Then and Now: How My RA Diagnosis Became the Catalyst for Tenacious Wellness Coaching

2017 was a year of upheaval.

I moved halfway across the country.

Started a new job in a field I had never worked in before.

Met new people, explored new places, tried to build a life from scratch.

And in the middle of all of that, my body began attacking itself.

In the beginning of 2017 what I thought was run-of-the-mill knee pain from travel turned out to be the first signs of joint swelling from Rheumatoid Arthritis. Not a minor issue. Not something a little rest would fix. A confounding, all-consuming autoimmune condition that bulldozed the life I thought I was building.

Then

How are you supposed to react when what you assumed were overuse injuries suddenly start popping up in places you definitely did not injure?

First the knee.

Then the wrists.

Then the shoulder, so swollen and locked that I could not lift my arm, only rotate my forearm like it was not even mine.

How are you supposed to react when your primary care doctor shrugs, sends you to a specialist, and the rheumatologist looks at you with skepticism?

When the blood test says RA, but your symptoms do not fit their tidy boxes, so they do not fully believe you? When you insist something is wrong, loudly, anxiously, desperately, and only then do they order the MRI?

And when the MRI finally confirms it?

When it turns out you were right all along?

When months have gone by and you have been in pain, confused, exhausted, and trying to function like a normal adult?

Are you screaming?

I was screaming.

And crying.

And cursing.

And laughing at the absurdity because sometimes that is the only thing left.

And when the diagnosis finally landed, I grieved.

Because I knew instantly that my body would never be the same.

That my life would not unfold the way I had imagined.

That there was no going back.

Now

Fast-forward to today, and the landscape of my life looks nothing like 2017.

The grief is still part of me, but it is no longer the whole story.

I have learned how to live inside a body that does not follow predictable rules.

I have learned how to manage energy instead of muscling through.

I have learned how to build routines that honor my limits without shrinking my life.

I have learned how to thrive, not because the illness disappeared, but because I stopped fighting myself.

What I did not expect was this: Living with Rheumatoid Arthritis taught me how resilient humans can be when we have support. It showed me how much easier this journey becomes when someone walks beside you, someone who understands the fear, the grief, the overwhelm, and the constant renegotiation of daily life.

That realization is what pushed me toward coaching.

Not the polished, everything is fine kind of coaching.

The real kind.

The messy kind.

The kind that says I know what this feels like and you are not alone.

I became a chronic illness coach because I remember exactly how disorienting it felt to have my world turned upside down and no one to help me pick up the pieces.

I became a coach because I did not want anyone else to feel as dismissed, confused, or unsupported as I did in those early months.

I became a coach because our stories matter, our bodies matter, and our lives deserve to be more than survival.

Tenacious Wellness Coaching was born out of a promise I made to myself in the middle of all that chaos:

If I ever figured out how to live in this body, really live, I would help other people do the same.

And here we are.

Not cured.

Not perfect.

But thriving in a way I could not have imagined in 2017.

This is the beginning of the story I want to tell in this space. Raw. Honest. Human. And full of the kind of hope that is earned, not manufactured.

Your story does not end at the moment everything changes. That is simply where your resilience begins

If you would like to learn more about me and my approach to coaching, please book a free Discovery Call: Discovery Call - Tenacious Wellness