A Gutsy Girl

everything is beautiful in its time

Your Gutsy Stories

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Headbands of Hope

I’ve been noodling over the perfect day to feature Jessica as my Gutsy girl. I woke up this morning, had a burning feeling in my heart and I knew that today was the day. When Jess reached out to me, I couldn’t help but fall in love with her and everything she stands for immediately. It is my hope to meet her in person some day. Our missions are different, our values the same. Jessica Ekstrom has been featured everywhere from TODAY to The Ricki Lake Show to Fitness Magazine. Meet Jessica Ekstrom and Headbands of Hope.

Why Jessica Ekstrom is A Gutsy Girl: Headbands of Hope

Almost everyone can think of a moment where they knew their life was about to change. For me, my moment was right before my 20th birthday in the summer of 2011. I began my internship at the Make-a-Wish Foundation that I can confidently say, changed my life forever.

Every day, I got to wake up and grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses. I took day trips to visit the wish kids at their houses and bring them their favorite toys. We received hundreds of letters from wish children that said we changed their lives; little did they know, they were changing mine.

Headbands of Hope Jessica Ekstrom Headbands of Hope Hospital via A Gutsy Girl www.agutsygirl.com

I thought about the thousands of girls around the world losing their hair to chemotherapy. Being a young girl presents many struggles with self-esteem already and losing their hair as a result of a life-threatening illness is traumatic.

For girls and women everywhere, their hair is a part of their feminine identity. Wigs can be uncomfortable and unappealing, especially to younger girls.

I realized that headbands are the perfect way for these girls to keep their feminine identity and have a constant reminder that they’re not alone.

Therefore, I started HeadbandsofHope.org.

For every headband purchased, one headband will go to a girl with cancer and $1 will be donated to the St. Baldrick’s Foundation to fund life-saving childhood cancer research.

Since I launched in May of this year, I’ve sold thousands of headbands online and in stores around the nation. I created a company where I didn’t have to choose between making a living and making a difference. I can wake up and do both at the same time.

Headbands of Hope Jessica Ekstrom Headbands of Hope Little Girl via www.agutsygirl.com

I’ve had the opportunity to distribute headbands to girls in the hospitals across the nation. The best part of my job is opening the door to their room and seeing their faces light up when I bring dozens of colorful headbands to their beds to choose from.

Even though it’s fun and fulfilling to bring the girls headbands in the hospitals, I’m constantly reminded that there still isn’t a cure.

Childhood Cancer

Childhood cancer takes the lives of more children in the U.S. than any other disease – in fact, more than many other childhood diseases combined.

Children with cancer cannot be treated simply as “smaller adults.” The cancers strike kids differently and they are in a crucial stage of development, which complicates the effects of treatments and can result in life-long complications.

Progress is also especially slow in curing adolescents and young adults because federal funding for childhood cancers is a fraction compared to adult cancers.

Therefore, attention needs to be brought to childhood cancer. Progress can’t be made without research. Research can’t be done without funding. And funding can’t be done without awareness.

Headbands of Hope aims to start with awareness and end with a cure.

A Gutsy Girl perfectly aligns with what I do. I saw that there was a need in my community, and you have to have the guts to try to fix it.

Together, we can spread hope in all girls…one headband at a time.

Jessica Ekstrom Headbands of Hope via www.agutsygirl.com Why she's #Gutsy

Xox,
SKH

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Newly Gutsy: A Journey Worth Fighting For with Lareasha Connors

Meet Lareasha, a Gutsy girl with a story to share with y’all today….

Lareasha Connors

I married my high school sweetheart in 2004.

We decided we didn’t want to wait, and we would try to get pregnant. It didn’t take long.. and poof! We had our baby boy in 2005. I gained 50 pounds and luckily lost 45 of it afterwards.

I had noticed that a few months later I was having bloody stool. I called my doctor. He told me it was common for women to have that after a c-section. I thought it was strange; none of my friends had it. He was the doctor, so I continued to eat and do my normal routine.

