WEBVTT - Case #16: Lauren 0:00:04.440 --> 0:00:05.680 My entire foot. 0:00:05.960 --> 0:00:09.559 Around the joints of my toes, they were like red 0:00:10.119 --> 0:00:13.080 and inflamed and swollen. 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.480 She reminded me of my grandmother when she lived with us, 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:19.320 and she was ninety and had a walker. But then 0:00:19.640 --> 0:00:21.640 I look at her and it's like, you're not my grandma. 0:00:21.840 --> 0:00:24.960 You know, you should be dancing down the street as 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:25.479 it used to be. 0:00:26.400 --> 0:00:30.120 There are no tests to make the diagnosis, and where's 0:00:30.160 --> 0:00:31.960 it headed. A lot of the time, we also have 0:00:32.120 --> 0:00:35.800 no definitive idea, and that's incredibly unsettling. 0:00:36.240 --> 0:00:40.959 I physically took my toe and tried to bend it, 0:00:41.440 --> 0:00:43.199 and I could not do it. 0:00:48.320 --> 0:00:51.920 How terrifying would it be to fight an unknown enemy, 0:00:52.440 --> 0:00:56.280 one you didn't recognize and didn't see coming. What if 0:00:56.320 --> 0:01:00.400 that enemy was coming from within a disease that even 0:01:00.520 --> 0:01:06.160 doctors couldn't identify. Nearly half of all Americans suffer from 0:01:06.240 --> 0:01:10.920 some chronic illness, and many struggle for an accurate diagnosis. 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:18.600 These are their stories. A Lauren bred Pacheco, and this 0:01:19.080 --> 0:01:35.319 is symptomatic. As a formally trained dancer, Lauren's biggest strength 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.039 has always been finding connection through movement. Dance was a 0:01:39.040 --> 0:01:42.600 place for seeking calm and creativity as well as a 0:01:42.600 --> 0:01:46.200 way to push herself physically and mentally. Now a mother 0:01:46.280 --> 0:01:49.000 of two sons, Lauren may not dance as much as 0:01:49.000 --> 0:01:51.920 she used to, but she's found ways to apply that 0:01:51.960 --> 0:01:56.120 same passion to all aspects of her life as a wife, mother, 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:57.160 and business owner. 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:02.720 I'm a dancer, a former dancer. I love dancing. I 0:02:02.720 --> 0:02:05.720 don't do it professionally anymore, but it is something that 0:02:05.800 --> 0:02:09.040 I will always have in my heart. I am a mom. 0:02:09.080 --> 0:02:12.240 I'm a family oriented person. My favorite thing to do 0:02:12.280 --> 0:02:15.200 on the weekends is watch my son play baseball and 0:02:15.280 --> 0:02:17.919 basketball and do active things with my kids. 0:02:17.960 --> 0:02:19.880 I'm extremely active. 0:02:20.200 --> 0:02:22.640 And you're a boy mom, so that's a good thing. Yes. 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:27.160 Yes. My thing is fitness and nutrition. I run a business. 0:02:27.240 --> 0:02:31.440 I'm a full time fitness and nutrition coach and we 0:02:31.520 --> 0:02:34.320 help clients all over the United States and Canada. 0:02:35.200 --> 0:02:37.560 Being the dance was such a driving force for most 0:02:37.560 --> 0:02:40.359 of her life, it seems only fitting that she met 0:02:40.400 --> 0:02:43.360 her now husband, Matt while country line dancing. 0:02:44.080 --> 0:02:50.280 She's very outgoing, very helpful. She loves to help others 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.000 when she can, so leave it to me to meet 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:55.639 the line dance instructor at the time, and I'm the 0:02:55.680 --> 0:02:57.720 guy with the two left feet that can't soon to 0:02:57.760 --> 0:03:01.880 figure it out, but very good at it. And then 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:05.000 there's the fitness side of it, where she's always been 0:03:05.000 --> 0:03:09.800 into eating rite and trying to improve herself on a 0:03:09.800 --> 0:03:10.600 personal level. 