Wellness Wednesday: Nothing Is "Just How It Is"

Story time: When I hit about 12 years old, I started having a horrible time getting out of bed in the mornings. My mom could not get me to get up. Now, I remember exactly how I felt at those times--it was not that I was just avoiding getting up, or being lazy. I was just not rested. I was in the weirdest dream-like, foggy state when I'd be woken up, and the last thing I needed was to attempt to get out of bed. I needed more sleep.

As this was going on, I also kept staying up later and later, not because I was up watching TV or something, but simply because I was awake and functioning. So of course, I would need to sleep later and later because I was falling asleep later. We're talking 1 am to about 10 am. As the years went on, it progressed to 4 am to 1 pm, and on and on until I finally was completely backwards.

What does this sound like? Laziness. A teenager who just isn't trying. That's what everyone around me knew it was. They never thought there might actually be something wrong with me, so neither did I. So I was just the lazy kid who made everyone mad by staying up so late and sleeping so late. It was great. And I couldn't do a thing about it.

Now, almost 15 years later, we've figured out--shocker--it's not my fault. I'm not just lazy. In reality, my adrenals and cortisol levels are completely screwed up, literally reversing my body's sleep schedule.

Similar story: I dropped my hairdrier on my toe about 6 years ago. (Hurt like mercy.) And after that, there was a bruise on my nail that took ages to grow out. Well, it never really went away and seemed to "spread" to my other toes. I just knew I had a fungus, got it tested, and it came back normal. So what did the nice doctor lady tell me? "Sometimes nails are just discolored." For no reason. Excuse me? Bam, just like that, for no reason, I have discolored toenails. Right.

Turns out, discolored nails can be an outward manifestation of organ problems, like liver and gallbladder issues, which I have and found out about shortly after the "sometimes that's just how it is" diagnosis.

One more for you: I hate plucking my eyebrows. (What girl doesn't?) So my amazing best friend would do them for me now and then in our teen years. I'd close my eyes for it, and it was a known fact that Kacie could not hold her eyelids still during that process. It was like I just couldn't relax or something, and they would twitch uncontrollably. It had nothing to do with getting my eyebrows plucked. It was just this weird thing that I did.

Now that I've been fully examined by my new doctor and found the issues each side of my brain is having in communicating with the other, among all the other problems I have, we now know that's just one more manifestation of the many real issues my body has.

And now that we know about all of these problems, we can start trying to treat them.

My point is this: If there are some weird little quirks you have--or your child has--please don't brush them off as simply quirks, or laziness, or simply "just how it is." I'm totally not trying to scare you or make you paranoid about everything under the sun; I am just hoping to save you time, money, and heartache down the road in trying to treat something that could have been helped sooner in less time, with less money, and less stress, and before your health is possibly turned upside down.

Anything that is not normal across the board for your average human being is probably an indication that there is a deeper problem that needs fixed--and can be fixed--before it gets worse and worse and you--or your child--ends up down the road in the same boat I'm in.

Don't let anyone try to tell you that an abnormality or problem is "just how it is." Be smart, take control of your health, and guard it like the treasure it is.

P.S. Linking up with Let Your Light Shine, Be.You.Tiful Link Party, Link Love