00:00:00
It. Well, hello there. Welcome back. I want you to know that I'm coming into today's episode with a lot of fire in my soul, and that is because I've realized more over the last year how much advocating for your health really, truly matters. And I'm hoping more than anything that sharing my story and giving you tips helps you to advocate for your health and empowers you to research and to ask questions and to listen to your gut when it's telling you things about yourself or even about your kids.
00:00:37
You know your kids, you know their behaviors and you know your own body. So I hope that this experience that I have had with my hip and a complete merry go around truthfully it's been a merry go around with my hip of what's going on is helpful for you and helps give you strength to keep going when you are dealing with a medical issue, whether it be an actual injury or an autoimmune or a hormone imbalance, whatever it is that you can keep going and find some answers and figure out something that you can feel good about. And you can be a part of that journey and not just be told what's wrong with you, but truly be a part of it as an advocate. Because in my situation, if I had just went with what I was being told, I would have had hip replacement, which now I know I don't need at this time, and I'm going to explain that all in detail. Now, if you find this episode helpful and you want to spread the word to other people that we need to advocate for our health and to be aware and speak up, please don't forget to share this episode with your friends, with your family on social media, and don't forget to let me know what you thought of it by writing a review.
00:01:50
Today's review is by dotted 77 titled Love It. Andrea talks about health, fitness, women's issues, and sounds like a genuine sweetheart. If you want good health information delivered in an easy way to understand, she's your gal. She does not belittle anyone and seems to have a true compassion and empathy for her audience. Highly recommend this podcast.
00:02:10
Thank you so much, Dotted 77. I really appreciate that. And I want you guys to know I truly feel like I'm in the trenches with you. I'm learning too. The crazy thing about health is sometimes people set themselves up as an authority I know best, but we're all on a journey.
00:02:27
We just may be at different phases in that journey and we need to be able to turn around and reach back on that journey and help other people on the way. So that is my goal. That is the goal of simplifying health. That is my goal of sharing the things I share with you, because I want us all to be able to move forward and feel empowered with health, with fitness, with nutrition, with workouts, with medical health, with truly being an advocate in all aspects of our health. And before we get into advocating for our health, I know when you have health issues that it literally makes you lose sleep at night.
00:03:02
So you might as well have a very comfortable set of sheets to sleep on, and especially ones that can be temperature regulating to help you sleep better through the night. Cozy Earth sheets are my favorite sheets. They are bamboo sheets that are temperature regulating and incredibly soft. They were even named on Oprah's Favorite things in 2018. They're light and breezy and honestly timeless.
00:03:26
They have a lengthy warranty and we've had a set, I think, for two or three years, and they still feel incredible. You can use the code simple 40 for 40% off site wide. They have pajamas and linens, all kinds of things. Again, that simple 40 40% off site wide for better sheets to help you sleep better. All right, let's get into today's episode.
00:03:49
I'm going to tell you about my hip diagnosis or misdiagnosis, and how you can advocate for your own health. My name is Andrea Allen , and I am a mother of four girls under seven, a wifey to a mountain man, a personal trainer, and a nutrition coach. I love all things in women's health and fitness, but let's face it, the fitness industry is complicated and it's not built for the everyday mom. There's so much conflicting information and you're busy and you don't have time to figure it out. I hate feeling confused and overwhelmed, so I have made it my mission to simplify health and fitness while creating a welcoming, realistic, and empowering home for like minded women.
00:04:26
I'm happy you're here, and I hope you stay awhile.
00:04:33
So you may be wondering, what does a health advocate even mean? Like, how can I advocate for my health? A health advocate truly just means, and when you're doing it for yourself, it means that you are trying to ensure that you receive the best quality of health care that you deserve. It is feeling empowered to speak up, to ask questions, to get your needs addressed and your concerns, and to have preferences. It can help you make sure you're picking the right doctor, you're making the right medical decisions, and you're doing it as a team.