0:03:11.360 --> 0:03:15.040 I mean, I eat, sleep, and breathe dance. You know, 0:03:15.080 --> 0:03:17.360 I'd close my eyes at night and do dance routines 0:03:17.400 --> 0:03:17.960 in my head. 0:03:18.639 --> 0:03:22.120 And at the beginning of a relationship, she was very 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:24.480 big in the dance industry. She had a lot of 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:27.959 choreographing and she also did a lot of performing. She 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.160 was in a bunch of different dance backgrounds. Ballroom to 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:36.120 hip hop is where she started, and she loved it. 0:03:36.120 --> 0:03:38.840 It just gave me a place to go when I 0:03:38.920 --> 0:03:41.840 needed it. I'm an only child. I didn't have people 0:03:41.880 --> 0:03:45.800 to play with, so it just gave me something to 0:03:45.840 --> 0:03:47.680 be able to be my sounding board. 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:49.280 So it became a lot to me. 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:53.280 Dance was more than just an outlet for Lauren. It 0:03:53.360 --> 0:03:56.240 was a way of life. She cherished the feeling of 0:03:56.280 --> 0:04:00.400 freedom and expression that dance provided her. But you know, 0:04:00.640 --> 0:04:04.720 an insidious illness would soon begin to erode the ability 0:04:04.800 --> 0:04:08.720 she had for the things she loved most. So take 0:04:08.800 --> 0:04:14.240 me back to the first time you remember seeing symptoms, 0:04:14.320 --> 0:04:18.200 physical symptoms, that anything was a mess, and I think 0:04:18.240 --> 0:04:20.039 it was skin correct. 0:04:20.880 --> 0:04:25.400 Yes, I was young when I started having skin rashes. 0:04:26.279 --> 0:04:29.960 It was before high school that I started noticing these 0:04:30.000 --> 0:04:32.960 patches of skin. And I mean I remember scratching them 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:36.599 until they would bleed. They were so itchy and uncomfortable. 0:04:37.240 --> 0:04:41.520 They were my elbows, my shins, my ankles. So it's 0:04:41.520 --> 0:04:43.560 not like it was on my face or anything like 0:04:43.600 --> 0:04:46.200 that that would really make me super self conscious about it. 0:04:46.240 --> 0:04:50.200 But it still didn't look pretty right. So that's when 0:04:50.240 --> 0:04:53.880 I went to a dermatologist, and the dermatologist diagnosed me 0:04:53.960 --> 0:04:57.000 with what they called at that point, dermatitis. They just said, 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.400 here's Cortizon cream. This is what we can give you. 0:05:01.200 --> 0:05:05.880 But getting through high school, through college, even through getting married, 0:05:06.040 --> 0:05:10.160 I always had patches somewhere. They were always a part 0:05:10.200 --> 0:05:10.440 of me. 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:15.800 Even as Lauren continued to excel at dance at increasingly 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:21.480 advanced levels, her skin patches became unrelenting. Having the dermatitis 0:05:21.480 --> 0:05:24.680 diagnosis didn't seem to matter much because none of the 0:05:24.720 --> 0:05:29.320 topical treatments provided any real relief. As Lauren pursued her 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:32.760 dreams of becoming a professional dancer, she simply pushed her 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:37.119 symptoms aside, where they remained unresolved into her college years. 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.400 So what happens when you got to college? How do 0:05:39.480 --> 0:05:41.320 your symptoms morph? How do they evolve? 0:05:41.720 --> 0:05:44.520 You know, I went to college in a very rural area. 0:05:44.880 --> 0:05:49.200 I was at Western Illinois University. It was cornfields, and 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:51.320 you know, my environment changed. 0:05:51.800 --> 0:05:53.360 I have bad allergies. 