As I look back on my seemingly healthy, young self, I see I wasn’t so healthy. I remember being in my twenties complaining to my doctor about always being tired and her telling me I was just stressed and to not worry so much. I continued to struggle with depression, anxiety, severe environmental allergies, chronic sinusitis, a hospitalization for meningitis, a dying father and fatigue that I can compare only to pregnancy fatigue but it was worse than my pregnancy fatigue.

By this time, at age 28, I was told I was just getting older and needed to quit stressing about things so much. Besides all this, I was healthy when it came to all my blood work and at a healthy weight and exercised regularly.

By the time the next baby was due in January of 2004, I started to feel even worse and that continued after she was born. By then, I was overweight and now had high cholesterol. My thyroid numbers were normal and I was told to take statins (“for life”) and I slipped even further into a deep depression and debilitating fatigue.