Team Beachbody Guest

I am a 52 year old wife, mother and grandmother of four grandsons. And YES they are typical boys! I guess I could say like most folks, as we tend to get older, we get lazy and start thinking that exercise is for “younger” people, I’ve done my time, it’s time for me to take a back seat and enjoy life. Well, after a while, that enjoyment starts to show not only in our appearance, but in our

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I am a 52 year old wife, mother and grandmother of four grandsons. And YES they are typical boys! I guess I could say like most folks, as we tend to get older, we get lazy and start thinking that exercise is for “younger” people, I’ve done my time, it’s time for me to take a back seat and enjoy life. Well, after a while, that enjoyment starts to show not only in our appearance, but in our attitudes about how we feel about ourselves. For me, I got to the point that I just didn’t care anymore about how I looked anymore. This took a toll on not only my self image, but my physical being became weak and fragile over the years. Nine years ago, I was involved in a mishap that changed my life forever. It caused me to have three neck surgeries having discs removed and a steel plate put in place to stabilize my neck. This in turn threw me into “Chronic Pain Syndrome”. I don’t know if any of you have ever gone through this, but it is not something I would wish on anyone. It is not something that even doctors can truly understand as they do not have a complete explanation for it. They do know that it is triggered by sometimes a one time trauma, or a multitude of traumas that one may endure. But once onset it is something that is very hard to get under control. Mine, became so intense, that after seeing the pain management specialist for 3 years and being on morphine patches and pills and various other drugs, we made the decision to have a morphine pump put in. This was done so that I could hopefully be taken off the many drugs I had been taking, which were taking such a toll on my body. The pump had many benefits to it such as the morphine would go directly to the nerves up into my neck where the pain was coming from. This would elevate the problem of having the drugs going through my organs, a great concern of mine and my husbands, plus, I would not be getting the “euphoric high” that I was getting all the time like I got from the pills and patches. Well, I lived great with the pump…for five wonderful years I did just fine, of course I still had to have other meds for “break-through” pain, but that was ok, it was nothing like doing morphine patches and did not make me sick. All was fine, life was good. Or so it seemed. I joined Curves for a while, went 6 days a week faithfully, I loved it! Then my feet started hurting really bad so I went to the doctor, many times. He was at a loss, he could not figure out why they were discolored and swollen and decided to send me to a specialist. I had already had about 8 surgeries on them already and now I was looking at possibly having one of them totally taken apart! I was so freaked out about this. But, I could hardly walk by this time, I was pretty desperate and I went. Well, come to find out, I had nerve damage in both my feet, so now, geeze what next more pills? Just what I want, more pills, seizure pills that I will be on for the rest of my life, but, it was better than the surgery and it got the swelling down and I could walk again, so that was a good thing. I’m thinking to myself by now, every time I start something, it ends up, I hurt myself, so why bother? I’m so tired of trying, so tired of getting sick, or layed up just because I want to try and be healthy, so honestly, I just gave up trying. I threw in the towel and said “no more”, it’s not worth it. Well, one thing led to another, the doctor that originally put my morphine pump in suddenly retired and I was given three (3) weeks to find a new one. I was frantic. I ended up with a “Quack”…and when I say that, I mean it with a capitol “Q”. I went to him, he was at first very attentive, seemed to be concerned about me. That was just I think a one time introduction never to be seen again. From then on I saw PA’s. For one year I dealt with them. Finally my husband and I made the decision to have the morphine pump removed, more me than him, I could not handle going to this “quacks” office any longer and being treated like a number. The day of the surgery came, just before I was to go into the OR the quack came in, looked at my chart and said matter of factly “so, who do we have here today?” He didn’t even know my name! He did say to me “you do realize that once this is taken out, it will be very hard to put back in?” that was about all he ever told me about the removal of the pump. I was never advised of what to expect about withdrawl, how sick I would become, how long I would be sick, nothing. I was sent home that day. Ten days later, I went to his office, dehydrated, having not eaten or drank anything, I was very sick…super sick, his response, “Well, I told you this is what would happen if you had the pump taken out”. That was it. He then sent me home with a prescription for a high dose of pain medication, something I was not prepared to take, I was not there for that, I was there for help about my illness and to get staples removed. Anyways, to make a long story short, I never went back to him, I now have a great new doctor who is addressing my physical problems with diet and exercise, NOT PILLS! Yes, I still have to take some meds and most likely will for some time, but I see a light at the end of the tunnel now, I have someone that seems like they care about “me” and are not just concerned about giving me a script and shoving me out the door to see the next patient. My husband, also, if not mostly is my inspiration and why I am here at Million Dollar Body. Wink has not only inspired me to get in shape, but he has been my support throughout all these 10 years of what I have been going through. This last couple of months have been so rough, but he continued to keep a positive outlook not only on his own future, but on mine as well. He nursed me and kept care of me while I was so sick. I am determined that with his help, Million Dollar Body and with the help of God, I will one day lead a normal life again! So here I go! LETS GO!

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