0:05:53.839 --> 0:05:57.960 Those were definitely affected with moving into a different area, 0:05:58.040 --> 0:06:01.960 different seasons, and my my skin did actually get worse 0:06:02.000 --> 0:06:03.760 when I got to college. 0:06:03.800 --> 0:06:07.599 Her husband, Matt, remembers noticing the inflamed areas of skin 0:06:08.000 --> 0:06:09.160 near her ankles. 0:06:09.560 --> 0:06:12.800 She started seeing like skin issues. I used to give 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.279 her a hard time. I'm like, stop touching that, stop scratching, 0:06:15.360 --> 0:06:16.880 and she's like I'm not, and I'm like, oh, it 0:06:16.920 --> 0:06:17.680 looks like you are. 0:06:18.520 --> 0:06:23.279 I did also start having issues where I couldn't do 0:06:23.400 --> 0:06:26.040 the things that I like to do as much anymore. 0:06:26.080 --> 0:06:30.560 So I started to feel like some stiffness in my legs, 0:06:30.640 --> 0:06:33.680 in my feet, the bottoms of my feet would hurt 0:06:33.680 --> 0:06:36.720 when i'd go run. I was dancing in college, and 0:06:36.800 --> 0:06:38.960 so there were times where I would just have to 0:06:39.360 --> 0:06:42.599 take a break from practice because I just my body 0:06:42.600 --> 0:06:43.480 didn't feel good. 0:06:44.040 --> 0:06:47.360 A college level competitive dancer starting to see her body 0:06:47.360 --> 0:06:49.880 wear down has to be a little unsettling. 0:06:50.160 --> 0:06:53.640 Yeah, So we would practice multiple times a week. This 0:06:53.760 --> 0:06:56.880 might be popping up for me, you know, once a month, 0:06:56.960 --> 0:07:00.839 where it wasn't at that point in time affecting my 0:07:01.520 --> 0:07:03.839 day to day or week to week. But it was 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:07.560 a pattern that maybe as an eighteen year old, nineteen 0:07:07.600 --> 0:07:11.640 year old college girl, I just wasn't quite aware of 0:07:11.720 --> 0:07:14.320 the frequency of which it was happening, in the patterns 0:07:14.720 --> 0:07:17.760 that I was getting quote unquote worse. 0:07:18.560 --> 0:07:21.440 That's so insidious too, because it's so easy to say, 0:07:21.680 --> 0:07:24.240 I'm away from home for the first time, I'm eating 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.440 different foods, I'm partying a little bit more than I 0:07:27.480 --> 0:07:29.360 could with parental supervision. 0:07:30.000 --> 0:07:30.800 Correct. 0:07:31.040 --> 0:07:33.880 I had no idea that anything else was really brewing 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:37.160 or anything else was going on for me. The younger 0:07:37.280 --> 0:07:39.440 I was, the less I was really in tune with, 0:07:39.520 --> 0:07:41.560 you know, like, oh, I'm fine. You know, that's like 0:07:41.680 --> 0:07:44.320 what a teenager says, right, I'm fine, it'll go away, 0:07:44.360 --> 0:07:45.360 I'll be better tomorrow. 0:07:46.000 --> 0:07:49.000 And that's kind of where I went with it. 0:07:49.600 --> 0:07:54.200 The stiffening muscles and sensitive skin continued to linger, draining 0:07:54.240 --> 0:07:56.200 Lauren of the strength that used to be so readily 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:59.400 available to her. She used to have no problem getting 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.600 up the energy to juggle studying and dancing, but now 0:08:03.000 --> 0:08:05.920 everything was beginning to feel more and more like a chore. 0:08:07.440 --> 0:08:09.440 It's like if you have a really bad head cold 0:08:09.480 --> 0:08:12.480 and you just feel completely bogged down by it. 0:08:12.480 --> 0:08:15.880 It was this fatigue that just wouldn't go away. 0:08:16.480 --> 0:08:19.000 I came home from college at one point and got 0:08:19.120 --> 0:08:22.400 cat scans of my sinuses to see and yeah, my 0:08:22.480 --> 0:08:25.560 sinuses were extremely inflamed. They told me that it was 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:28.960 I had the option of getting sinus surgery, or I 0:08:29.040 --> 0:08:33.319 could get put on different allergy medication or use nasal 0:08:33.400 --> 0:08:36.400 sprays like that was the extent of what they thought. 