in all these things, but I’ve been through it. So I get it.
And I hear what you’re saying, coming outta your mouth and it sounds like my story, so. , maybe you should at least like to see if that’s the case, you know? Yeah, for sure. So what’s that like working with, you know, like the elder, the older population now mean, you know, you’re the dietician, so you’re there to say, Hey, you gotta give that this food, you gotta eat more of this
You know, you gotta be kind of the, that’s not gonna be somewhat challenging. Although I’d imagine if they’re coming to you, they’re probably a little more open-minded to changing their lifestyle and their habits than if they offer money to you. But, . Yeah. I mean some of them definitely come because like they’re like, my wife made me come, or their doctor made them come quote unquote.
Mm-hmm. . . I definitely do have a lot of motivated people that I’m working with cuz again, most of them are making the choice to come and see me at least. But it is interesting, I just feel like the older the person is, the more they’re into canned foods and that’s definitely a challenge when it comes to things like that.
And then also I’d say it’s probably the biggest challenge working with improving people’s feelings. when they’re older with eating is their ability to cook. Cuz there are so many people who have like because of the autoimmune diseases, a lot of the times too, or like a lot, a lot of them because of their arthritis, they like can’t open a can or they can’t like cut with a knife or something because their functional ability has just been deteriorated so much that that’s just kind of where they are because their body’s been attacking itself for like so many years and maybe they didn’t really take care of her that well leading up to this point.
So, They’re kind of in a rough patch. So yeah, definitely managing their food intake and also taking into account that a lot of these people just can’t cook for themselves is definitely a challenge. Yeah, that’s gotta be a challenge for sure. I can, I can definitely see that with the older people that I know.
A lot of the older people that I know too, they don’t, you know? Mm-hmm. cook so much for themselves, and some of ’em maybe never really cooked for themselves. So, you know, , oh. . Oh yeah. I get people who literally eat out every single meal and that’s just their normal, and I’m like, and they’re like, my sodium is so high.
I’m like, yes, I know you didn’t have to, you didn’t even have to tell me that your sodium was high. I could have guessed that. . Yeah. It’s crazy. It’s like, well, and hopefully, maybe, I mean, this obviously isn’t an option for everyone, but I know that at least here in our area, there are places that will do like meal prep for people.
Mm-hmm. I stick to specific diets and things like that. I mean, it costs about the same as eating out though. So if people are used to their food, vegetable pain eating out all the time, then you know Yeah. A lot of these people or something. Yeah. A lot of these times, times with the people who just either like to eat out a lot or don’t, can’t have the ability to cook for themselves, that kind of is like the plan of attack is more like redirecting them to where they’re ordering their food from.
So instead of like Papa Gino’s or like McDonald’s all the time, maybe they get their meals for Meals on Wheels or one of the other like senior meals programs that are out there. But, that would depend on what’s local to your area. But there are plenty of good senior meals out there, so for sure.
Absolutely. Yeah. That’s definitely got a, giving you an interesting perspective. So no. Why don’t you share with us a little bit about how you figured out that you were having your autoimmunity and what your journey’s been like. A little bit of a person. . Yeah, so just for reference, I am 29 years old and I’ve been, my entire life, pretty much just like a creaky person.
I always had weird back things like when I was a kid, my back was curved, I wanna say. outward, but like I would stick my stomach out. That’s the way that my back was curved. So if you can just imagine in your head how your back would’ve to be curved for that. And I had to do PT for that as a kid, but no one really did anything else about that.
And then just periodically growing up, like I always just was in pain if I had to sit for a really long time or something like that. And people were like, oh, you’re just anxious or you’re just imagining it, whatever. And what happened was, Two and a half years ago. Yeah. Cause it was February of 2020 I believe.
I was out running because I love to run and it was way hot. I should not have been out there, but uh, I wanted to be outside. Uh, that happens. Yeah. And I went to turn around at my turnaround point for my run, and I hit the black. There was black ice out that morning and I hit the black ice, like just right.
And I was actually walking around the turnaround point, cause I knew it was kind of slippery. So I was walking around the turnaround point and I just hit the black ice, slipped, slammed, and slammed my knee directly onto the pavement because I am crazy and I like to wear shorts until it’s 10 degrees outside.