About a year later I started to get some stomach pain, so I called my doctor again. He told me I more than likely had hemorrhoids. I thought to myself, “Hmmm… doesn’t that make it hurt when you sit down?” I never had that kind of pain. I insisted on going in for an appointment. I went in and they checked me. No hemorrhoids. He then said I must have internal hemorrhoids. That sounded more like my answer.  Finally!

But then I was….wrong! I continued to have the blood. No drugs I took would make it stop. I decided to go to a naturalist in my hometown. By this time I had my second child, a beautiful baby girl. The naturalist told me that I had severe problems with my digestion, and she had me do my first cleanse ( I never gave her my health history, she didn’t even know my name, but instead only read my iris). I was amazed! I had been going to the same doctor for 3 years and no results, no emotion and no cure.

I did everything my naturalist told me to do, and the blood started to go away. It was now only a few times a week I would have it. She also told me to watch my food intake and log my stool. I was kind of embarrassed. Really, who does that? I didn’t want to look at my poo! But I did for her, and I saw the change. I was having major reactions to food sugars. I took her advice, and I went off sugar. Then, reintroduced it by slowly eating it here and there.

A year later I starting noticing that my hair started to thin. I called the doctor, and he said it was common for nursing moms to have their hair shed. At this point I wanted to deck him in the face –> Are you kidding me? I have had bloody stools  for 4 years and my hair was now thinning. I was super emotional. I had enough of this doctor.

I switched to the most amazing doctor who took care of me. She was very concerned. She sent me to Mayo Rochester for my hair. The tests showed my hormones were out of whack since having my daughter. I had to take medication to level my hormones. The medication seemed to be working. At the same time, my doctor ordered me a colonoscopy right away. There I was, 29 years old and having a colonoscopy. I felt really old!

I went through the colonoscopy procedure. They found 2 polyps. The doctor sent them in to lab to determine their type. I waited for that phone call. It was the scariest day of my life. I had 2 young children and an amazing husband. I cried everyday. I wanted that phone call to be over with. {Some advice to you: Never look on the Internet while you are waiting for results.}

Finally the call came. They aged the polyps to be 7-10 years old. One of the polyps tested positive for cancer. I nearly fainted. The doctor said, though, that luckily the cancer had not made it into my lining. This meant I was cancer free.

I thought my problems were solved, after all they removed the polyps and the blood went away. That was until bout 3 months after the surgery when it came back. My doctor wanted to have me do an endoscopy and another colonoscopy. So we did. The colon turned out normal. The endoscopy showed blood in my stomach. They were shocked. They had no explanation of why. So they had me come in again and swallow a camera pill. The pill was about the size of a horse pill, and it takes pictures all the way through. From this, they determined that I am sensitive to something and we needed to figure out what that something was. We knew it was something to do with what I was eating, but what would/could that be?

This led me to today, working with a Gutsy Girl. I feel very passionate about natural healing and what we put in our bodies. After all, you are what you eat right? Because of this, I love the Gutsy program. Since starting this journey, I have really felt a sense of peace. My body has changed inside and out. I never thought I would be strong enough to do a program for 21 days, even if it’s only 21 days. For me its not just 21 days. This is just the start of my journey to be healthy.

I want to love me in my skin. I want to live a long, healthy life. I want to inspire those people that need to make a change.

Lareasha Connors with Daughter

And that, my Gutsy friends, is what I was talking about on Monday…..how I aspire to inspire that change in others to find the change in themselves which leads to the change in sharing the Gutsy way with as many women as possible!

Love your guts,
SKH

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Stashia Avery: A Gutsy Girl with Crohn’s

SKH Note: I met Stashia via Twitter. If I could wrap her up and bring her to the Gutsy household to help her, I would in a heartbeat. She is a lovable Gutsy girl. Stashia blogs via Chrons Disease, Ulcerative Colitis & Medications. Please note that my stance on drugs and medications in relation to healing IBS and IBD will never change. I chose to feature Stashia because I think it’s important for Gutsy women to be presented with the facts all around. Stashia gives a great testimonial for what life with all these drugs and medications is like. I pray for her daily, too.