0:08:36.920 --> 0:08:40.760 And that must have been difficult psychologically for you too, 0:08:40.800 --> 0:08:44.840 because you've already said that dance in particular, was this outlet, 0:08:44.920 --> 0:08:49.680 this escape, and now it's getting more difficult to really 0:08:49.800 --> 0:08:51.680 enjoy that outlet and escape. 0:08:52.440 --> 0:08:56.560 Yes, But I think also with that athlete mentality, my 0:08:56.679 --> 0:08:58.880 heart was you need to push harder, you need to 0:08:58.920 --> 0:09:00.920 try harder, you need to show up, you need to 0:09:00.960 --> 0:09:03.760 do the things. You need to keep working. So it 0:09:03.840 --> 0:09:06.080 wasn't even like, oh, I'm not really enjoying it. 0:09:06.120 --> 0:09:07.560 Anymore. It's that addiction. 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:11.520 It's at hunger where you want to get better, you 0:09:11.559 --> 0:09:14.680 want to keep working harder, And that's where all of 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.600 my energy was focused on, which sometimes meant ignoring the 0:09:18.640 --> 0:09:21.640 things that I probably shouldn't have ignored at that time. 0:09:22.360 --> 0:09:25.360 During her last year of college, Lauren ended up contracting 0:09:25.440 --> 0:09:29.960 MRSA and a serious staff infection, which required multiple procedures 0:09:30.240 --> 0:09:33.880 to clear out of her system. This health setback forced 0:09:33.960 --> 0:09:36.720 Lauren to stop dancing and to move back home to 0:09:36.760 --> 0:09:41.280 properly recuperate. This abrupt transition from a vibrant dance field 0:09:41.360 --> 0:09:45.040 routine to a more sedentary lifestyle took its toll on 0:09:45.120 --> 0:09:48.719 her body, but after she'd recovered, she was determined to 0:09:48.800 --> 0:09:51.880 get back into a fitness routine. And what better workout 0:09:51.920 --> 0:09:53.520 partner than her future husband. 0:09:54.200 --> 0:09:57.880 I said to him, my foot feels funny moving through 0:09:57.880 --> 0:10:00.680 these workouts. He says, maybe you should take a step back, 0:10:00.720 --> 0:10:02.880 and I'm like no, I'm like, I'm really getting results. 0:10:02.960 --> 0:10:04.160 I can work through it. 0:10:04.440 --> 0:10:08.559 And there comes my elite athlete mentality, right, I can 0:10:08.600 --> 0:10:09.199 work through it. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:10.080 I can work through it. 0:10:10.480 --> 0:10:12.920 What did you initially attribute to that to? I mean, 0:10:13.000 --> 0:10:15.920 were you ever on point? Did you do ballet. Were 0:10:15.920 --> 0:10:18.760 you thinking that it was just like a leftover injury. 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.600 I figured that it was just too much wear and tear. 0:10:22.120 --> 0:10:25.080 I'd rest for a few days, A month would go 0:10:25.160 --> 0:10:28.160 by and it would come back. A month or two 0:10:28.160 --> 0:10:30.720 would go by and it would come back. But I 0:10:30.800 --> 0:10:33.120 always knew that if it came back, I'm like, that's 0:10:33.160 --> 0:10:35.120 my warning sign that I just need to take a 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.360 few days off and I'll be fine in no time. 0:10:37.840 --> 0:10:40.800 So I did let that go for years. Lauren and 0:10:40.800 --> 0:10:44.080 Matt married and soon after started their own family, welcoming 0:10:44.120 --> 0:10:48.079 two beautiful sons, but the journey through pregnancy and childbirth 0:10:48.120 --> 0:10:52.680 two times over exasperated Lauren's symptoms. With her focus on 0:10:52.720 --> 0:10:54.640 all the ups and downs of being a new parent, 0:10:55.080 --> 0:10:58.640 she continued to push her pain aside, not realizing a 0:10:58.840 --> 0:11:02.160 larger picture was starting to take shape. It wasn't until 0:11:02.160 --> 0:11:06.280 the signs became obviously beyond the postpartum norm that Lauren 0:11:06.280 --> 0:11:08.040 and Matt knew they had to take action. 