00:05:05
You're communicating together. I'm going to tell you my story about my hip so that you understand why this truly matters. And if you're curious about my first diagnosis of my hip and where it started, I highly suggest going back to episode 90 titled My Hip Diagnosis, because that's going to tell you the entire story and what I was. Told and where I was at in July of 2022 and what I thought was happening. And then listening to today's episode on what is now happening not even a year later since it happened in July.
00:05:39
And now we're sitting in April of the updates and how things have actually changed, which is completely crazy. So, at the end of 2021, I started to have some hip pain in my right hip. And I literally just woke up one day and I had a little bit of hip pain. It was pretty dull. But by the summer of 2022, it was becoming unbearable.
00:06:02
I was struggling, walking my form, and my squats was a complete mess. My squats were super ugly, and I was going to PT, and they couldn't figure out what was going on. And I just didn't understand because it kept getting worse and worse and worse. And I would consider myself a pretty healthy person. But I recognized something was going on internally that I didn't have control of.
00:06:24
I got an MRI. And the MRI said that I had AVN. The top of my hip was collapsing. AVN stands for Avascular Necrosis. And basically what it means is the femoral head.
00:06:39
So you have the bone that runs up your thigh and connects into your hip. The head of that that connects into the hip was dying from lack of blood supply. And when there is a lack of blood supply for that ball, that joint that hooks into the hip, the bone tissue starts dying, and the bone, obviously eventually collapses. And so it's not curable. They don't necessarily know why it happens.
00:07:03
There are a few reasons, but mine weren't any of them. One of them was like alcoholism, which I don't even drink at all. So I fell under the Idiopathic category, which means they don't know why it was happening. Obviously, there was no cure. And in this process, I saw four different surgeons and multiple Pts.
00:07:22
But the surgeons were looking at the MRI. So my first surgeon, he looked at the MRI and told me the hip was falling apart, it was going to collapse. I needed to make surgery within three months, because if it collapsed on its own, it was going to cause a lot of pain. I'd be on crutches. He was a pretty rude surgeon.
00:07:42
I talk about that in the episode 90. He was very belittling. He didn't address my concerns when I asked questions. He was very rude back, and it was very inappropriate. Some of the things that were even said.
00:07:55
And I asked him, what about physical therapy? Could I do PRP? Could I do, I don't know, maybe a cortisone shot? I didn't know. And he was like, no, nothing will help.
00:08:06
It's uncurable and it's dying. It was really discouraging for me, and I did not appreciate the communication between the two of us, because it felt like we weren't a team. And if I'm advocating for my own health, we need to feel like a team. So I went on and continued to see three other surgeons. Most of them fell in between what he said, but still, all of them said, yes.
00:08:29
It's not curable. Nothing's really proven to help it. And you're also in stage three to four, which means you're towards the end of it collapsing. The last surgeon that I saw, I appreciated the most, and that is because he was really kind and he listened and he answered my questions, and I had a lot of questions. I came to the table with research.
00:08:50
I came to the table understanding. I came to the table trying to make sense of what I did for a living and what was happening with my hip. And it was hard. The end of 2022 was, man, it was a hard feeling, like, you've spent your whole life trying to be healthy, and then something was happening you had no control over. And that happens to us.
00:09:11
That happens to people, and it stinks. And we can have empathy for each other and say, yeah, that sucks. That sucks. But it was really hard for me. And I had asked him, Is there anything I can do?
00:09:23
And he said, What I suggest is wait to get surgery until it's unbearable, until it's completely ruining your life and affecting everything. Don't just get it. If you're still pretty functional, don't get it yet. And I respected that because I felt like, okay, we're on a team here. I also asked him, and all the surgeons would PRP help, which is plateletrich plasma injections.
00:09:45
I asked about a peptide that helps the body naturally heal. BPC 157. And I asked about PT, and obviously I mentioned my first surgeon was like, no, it's a complete waste of time. Most of the other surgeons said, it's actually not going to help improve it. And my last surgeon, which I saw that told me to wait to get the surgery, said, it doesn't really help, but it can't hurt.
