This isn't a post about exercise, but about support.

The last few days I have been in excruciating pain.  And that's saying a lot since I think I have a pretty high pain tolerance.

Pain to the point of keeping me up at night and not being able to do regular daily activities.

For those that deal with chronic, daily pain, I can not even imagine. 

So here's what happened.  

I did a strength training workout late last week, with these nice, fairly heavy 15 lb weights.  We're talking, overhead presses, you name it.  

It was tough, but nothing I hadn't done before or knew that I couldn't handle.

Until Sunday came around.

Either the combination of how I slept, my cleaning frenzy or god knows what, but my arm became almost numb, achy and extremely painful and unusable.

Now being educated as I am, I knew it was likely my previous workout had landed me in "pinched nerve" territory and I needed to stretch asap, get some heat on it and rest it the remainder of the day.

But then night came and none of my tricks had worked, and who wants to guess where my head went?

Thats right.

"Oh my god I'm having some kind of cardiovascular event!"

"What if I have to call 911, who will come be with me kids?"

"What will happen if I end up in the hospital?"

And so on and so forth, as only the 2 am, lack of sleep brain can.

Morning came, I was still in pain, my mind was still going to worst case scenarios and my first calls of the day were to my husband, my mom and my chiropractor.

No it wasn't 911, it was to my support network.  My husband to let him know what was going on, for advice on what to do next and just general emotional support.

My mom because she is also my emotional support, but also my back up when I need someone to take care of my kids.

And my chiropractor.  Why are they part of my support network?  Because I knew, despite my overthinking brain, that what I really needed was physical support, not an ECG.   (If you didn't know that arm pain can be a sign of early cardiovascular events in women, this is your PSA.)

Today, things are already feeling so much better!  I am thankful for my own knowledge of how the body functions and what can go wrong, as well as the support network I was able to lean into to get back on track.

If you are struggling with any aspect of your health and feel as though a better support network is in order, then please reach out, there are different options for finding that support.

Booking a 15 minute meet and greet with me over at vibrantclinic.janeapp.com is a great place to start or clicking on the link below to find out about the upcoming women's community health program - The Braided Table - where the focus is on knowledge and support!

Don't suffer alone, you don't have to. 

Chat soon!
​Richelle

When I started my clinician practice 8 years ago, community programming wasn't anywhere on my radar.  All I wanted to do was see patients one on one, educate them, provide them with guidelines on how to get better, and do it all over again with another patient.

What was becoming apparent over the years however, was the fact that I spent a lot of time on what I considered foundational pieces with patients, before we could really dive into the nitty gritty of what was making them feel ill.

A classic example was women coming in looking for support for their hormones.  When I would start to ask more detailed questions about their menstrual cycles (which helps me get to the nitty gritty ; ),  many times it wasn't stuff they could answer, because they didn't know the importance of tracking those pieces.  So then we'd spend some time with me educating them, sending them out with homework (tracking their cycle), and them feeling like we didn't get to the bottom of what they were there for.   Not the best use of our one on one visit!  

On the flip side of that is the financial investment they make to work with me one on one, to only get a reminder on high school biology with a little naturopathic spin to it!  Not a great use of their financial investment!

Hence the need for a more cost effective, time efficient, knowledge driven, way to get started.

Enter The Braided Table.

The Braided Table is the culmination of working with patients for 8 years in a one on one setting and learning from them the foundational pieces that I find necessary to move forward with a health care journey.

It is an 8 module course that takes the participants through these foundations in a cost effective, time efficient, knowledge driven way.  Plus the access to the knowledge, insight and support of the other women engaging in the program.  

Every woman should have access to this knowledge because I think its the key to opening up the potential for them to amplify their life.

Want to learn more?  Check out the link below!