The Shape of Healing

It’s not linear, it’s not perfect, but this week showed me just how far I’ve come.

It’s been a couple weeks full of doctor appointments, follow-ups, and surprisingly good news.

First up was the rheumatologist. The chronic pain I’ve been dealing with for the past year and a half? It’s easing up significantly. I’ve regained a lot of range of motion, and the NSAIDs alone have been working well. So well, in fact, that my doctor suggested cutting the dose in half. I’ll admit I was nervous. Things have been going so well, and the idea of backsliding was scary. But I took the chance, and thankfully, it didn’t send me back to square one.

And here’s the best part—I’m gardening again. I’ve been outside digging in the dirt, planting flowers, working on my pollinator sanctuary. (Save the Bees!) It feels so good to be able to do something I love again, physically and mentally.

Next was the dermatologist. I almost canceled this one. My scalp psoriasis had cleared up so much, and since it takes nearly eight months to get in with her, I thought someone else might need the appointment more. But she encouraged me to come in, especially if I was seeing real progress because she wanted to document it clinically.

For a year, almost my entire scalp has been covered. It has been an itchy, inflamed, and flaky mess. Now? One small patch the size of a quarter remains. She was genuinely shocked and asked what I’d changed. So I told her: I’ve gone mostly gluten-free, alcohol-free, I try to stick to a whole food plant-based diet, and I’ve added some supplements—ox bile, milk thistle, curcumin, glucosamine, chondroitin, omega-3, and magnesium glycinate. She said she’s never seen a patient clear this quickly with diet and supplements alone. She gave me a prescription for a topical just in case and told me I don’t need to come back unless something changes for at least a year, possibly three! That felt like a huge win.

Then there was my primary care doctor. Blood work, thyroid panel, the usual. Turns out my TSH dropped from 4.25 to 0.55. That’s a significant shift, and it lines up with how I’ve been feeling: more energy, more clarity, and thicker hair. Before I made these lifestyle changes, my functional medicine labs showed low T3 and high TSH. I’ve been eating three Brazil nuts a day to support my thyroid, and while I can’t say it’s all thanks to that, something’s definitely working.

This experiment has drastically changed how I feel in my day-to-day life. I’ve addressed the source of the pain. I’m moving more, thinking more clearly, and doing things I thought were off the table for good. My metabolism still feels sluggish, and the junk is still in my trunk, but that’s not the headline here. The progress I’ve seen in other areas outweighs it by a mile.

What I Still Need to Work On

There’s always something. I’m feeling better, but I’m not done.

• Movement: I need to make exercise part of my routine again, even if it’s just 15 minutes here and there. I’ve been making excuses, and it’s time to stop.

• Anxiety: It’s creeping back in. I need to get back to meditating and creating space for relaxation and reflection in my day. I have a tendency to let work steam roll over everything, and I know that’s not sustainable.

• Bacon: Yep. It’s time to talk about bacon. I convinced myself it was “just protein” and started eating it almost daily. Since getting my labs back, I’ve cut down to once or twice a week and started walking more. We’ll see if it makes a difference.

Mental Health Check-In

Let’s be real, this political climate is a mess. As a result, I’ve been getting sucked into the doom scroll far too often. I know it’s not helpful, but sometimes it’s hard to look away when our rights are disappearing overnight. Still, every now and then something meaningful slips through.

I came across a reel by Hattie Willoughby that offered a simple, reflective exercise: conduct a meeting with yourself and ask these six questions. I tried it, and it blew my mind!

1. What do I need to hear right now?
   The best is yet to come. Don’t buy into the lie that you wasted time or lost your chance now that you are almost 50. You can reinvent yourself in any moment, if you are brave enough to do it. Everything is happening at the exact right time. Learn to trust.

2. What have I carried too long, and who asked me to?
   Guilt and fear. No one handed them to me. I picked them up along the way and just never put them down.

3. If I trusted this would work out, what would I do?
   I’d leave my day job. I’d invest fully in writing and the business I want to build. I’d take the risk and invest in the marketing coach I need to take it to the next level.

4. Which version of me have I been ignoring?
   My inner child. The one that didn’t get enough rest or play. I’ve been operating in survival mode for so long, I forgot how to just be. She’s been waiting for me to stop being so damn responsible and enjoy my life more.

5. What am I too afraid to say out loud?
   Honestly? Nothing. I’ve said the hard things. I’ve faced the fallout. And I’ve always grown from it.

6. What am I tolerating, and why?
   My kids’ financial chaos stresses me out more than I care to admit. I want them to be secure, to have an easier life than I did. But I know I need to let go a little. I can’t protect them from everything. I can just love them, support them, and trust that they’ll figure things out their own way.

Try this exercise. Seriously. It brought some clarity I didn’t know I needed.

So that’s where I am: still figuring things out, but in a much better place than I was. If something in your life isn’t working, don’t wait for it to fix itself. Try something different. You might be surprised where it leads.

If you’re enjoying these posts, you’ll love my books, because let’s be real, hilarious midlife escapes are a necessity right now.

Check out the Midlife in Aura Cove series, a completed, six-book paranormal women’s fiction series featuring three generations of women over 50 discovering their magic. Yeah, I know, there’s a theme in my writing. I can’t help myself.

And as promised, here’s a sneak at my upcoming new release, Nevermore.

A break-in, a lightning strike, and now she’s stuck in the past with an opinionated parrot. Midlife just got a time-travel twist.