Episode 22: Interview with Lora Marie
Have you recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease or maybe you have been struggling with one for awhile? Tune in to today's episode to hear about Lora Marie's personal journey and insights with autoimmune.
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Show Notes:
In this powerful episode, we delve into the personal journey of Lora Marie, an individual living with autoimmune disease. She shares her experience, insights, and strategies for managing life with a chronic illness.
Lora's frank discussion about the necessity of medication in managing autoimmune conditions. She highlights the importance of prioritizing quality of life over the fear of potential side effects.
The critical role of diet in managing autoimmune diseases is covered. Lora emphasizes the need for individualized dietary protocols, citing her own experience with the Autoimmune Protocol (AIP) diet.
Self-compassion is strongly advocated by Lora. She believes in the importance of being patient and kind to oneself during the challenging journey of living with an autoimmune disease.
Lora shares her philosophy of finding humor and laughter even amidst the struggles. She attributes laughter to helping regulate the nervous system and providing relief from the intensity of the disease.
The power of sleep and rest in the healing process is discussed. Lora shares her own sleep routine, along with tips to enhance sleep quality.
The theme of adaptation and adjustment resonates throughout the conversation. Lora urges listeners to accept the ever-changing nature of life with an autoimmune disease and the constant need to learn and adapt.
To learn more about Lora Marie and her experiences with autoimmune disease, find her on Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook @ExploringAutoimmune.
Key Takeaways:
Don't fear medication: Medication can play a crucial role in managing autoimmune diseases and preventing permanent damage.
Individualize your diet: Autoimmune disease management requires an individualized dietary approach. Even within structured dietary protocols like the AIP diet, it's essential to observe how your body responds to specific foods.
Practice self-compassion: The journey with autoimmune diseases is challenging and requires patience and self-compassion. Be kind to yourself during the hard times.
Find humor in the journey: Laughing and finding humor in the situation can be a beneficial coping mechanism. It helps regulate the nervous system and brings relief from the intensity of the disease.
Importance of Sleep: Adequate sleep is paramount for the body's healing process. Implement strategies to enhance sleep quality for optimal rest and recovery.
Be prepared to adapt and adjust: Living with autoimmune disease is a continual learning and adapting process. Be open to changes and adjustments, and remember to give yourself grace during this journey.
Transcript:
Hello everyone and welcome back to Better Than Appeal Today. I'm so excited to have special guest Lora Marie with us, and Lora Marie is gonna be sharing a bit about her personal journey with autoimmune disease, as well as the things that she's found helpful along the way. Laura has a public site on social media platforms.
She has several on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok, where she shares about her journey, but not to share. She adds fun, joy, and humor, and I think we really all need this. And because I personally have two, at least two known autoimmune diseases, I began to follow Laura several months ago. And I really enjoy all her posts and I feel she is an inspiration to others.
So welcome Lora, and thank you so much for being here today. Oh my goodness. Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here. Excited to share a little bit about my journey. Awesome. So let's get started. Let's delve into this. Let's start by sharing a little bit about your journey. You know, where it began when you were first diagnosed, what type do you have and anything else in between.
So I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis on July 16th, 2018. Um, the beginning was definitely very rocky, as I'm sure most people can relate to. The beginning is probably the worst. Um, my knee was swollen to the size of a cantaloupe. I had some depression sprinkled in there. Um, and there were a lot, a lot, a lot of tears.
Thank God for my friends. My goodness. They, uh, were definitely my rock during that time. Um, and slowly but surely I kind of started gathering different things and adding different things to my toolbox via, I worked with a rheumatologist, um, and also a naturopath. Um, and just kind of started, like I said, building my toolbox up.
And now five years later, I'm in a much different place and I. I'm not, I'm not in remission. I will say that. And I still definitely have some painful days, but where I'm at now is so much better, um, than what it was in the beginning. So that's kinda a little gist of it, and we'll get into maybe a little bit more of the details of my journey as we continue on, but that's, that's the gist of it.
