Postpartum Exhaustion and Brain Fog

Perfect. All right. Let's get started. What led you to our practice? Um I had a baby 3 years ago and I thought after a year or so I would start feeling more myself and then another year went by and I still didn't feel like a person or at least who I used to be and so um I was just always tired all the time and having a hard time um just thinking through all my tasks and just having a lot of brain fog. Um I had tried different, you know, anxiety or um antidepressants and they just weren't working. So I decided to just look at it from a different perspective and that's when I found functional medicine. Amazing. So was there like a You said that there was You had said you kept waiting, right? But was there a specific moment that you remember that you were like, "All right, I'm done." Yeah, it was It was when I knew I was doing everything I should be doing. Like I had changed my diet completely, cut out, you know, all sugary drinks, eating a lot of like focusing on protein, eating more vegetables. Um and I just and I was working out a lot. I started doing CrossFit and I really loved it and um I kept gaining weight in a bad way and not in a good way. So um not like muscle, not anything that was um helpful, just I was going nowhere. So I was like, "Okay, I'm obviously stuck. So I need to do something different." Amazing. So uh what were some of the challenges that you were facing, right? Like besides your day-to-day, how you were feeling, what are some of like the main challenges that were Yeah, I think I just was insanely tired all the time. Like I couldn't get out of bed. I just was like not motivated to do things. Um like even little things like doing the dishes. It would just like I would see it and it would overwhelm me. I'd be like, "I just can't do that today. I just don't have the energy. I'd rather try to like plan an activity for my kids or you know, focus on work or just do something that was a little bit more productive. And then it felt like everywhere I looked around it was like, "Oh god, there's so much to do still." Yeah. So, when you did find us, right? You had the discovery call and how was that? It felt like I finally was like talking to someone who was listening to the whole picture instead of just focusing on one little thing. Like, "Oh, you're tired, you know, oh you're not motivated to do things. Like, oh here's a pill." And I just was tired of being on medication when I knew that overall I'm like a healthy mid-30s woman who has always been active her whole life and yet I felt the complete opposite of that. Yeah. And how about the initial visit? Like with your labs and the in-body scan and your interaction with our team, how was that? Yeah, I loved the in-body scan part. That part was really new for me and um it gave me a good focus on different things. I mean, it's not fun when the readout says you have an above-average trunk, but it kind of was like, "Okay, good. I got to work on that, but I have average legs, so that's great." Um yeah, so it just was kind of fun to have that like step that you can like focus on every time you come in, just do another in-body scan and then it's just like an easy way to track your progress. Um but I also learned about visceral fat, which is not something I knew about before this and so having the opportunity to kind of watch that things I'm eating are changing inside and not just the outside um perspective was really helpful. Interesting. Yeah. What about um your interaction with our teams when you were like going through going through the results or just getting your labs drawn? I know that's a very simple, easy process, but Yeah, I actually had like a really interesting thing happen. Um my vitamin D has been just really low and that was part of the initial problem is just being really depleted of my basic nutrients, which is what kind of got my body stuck in this like fight or flight mode where just like was stuck exactly where I was basically when I had a baby. And so um one of my labs was showing that actually my vitamin D was like much lower than it was before that even though I'd been taking supplements and everything and I feel like if I had just gone to my regular doctor they would have been like oh, still low. And instead I had this conversation with um the doctor and the nurse and they were just like this is really weird. We're going to do another blood draw on us and we're going to see what happened. Maybe your sample was left out too long or maybe there's some sort of mix-up with this. And then the next day I came in right away, got my blood drawn again and new sample came back and it was back on track of where it should have been. So I just like had a really weird result with the lab and um they immediately addressed it and was like this is strange. We're going to do this all over again instead of just accepting like oh, your lab's low like Yeah. you know, you just you're not it's not working. Um they kind of reassessed the situation and then like immediately took a step and then a day later I didn't have to worry about it anymore. So it was nice to just answer that problem really quickly. Um so that was really helpful. very fast. They're very quick. Yeah, and they were like it's on us like you don't have to pay for that lab. So that was just I felt very taken care of in that sense and like very paid attention to. So in that in that initial visit um obviously your lab came back not correct. But um going into that visit and then leaving that visit, how did you feel? I felt very educated. Um I felt like um there was a lot of data points on the labs that fell into the normal category, which I think normally my regular doctor would have just been like, "Oh, yep, everything's in the normal range." But, instead it was explained to me like, "This is low, and even though this is normal, it's still in the low range, and we would like to see it up here, and that will make you know, this factor also raise up." And so, just seeing how all the different results actually work together, and how like you can have high on one end and low on the other, and that's not good, but you can have them both be in the normal range and be opposite ends, and it still means the same thing. So, I just learned a little bit more about how those different um results and different nutrients and different levels can impact each other. Yeah. That's a That's a very good answer. Feeling educated. Okay. I like that answer. Yeah. Um so, what was What were some of the biggest changes that you've noticed in your life and everything? Uh I now have a lot of energy to run around with my kid, which was a huge motivating