00:10:06
So I decided on my own. I thought, I do fitness for a living. I need to be in the best condition if my hip is going to fall apart and I have no control over it. I need to make the supporting ligaments and tissues and muscles as strong as can be. So I went to physical therapy, even though I was kind of told it wouldn't work.
00:10:24
I had them work on my hip flexors. They worked on my hamstrings, on my glutes. I had some tendinopathy in my glutes, so we really focused there. We did dry needling. My PT is amazing if you live in Arizona, ignite physical therapy.
00:10:40
They were great at working on all of my supporting muscles and ligaments, and it started improving over the months. My pain decreased, my range of motion increased. The things I had cut back on, I started adding back in. I had stopped jumping altogether, and I slowly started adding it back in. I even stopped walking long distances.
00:11:02
I used to answer client emails while I was walking. And I started walking again, more, just slowly adding it back in. And the pain just steadily decreased. And decreased. And now I'm at a point where I actually have zero pain.
00:11:16
So the whole situation, I just couldn't comprehend what was going on. Because everything I read about AVN said, it progresses between twelve and 18 months. I was already at that window. It progressively got worse. Nothing made it better.
00:11:28
And here I was with a better range of motion with no pain and feeling pretty good, and not comprehending that diagnosis. When I was told I was in stage three to four, I was towards the end of needing a hip replacement. So you can call it intuition, you can call it your gut, you can call it prayer, and feeling moved by the Holy Spirit, whatever you want to call it. I felt in my soul I needed to get an MRI. I needed a second one.
00:11:57
This just wasn't making sense, and something wasn't sitting right with me. I remember when I told people that I was going to get another one, they looked at me like I was crazy. And often some of them did ask, why. You've already been to four surgeons. You already have the MRI.
00:12:12
Like, what's it going to say different? And I thought, I don't know, I don't know, but I want another one. I feel like this matters. And in my gut, I just knew that it mattered. I was like, I want to get another one.
00:12:24
And we had debated having another kid. And we were also told with AVN, if the hip joint collapses while you're pregnant, you're on crutches. They can't do surgery because of the hormones from pregnancy, even afterwards. So it's kind of like this whole effect. And I was like, I just need to know what's going on.
00:12:41
And in my brain I thought, I just want to know if the AVN is worse, if it's the same, if it's getting better. Which I was told it doesn't really get better. But I needed that comparison, whether it was for me or anything else, I just knew I needed it. So I got the second MRI. The first one was in the end of June, I think, and the second one I just got in March.
00:13:05
And when the MRI was emailed to me, the radio tech, when he asked me why I was in, I said, I've already been diagnosed with AVN. I'm just trying to figure out what's going on because I feel drastically better. The new MRI, when it came in to me, on it, it said no AVN. And to say that my mind exploded is an understatement. Like, I literally was like, I'm in the Twilight Zone.
00:13:28
What is going on? And I couldn't comprehend that. Now I understand I still have to take it to a doctor because they can read it different than the people making the MRI. But I still was like, wow, to write that on there, that seems different. I couldn't understand it.
00:13:42
I told my best friend, who, fun story was actually a client. We met because she was a client and now she works on our staff and is helping us build the app that we're working on. But she started googling like a maniac and put in misdiagnosed AVN. And we stumbled upon an issue called transient osteoporosis hip and it is a rare condition that causes temporary bone loss in the upper portion of the femur. Temporary bone loss, it said it was super rare and people with transient osteoporosis hip will experience a sudden onset of pain, which intensifies hurts when they're walking with weight bearing activities, which is exactly what happened to me.
