Episode 25 - Stacy Marie Ronquillo - Nurse Practitioner, & Founder of Remedy Functional Medicine Clinic

In this episode of The Realtor Who Wines, Rashelle Newmyer sits down with Stacy Marie Ronquillo NP, founder of Remedy Functional Medicine, for an honest, unfiltered conversation about what it means to truly get to the root of your health concerns. Too many people walk away from traditional care feeling dismissed, whether it’s being told “it’s just menopause,” avoiding conversations about gut health or sex because it feels uncomfortable, or being brushed off with a quick “Band-Aid” fix. Stacy is changing that experience by building relationships with her patients, giving them time to be heard, and creating space to talk about everything from poop to hormones without embarrassment.

Stacy explains why so many women who feel “off” are not crazy at all, often it’s hormones or gut health, and there is something that can be done about it. She shares how functional medicine addresses these issues at the root, often making more progress in just a handful of visits than people see after years of rushed PCP appointments. We talk candidly about cost and why there can be some sticker shock, but Stacy breaks down the amount of time, attention, and behind-the-scenes work that goes into each patient’s care. Even providers like Stacy pay out of pocket to see their own practitioners because they know good medicine takes time and expertise.

This episode also explores why prioritizing your health is worth the investment, sometimes even more important than that car payment, and how a few focused visits can significantly shift the trajectory of your well-being. Stacy shares her own story of challenging assumptions, including a memorable moment when she questioned my supposed “allergy” to vitamin B and opened the door to a much bigger conversation about the importance of accurate, individualized care.

We wrap with a look at her upcoming clinician education course, which teaches other providers how to bring accessible, evidence-based functional medicine to their patients. And of course, we keep it real with laughter, stories from the ER, and a toast to finding care that actually listens.

If you’ve ever felt rushed, unheard, or brushed off in the traditional healthcare system, this conversation will give you permission to advocate for yourself and hope that better care is possible.

Thank you for listening! Connect and collaborate with Realtor Rashelle on any of her social media platform pages > https://linktr.ee/RealtorRashelle