0:11:09.080 --> 0:11:10.920 Finally, it got to a point where I was doing 0:11:11.000 --> 0:11:14.240 laundry and like He's like, you are limping to the 0:11:14.320 --> 0:11:16.280 laundry machine, Like there is no. 0:11:17.000 --> 0:11:18.920 Way that you are actually okay. 0:11:19.679 --> 0:11:22.320 She starts limping, and it's like it's just weird. All 0:11:22.320 --> 0:11:24.800 of a sudden, you're in your mid twenties and then 0:11:24.880 --> 0:11:27.640 you start limping and you're like, what's going on here? 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:30.960 Did you twist your ankle? Did you do anything? And 0:11:31.840 --> 0:11:34.960 it just kept seeing a trend of like different body 0:11:35.000 --> 0:11:37.360 aches and pains, and sometimes it switched from one side 0:11:37.360 --> 0:11:40.280 of her body to the other. It was really hard 0:11:40.280 --> 0:11:41.640 to understand. 0:11:42.280 --> 0:11:46.079 My entire foot around the joints of my toes they 0:11:46.120 --> 0:11:52.120 were like red and inflamed and swollen, and he's like, 0:11:52.240 --> 0:11:54.720 you need to put your feet up. Something is not right, 0:11:55.240 --> 0:11:58.640 And I thought, well, maybe I hurt myself. Normally, when 0:11:58.679 --> 0:12:02.959 you hurt yourself, you could like pinpoint the time where you, 0:12:02.960 --> 0:12:05.480 you know, broke your foot or broke a toe. 0:12:06.000 --> 0:12:08.360 We weren't sure what it was. We just thought maybe 0:12:08.400 --> 0:12:11.440 it was after having a child. Certain things happened to 0:12:11.480 --> 0:12:14.080 you that I don't know, either change or take a 0:12:14.120 --> 0:12:16.680 long time to go back to the way they were. 0:12:17.320 --> 0:12:20.720 We had kids, and right around the time I had 0:12:20.760 --> 0:12:25.600 my second son, I was still avidly working out and training, 0:12:26.000 --> 0:12:28.200 and I got to a point where I could not 0:12:28.400 --> 0:12:33.560 do a lunge because my toes would not flex that 0:12:33.880 --> 0:12:37.320 was where I was, and I got to a point 0:12:37.320 --> 0:12:40.080 where I physically took my toe. 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:44.480 And tried to bend it, and I could not do it. 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:48.440 So it was like it was a fused, solid bone 0:12:48.520 --> 0:12:52.160 as opposed to small bones that move in conjunction with 0:12:52.200 --> 0:12:52.640 one another. 0:12:52.880 --> 0:12:53.320 Correct. 0:12:54.040 --> 0:12:57.640 It was like imagine something like completely rusted and you 0:12:57.760 --> 0:13:01.200 trying to move it like there was no give there. 0:13:01.200 --> 0:13:02.240 It was stuck. 0:13:02.960 --> 0:13:06.439 You must have felt so betrayed by your own body. 0:13:06.559 --> 0:13:08.959 Broken, completely broken. 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.760 Until now her body had been her instrument, her outlet, 0:13:14.080 --> 0:13:17.319 her means of expression, but that was being quickly ripped 0:13:17.320 --> 0:13:21.080 away from her by these unexplained symptoms. Balancing the demands 0:13:21.080 --> 0:13:24.360 of her two greatest loves, dance and family, became an 0:13:24.400 --> 0:13:25.560 ongoing struggle. 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:29.520 I mean, Lauren's always been really good at pushing through 0:13:29.640 --> 0:13:32.880 and fighting for what she wants. It definitely gotten a 0:13:32.920 --> 0:13:36.560 way of her day to day activities, and like there's 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:38.440 certain things like we didn't go to the zoo with 0:13:38.520 --> 0:13:40.680 the kids or go to certain things that you're going 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:42.440 to have to be on your feet a lot, because 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:45.959 she knew she wouldn't be able to handle it or 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.839 she'd be paying for it for days afterwards. 