00:14:26
There's no really reason why it's happening, but obviously again it's bone loss because of the blood supply to the femur. I went down a black hole with this afterwards and I fell upon study after study which compared transient osteoporosis hip, and I'm going to call it Toh for short, just so I don't have to say it each time to AVN. And some of the research studies I found were explaining how it was rare, but it was often misdiagnosed as AVM because they look so similar and that could be confusing. But with Toh, it's not long term, it can heal within six to twelve months, and physical therapy actually helps it. And I was doing physical therapy, I was told physical therapy really wouldn't make a difference, but I did it for me because I was like, I do fitness for a living, I have got to keep everything around this hip strong and not overly tight and working.
00:15:21
And so I was doing PT and my range of motion was getting better and my pain had decreased. And when I read that my mind just exploded because I was like, oh my gosh. The thing I was told probably wouldn't make a difference and not to bother with I think was actually helping me because I think I possibly was misdiagnosed because they look so similar. In fact, one of the research studies I found the whole point of it was to raise awareness that they were often being misdiagnosed because if you detected Toh early and you recognized it wasn't AVN, you could avoid unnecessary surgical intervention and use appropriate treatments. Wow.
00:16:02
Just wow is all I had to say at this point. So I make an appointment with the last surgeon I saw because as I mentioned, he was my favorite. We communicated the best and I asked if they would compare both MRIs and figure out what was going on. I went into the surgeon just literally yesterday, and we looked at the MRIs and I explained to him the entire situation. I explained what I did, I explained going to PT, I explained how I felt better, I laid out all the facts, everything I could possibly think of, like, I felt like I went in for an interview, I came in ready.
00:16:38
I didn't come in to be told what I needed while I need his opinion, he is a professional, and I 1 million% respect that. But I also needed to make sure he knew every detail of what I was experiencing so he could take that experience and his education and knowledge and background and together couple it up and figure out what was going on. That is what I mean by an advocate and a teamwork, your information, every detail with their knowledge and education. So I explained the whole situation to him and he looked at the MRI and he said, it's interesting. It still looks like AVN, but it looks like it's getting better.
00:17:16
And I just couldn't comprehend that because everything I've read said it doesn't get better. So I explained to him to and how with the trans eight hip, that it was often misdiagnosed and that it was rare, that it looked the same, but it was rare and that it possibly could have been misdiagnosed. He explained that Toh normally happens more in like the middle upper half of the femur, not necessarily the ball, but he did say it is a possibility. I still think it might be AVN getting better, but obviously we can't tell for sure. It is a possibility.
00:17:47
I just still lean that way. We kind of went in circles about this, whether it could be Toh or whether it was AVN, but either way, we basically ended with saying, it looks like AVN, but it's getting better, and my pain is improved and my range of motion is better. And he basically was like, we can't be sure. So my suggestion is to stay away from surgeons and go live your life until you get to a point where you feel uncomfortable again. And while that wasn't necessarily the answer I wanted, because I wanted a clear cut, this is what it is, and he didn't fully know.
00:18:23
And in my brain, I still say, well, I found multiple articles that said it was misdiagnosed. It looks like AVN. And he's saying, well, it does look like AVN. At the end of the day, that communication and that feeling for me to get another MRI and all of that accumulated to me realizing something's off. Whatever I was told in the beginning is not necessarily fully correct.
00:18:47
And now I have a surgeon telling me, you don't need surgery right now. You just don't. So go move on with your life for now. Now, with all of that said, I still have arthritis. I still have a torn labrum.
00:18:58
I still have a little bit less cartilage, but I feel so much better than I did. And my range of motion is not like it is in my left hip, but it has improved drastically. And I tell you this story because I want you to know that speaking up matters, going with your gut matters. I could have had a fully unnecessary hip replacement if I had gone with the first surgeon or the second surgeon. Or even the third was like, yeah, it's probably going to fall apart pretty quickly.
00:19:29
Only the last surgeon was like, let's wait. Let's wait and see what happens. And while I still don't have a clear cut diagnosis, I actually want to find a hip specialist somewhere. Like, I want to fly somewhere and figure out what's going on, because I still think I might have been misdiagnosed. And he's saying it does look like AVM, but it's getting better.