Uh, And so I had my, the skin of my knee, like lamb into the pavement. And I ran home on that because I either had to wait for like 40 minutes outside in the cold for someone to come pick me up, or I could just run the same distance home. So I was like, you know what? Screw it. I’m just gonna run home. Um, and so I ran home and.
I had all this pain in my knee like the following weeks, but then all of a sudden all my other joints really started hurting. And I was like, this is kind of weird. And essentially what happened is my doctor told me that I had colonizing spondylolysis. We’re just gonna call that as, um, cuz that’s too many words.
And so he told me that and I was like, What the heck is that? I’ve never even heard of this in my life. Like what are you even talking about? Because I guess I was positive for the HLA b27 gene, possibly, don’t quote me, that’s probably wrong. But there’s a gene that’s very indicative of spondylitis as, and I had that plus like.
literally every other symptom, uh, . And he was asking me like, Hey, have you ever had back pain before? I was like, yeah, sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with back pain. Now I don’t know where it comes from, and I’ve just always been really creaky and like my joints are really painful. He’s like, ah-huh, you have a, and I was like, no, I don’t.
Mm-hmm. No, you can’t. You can’t make me do it. And. , pretty much it came to the point where I accepted that and I started doing biological medications. I stopped, I took way too many steroids, um, just because it was constantly like one joint offsetting another joint and the other joint offsetting another joint.
And just like pain, pain, pain, pain, pain. And. I like steroids. We’re not doing me any good. I mean, I don’t know what steroids do for other people, but I got this weird skin anasarca where my skin would, yeah, it was really bizarre. Cause like I woke up one morning and like my, like not my muscles, my skin and like touching clothing and I just felt I was heavier.
I could feel every motion that my body made cause I could feel my skin going like boo. Because it was full of water. It was. really bizarre. Um, so steroids were not for me in any capacity. So about like a year ago now, I decided that I was just gonna like, start going like, cuz I, I, I run marathons so I work out already.
But like, I wasn’t going to the gym doing strength training as much as I probably should have. So I made the commitment to doing that more and also trying out some biologicals with my rheumatologist who shouted out to Dr. Rose Zinsky. We’ll just call him Dr. R. Uh. He is an awesome rheumatologist and I got really, really lucky getting him as my first rheumatologist because I don’t wanna give him up.
He’s mine. Everyone else can walk away, but . But essentially I went through, uh, well, I went through one medication that I can’t remember the name of. I did Embr and now I’m on Humira. Mm-hmm. So, I, and I guess the starting dose for as is like every other week right now, I’ve kind of hit a good spot where I take flexo, which is a muscle relaxant.
I take that cuz my main issue is like, and everyone I’ve ever done physical therapy with is like, wow, your muscles are so tight. Like you’re not weak, but they’re really tight. I’m like, I know this is like, you’re like the 20th person who has told me that, but what are we gonna do about it? And so I actually ended up asking myself.
because I have a friend who’s used muscle relaxants who has similar conditions to what I have, and I was like, Hey, can I try a low dose muscle relaxant to just see if it helps because I’m just so tight all the time. And because of my own self-advocacy in that, like doing the muscle relaxant, the flexural twice a day, and then we do the Humira once a week and we’re mostly in a good spot.
So that’s good. That’s awesome. That’s cool. Have you changed your diet then, personally at all then knowing from what you know from your dietician experience? Yeah, I actually have, I, I used to be more of like, I would call like a flexitarian, like I was eating some meat, but not like a lot mm-hmm. and was still consuming some dairy.
Uh, but right now I’m just vegetarian. I don’t, and only like animal products that I eat really. on the regular is yogurt because I really love yogurt and I just can’t. I like it a lot. Um, I love all the Greek yogurts. They’re so good. . Other than that, yeah, I’m mostly vegan, vegetarian right now, just because I was finding that the meat was like, really, I also have i b d ear bowel disease, and that was really bothering my stomach.
Um, and so I kind of gave that up and I definitely have felt a little bit better since that. I also am someone too who notoriously, like, I eat mostly fruits and vegetables anyway, so like, I’m really not that far from being like a regular vegan, like literally it’s just the, it’s just the yogurt. Um, . I do eat mostly fruits and vegetables to begin with, and nut products and stuff like that.