0:13:49.520 --> 0:13:53.840 So I left my dance career. It was an impossible 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:55.400 choice for me to make. 0:13:55.600 --> 0:13:58.600 I think, you know, to be a professional dancer takes 0:13:58.640 --> 0:14:03.120 an extreme amount of work and perseverance and dedication and 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:07.880 sacrifice to get to that level, which is where I 0:14:08.040 --> 0:14:08.760 was at. 0:14:08.960 --> 0:14:10.959 It was like crashing into a brick wall. 0:14:11.760 --> 0:14:15.600 Lauren explained, dances almost her happy place, a safe place 0:14:15.679 --> 0:14:19.360 where she could just lose herself. What was it like 0:14:19.640 --> 0:14:25.760 to see her mobility challenged, to go from forget about dancing, 0:14:26.160 --> 0:14:29.480 not being able to walk? What was that like to witness? 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:33.560 It was hard to watch. She struggled with it a lot, 0:14:33.640 --> 0:14:36.640 just because she had so much creativity that didn't feel 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:40.280 like work, because she loved what she was doing. Was 0:14:40.320 --> 0:14:43.440 hard to see. You know, she had multiple occasions where 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:46.760 she would get down on herself because she just couldn't 0:14:46.760 --> 0:14:48.720 do it, and she couldn't understand why. 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:52.120 You have all of this momentum driving you forward. 0:14:52.200 --> 0:14:55.120 You're like, you're driven to get to where you're going, 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.760 and then you come to this halting stop and you 0:14:58.760 --> 0:15:01.760 can only push through it so much before it just 0:15:01.800 --> 0:15:04.480 starts to break you down. Than if you know, boys 0:15:04.760 --> 0:15:07.880 when they're toddlers, you are doing nothing but trying to 0:15:08.000 --> 0:15:10.640 chase them down as soon as they get they get 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.400 move in. It is just a constant hustle and it 0:15:13.480 --> 0:15:16.760 was tough. It was really tough. So I had nothing 0:15:16.800 --> 0:15:19.600 other to say than I can't play with my kid 0:15:19.680 --> 0:15:21.960 on the playground, but I can show up to work 0:15:22.000 --> 0:15:24.680 and dance with my dance partner. There's something that didn't 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:26.720 seem right to me about that picture, and I had 0:15:26.760 --> 0:15:28.920 to at that point give or take something. 0:15:28.960 --> 0:15:31.120 And it was always going to be family over everything. 0:15:32.080 --> 0:15:35.920 Despite setting dance aside, Lauren didn't lose her passion for 0:15:36.000 --> 0:15:40.400 improving lives through fitness. She redirected that enthusiasm into a 0:15:40.440 --> 0:15:44.320 career in personal training, providing empowerment in a much less 0:15:44.360 --> 0:15:47.880 taxing way. But with the tightness in her feet worsening 0:15:48.320 --> 0:15:51.480 and none of her at home treatments working, she decided 0:15:51.520 --> 0:15:55.080 to go to a pediatrist in search of more effective solutions. 0:15:57.240 --> 0:15:58.680 I thought I broke my toe. 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:02.320 It was on one foot specifically at that point, and 0:16:02.920 --> 0:16:06.240 I said to my husband, I said, something's wrong. I 0:16:06.280 --> 0:16:09.160 don't remember breaking my foot, but it is bad to 0:16:09.200 --> 0:16:10.520 the point where I cannot move. 0:16:11.080 --> 0:16:13.440 We went into the pediatrist. I got X rays. 0:16:13.520 --> 0:16:17.280 He's like, well, your to's not broken, but you're not 0:16:17.320 --> 0:16:21.240 even thirty years old, and we're seeing like advanced arthritis 0:16:21.360 --> 0:16:25.800 patterns in your joints. So that was kind of the 0:16:25.800 --> 0:16:27.760 first time. I was like, what do you mean I 0:16:27.840 --> 0:16:30.600 have arthritis in my feet? 