Thank you for sharing that. Yeah, that totally makes sense. And, you know, how has your diagnosis influenced your daily life and routines? And what were some of the initial challenges you faced as well? Oh my gosh. Okay. So the initial, the initial challenges that came with the disease, like I said, that there was some depression sprinkled in there and my knee was swollen to the size of a cantaloupe.
So that kinda put a halt to. The things that I love to do, right? Like I love to hike, I love to camp, I love to kayak. Like I'm decently active. I was decently active, I should say. Um, and that really stopped it. So when you stop that and you add that little depression in, um, that was very, very challenging. I think something else that was challenging for me is that like I was used to all also saying yes to everything.
Saying, yes, I can do this. Yes, I can do that. Um, and to say, no, I had, that was hard to figure out, even though I was in pain, but I still wanted to do these things, you know what I mean? Um, and there's the challenge of something else that was really challenging for me was, do I take medication? Do I take the medication or do I try to do this holistically?
Out of the lifestyle changes that you've had to make, what are some of the most important habits that you've adopted to help you manage your autoimmune disease? I think some of the most helpful things that I've done, habits that I've created would probably be an, like I said, I'm not perfect at any of these and I don't know that I ever will be.
Um, diet was probably the most helpful. Um, with managing my autoimmune disease, there's a lot of other habits that I've kind of taken on such as, you know, breathwork and meditation and sleep routine. Sleep is actually probably a big one too. Um, but it's been the biggest one. That was, that was kind of a game changer for me because that really allowed me to see what was triggering my auto, some of my autoimmune flares.
Um, I wish I could say that I was perfect at the diet and that I, that these flares didn't happen anymore. But sometimes I'm human and sometimes I can't control the pathways in my brain that are telling me that I should eat a piece of pizza. So, but diet was huge once I figured out, um, You know, what was causing the flares to be able to like, strengthen the pathways to say no to those things, um, has kind of helped diminish some of the flares.
So, no, that makes sense to me. Diet is usually important. And have you been able to avoid medication or have you chosen to take it? Oh man, I went three years without taking the medication. Oh. In the first three years, and it was just too, and I worked with a naturopath during that time, and I was working on my diet, I was working on all of the things and it just wasn't, the inflammation just wasn't getting under control.
Um, so at about the three year mark is when I remember I told myself if on my birthday, which it was July 1st, I was like, on my birthday, if I still don't have this taken care of, like I gotta my.
Natural path. She had said, you know, sometimes, Laura, that your inflammation can be so out of control that you need medication in order to get the inflammation under control. So things like diet and mindset, um, and movement can actually do their job, right? Yeah. And so I did, I did start taking medication and I'm on methotrexate.
I actually started on Plaquenil. Actually, no. Let me reverse a little bit more. I actually started on L D N, um, and l d N did not work for me. I know that some people, ldn, um, by the way, are nre. Um, and it has worked for some people. It did not work for me. And then I went to Plaquenil. Um, and then what has worked for me is methotrexate and I started out on a really, really low dose, lower than what my rheumatologist wanted me to, but I had also heard of other people that got really sick from it and got rashes and all these things, and intuitively,
I am not a pharmacist. I'm not a nutritionist, but this is just what intuitively I wanted to do. And luckily my rheumatologist let me do it, um, I started out only taking four pills a day, and then now I'm up to six pills a day because, and he wants me on eight pills a day. Right. But I wanted to start really, really slow and, and, Have it progress at a slow pace, so that way my body had time to adjust medication.
Had any, um, any really bad side effects? I mean, the day after I might a. You know, sluggish and that kinda stuff. But other than that, I don't have any, any problems with it. And I'm very grateful for it too. I'm very grateful that that is an option for me. So it's, it's a great point to make here is like Yeah.
You, you do as much as you can naturally. Yeah. You know, to have your naturopathic doctor say, okay, at some point the medication can be helpful, you know it. That's okay. You know, it's helping you. It's helping you to improve your quality of life. And you know, it sounds like, and also listening to you, you've learned how to listen to your body.
And it's been my experience in working with other women that have autoimmune disorders in myself too, is that that is key. Because especially when it comes, let's just say for example, to movement, is that we have a threshold and it's not necessarily good to push beyond. The threshold, which I'm sure you have found.