00:19:49
But I've been told it can't get better. That's where the merry go round comes in, where I feel like, man, this is, like, insane. I can't get a clear cut answer while I don't have one right now. I am so glad that I spoke up. I am so glad that I went doctor to doctor.
00:20:06
I am so glad that I thought, I am going to do physical therapy. I am going to do all I can on my own to figure this out and to lean into my own health, because that might have been what actually improved my hip. The physical therapy, which I was told didn't really matter, along with PRP and the BPCs, which I'll talk about in a little bit. So now I want to talk about how you can advocate for your health, how you can talk to a doctor about your health, no matter the situation, because your situation may not be like mine, but if I had just gone along with a doctor and not been a team, I literally could be sitting here with hip replacement. That was unneeded.
00:20:45
That was completely unneeded, because I was told that almost a year ago that that was what I needed to do at that moment. So I'm going to give you a couple of quick ideas and it doesn't matter what health issue or injury you're struggling with, hormones, autoimmune, an injury, maybe something just feeling off in your body, whatever it is, you can advocate for. And I'm hoping that these questions give you ideas so that you can feel a part of your health journey and making sure that you're getting the proper care, you're getting your needs met, you're getting your concerns answered and you're getting the right doctor for you. The first thing I want you to think about before you speak to any medical professional is you need to come with a list of questions ahead of time. When I came to my appointments the first time a year ago and now, I came ready.
00:21:35
I came ready with questions, I came ready to talk, I came ready to communicate. If your doctor doesn't want to do that with you, get a different doctor. It is worth it. I know it costs money, but your body is priceless. It is priceless.
00:21:50
I would rather eat beans and rice the rest of my life with nothing else. If I could get my hands on a good doctor to help me feel good and make sure I had the right doctor for my care. So I know that's hard because I know money can be involved. But it is important to have a doctor that will communicate with you. And part of being able to do that is coming ready with questions to understand what you need for the diagnosis, how this is going to affect your life, what the diagnosis means, what preventions or what things you can do to try to help improve it.
00:22:23
And being a very open listener and maybe even taking notes and researching before and after and obviously not letting the research overpower the doctor, but using your information together with his ability or her ability to help you, that's really, really important. So come ready to talk. If they won't talk to you, get a different doctor. They should be able to talk to you. This is your body, your health.
00:22:51
You deserve that. My second tip is be specific and include details. So while I came with questions, I came and laid out the entire situation. I told him what happened last time. I told him about what I was doing in the interim.
00:23:03
I told him why I was doing physical therapy. I told him that we'd been monitoring my range of motion, and my physical therapist, Joe, who's amazing, had, like, monitored my internal and external, and everything was getting better. I told him about the limitations in my activity and how I slowly added in. I laid out as much information as I could so he could see the big picture. This is something that actually happens to me a lot with clients.
00:23:28
And so I think in general, when we're going to someone with a health question or wanting them to help us, we need to give them that information. Often a client will sign up with us, and when I collect their information, we collect an intake form where I collect all kinds of things about their age, weight, height, medical issues, activity level, all kinds of things. And oftentimes I will work on their nutrition, and I will set up macronutrients for them to see if they need a reverse diet or where they are in the nutrition cycle. And after I send them out or it's been a week or two, they're like, oh, yeah, I forgot to tell you I'm running a marathon. And I'm like, oh, okay.
00:24:11
So that's a problem. If you're running a marathon, you're doing way more cardio than I thought, so you need way more food, and you need carbs to fuel that run that might have been different than what I did. Or sometimes I'll have someone say, oh, I'm on a certain medication which stifles my hunger. Or I recently did a diet where I drastically cut my calories. And then when I sent you in food charts to explain my habits, those weren't actually my habits, because maybe I was on vacation or whatever it is, I'm missing a piece of the big picture.
