BESTSELF™ ICEBREAKER | Life Lessons 06

WHICH TRIP CHANGED YOUR LIFE FOR THE BETTER? 

Years ago, I lost control of my life. I felt like I was the pinball in a game binging from one experience to the next with little to no control over what was happening. I recognized that something was wrong and went to my family doctor who nonchalantly said, “You’re fine, just eat less and move more”. He refused to take a blood test to check my thyroid since he considered it to be a waste of time and taxpayer dollars. I refused the anti-depressants he was sure I needed - “since everyone else is on them”.

In November 2010, my sister came up from Virginia to visit family in Toronto. We hadn’t seen each other in a while and apparently my appearance worried her as I wasn’t myself.

Within months, in April 2011, I was enrolled in the executive medical program at Canyon Ranch in Tucson, Arizona. It was a remarkable 10-days of relaxing, spending time with my sister and making myself a priority for the first time in a long time. I learned a lot, including the fact I had the worst thyroid disease the doctor had seen in his 30+ years of practice as he hand-delivered my first 30-days of Synthroid to our room with the warning to not miss a dose and that I’d be taking them for the rest of my life. And, he told me to fire my doctor (which I did).

I met with exercise physiologists, dieticians, therapists, had bone density tests and tests to see how much CO2 I used. I had my first facial and first hot stone massage.

Within 2-weeks of my return home, the Synthroid did its job and the constant fog I had been living in for years lifted and I could see, with horror, the life I was living. It was abundantly clear how little I thought of myself by the compromises I had made. Within another week, my (now ex-) husband packed his bags and found other accommodation. A month later the house was on the market.

That one 10-day trip to Tucson, Arizona in 2011 changed the trajectory of my life. That was 10-years ago. I haven’t looked back since.