Cause I know it sounds like, well, you're in Colorado, right? Yeah. Yep. Yeah. And you mentioned you like to move outdoors, but it, which is great, nature is good, but you've, you know, kind of talk a little bit about finding your balance with, with exercise and, and everything as well. Yeah, no, and I know my limits too with hiking.
Like, I would love to say that I go eight mile hikes, but limit.
I don't really, I don't go past that as of now, but I think intuitively if I just listen to my body, um, I'll, I'll get there. That's my dream, and my hope anyway is that I'll get to my eight, nine mile hikes. Are there any resources such as books or websites or support groups that have been especially helpful to you in understanding and coping with your disease?
Oh my gosh. Yes. Yes, there are. I've got a, a little, a couple, couple books that were game changers for me. Um, and because, so, because I struggle with habits and creating habits and things like that, um, the Miracle Morning was a big game changer for me. And that is by Hal Elrod. Um, the Power of Habit by Charles duh, Higg.
Um, and then another one that was really good was Quit Like A Woman by Holly Whitaker. And that one is actually about alcohol. And I wouldn't say I have a problem with alcohol as much as I do, so I'm single, right? Like I'm single. And usually when you go out on dates and you have drinks and things like that, um, and or just in social environments.
And it was like, it was something that I didn't do. I didn't wanna necessarily let go of, and you read this book and when you get done reading this book, you're like, whoa. Um, and so it kind of puts things into perspective. So I know that that's another resource, Unbound Wellness, um, dot com. She has great AIP recipes and she's got some, some really good stuff there.
Um, and then also, um, Eileen Lair makes a book, and that one is called, oh, The healing mindset. And that's a great book too. Wow, thank you. Definitely gonna have to check all those out. That was great information. And yeah, recently, I just actually was sharing with you earlier, I have, um, started the Autoimmune Protocol Diet.
Um, and they, you know, so diet is key and they have a meal service. I think it's Paleo on the go. Yeah. Yeah.
Great. But I haven't tried it yet, so that's good to know. So what advice or insights would you share with someone who has recently been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease based on your own experience and journey? Um, I've got a couple of things. So one, it's okay to take the medication. I think that there's a lot of people like that.
Fear the medication and, and, and whatnot. And I know that I already kind of touched base on this a little bit, but it's okay to take the medication. Like don't have any guilt, any shame around it. You're not feeling if you have, if you have to, I, it's totally fine to attempt the holistic way without taking the medication, but know that I can't speak for any other disease besides my own, but rheumatoid arthritis, absolutely.
You Absolutely. Um, can have permanent damage. And, um, I think that I've got to a place where I'm like, It's about quality, not quantity. And I wanna live my life. Like if I, if I'm not taking medication and I'm in pain, what kind of life is that? Right? Like, I wanna be able to thrive in the time that I'm here.
Um, so that's probably, that's a big one. Another key point to touch base on for a big piece of advice is there is no one size fits all diet for everyone. What works for one person isn't necessarily gonna work for another. Um, even aip, the AIP diet, when I did that, I was doing it and was still flaring, flaring, flaring.
And here, come to find out, I was flaring because of the pork and the red meat and that's allowed on the AIP diet. So I think if I were to give advice in that area, the diet area is just a journal. Journal everything that you're eating, and then slowly but surely kind of connect the dots. Um, give yourself some grace.
That's another big one is just saying, um, you've never done this before. You've never had this autoimmune disease before, and. You're gonna fail, you're gonna try again. You're gonna fail. Like, just make sure that you're giving yourself some grace for the times that you need to sleep. Give yourself some grace for the times that you don't do great on your diet.
Give yourself some grace, you know, when you need some extra sleep, whatever that looks like. Just make sure that you're, you're being very, very kind to yourself. And probably last but not least, make sure that you laugh about it and find the humor in it. Because if we don't laugh, we cry. So just make sure that you're able to, you know, not take it all too seriously.
It's really easy to get so, you know, intense into this journey, um, that we're just digging deeper and trying to figure everything out, like have fun and laugh and, and, and I think that alone helps regulate our nervous system so it's not so chaotic and crazy. Yeah, that was well said. I mean, you just touched on pretty much everything in a lot of my questions.