For me, Crohn’s brings on many different symptoms and ailments along with it. The biggest issue I have, almost non-stop, is abdominal pain. The pain is worsened after eating and drinking; and almost never subsides. It is generally located in my lower abdominal area, to my right side.  There have been times when the pain has been so bad that all I could do was curl into a ball and lie on my bed, until it eased up enough for me to drive to the ER. Even after getting to the ER, and having tests done, nothing ever came back to show why I was having such significant pain. Unfortunately, having many tests, with the results coming back completely normal, seems to be a common thing for me over the last couple of years.

Another big issue that puts a hold on a lot of daily things for me is my extreme fatigue. This may not just be caused from the Crohn’s, but it is definitely playing a huge part. My fatigue is so bad that it takes a lot for me to just get up and go to the store, and sometimes even to walk from my room to the bathroom.

When I was first diagnosed with Crohn’s in 2010, I was 17 years old. I had just graduated from high school. I ended up having to quit my jobs, and withdraw from college, because I couldn’t get out of bed due to all the pain. As of today, I still have not been able to resume my normal lifestyle. My daily routine now consists of waking up, grabbing a very SMALL breakfast (which normally ends up being my last meal until about 6:00 or 7:00 pm that evening), showering, and lying around the house. I do, occasionally, muster up enough energy to drive down the street to my best friend’s house to have movie nights with her. Other than that, she and my boyfriend (who come to see me most of the time now) are basically my only form of social life outside of my home.

Aside from the fatigue and abdominal pain, there are other minor issues that I experience.  I have occasional constipation/diarrhea. Fortunately, the diarrhea symptom is less frequent than the constipation. Oddly, I do get constipation that is so severe that I am impacted.

After being diagnosed with Crohn’s and Ulcerative Colitis, my pediatric GI doctor put me on a series of medications. First, they started me on Asacol (2 twice a day). Then they added Entocort (6mg, once a day). After the doctor realized that the Asacol was not working, he put me on Pentasa (3 x twice a day), along with the Entocort, which increased to 9mg a day and still did not work. My doctor then switched me to Apriso (4 x 0.375 twice a day) with Prednisone added. Yes, Prednisone does make you gain weight, gives you chipmunk cheeks, and a distended belly. After taking all of these different medications, I still had not gotten close to remission.

My doctor decided to put me on Remicade (every 6 weeks) with Methotrexate injections (once every week). Learning to give myself shots every week was incredibly bothersome and after taking the Methotrexate shots, I would feel like I had the flu for three days. I switched to an adult GI doctor recently. He has put me back on the Pentasa, twice a day, with Entocort.

This is where I am at currently, minus the Methotrexate. I am still not in remission, after almost four years.

I would be telling a huge, bold-faced lie if I said that still being sick and going through the same pain and suffering, if not more than when I first was diagnosed, doesn’t bring me down at times because it one hundred percent does! There are some days where everything catches up to me and I get a little frustrated with my situation, but it always passes. My mother always tells me when I am down about my health, that even though I’m sick and not feeling well now, it won’t always be this way.

I know that my life is going exactly how God planned it to go, health problems and all.

So how do I deal with all of this at the end of the day? I pray. I pray about it and have faith every single day that I will be healed completely one day. That gets me by. I know that right now I am suffering, but I also know it won’t always be like this.

I read this verse and it gives me a little extra boost of encouragement when I need it:

“The pain you have been dealing with now is nothing compared to the joy to come.” Romans 8:18.

In addition to prayer, the next best thing I do in dealing with illness is talk about it with someone. Whether you talk to friends, a psychiatrist, relatives, or you just write in your journal, it will help tremendously. I normally talk about everything with my mom. Without my mom’s support and love, I don’t know what I would do. She has been there for me to unload on and complain to. She’s been the one taking off from work to take me to the hospitals, and back and forth to doctors’ visits. Having family and friends for support really makes a difference in everything. Keeping things bottled up can be a large source of stomach pain for Crohn’s patients. Crohn’s is, after all, a stress-induced illness, so eliminating any unnecessary stress is advised if possible. Try to engage in light exercise like walking or yoga, it helps as well; and that’s what I try to do often.

Stashia

It has definitely been quite the long and difficult journey that is still nowhere near being completed. No doubt, it has made me a lot stronger. I know things could always be worse.

I am just thankful to be alive every day. 

Love your guts,
SKH

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