So, and I think that definitely has helped me a lot because a lot of those anti-inflammatory properties that come from all those foods, so I think that if I had been eating like kind of crappy, like eating McDonald’s all the time or something like that, I think I would’ve been, I know I would be in way, way, be worse shape than I am right now.
And the fact that I was running marathons the entire time too and like keeping up with physical activity. I think those two things definitely helped me get to a point where I’m still a functioning human being right now. Because I have a feeling if I had just given up and started eating ice cream all the time, I would’ve.
Ended up as a ball of pain 99% of the time instead of only like 50% of the time . Yeah, that’s a good point. Yeah, for sure. I mean, you know, you, what do you, what can I say? You know, you gotta have your fruits and vegetables and Yeah, kinda interesting cuz I talk to a lot of autoimmune people that if anything they kind of go the other direction with a lot of meat and.
As for fruits and vegetables and I just, I don’t know personally. That’s so interesting. Balance in a lot of ways is better than, you know, just completely giving up all the fruits and vegetables and eating only meat. There’s like the carnivore diet thing that’s circulating Yeah. Down there. And to me, I just can’t imagine doing that.
I’m just like, Yeah. To me that’s so bananas. I think just knowing the nutritional value of all these foods because it’s my job. Um, like to me it just seems weird that people are like, oh yeah, I’m just gonna get all my nutrients from meat. I’m like, but it’s not that you can’t really do that.
Like there are a lot of things that aren’t that aren’t like, just like scientifically speaking, you cannot get all your, well one, you can’t get all your vitamins, minerals, and nutrients. Needs met from one food on the whole, like whether it be broccoli, whether it be meat, whether it be fish. Like if you only eat one kind of food, you’re only gonna get one set of nutrients and it’s not gonna be all your needs.
And two, like there are so many things that are only in plants that you, you literally just can’t get from animal foods because they’re just like, they’re only in plants. So like, yeah, like, I mean, vitamin C comes to mind to me too. It’s like, how are you gonna get vitamin C by just eating meat? I don’t think there’s really, I don’t know my stuff well enough, but I’m like, I don’t think there’s really vitamin C in meat.
No, that’s so interesting too, because, like all fruits and vegetables, they are well notoriously known for containing high levels of antioxidants. Yeah, exactly. And your anti-inflammatories and stuff. Yeah. So like I, yeah. . That’s bananas to me. Yeah, it is. I think it’s bananas to you. I literally don’t subscribe to that philosophy.
But, you know , yeah. I mean, it’s more or less like what works for your own body, but like, just scientifically speaking, like taking the person out of that whole situation. Like it just makes, I don’t get it. Like the, the science just doesn’t add up. Like, I don’t, I don’t, I don’t understand. Because a lot of things that are in, like animal products are actually kind of, Scientifically speaking, when they’ve studied them in labs, they’re kind of inflammatory to the other cells.
Especially if you get saturated fats and things like that. It’s, they, they’re, they’re, they’re okay in moderation, but like to eat, uh, that is your only thing probably is not like the way to go. That’s what I have a tendency to think too. And so when I hear somebody claim that, you know, I’ve seen claims on social media, people saying, oh look, I’m just doing, I’m like, eh, I dunno about that.
You know, . Yeah, I mean the issue is too is that a lot of the time the things that it’s really affecting, I’m like, you might feel better in the moment. And a lot of people who start like kind of those, like what I’ll call fad diets, like the paleo diet or like the um, the Atkins diet or like any of those diets, the paleo diet’s my favorite though, because you’re supposed to eat like a person from, uh, from like the cave people times.
And I’m like, do you really wanna eat like someone who only lived to be 20? . Yeah, I know exactly. . Well, and the problem I have personally too, and I actually did a whole episode with this on Paleo and why I don’t do Paleo anymore, because I tried it temporarily. Is that mm-hmm. . I have high cholesterol that runs in my family.
Yeah. I don’t have oatmeal or oats. At least a couple times a week. My cholesterol skyrockets. Oh yeah. Yeah. That’s something. Oh, I can’t give up. Oh, it’s totally. Or I end up with high cholesterol. . Yeah. Well, and that’s the thing people don’t realize too, is a lot of the things that these diets affect you can’t see on the surface level, and you’re not gonna feel them or feel their effects for a while.
