Spoonie Awareness Keychain – a rainbow of color choices!

I am, in my very essence, a creative soul. Anything artistic, I have a passion for. Painting at a young age led to advanced art classes throughout life. Eventually, I received my BFA in studio art, concentration in sculpture, from Colorado State University in Ft. Collins. From there, I lived abroad in Stockholm, Sweden, still living a creative life and participating in an art show while there. Coming back to the states in 2012, I continued to create and build my work, joining in a variety of shows in the past few years. After studying sculpture and foundry work in college, I worked for the Grapevine Foundry starting in 2014 and had the privilege of working alongside the artisan team to create the “Imagine,” the Bronze Unicorn Pegasus that resides on the top of the Grapevine Visitor’s Bureau in Grapevine, Texas.

My health journeys have been woven into the artistic path outlined above. I’ve dealt with trauma and pain – both physical, emotional, and mental – from a very young age. For example, I cannot remember being an age when I didn’t deal with severe headaches. I had lots of tests done as I grew up but no one had any answers. As a teen, I was diagnosed with depression. At the age of 20 in 2011, I moved to Sweden where my anxiety became so intense that I was forced to move back to the States to get myself some help before I made choices that I could not undo. From 2012 to 2015, I focused on my mental health, spent some time as an inpatient at a hospital, and was able to reach a place of semi-stability before my physical health took a major toll on me. In 2016, I was in the ER twice because of my migraines and finally got the diagnosis of occipital neuralgia. Even though it’s a difficult illness to live with, I was still glad for some answers and a name for this battle. I started getting Botox for migraines in 2017 and it has helped but not stopped them. I got married in 2018 and am glad to have an amazingly supportive husband who has helped me get more answers. This year I have been diagnosed with POT(s), EDS, and a CSF Leak. I am in the middle of testing and treatments for the CSF Leak and POT(s) which has been tough but I am grateful to have a supportive community of people in my life.