00:24:42
And if I had that information, I might have done something totally different for their nutrition. So what's happening is a couple of weeks in, I'm like, shoot, I didn't know that. And so then I'm changing how I did it. We keep trying to add questions upon questions to our intakes forms to try to get clients to spit out that information to us, because the more I know, the better. And it is the same for a doctor or healthcare provider who's working with you.
00:25:07
I know you might feel like word vomit, but truthfully, the more they know, the better. The more they understand, the better they're going to be able to see the big picture. So come with specifics, even if you have to write a little outline. I mean, obviously don't get crazy and try to explain your life history from when you got your period and when this happened and such and such and such, but come ready to give them important details and that's important for you to think out ahead of time. Not frivolous things, but important details that they're going to need to know to be able to correctly diagnose you or help you in your journey.
00:25:41
My third tip is find the right healthcare provider and don't be scared to get a second opinion. As I mentioned, the first doctor was rude to me. He is a pretty known surgeon in the area, but he did not treat me well. He did not have good bedside manner, and in fact, he was rude and said some things that were actually even inappropriate. And that matters.
00:26:03
I deserve to feel respected as a patient. You deserve to feel respected as a patient. My brother in law is a brain surgeon and we often talk about the things he does. He actually is brain and spine, and we've talked about bedside manner with him. And he actually talks about how much that bedside manner matters and that sometimes surgeons get so in the motion of doing things that they forget that.
00:26:29
But it really does matter because it helps the patient feel comfortable. It helps them feel confident in the doctor, and it helps them feel respected. So that does matter. And if you don't feel like someone is giving you that, find a different doctor who will give you that respect, who will talk to you and will explain things to you and not just make you feel like another number. I even had a situation before this where about six years ago I had some knee pain and I had an ACL and meniscus surgery in 2007, a long time ago when I was in college and I was having knee pain again.
00:27:04
And I went to one doctor and he looked at my MRI and he's like, oh yeah, you're having some issues here. We probably need to do surgery again. And I was like, okay, you need to get a second opinion. I think this matters. I.
00:27:17
Don't just go into surgery with one opinion. And I went to a second doctor, and he was like, yeah, you might need surgery, but let's try ABCD first. So he did an injection in my knee to kind of help fill in the cartilage. That was six years ago. I had pain all before he got that.
00:27:34
Within a couple of days, it was gone, and I haven't had pain since. Imagine if I hadn't got that second opinion. I just went with the first doctor, had knee surgery. So this is the second time I could have had surgery if I hadn't gotten a second opinion. And with that knee pain, it's been six years, and it's not come back.
00:27:50
Now, I understand in some circumstances it might, because every situation is different, but for me, that worked for you. You'll have to figure out what works for you. But do ask doctors before they suggest a major intervention. What are the steps before that life changing event, that surgery, whatever it is? What are the steps I can do before get that second opinion, get the right provider, and communicate with them again.
00:28:17
I know people may even make you feel not good or even stupid for trying to get a second opinion. After I saw the first surgeon, I went to the same facility, but it was a different doctor. And they're like, well, you already saw a doctor here. And I said, I know I need to see another one. And it's hard to stand your ground like that.
00:28:37
It's hard to feel like, I know they know more than me. I know they went to school for this. I know they do this all day long. And you're not negating their skills. They have amazing skills.
00:28:47
You're just speaking for yourself and saying, I got to feel comfortable, too. This is a two way situation. We've got to be a team in this. So get the right provider. My fourth tip is to seek holistic health.
00:28:59
In any health issue, whether it's with medicine or injury or any medical attention, it is crucial that you address lifestyle factors and other factors that can help. I am not negating medicine. I am not negating surgery. Those things are needed, and they can be very helpful, but you can do other things on your own. I think we underestimate what we can do to care for our own health.
00:29:25
Often I was told surgery was the only thing that would help me. I did physical therapy. It ended up making a huge difference. I did PRP. I did a BPC Peptide.
