What I didn't know was coming - navigating health unknowns

Nursing Graduation

2013 felt like a milestone year.

I had just finished nursing school and started my first job in pediatric cardiac—exactly where I’d hoped to be.

Way back in Germany, when I wasn’t even ready to entertain the idea of moving to Canada, someone showed me a picture of the Stollery Children’s Hospital. I still remember the moment. I saw those images and thought, “I’m going to work there someday.”

And now I was.

But underneath the excitement, something else had started stirring: symptoms I couldn’t explain.

At first, it was small things. Fatigue that felt deeper than it should. Odd discomfort. A sense that something was just off. Aches and pains that no one could make sense of—not a massage therapist, not a chiropractor, not a physio, not even my family doctor.

I was trained in clinical signs and symptoms, but this didn’t add up. And I didn’t want to spiral—so I pushed forward.(Also… nurses make the worst patients.)

It wasn’t fear yet. More like a question mark I kept trying to ignore. But over time, the quiet tension got harder to shake. Frustration crept in—Why could no one explain what was happening in my body? Why was there no relief?

Looking back, I don’t think I was listening yet. I kept pushing—through the fatigue, through the symptoms, through the quiet nudges to slow down. Even when my mom invited me to join her Bible study, I brushed it off. I wasn’t ready to be still.

But grace held me—even in the striving. Even when I didn’t know I needed it yet.

I had no idea what the next few years would hold. But I can see now—this was the beginning of a deeper story. A story of surrender, strength, and grace I didn’t know I’d need.

This is where the road to diagnosis quietly began. The road of navigating health unknowns had started.