I’m a happy wife and mom of three awesome kids. Before I had my first child I led a pretty toxic life. I’d go through my day not thinking twice about the chemicals I had in my home, on my body or put in my mouth. After Kate was born my life changed. I strived to make sure I kept my baby away from these toxins, without applying the same principles to myself. After Zac was born I got sick. I was overweight, depressed, had aches and pains all over and just felt “bad”. I decided to clean up my act. I decided to read Robb Wolf’s book The Paleo Solution. I read it cover to cover in one day (my pharmacy was fairly slow) and was ready to make changes. I applied the diet principles the next day as I was committed to changing the way I felt. It was a different way of thinking and a hard adjustment. Wait…grains are bad and steak is good? I learned to cook with fresh produce and joined a farm share for grass-fed meat and free range chicken. I started feeling better. I started looking better. I no longer felt old. I had my energy and youth back. I started to get the rest of the chemicals out of our house. Some of the first to go were toxic cleaners, bug sprays and sunscreens. Anyplace I could get rid of the synthetics and replace with the real thing, I did. There was one issue…I’m a pharmacist. I worked at a retail pharmacy and pushed synthetics all day. Those were needed…right? That is what I told myself. After I had my third child (Annie) I was doing everything right. I was exercising, eating right, losing my baby weight quickly and feeling great. Then I injured myself. I pushed myself too fast, too hard and developed piriformis syndrome. My piriformis muscle was squeezing my sciatic nerve and I had shooting pain down my leg. I could not stand, sit, take care of myself or take care of my kids. I tried to heal my condition with conventional medicine. I tried steroids to reduce the inflammation. I started seeing a physical therapist. I took ibuprofen around the clock. As soon as I would see improvement, I would be home lifting kids for a weekend and be back to square one. I returned to my primary care physician to see if there was anything else I could try. She scheduled me for a pain management appointment…in a month!! This was not the direction I thought my life would go. I could not believe I was destined to be a chronic pain patient and have my pain “managed”. I wanted it gone. I researched my alternatives and it did not look promising. I scheduled an appointment with a piriformis expert in NYC. He had written a book I read on piriformis syndrome and how he treats this condition. NYC was a 5.5 hour drive from my home. Since I was still working full time I was not able to book an appointment for three weeks. While I waited, I decided to try a few unconventional treatments. I continued doing my physical therapist’s exercises daily, I started seeing a chiropractor and I tried essential oils. I had never really given essential oils a second thought before but figured I had tried everything else. I started using a soothing/pain blend 5-6 times a day, every day. It worked! My pain lessened slowly and after a few weeks it was gone. I canceled my piriformis syndrome specialist appointment. I canceled my pain management appointment. It felt great! I was sold on essential oils and started using them on my kids and my husband. It was eye opening and life changing. Now, with this new site/adventure, I feel I am finally able to share what I have learned and know to be true. You can do healthcare differently! You really can! At home! Let us show you how…