If anyone knows that feeling, it's Carole Staveley.
Carole suffered for 13 years with a chronic myofascial pain condition, symptoms of which are muscle pain and stiffness... almost as if your soft tissues are made of steel.
This condition can also pre-dispose you for other injuries. In Carole's case, it truly prevented her from living life.
She spent many of those 13 years trying to get an answer via the "traditional" route of going to doctors, but to no avail.
Her wake-up call came when she was dealing with infertility issues, when she realized that not all medical clinics are created equal. In terms of fertility clinics, some actually have better success rates than others.
Carole also educated herself enough to ask the "right" questions, which led to a different treatment approach for her infertility, and eventually success with her first pregnancy. That, in turn, spurred her to seek out professionals who could help with her chronic pain.
The exercise physiologist she enlisted suggested it to be a bio-chemical problem, and, as it turns out, Carole suffered from a gluten intolerance. Once that was addressed, her tissues were allowed to operate properly. Through nutrition, exercise and other holistic methods, Carole was able to recover and eventually complete an Ironman Triathlon.
Carole's advice for achieving success in your own struggles include the following:
1. Determine what in your life is so important that it's going to drive you to uncover the root of the problem. For Carole, it was being there for her kids.
2. When you go to any health professional, be prepared and ask as many questions as possible to trigger their thinking. If they're not considering other options for your treatment, it's time to go somewhere else.
3. Persevere, persevere, persevere. There is likely something or someone out there that can help you; you just have to find them.
In the accompanying audio segment, Carole joins Naturally Savvy hosts Andrea Donsky and Lisa Davis to share more about her personal journey, as well as effective tactics you can use to get to the bottom of your own health struggles.