Transcript

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Welcome to the Realtor Who Wines podcast. I'm rachelle Newmeyer, your hostess with the most as a student of life, a connector, a passionate wine enthusiast, and your local favorite guide. Join me as we explore the vibrant Pacific Northwest. Savor the finest wines and champion the spirit of entrepreneurship. Each episode, I'll sit down with inspiring guests, supporting business ownership and uncovering the stories that make this community unique. So grab a glass of wine, settle in, and let's embark on a journey of discovery and connection together. Cheers. Hi everyone. Welcome back to the realtor who whines. I'm Rachelle Niemeyer, your realtor who wins. And today I'm with Stacy. Cheers, Stacy. Cheers. Thank you for having us. Today we are in, Stacy's beautiful office. But will you go ahead and introduce yourself to everybody? Yes. Hi, everyone. My name is Stacy. Mary Rocio, and I am a double board certified family and acute nurse practitioner. I am the founder of Remedy Functional Medicine, based here in Portland, Oregon. We serve several states, including Oregon, Washington and Nevada. Hopefully soon. California. But what my practice is, is we focus on perimenopause, menopause, hormone optimization, gut health, autoimmune diseases, and really filling in the gaps that conventional medicine just doesn't address. Yeah, I love that. What led you? I know your background, but obviously the listeners don't. What kind of what you down this path to having your own practice? Yes. Okay. This is a long story, but where do I begin? I've been in health care since I was 16 or 17 years old. I started volunteering. Knew, like I want to go into medicine. Yeah. And I decided to go into nursing. But to get there took a while. I was a phlebotomist. I was a in-hospital vampire, for six years. So I was that person who, if you were in the hospital, you were woken up by me at 430, 5:00 in the morning. So everyone loves you? Yes. I was the favorite of the morning, you know, drawing blood. And then I got into nursing school. Was working in the er as a full botanist and also as an er nurse. And I think over time it was just, you know, I loved I still love emergency medicine. I love the adrenaline. I am an adrenaline junkie. But at the same time, I just saw more and more that we just keep putting Band-Aids on the lot. Yeah. Instead of getting to the root. Yeah. You know, emergency medicine is great when you're having a heart attack, when you're having a stroke. Where when you break a leg. But it's not just. Hey, here's a prescription and I'll see you next year. Or follow up with your primary care doctor. Yeah. And when I started nursing school at UCLA, right before I started, my dad was diagnosed with stage four maxillary sinus cancer. Oh, gosh. And so it was a journey. You know, managing his diagnosis, going to nursing school, learning about all these things where I'm like, oh, my gosh. And navigating the health care system was painful. Very painful. Not just as a nurse, but also seeing the other side calling for doctors appointments, managing insurance. You know, it's just it's a full time job. People don't realize it. And you're already just so stressed because you're worried about your loved one. And then adding all that extra stress on top of it. Yeah. The amount of hours, days we'd spent on the phone trying to get insurance coverage or trying to find the right referral, my dad would go down rabbit holes with Doctor Google. Oh, sure. You know, but maybe it's it's. Yeah, exactly. But it's just you you can see how confused and desperate people get now beginning in their health care system. Absolutely. And then Covid hit. Yeah. Covid working, Covid hit and working in the E.R. just highlighted all the gaps in health care that we already knew about. But it just obviously yeah, it made it very obvious. Yes. And very, very worse. In public. Yeah. Yeah. I mean the wait times when I was a baby nurse in the wait times were like maybe three, four hours. And after Covid it was normal to be waiting in the waiting room for eight, 12 hours. Oh my gosh, that's not in. You know, you just see how many people how many women as well just get dismissed. Like, oh, you're just 40 something. You're 35. You're just being her mom. It's just anxiety. You just have a lot on your plate. Yeah. And so I decided, okay, I'm going to go to nursing, and school and figure out what are we missing in emergency medicine? Did primary care for a little bit and just automatically realize like, nope. This isn't it. It's still it's still getting Band-Aids. Yeah. And then you know, I couldn't find a clinic or a place I could practice the type of medicine that I wanted. There's not a lot of clinics out there that can focus on relationships with their provider or their patients. I mean, when have you ever spent more than what, seven, ten minutes with your primary care provider. Yeah. Or you're actually like spend a lot more time with the nurses. Exactly. Or just your medical assistant, which is great, but that doesn't give you that, you know. That closeness or relationship. Yeah. I just a lot of patients don't feel like they're part of their care. It's just oh I got a prescription for this. This is what I want. And I think that's also why a lot of people don't have a primary care doctor either. They just, like, make an appointment with whoever's on their insurance website or whatever. And that changes every time because there isn't like a relationship built. Yeah. And so I wanted to change that. I want I told myself, okay, I have all this background and I don't want to practice like that. And so yeah, it's like I'm just going to build it myself. Let's do it. Let's try I love that. Yeah. So then what led you. So you started doing that. But then what were like the first steps you took like, okay, I need an office or somewhere to practice out of, like, we'll talk a little bit about that journey. And when you finally made the decision, I'm going to open my own practice. What were the next steps after that? It was a lot of googling, a lot of talking to other providers who had their own clinics in different states. Really getting over this imposter syndrome of like, can I do this? Like, you know, is this possible? But I knew in my heart with the way health care has been, it's just there has to be something different and no one's going to do that for you if you don't make it. Yeah. So lots of googling. I got a business coach. I started delving into more and more education. Because I just didn't want to just open up a clinic. Right. The more, even though I've been in health care for 18 years, the more I learn, the more