I mean, mindset right there, that's key. Having such a good outlook that you can laugh and that's how I found you. I mean, you're giving humor, you're, we're bringing joy. You're, you know, you're able to laugh at the journey and, and and, and going through the process, right? Cause we're all gonna have.
Challenges that come our way. But by sharing that, I mean you also are empowering other people and that's really, really important. And, you know, you, we, we, you touched base definitely on nutrition and how it is individualized. And I think that is really important to make note of, you know, that, you know, we have like, for example, the a I P protocol, which is for those of you that don't know an autoimmune specific diet, but even within that diet, We have to be careful because it's, it's individualized, so it's not a one size fit all.
So it fits all. So that totally makes sense as well. And you've touched a base about using, uh, meditation as a practice, um, a strategy as well for mental strategy to help, you know, with, with emotional regulation. Um, am I missing anything? I think something that we didn't really talk about is the power of sleep.
And how important that is in the journey. Um, I sleep, I go to bed on average, right? Again, I'm not perfect. I always say that cause there's times that yes, I will be up till 10 or 11 o'clock at night, but for the most part, I go to bed at like nine 30 and I'm up at five 30. But I also nap. Every single day I take a nap.
Um, and I think that sometimes we can just be so into like, you know, and I'm also speaking from a perspective that I'm feeling pretty good, right? Like, somebody might be listening and they're just, they're like, no, I can't even move. Um, but knowing that like sleep is gonna, is gonna need to come number one, right?
Like, it's so important. That's when our body is like, healing itself and, and, and truly taking care of itself. So, I think sleep is something that is super important. Did it take you a little bit of time to get into a sleep routine? No, um, not really. Not once I read that book, the Miracle Morning, that is what truly inspired me to put my phone in the middle.
You know, I put it out in the hallway, right? I turn the volume all the way up so that way when my alarm goes off, then I get up and get out. So I don't have my phone in my room with me. But no, it did not take me a long time to do that. I know some people really struggle with that, but I think if you get your phone out of the room, that's very helpful.
There's also other things that you can do to really coax your brain into sleeping, which is make sure that you have the blackout blinds. Have some form of sound machine or an eye mask. Um, you know, don't look at your phone a couple hours or, or the TV a couple hours before you go to bed. Remove any lights from your room, have some magnesium.
Like the list really does go on, on ways that we can kind of just woo our bodies into being tired and sleepy. Um, and I mean, I'm very fortunate in the fact that I don't, I'm not having, like, tremendous pain there. I mean, there was a time that I was where I couldn't sleep because of the pain that I was in.
Um, but I sleep pretty well throughout the night. Um, I could sleep all day, really. I could. Thank you so much for bringing up sleep. Yes, that is, yeah, I mean, right there is so important and we often don't even, you know, want to, to bring that into the picture where that's where our body does recover.
Right? Yeah. Yeah, so it's just as important as anything else. And like you said, it can be also individualized where you're at a point where you have a set time, you go to bed and you get up, but you need to take a rest. And some people may not need the rest, some people may need more rest, you know, some people, you know, different times.
So just like you said, honoring where your body is at I think is key as well. Yeah, absolutely. Well, this has been great. Um, is there anything else you'd like to share before we wrap it up? One thing that I wanna remind everybody about is that we've never done this before. Like we've never had an autoimmune disease, or maybe you got diagnosed with a new autoimmune disease and it brought on a whole slew of new things.
Right? And, and something else that's kind of stinky is that it's, our journeys are constantly changing. Like maybe you're okay with the food for a little while and then all of a sudden you're not, okay. Like we've never done this journey before. So just give yourself some grace and know that it's gonna take time to change habits and or.
You know, change your lifestyle around or, or solidify these habits that we're trying to create. So for us, make sure you give yourself some grace. Thank you, Laura. And thank you so much for coming on today and sharing all the information you did with our audience about your personal journey and insights.
And if you want to learn more about Lora Marie, you can follow her on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook at Exploring Autoimmune and the links for all of her sites will be included in the description of this episode. Remember, we do episodes every week on Wednesday, and I look forward to having you join me then.
