Holistic Life Coach

I'm a holistic life coach and my mission is to help people who are struggling with post surgical pain. Dealing with pain can be incredibly tough, both physically and emotionally, and it's something that no one should have to go through alone. That's where I come in. I am a spinal cord tumor survivor and understand the recovery of major life changing surgery all too well! It's so frustrating when you feel like no one is listening to you or believing what you're saying. It can make you want to scream! It's like your voice doesn't matter at all. And even worse, it feels like people think you're lying or making things up. That kind of disbelief can be really hurtful and make you doubt yourself. All you want is to be heard and have your words taken seriously. That is how I felt when I was recovering and no one wanted to help me with post-surgical pain. In my State of New Jersey, unless you have cancer or are on hospice, you will only get five days of pain med

       After my major spine surgery I was sent home with 20 percocet. I was instructed to take one pill every six hours for pain. If you calculate the instructions that would be five days of pain medicine. I had a tumor removed from my spinal cord, 4 lamina removed from my thoracic spine with no hardware replacing it. My Serratus posterior superior muscles was cut through (upper back major muscle) and four nerve roots were also cut through in order to get to the tumor. To this day I still have CSF leak in my spinal cord as well. While in the hospital ( two days in ICU and 5 days afterwards) I was given dilaudid for the pain. When I am discharged 5 day supply of percocet and then I was on my own.     I called my neurosurgeon's office asking for help. I was told to take 1000 mg of acetaminophen  every six hours, 800 mg of ibuprofen every four hours, valium for muscle spasms three times a day, and the ever so wonderful gabapentin three times a day for nerve pain. I had a fear of takin

      July 2021 I underwent seven hours of spinal cord surgery to remove a tumor that decided to plant itself in my spinal cord. 96% of it was removed, the other 4% had to stay because it would have paralyzed me if they tried to remove it. I could live with 96% of it gone.      My spinal cord has straightened out since the majority of the removal. I am beyond grateful for this. Since my surgery my body has fought hard and my mental well-being has had its ups and downs. I was diagnosed with Fibromyalgia in July 2022. It was explained to me that sometimes this condition can be diagnosed after having trauma to your body. The traditional 18 tender points examination, I failed 16 of them. My rheumatologist tested me for every autoimmune disease under the sun to rule out other issues. I was so relieved when everything was coming back negative, however I was beyond baffled as to why I was having painful days (nothing to do with my spine surgery) and chronic fatigue. My rheumatologist was pati

 I was diagnosed with a meningioma on my spinal cord six years ago. It was found by complete surprise, I was getting an MRI on my back due to an injury. When the doctor came into the examination room to give me the results, I saw the look on his face and immediately knew something was wrong. I was advised to see a neurosurgeon right away. My spinal cord was completely compressed and eventually I would become paralyzed from the waist down among many other life changing issues if I didn't get it removed.     The first neurosurgeon I went to scared the life out of me. He said the tumor was facing my breastbone and because of the location they would have to remove one of my ribs and go around my lungs and heart to get to the tumor. In the next breath he said or we can do pin point radiation. None of these options sounded appealing to me, especially since I was not having symptoms yet!      I was really depressed and went for another opinion. The next neurosurgeon had a different approa