Hi, my name is Crystal and I’m drawn to wellness and self-care!  I’m so eager to try and learn as much as possible about how I can live a healthy life.  Getting carried away digging into the details and researching is one of my pastimes!  My relationship with wellness was truly solidified once I experienced my own chronic health issues (click here to read more on my healthy journey, below), and I’ve come to realize that my life and energy is too short and limited to not focus entirely on how to be well. 

I started this website as a way to help organize all my learnings, and help guide people who are in the midst of their own journey to wellness. Feeling overwhelmed with the vast amount of information out there, I want to help connect some of the many independent dots and provide a starting point in the plethora of wellness information out there.  I’m striving to live the healthiest way that I can in all aspects of my life – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually. Holistically. I am driven by wellness, and hope you find something helpful here.

Want to contact me? Email me at hello@drivenbywellness.com ! 

The short version

In 2018, I was hit with severe fatigue and body aches. My conventional medicine doctor diagnosed me with mono, which turned out to not quite be the case. I was advised to just continue resting and hydrating. Unfortunately, by the next year, my symptoms worsened and included joint pain, muscle weakness, and flare-ups of intense body heaviness, headaches, and seizing up of my lower back. Onto the next conventional doctor, who then misdiagnosed me with Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome.

I continued on in my search for answers and wellness, and after finally working with naturopathic doctors, discovered I’d been suffering from Lyme disease. The time from illness onset to diagnosis was 1 year 8 months. On the one hand, I wish I didn’t just rest and accept my initial ‘mono’ diagnosis. But, I did the best I could with the information I had at the time, and realize that I am so fortunate compared to others who suffer from a lack of diagnosis for years. Its going to take a while to recover, but I’m not giving up.

The long version

My active life, full of trying to get as much done in the most efficient way possible, completely changed in August 2018. What began as extreme fatigue and what I understood at that time to be mono (ultimately being a misdiagnosis), left me in a limited, half-version of myself for the foreseeable future.

The onset…

It began one week before my 30th birthday (what a memorable way to celebrate the milestone!), where it had been an unusually busy time for me — I went camping, had an all-day work morale event, and spent a significant amount of time helping my good friend prepare for her wedding — all back-to-back activities without any period of rest. Waking up with a bedridden fatigue, I just could not feel better after getting rest. The exhaustion pulled my entire body downwards, weighing heavily without any letup, despite being mentally alert.

I only took three sick days during this initial time (having high expectations and not wanting to give myself a break is a whole other topic…). Eventually the daylong extreme exhaustion ended up improving so I was not bedridden the entire day — but the mornings were still extremely difficult. Bonus new symptoms were a lower back pain that would never quite resolve, which significantly contributed to the difficulty with mornings and getting out of bed, and easily getting drained from minimal activity, which would impact me for multiple days.

A ‘diagnosis’, the first of many…

It took three weeks from the onset for the doctor to diagnose me with the convalescent (i.e. recovering) form of mono. She ran an Epstein Barr virus (EBV) panel, which indicated I had a prior EBV infection but not active. A couple things that I’ve learned afterwards — EBV does not equal mono. And, at least 90% of the population have an EBV infection in their lifetime, and many without lingering symptoms. 

I trusted the doctor at the time and took this result, accepting that my treatment would entail just resting and drinking fluids, that it would resolve itself soon. Again, later on I learned there are ways to improve “mono” recovery, but not typically practiced by conventional medicine doctors.

The weeks went on as I continued to wake up exhausted, become drained very easily, and my lower back pain persisted. In October, my primary care provider told me that there is a small percentage of people who deal with mono fatigue and body aches for up to six months, that I should continue resting and drinking fluids.  Figures.

A momentary glimmer of hope appeared in February 2019 when I visited Costa Rica and had the most active, adventurous, and busy time. Able to pop out of bed in the mornings and be out and about the entire day without feeling drained of energy, I overall felt great! I remember thinking that it really just took a long time for me to get better, but here I am, healed! Must’ve been the adrenaline and distraction of a vacation in Costa Rica though — my usual symptoms resumed the following weeks once back at home.

The flare-ups and new symptoms begin…

In May 2019, my health took a turn for the worse. In addition to my usual morning exhaustion, becoming easily drained, and lower back pain, my joints were now painful and weak. I remember being in the office and having a difficult time walking to my meetings. My knees felt so stiff and brittle, my upper legs feeling numb and on fire at the same time. My wrists were so weak, I could barely push the soap dispenser down after using the restroom. I shuffled around the office the best I could, knowing the outcome of “mono” could not possibly be anymore.  