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:33.360 And we're like, well, she was a dancer, so I 0:16:33.360 --> 0:16:37.840 guess that could be possibility. That also puts another curveball 0:16:37.880 --> 0:16:40.440 in the situation of like, when we're looking at her feet, 0:16:41.120 --> 0:16:43.760 is this like a byproduct of all the years of 0:16:43.840 --> 0:16:45.560 dance or is this something new? 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:49.320 Wow, I'm trying to wrap my head around that. So 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:56.040 you are a young mother, very active, very health oriented, 0:16:56.680 --> 0:17:01.960 and suddenly you're in a position where you're losing mobility 0:17:02.320 --> 0:17:04.280 entirely of one foot. 0:17:04.600 --> 0:17:05.040 Correct. 0:17:05.320 --> 0:17:08.000 What was going through my head was he's wrong, Like, 0:17:08.240 --> 0:17:12.800 there's no way I eat healthy, I am active, I exercise, 0:17:12.880 --> 0:17:15.760 I do all the things that you're supposed to do, 0:17:15.800 --> 0:17:18.639 and I'm only twenty six. There's just no way that 0:17:18.680 --> 0:17:21.240 it's a possibility that I have arthritis. 0:17:22.040 --> 0:17:25.600 While the arthritis diagnosis didn't sit well with Lauren, it 0:17:25.720 --> 0:17:29.479 would lead to another clue. The pediatrist was examining her 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:33.160 feet and noticed the rough skin patches on her ankles 0:17:33.200 --> 0:17:37.440 and knees. Though Lauren had been previously diagnosed with dermatitis, 0:17:37.960 --> 0:17:39.280 this looked different. 0:17:39.880 --> 0:17:42.600 He said, I highly recommend that you go to you 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:47.000 back to your dermatologists and ask them to buyopsy these 0:17:47.040 --> 0:17:51.000 skin patches to see if it is psoriasis. And he said, 0:17:51.000 --> 0:17:54.080 and if it is, your next visit is going to 0:17:54.080 --> 0:17:59.680 be to a rheumatologist. So the dermatologist they did find 0:17:59.680 --> 0:18:00.920 that it is psoriasis. 0:18:01.880 --> 0:18:03.760 That must have been for both of you, like, who 0:18:03.760 --> 0:18:07.240 cares about the psariasis? Right, We've got bigger fish to fry. 0:18:07.920 --> 0:18:11.840 Yes, the skin issues were definitely not on like the 0:18:11.880 --> 0:18:14.880 top of the list to deal with her appearance of 0:18:14.880 --> 0:18:19.080 her skin and the different spots that she has were 0:18:19.560 --> 0:18:21.680 a drop in the bucket compared to like the joint 0:18:21.720 --> 0:18:25.359 pain and the discomfort that she had on daily basis. 0:18:26.160 --> 0:18:29.640 In the moment, it was difficult to decipher, but Lauren's 0:18:29.640 --> 0:18:34.160 symptomatic picture was coming into focus. So at that point 0:18:34.240 --> 0:18:38.280 you must have been so frustrated, what's happening now in 0:18:38.359 --> 0:18:40.359 terms of your physical symptoms? 0:18:40.840 --> 0:18:45.960 In my physical symptoms, I was beyond frustrated. I was 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.120 at that point where this was happening much more frequently, 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:52.960 where I could not walk. I was an excruciating pain 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:55.360 waking up in the middle of the night, even like 0:18:55.920 --> 0:18:58.600 laying in bed if your feet are covered and like 0:18:58.640 --> 0:19:01.480 the foot of your bed tucked in, and even that 0:19:01.800 --> 0:19:05.080 pressure of trying to bend my toes if I was 0:19:05.160 --> 0:19:08.920 laying on my back would wake me up with throbbing 0:19:08.960 --> 0:19:10.440 pain in the middle of the night. 0:19:11.640 --> 0:19:15.920 What would you say was the psychological impact? 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.879 It was scary as almost scarier than the injury. The 0:19:19.880 --> 0:19:23.480 physical limitations that she had that we watched all the time, 0:19:23.560 --> 0:19:26.800 But like when you see someone mentally like slowly being 0:19:26.880 --> 0:19:30.400 broken down, it's a hard thing now to watch and 0:19:31.080 --> 0:19:37.400 wonder where's this going? You must have also helpless, Yeah, 0:19:37.440 --> 0:19:38.480 it's difficult. 