factor for me. I would try to find ways to like sit on the ground and play with him more because I just didn't have the energy at the end of the day, and now especially with it being nice out, we're just outside running around every day, and that was just a huge thing for me. Amazing. Yeah. So, um and before, yeah, you did not have that energy. Let's see. Is there anything you were able to do now that you weren't able to do previously? Previously, I don't feel like I was able to focus on things. I felt just very distracted, and now I feel like I have this new sense of just striving forward. I feel like I'm hitting my goals a little bit easier now because I'm not as stressed about them because I'm constantly measuring those results, whereas before I just was kind of guessing, maybe stepping on the scale and seeing if it worked this week or not. And then but now that I can kind of have a full body um scan of how I'm doing on a more um regular basis, I think I'm actually more proud of that. It's giving me more confidence. It's It's just letting me drive forward in a better way. Amazing. That's amazing to hear. What If somebody said what what the heck is functional medicine, what would you say? I would say that functional medicine is an overview of how your body functions together and I was always a fan of um understanding like That's a really bad answer. Sorry. Basically, I was always a college athlete and so if um your knee hurt and then you went to the doctor and they looked at your knee, they would never looked at like the other side of your body to say like, "Oh, you're compensating for something else." Like that how everything works together. And so I would say that functional medicine is looking at the whole body and seeing what things work and what things aren't and how that affects other parts of your body. Oh, I like that answer a lot. That was a really good answer. What um what was your sport? Uh cross country and track. Okay. I was a pole vaulter. Nice. That's amazing. You actually kind of look like a pole vaulter. DO I? I HAVE THE BUILD. It's a vibe. Yeah, we uh cross country, I'm really loving the cross country to like rock climbing pipeline. Yeah. Like everybody who does cross country, they graduate and they're like, "You know what? If I'm not going to continue this leg strength for something. Yeah, like I'm going to be a rock climber. Yeah, I don't have good grip strength though, so I can't do either. But like the the pipeline is crazy. I'm like, "You guys are all doing Yeah. Every single one of you." Yeah. Um okay, so if one of your friends was on the fence about functional medicine, what would you say to them? Actually, my best friend was on the fence and after seeing my results, she was like, "Okay, I'm going to give it a try." And so, she just had her first um blood drawn and and meeting last week. So, what did you say? She's just very excited to see what's going to happen next because she also had a baby almost 3 years ago and also cuz just kind of like waiting for normal things to kick in cuz this is her second. So, she already knows, you know, she can get back to normal, but this time is just not happening the same way. So, I think there's a lot to say for postpartum I think there's a lot to say for postpartum women and just getting those hormones back to where they should be, getting your nutrient levels back to where they should be. I mean, it's literally a trauma your body goes through. And so, if you don't know how to rest, which is really hard when you have a newborn who's crying and up all night and um then just the pressure of not taking care of another human being and making sure that they're going to be safe and healthy and happy. And I think that's just overall very stressful time for new moms. Yeah. Um what provider do you see? Um I see um Is that Dr. Rose? No. It's um Colin? Colin. Colin, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I couldn't think of Colin's last name. I was like, "If I say his first name, is that weird?" But No, Colin, yeah. Yeah. Um Colin Dr. Rose today uh podcast recently on like menopause, right? And and not not just menopause, but HRT. And Dr. Rose had a She shared a story with her her friend, her daughter had just given birth. She was just like really could not get out of postpartum depression. She was struggling very, very much. And how they used HRT to get her exactly where she needed to be. Yeah. Right? And I was like, like I mean, I hear about it all the time. I'm in marketing here. So, I hear about it all the time for menopause, but for postpartum depression or just postpartum in general, that's not even something I thought of, but it makes so much sense. Yeah. Right? The crazy thing is I thought I was going to have really high cortisol because I was such a stress ball and I was, you know, not losing weight and I just felt like I was like craving terrible food all the time and everything I saw on Instagram felt like I was like, oh, I'm definitely going to have high cortisol. It turns out I had like extremely low cortisol. It turns out it was like the complete opposite, but I had it in my head that I was like everything I see online is going to tell me I have high cortisol and then I'm this is going to be the proof I have and then I didn't have that at all. It's really crazy actually how we hear about words and we're like, oh, we have some of the symptoms, this could be us, too. No data to back it up. Yeah. It's like because we're surrounded by it, you know? And they talk about it all the time with like supplements with um just like peptides with hormones, with all of it. They talk about it all the time. Like, do not go online and watch a video Yeah. You know, that's what it's going to be because it's probably going to be very different, you know? Yeah. And the big thing for me is I don't want to be skinny, I want to be strong. And so, you know, it's not just about losing weight, but it's about making sure that, you know, I'm being healthy all around. Uh muscle is the number one anti-aging Mhm. like facility or what is it called? He says it all the time. You want to You want anti-aging medicine? Build muscle. Yeah. He says it all the time. I feel like I'm just taking in everything he says. Like, Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I don't know how he eats so much protein. So much protein. He told me he eats like over 300. I'm already I'm like trying to hit 120 and it's a struggle. So. I I'm afraid to show him my labs. Yeah. He would be saying I have to show mine. So. Doing it for both of us. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Well, this has been amazing. Thank you. Appreciate it.