I also began experiencing periodic flare-ups of symptoms.  During these episodes, I would be entirely bedridden for a few days, my lower back pain intensifying and seizing up, and my exhaustion feeling like concrete was in my blood. On average, it would take around a week for me to feel better, where my baseline for “better” was my usual symptoms. My body was not functioning, and I frequently broke down because this was now the reality of my life. I felt sorry for myself, as if I was seeing myself in the third person perspective, which would then exasperate my feelings of sadness over the state of my health and life.  

For the ~six months prior, I had been dealing with a challenging and toxic work environment.  Feeling belittled, steamrolled, and bullied, combined with being pushed to work every night was too much. It escalated in April, reaching a point of frequent emotional breakdowns even in the office. Was this the reason I physically got worse? Did this sustained stress, without an avenue to de-stress with exercising after work (because I was too tired due to my symptoms), the tipping point for me?

Transitioning from waiting-it-out to proactively seeking answers and advocating for myself…

Going back to my primary care provider again, we ran many blood tests, even rerunning the EBV panel. My numbers were still high. She referred me to a rheumatologist, saying that my rheumatoid factor and lupus numbers were suspicious. Obviously I freaked out at this point. Do I have rheumatoid arthritis now?  Lupus?

Around this same time, my physical therapist had recommended seeing a naturopathic doctor, one who had helped treat his lingering health issues by focusing on healing the gut. I didn’t have anything to lose, and wanted to give this a chance, hoping I could concurrently work with both the rheumatologist and ND.

Conventional medicine?  No thanks.

It took a whopping single appointment for me to recognize that I did not agree with the approach of the rheumatologist and conventional medicine. Let’s ‘diagnose’ me with Fibromyalgia and Myofascial Pain Syndrome (which I did not agree with). Let’s prescribe Gabapentin that might help with sleep quality as well as your muscle and joint pains. Sure, there’s other side effects. No improvement? Let’s try another prescription — Plaquenil and its side effects. The common theme of: prescription drugs to cover up the symptoms of your chronic health issues, but not identify the actual dysfunction of what is going wrong in my body and fix it.

The holistic route for me…

I saw my rheumatologist for a total of three appointments. One of which was rather frustrating — I asked about taking FMLA time off from work, where I could just focus on wellness and getting myself as healthy as possible, and was not met with support. At my final appointment, the next steps were to monitor my joint and muscle pains, contacting her for prescription drugs in the future if it got worse.

I began relying solely on my ND. Reran some blood tests, and also incorporated some supplements. I did end up taking an eight-week FMLA leave from work, and during this time focused 100% on getting my body as healthy as possible. Drastically changing my diet to AIP, and frequent yoga, physical therapy, aquatic therapy, massages, and IV Vitamin C therapies. I did feel some improvements during this time, in that I did not have any extreme flare-ups where I was entirely bedridden for days. The morning exhaustion continued, and sometimes my back pain intensified.

During this time, we retested my EBV numbers, and while I was anticipating a decrease since I had felt some improvement, I was completely surprised that my numbers remained high. What was going on? Why do I remain in the ‘reactivated’ EBV state? Some of my symptoms improved, but the test is telling me otherwise…do I follow the test results or my symptoms? Confusion and a sense of defeat set in. We did also identify that I was suffering from early stage adrenal fatigue, and began new supplements to help support my body’s adrenal function.

Taking the next step in my life…

After returning from leave, I didn’t get a break from feeling unwell. Spanning from right after Thanksgiving thru mid February, I was hit with flare-up, flu, flare-up, and a relentless version of my usual daily symptoms. It was during this time that I realized I needed to take control of my life, completely change things up, and take a risk — I left my lucrative, stable career in search of focusing entirely on wellness and forging into the unknown.  I did not want to waste my precious and limited time and energy anymore. It was time to completely focus on my health and me.

Immediately after I quit, two things concurrently happened: 

1) Covid-19 and stay-at-home orders began, and 

2) I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. Wow, it was this the whole time. Feeling torn about how I should take this news, I’m hopeful but trying to modulate my expectations and remain realistic. Dealing with multiple diagnoses, chronic health issues and doctors visits, I feel a bit numb. But, I’m taking the steps forward for treatment, continuing to advocate for myself, learning and doing as much as I can.

I’m still on my healing journey. Its been the most difficult period of my life. I watch countless weeks go by while I am bedridden or my back pain is so bad I cannot get off the couch. My life feels like it is passing me by at times. But, I’ve improved so much, I am stronger because of it, and I will not give up.