Like your cholesterol levels, like your blood pressure, your lipid levels, your sodium and potassium levels, like you might feel a little bit off, or you might feel like a little bit different, but nothing that’s really going to affect you until like later down the road when. of those things have possibly gone unchecked, and then all of a sudden your cholesterol is like 400, and you’re like, oh, I don’t know how that happened.
Oops. The DA . Yeah, exactly. So it’s like, it’s like having the balance in all things and I think, you know, yeah, yeah. We wanna go like our ancestors in the sense that we don’t wanna be having all the processed food and the junk and all the high sugar and stuff, but. . You know, I mean even then it’s moderation is always good and I mean like the whole yogurt thing even, there’s a lot of probiotics in yogurt and especially if you’re, that doesn’t have a lot of sugar in it, that can actually be really good for you if your body tolerate the dairy.
You know, I have to kind of do the dairy free usually cuz my body doesn’t love dairy. But you know, I mean, yeah. Uh, full disclosure, my body doesn’t really like dairy either, but like I. Me and the lactase pills are really close. We’re real close buds, so . Yeah. . But yeah, it, it’s so interesting too, but it is it, in that regard, it is such an individual approach.
And I mean, any dietician will tell you this too, like everyone’s body is different. And so you have to kind of learn what works for your body. And everyone’s disease condition is so different too because. , you and I could have the same diagnosis, but that’s just one of the things that’s happening in our bodies.
So we have to take everything into account. And also like what your main goal is at that point in time too. If you’re trying to change your nutritional intake in regards to something. If you’re like, oh, okay, like I wanna reduce my inflammation, like. My main thing would be like, okay, let’s increase your fruits and vegetable intake and see if there’s anything that has a lot of excess sugar or trans fat or something like that, that you’re eating consistently that may be causing your body to get a little bit more inflamed.
Or if you’re like, you know what, I wanna just dehydrate the crap outta my body and just like not care about my cholesterol, I would say, my friend, we can get you as many stakes as you like. You can do that . Uh, it’s just, it’s just kind of thinking about how each person is. and. Having a goal that’s different from someone else’s doesn’t make your goal any better or worse, but I think it’s just more about listening to your own body, if that makes any sense.
Oh, for sure. Absolutely. It definitely does. Yeah, and I think the other thing too is I think people sometimes just will read up on different diets and then just kind of willy-nilly make up something rather than like, if you don’t have, especially like I did the Institute of Integrated Nutrition, online Health Coaching and Nutrition program.
Mm-hmm. . So, you know, I’m definitely familiar with a lot of the diets and have some education and nutrition, but even then, I still work with the nutritionist at my doctor’s office, you know, and so I tell people as, and you don’t come from a background of knowing anything about nutrition, it’s a good idea to at least see one, a couple of times, nutrition to help coach somebody that can help you, like with your.
Rather than just going on a whim off of anything and everything that you’ve read and heard about when it comes to your autoimmunity, because there’s probably almost just as many opinions about what different diets are good for different things as there are people, and the end of the day, the biggest thing is you’ve gotta have some kind of balance somewhere.
Mm-hmm. , if you’ve too many things out of your diet, you can end up in worse shape than if. You know where to eat those things, so Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people think because they can eat, they can also be an expert on eating too, and it’s kinda like thinking like, oh yeah, I can breathe, but I, I’m definitely not an expert on how breath works or anything like that, or like breathing patterns or breathing methods and stuff like that.
It’s the same thing. It’s like, okay, if you can eat that doesn’t mean that you necessarily have an extensive background on all the things that are incorporated into like the breakdown of food, the nutritional composition of food, how this. Sick your blood sugar is, things like that, you know? So yeah, it, it’s, it’s nice to hear you say too, like the things are so individualized too.
Cause I feel like when it comes to eating and just like any autoimmune thing, what I’ve learned is that everyone is just like, there are people who we can like, kind of share the experience with in a lot of ways, but we’re all just so different too when it comes to everyth. that we’re going through for sure.