00:29:36
I talk about those in detail if you're like. What does that even mean? She keeps mentioning that in episode 97. I talk about nontraditional ideas for aches, pains, and injuries, and I go into those in detail, explaining what they are, explaining how they help. So listen to that episode if you're curious about those.
00:29:52
But those are all kind of not mainstream medical where I was told I needed surgery and I tried A, B and C first. Sometimes it can be an issue of if you're having gut health or hormone things, it can be an issue of lifestyle changes. Maybe you need to go into an anti inflammatory diet, or look at your sleep, look at your exercise, look at the style of exercise. If you have high cortisol, there's a lot of different things you can do on your own. On my coaching staff, we have a coach who is a hormone specialist, and oftentimes women who work with us have hormone imbalances, and they are a major factor to their ability to feel and see changes in their health and in fat loss and in their goals.
00:30:34
So while we need to address those hormones and we suggest them getting their hormones tested and possibly even doing hormone therapy, what is a factor we can control is the lifestyle changes. And those need to be forefront and center as well. What can we do on our own? What can we put into our bodies? What can we put around our bodies?
00:30:56
What can we avoid? What can we add that can make us healthier in a holistic way that might help cover all the bases? Because while medical intervention is a base, and it might be if we're talking about a baseball field, there's three bases. It might be two of the bases to get you over the hump or get you healed. One other base might be holistic health.
00:31:19
It might be what you're eating. It might be what you're doing. It might be how much you're sleeping. It might be if you have an injury, like I said, PRP or BPC 157, or physical therapy, or modifying your exercises, or making sure that you're getting mobility. Whatever it is, there might be another piece you can control.
00:31:39
You you can do it. And so I don't want you to forget that piece. It matters. It could easily be a third to the puzzle, if not more. In my situation, it was way more.
00:31:49
It was way more the piece that I could do outweighed what I needed medically done at this moment. So don't just wait for a doctor to fix you. Do some work and figure out how to heal yourself. Figure out how to heal yourself, improve yourself, and make yourself empowered in the situation to be a part of the solution. I know health issues are discouraging.
00:32:13
I know injuries are discouraging. And I know it is so overwhelming. From the bottom of my heart, I know what it feels like to not know what's going on. And that's hard. That's really hard.
00:32:26
But I know that if you advocate for your health and you make an effort to be a part of the solution and to work with your provider, that you will feel empowered in the situation. I am so thankful that I advocated for my own health in this journey with my hip. I had shared it before in episode 90. Telling you what I learned, compared to now, I feel like a different person. I don't have all the answers still.
00:32:55
Like I said, I feel like I'm on a merry go round. Even when I was talking to surgeon, we were going round and round and round where he's like, It's this. And I'm like, but it's this. And he's like, It could be this, but it could be this. And I'm like, but it could be this.
00:33:04
Nobody knows. And he even said, the truth is we don't know. We don't know why it's better. And who knows? Maybe it's only better temporarily.
00:33:12
Or maybe it's forever. Or maybe I do have AVN. Or maybe I do have toh. Who knows? It's still an open book for me, and it still can be overwhelming.
00:33:23
But I'm thankful that I went with my gut, that I got another MRI. I'm thankful that I didn't listen that first surgeon because it didn't sit right with me. And so I want you to be aware of that. I want you to think about what you feel, what makes sense to you. I think our intuition is very powerful.
00:33:42
I do. So if you are experiencing any medical issue, listen to your intuition. Don't give up. Keep going. You're not alone.
00:33:52
There are many people who have experienced confusion and loneliness on their journey to try to figure out what's going on with them with a health issue. But we can cheer each other on and we can help remind each other to advocate for our health. And I hope that that's what this episode does. That's the whole purpose of this episode, to help. You know, you can do this if you're struggling.
00:34:12
Keep going, keep researching. Keep looking into it. Keep doing all you can on your end. And you never know. Things can change.
00:34:21
You never know. All right, that's it for today. As always, you are doing so much better than you think you are. And we'll chat next week, you know, close.