I'm like. There's still so much I don't know. Like, for sure, it's crazy. And so it's also sort of a little bit of addiction. Oh, yeah. Know what I what? Yeah. Yeah. I want you to know more about this and x, y z. And that's what makes you a trailblazer because like, you're paving this whole trail for others to come to. Which is amazing. So talk about your, like, I don't want to say typical patient, but like, your clients, I meet with you. You mentioned perimenopause and menopause, but I know you also meet with gals in their like 20s that need to balance their hormones out and stuff. So if who should reach out to you? Like what kind of clients should be like Amy and Stacey? Yeah. So that is a very broad term. But, in general, I would say any person who felt like there's just something off. And I'm not getting answers. Yeah. You know when they a man or woman feels like, you know my labs are okay but I still feel like absolute crap. Yeah. Can I come in here. Yeah. Absolutely. I feel like shit. Yeah. And, you know, they're not getting answers versus handing getting handed prescriptions. Or they just don't. They know that something's off. They just don't feel like themselves. Those are my patients. Whether it be a teenager who wants to learn about their menstrual cycle. Because, you know. Well, I don't know about you, but when, where I, when I grew up, if you hit your teenage years and got a period, it's like it's time for birth control. Yeah. Like, it doesn't matter when I actually got really bad migraines when I was a teenager. And, like, the first time I had a major migraine, I actually thought I was going blind. I like panic, but I was like 14. But I got that like a jigsaw vision that comes with migraines. But I never had a migraine before, so I was like a total drama queen. But I was like, this is it. I'm going blind. I'll be in a lifetime movie soon, I'm sure, but a doctors is like, oh, you just need to be on birth control. And then, of course, my parents are like, you know, because, like, yeah, they're like, she's 14, but it's like, my head hurts, I don't know, but yeah, I was just put on birth control. I've been on birth control since I was 14, basically, which is a really long time. Which isn't horrible. Right. However, you know, the more I learn the more I'm like, wow. Had I known maybe I didn't want to go on birth control and there are other things that I could have done or addressed, because now we're also seeing a lot of women there, you know, early 30s, late 30s with infertility or undiagnosed PCOS, but it's been matched. Yeah, this whole time because they've been on birth control. Yeah. So no. And then so you'll talk to anybody as young as like a teenager about the mental cycle up to, up to your 60s. 70s. Right now my youngest patient is six. And my oldest patient is 64. What do you talk to the six year old about? That their cervix? Yeah. That specific patient has ADHD. Some behavioral issues, focus, attention issues. I'm working on diet, nutrition and, gut health. Yeah. So for sure. Have you. So now and knowing what you do now and like, since you have a, a patient that's like young and you know I have Rylan and so like have you noticed gut issues and stuff and kiddos or like because there's so much hormones in food now. Like what kind of impacts are you seeing on like young kids? What don't I see? When it comes to children's children and teenagers, I think, you know, gut health, but, everything kind of starts with the gut. I mean, Hippocrates is. I don't know if you've heard of that saying. All disease begins in the gut. Eczema attention issues. I mean, there's so many children out there that now have eczema and food allergies. Like there's something underlying going on here. Yeah. So what kind of advice would you give parents out there that are listening. Not like obviously we know what some foods like certain drive thrus and things like that obviously have more hormones in it but like to try and balance that out. Like what's something else that you can do? Because like, I'm a mom on the go. So the drive thru is going to happen every now and then. But what is something else I could be doing to help counterbalance that a little bit? I would say diversify the diet. Lots of colorful foods and fiber. I can't stress enough how important fiber is, not only for a perimenopausal menopausal woman, but also children, because the recommended amount is only about seven grams of fiber. But for prevention and gut health, immune health, long term longevity, we actually want more than 25 to 30g of fiber a day. My gosh, that's such a huge deal. Hard. Yeah, so hard to do. Yeah. Oh my gosh, that's a lot of fiber. How what besides like a supplement or a powder? What are certain things that have a lot of fiber in it that people might not know? Foods. Strawberries are great. And fiber. Chia seed. Avocados. Corn tortillas. Oh, my gosh. I'll get all my fiber. No Taco Tuesday. No. There's just so many. Yeah, so many options, but whole foods, vegetables, not just a salad right now. You know, I have people in my life that, like, I always tease. I'm not that a salad soup because I put on, like, so much dressing and, like, totally defeats the purpose. Yeah. Like, basically just drinking ranch. Yeah. You know, I went through part of my journey, you know, going through health and wellness was, you know, doing the if it fits your macros kind of era where I told myself, oh, I can eat anything. It's just as long as it fits a certain number. And you quickly realize when you do that, that sometimes a salad can be 1200 calories and I could, could have just had a damn burger and fries for half the calories. Right. When I was in college, I was a waitress at a restaurant, pretty large chain. And the salads were like some of the highest and fat and calories on the whole menu. And part of it was because I was like, fried chicken with cheese, the blue cheese crumbles with ranch, like, you know, it all adds up. But it's so funny because you're like, oh, I just had a salad and you're like, ooh, you actually had like so much more. If you would've just got a burger. Yeah. What are some things that you've heard your clients talk about? Like I just noticed this was off and so they finally, like, talk to you, like, I know, I have a friend right now that just got, diagnosed because she kept asking questions, and she kept going back to like, no, something's so wrong. Like, stop. Just give me, like, what you're talking about. Like, they just kept trying to be like, well, try this prescription. And she's like, no, something's still. And finally, they've pinpointed an autoimmune, but what are normally like some early symptoms that, like, people