Absolutely. And there are certain things, you know, that obviously like gluten and sugar and dairy come to mind as being like the mm-hmm. big ones, if you will. That causes problems for a lot of people. But yeah, some people have issues with other things too, you know? Mm-hmm. . And so it’s really, it’s really not something that you can just all of a sudden on a whim.
pick the diet you want without some kind of advice or, you know, experiment like customization, keeping a customization, keeping even a journal where you go through and you keep track of what you eat and how it made you feel for a little while. All that kind of stuff can, can be useful and helpful too.
Yeah. So it sounds like your condition to some degree is a little bit genetic. Condition. Yeah. Do you, has anybody else in your family undergone testing now that you know that you have this problem? . I have tried diligently to get my parents to go see a rheumatologist because I am literally a copy of my dad.
My sister Maria likes to call. My dad’s name is John. She likes to call me John Leanna because I’m literally just like a genetic copy of my dad in a lot of ways, and sometimes that’s good and sometimes it’s bad. But this is one of the things that I have really pushed him to go and see a rheumatologist about, because I’ve just known him as a creaky joint.
Like a stiff person my whole life. And I see a lot of the things that I’m going through in what I’ve seen in him as I grew up and now, and he refuses to go. My mother, I just talked to her about this last weekend cause she’s like, oh my back hurts so much. And my, and I’m so like, my joints hurt all the time.
And I’m like, you should go see a rheumatologist. And she tells me no. And I say, you know what? That’s your life and not mine. Yeah. And they get that’s your choice too. Bad enough. They’ll probably do something about it until then, you know? Yeah, yeah. It just kind of stinks too, because I think they’re not really thinking long term, because one of the joys of having as is that you get to turn into the hunchback of Notre Dame before you die.
Ooh, yeah. Your spine fused together and you start hunching forward and you turn into the hunchback of Notre Dame. So, um, look forward to. And from me coming soon to a theater near you in about like 60 years. It, it just, just kind of stinks because in my head I’m like, oh, you got, you’re kind of like screwing yourself over to like my parents because they’re, they’re not putting in those preventative measures, which essentially, as you probably already know, like that’s kind of what biologicals are.
Medications. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They kind of put a pause on the disease progression and help with a lot of inflammatory factors, and because my parents don’t wanna get it addressed, they’re kind of just like, they’re just gonna keep chugging down that road. And you know what, that’s their choice that they made.
Yeah, for sure. Absolutely. So how have you changed, like, I know you said you run marathons and stuff. Mm-hmm. Has that changed or impacted you in any way since you got your autoimmune diagnosis? Or are you still able to just chug along and keep running the marathons? ? Yeah, it’s kind of been a. Pretty emotionally taxing learning experience just because before this I pretty much could just go out and do things and I didn’t really have to think about it.
And now it’s a lot more of me just accepting things as they come to me and accepting like, Hey, like maybe this training room we’re gonna do isn’t gonna be as long as we wanted it to be. Just because they’re like, our knees are acting up today and it’s better to stop at like so many miles. , just take it as it is, then push yourself to go all the way that you wanted to go today.
Cuz I definitely was that person before where I was like, if I was gonna run, run 18 miles today, god damn it, I was gonna run 18 miles and you could not stop me and . That was it. But now it’s more or less me trying to listen to my body a little bit more, which definitely is really challenging because I am someone who’s also very ambitious and I want to be able to do things.
For the most part, I have been able to. A lot of it has been like finding out what medications work for me, listening to my body, scaling back my training if I need to. And a lot of KT tape, we love KT tape, um, and just. Being more forgiving with my body and not being mad at it and just accepting where I am, I think is the biggest thing, is that level of acceptance.
My therapist, Anne, always likes to tell me that I need to work on my acceptance. And I say, I do Anne, I do need to work on my acceptance because , it’s, it’s hard sometimes to just to know. I feel like I’m kind of like that right now. . I haven’t thought about it for a little bit, but I really mourned the loss of my, like prior life before I fell on my knees for at least a year and a half where I really wanted that life back.
I felt like I could never get back to anything. I feel like I felt like I was just doomed to be a, like, Broken down human forever and there was no point in me just doing anything. And I did have some like pretty low depressive moments in all of that, but, I’ve definitely come back on the other side and I, a lot of it was because I just wasn’t taking the correct medications and now with the medications that I’m on, like I can feel like my body is like not gonna break every time I move.
