Jess

Life took a drastic turn for me in November 2018.

‍

I stood up too fast one day, and I fainted and hit my head resulting in a terrible concussion. I have always been prone to headaches, and I have a history of seizures, tension headaches and migraines. I was often exhausted. I’d had lots of tests from numerous doctors, just to hear that everything "looks normal”. I was often prescribed sleeping tablets, and a couple of times I was offered anti-depressants. Deep down I knew I wasn’t depressed - I was exhausted, frustrated and in pain.

‍

After a while of consistently being told that I was “physically fine”, I started to doubt myself. Not understanding the signals from my body made me feel vulnerable, and it got a lot worse after the concussion. After the concussion I found it difficult to concentrate, I had a hard time talking and struggled to read, struggled to hold conversations and my headaches were almost unbearable. I had a constant headache at the back of my head, and a migraine every other day.

‍

I went from being able to work full time and do post graduate study, to only being able to work a few hours a week. I saw 7 specialists, but no one had an answer for me. Aside from the inconvenience, financially it was hard to keep up with all those sunken costs. ACC was putting a lot of pressure on me to go back to work.  Then along came Diane. Diane had just started Nectar Health.

‍

Diane asked me a lot of seemingly random questions, that I found myself saying yes to more and more as the list went on. As she started to make links to the physical issues I had, more of the questions were things I had or did. She then recommended some functional foods to add to my diet. It seemed too easy!

‍

I eat a plant based diet and all of the recommended foods worked with this. Diane was also very flexible with foods I didn’t like and supportive of my attempts to be zero-waste. Diane set me up with my daily tracker to start tracking what food I was having and how my brain was functioning. Slowly at first, and then more and more, I could feel a difference. As my body responded, Diane adjusted the foods I needed to eat. I started to see the end of the tunnel and I was in tears realising that finally something was going to work for me. After 2 months I was able to double my hours at work, I had more energy and I had more time to enjoy life. With my extra time I developed an interest in horticulture, and was able to complete an online course.

‍

I don’t know where I would be without Diane. She has been so supportive and understanding, and actually listened to me and trusted that I knew my own body.

‍

It was hard to relearn how to trust my body and myself, but Diane has empowered me to do so.

‍