0:19:38.680 --> 0:19:41.160 You mentioned at one point she was even on crutches 0:19:41.680 --> 0:19:45.760 without answers, what do you think was kind of rock 0:19:45.800 --> 0:19:50.240 bottom in terms of her symptoms. 0:19:50.119 --> 0:19:53.040 Be honest, like when she did have to actually use 0:19:53.080 --> 0:19:58.760 crutches and couldn't even get inside from outside without taking 0:19:58.800 --> 0:20:01.880 five minutes, reminding me of my grandmother when she lived 0:20:01.880 --> 0:20:03.879 with us and she was ninety and had a walker, 0:20:03.960 --> 0:20:06.800 and it was just a very snail type pace to 0:20:06.840 --> 0:20:09.600 get it anywhere. But then you know, you look at 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:11.480 her and it's like you're not my grandma. You know, 0:20:11.720 --> 0:20:14.760 you should be dancing down the street as it used 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:20.720 to be, but it's just difficult to see it happen. 0:20:23.160 --> 0:20:26.320 It was all so difficult and frustrating fighting the unknown. 0:20:26.840 --> 0:20:31.720 Lauren's progressing physical limitations were increasingly interfering with her personal 0:20:32.119 --> 0:20:33.280 and professional life. 0:20:33.960 --> 0:20:39.760 I figured, well, if my pediatrist was right about the psoriasis, 0:20:40.040 --> 0:20:43.440 then it's definitely worth at least taking a look into 0:20:43.920 --> 0:20:47.720 the roomatologist, mostly because looking back at the patterns, looking 0:20:47.760 --> 0:20:51.720 back at the history, this pattern had been going on for, 0:20:51.880 --> 0:20:54.480 like I said, years and years and years. 0:20:55.200 --> 0:20:58.919 Knowing Lauren's family had a history of autoimmune conditions, the 0:20:59.000 --> 0:21:01.919 doctor ran every blood tests they could in hopes of 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:04.560 finding a clue as to what was causing Lauren so 0:21:04.680 --> 0:21:08.560 much pain, but nothing came back conclusive enough to narrow 0:21:08.640 --> 0:21:09.840 down the root cause. 0:21:10.600 --> 0:21:13.560 So here I was not being able to sleep, not 0:21:13.680 --> 0:21:16.000 being able to do anything, and I looked at this 0:21:16.119 --> 0:21:18.439 roomatologist and I'm like, what can you do for me? 0:21:18.800 --> 0:21:22.919 We tried an oral immunosuppress at first, and that was 0:21:22.960 --> 0:21:23.720 really tough for me. 0:21:23.800 --> 0:21:24.520 It did not work. 0:21:24.600 --> 0:21:27.399 It made me feel sick and also gave me pretty 0:21:27.440 --> 0:21:29.160 significant depression. 0:21:29.840 --> 0:21:33.320 Matt, did you have fears that something much worse was 0:21:33.359 --> 0:21:33.719 going on? 0:21:34.320 --> 0:21:36.760 We did when we got deeper into it, like what 0:21:36.840 --> 0:21:40.120 could this be? Is this like a lifelong thing? Then 0:21:40.160 --> 0:21:43.080 you start looking into all these possibilities, and you know 0:21:43.400 --> 0:21:45.320 scary when you start looking up stuff on the internet 0:21:45.359 --> 0:21:47.040 because you normally don't find anything good. 0:21:48.280 --> 0:21:52.240 Lauren felt everything was slipping away from her, her family, 0:21:52.440 --> 0:21:57.720 her passion, herself, all because this unexplained disease was overwhelming 0:21:57.760 --> 0:22:01.040 her system and she had yet to find a doctor 0:22:01.359 --> 0:22:05.560 who could see the bigger picture. Do you remember just 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:10.720 feeling so desperate that you didn't think you could handle. 0:22:10.440 --> 0:22:12.520 It one hundred percent? 0:22:12.880 --> 0:22:16.720 I remember it was with that rheumatologist that I went 0:22:16.760 --> 0:22:20.720 in there in tears, on crutches, unable to live my 0:22:20.880 --> 0:22:23.359 life the way that I wanted to live at that 0:22:23.480 --> 0:22:27.479