Cuz some of the things that were happening before are like, I would just be going about my day and I just like pulling a random muscle. like without even, like, I’d stand up from a chair and I’d like to pull my calf and my calf would be pulled for like four weeks, and I’d be like, really? All I did was stand up out of a chair , and people were like, oh, you did that while you were running?
I was like, no. Literally, like I had one day where I was walking downstairs at work and all of a sudden my calf blew out. I was like, this is not okay. This is not like I’m literally just walking down the set of stairs at a very, very slow pace. Like this should not be the reality that I’m living in right now.
So it, it’s been interesting and I mean, I’ll say to anyone out there who’s also going through this too, like you can get through it and grieving it, I feel like is a natural thing to be doing, especially when it’s so close to when you had your like old life or that old reality that you were living in and now you’re at a point where it’s just bleak more or less.
But just know that you’re not alone if you’re going through that. So, and if you’d like to reach out, you definitely. . I’m sure my social circle will be linked somewhere here. Heavy chat. Yeah, they will be . Yeah. Heavy link there. So now that’s, I think that’s, I think that’s a lot of really good information. So are there any other words of wisdom or advice that you would have for anybody that, whether they’re going through the same kind of thing or any other kind of an autoimmune that they’re just like, oh man, you know?
Yeah, I mean, I guess I have like three, like little short things that come to mind. The first one would be to try and find a good rheumatologist who listens to. . I think just finding someone who listens is really important. So that might mean you need to shop around a little bit and don’t get discouraged.
Um, am I allowed to swear? I’d rather you not want, just cause I’m trying to keep the podcast as clean. So Okay. I will leave, I’ll leave cuz I, I’ll tell you what it is afterwards, I’m recording. But, um, I, I will leave my little bit of knowledge if you’d like my, my middle piece of knowledge hit me up. I will let you know what it is in, uh, over voice message, friends who are listening, cuz it does contain a swear.
Um, and then my other thing, that’s just something I like to carry with. Throughout the day that I feel like makes my life a little bit better is I like to tell people it takes the same amount of energy to be mean as it does to be nice. So why not be nice to people today? Mm-hmm. . So just, and that also applies to yourself, and sometimes that’s really hard to be nice to yourself.
Mm-hmm. , but I feel like that’s one of the biggest favors we can do is to just kind of think like, okay, I can tear myself apart or I can build myself up. It’s probably gonna be about the same amount of energy. What’s gonna make me feel? if I just build myself up. Like, even if it’s just like you walking over to the mirror and being like, Hey, you’re looking good today.
Mm-hmm. . Yeah. It, it, it makes a big difference. It makes a huge difference and yeah, that’s what I’ll, I’ll leave people with. Awesome. Sounds good. Cool. Well thanks for coming on and sharing. I think we’ve had gotten some pretty good stuff and like I said, we will link her information on the different stuff she’s up to and the Harry Potter podcast and some of the other stuff and Okay, so now, like you said at the beginning, Diane, yeah, I have to, I feel like you’re a Raven.
Do you think so? Mm-hmm. . Yeah. You’re very detail oriented. Mm-hmm. , I can tell that you’ve, you’re, you’re really listening to everything that I’m saying and like digesting it. Um. , I feel like you’re mostly Raven Claw. Maybe a little bit slither and also like a good portion of Hufflepuff. Cause I have a lot of, like the biggest trait I have with Hufflepuff is empathy.
And you seem to have a good amount of empathy. But I’d say that you’re very informed first. Empathy is like part of that as well. But that you’re very, like, you’re driven to figure out information and that’s a very Raven cloth thing is to just have a goal, to obtain knowledge whether, whatever kind of knowledge that is and a goal to just further.
Your own knowledge of everything around you is huge in RavenClaw, but I feel like you’re doing that out of a place of empathy. So I’m gonna say you’re a Raven Claw and your secondary house is made of cloth. Cool. That’s awesome. Cool. Does that feel accurate? Yeah, probably. Yeah. . Uh, yeah, especially the other stuff about me definitely is for sure.
Awesome. Okay, well thanks so much for talking with us, Juliana. And like I said, we’ll have everything with both, so people that want to get in touch with you can do. Okay. Awesome. Well thank you for having me. This is really nice. Awesome.
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