should pay attention to or listen to their body to know, to ask somebody like you more questions or to set up a consultation. Ooh. I would say not only if they don't feel like themselves, they don't feel like they're getting the attention or the education and thoroughness that they want with their providers, whether that be your PCP or ob gyn. But also if you've got brain fog, irritability, mood swings, migraines are huge because migraines can absolutely be hormonal for sure. Skin issues, eczema, acne, irritability and inability to sleep. So yeah, that is the first thing that usually women over 35 start to complain about is like, I just can't sleep. I'm wired, but I'm tired and I can't turn my brain off. Yeah, well, and I think a lot of that all comes at the perimenopause menopause stuff too. It's like all of a sudden your body's shifting and like, all these things change. And then I think a lot of ladies out there just are like, oh, it's menopause. So they're just like truck through, but don't actually seek any help or guidance. Do that. What would you say to those ladies that might just think like, oh, it's just part of menopause. I'll be fine. I'll walk it off. It's a thing, you know? You can't. I think the biggest tip for that would be just because you are symptomatic, and maybe you don't want to do hormone replacement therapy or hormone optimization. It's much more than just brain fog. It's much more than just irritability. It's much, much more than just a hot flash or difficulty losing weight. It's so much more than that, for sure. As if you address your hormones, optimize your hormones. You can prevent chronic diseases like Alzheimer's, dementia. Osteopenia. Like with my, er, background, one of the biggest things that I want for my patients is to not end up in the ER. Yeah, in a hallway with no privacy, waiting for days for an inpatient hospital bed. Because that's how it is right now. With health care. Yeah. That's so true that, like, I feel like as females, we've just been told to, like, tough it out with a lot of stuff, you know? And so I just feel like menopause has been one of those things. And I'm really happy to see that. Perimenopausal menopause has actually been a more talked about topic lately. I don't know if you've been noticing that too, but like when my family members that are older than me and went through menopause, it was like a dirty word. And he didn't talk about it. It was almost like postpartum. You don't talk about it, you just chuck through and you handle that in private. And I feel like now, the community of ladies are just like, no, we're gonna talk about this or we're all going crazy together. Yep. You know, and so I love that there's professionals like you that they can turn to and say, I so, like, not only am I talking about it, but like, not what? Yeah. Tell me, what am I supposed to be doing differently. And then also autoimmune. So I feel like those are becoming much more common and people are talking about it more. There's a lot more food options. What have you noticed about the autoimmune, awareness coming out? And like people getting, diagnosed with autoimmune more and more with autoimmune, it's very complex. But I will also say that women who are perimenopausal postpartum or, you know, menopausal. Get diagnosed with more autoimmune diseases during that time. Oh, interesting. And the fluctuations and loss of hormones in perimenopause and postpartum really influence that. Okay. Yeah. See, you don't know what you don't know. And that's why you need to know somebody like CAC target. About. So if I were to say okay, obviously I need you. What does that dynamic look like? Like you have a consultation, and I know that you do help people outside of Oregon, so I'm assuming that consultations via zoom, like, talk a little bit about your clients. Yeah. Like experience. For new patients who want to get started here with me at remedy, you book a new patient visit. It's 90 minutes long. Like, we go through everything, together, and, then we figure out what we need to do. I don't order labs until we go through your full medical history, because I'm not going to order anything just because I can. Yeah. And because I serve several states, it's primarily telemedicine, especially since most of my patients are perimenopausal menopausal. They've got full time jobs, a house full of kids. Yeah. And so most of the time it is telemedicine. I do have some patients are like, now I really want to see you in person. You're the reason to get out of the house. Yes, exactly. So they come here to the clinic and we do all the things here. And then we kind of figure out what needs to be done and kind of go on a joint journey together. And I know it's different because everybody is different. Right? So, like, sometimes you'll have a consultation on somebody and then you come up with a plan or you meet like maybe once a quarter, and then you have other clients that you meet with multiple times a month. Like it just varies person by person, right? Yes, absolutely. So most patients, I recommend that I see them, consistently in a six month period because there's so many things to adjust and titrate, especially if we're starting on hormone optimization journey. It's not just, here's a prescription and I'll see you next year or see you in six months. It's a lot of tweaking. So I like to see new patients at least every 6 to 8 weeks for the first six months. And after that, when you're like, oh, I got this. Like, I know what's going on. I understand what I'm doing and why. Then I see most patients who are in maintenance plans like once a quarter, or at least every six months. Nice. And then you have, a new membership like relationship coming out, and you want to talk about that? Yeah. So, the summer we just transition to a membership model, to create more of a, small clinic patient provider, environment. So all new patients, are encouraged to join a membership tier of their choice, whether that be, seeing me one on one for 60 minutes every quarter and seeing me every other month or seeing me monthly. It just depends what we're working on. Yeah. And then we kind of go from there. I also offer my members, sick visits, like urgent care, because I know all their history. So if they just need something quick, like a UTI or they got a cold, then they can just pop in and be like, Stacy, can you help me? Yeah. I don't want to go all the way to urgent care or when they get sick. Lobby. Yeah, yeah. And they just trust you to be able to help them with that. And so the membership is not like a flat fee based on the tier that you're in, correct? Correct. Yeah. And then but then labs and things like that are outside. I know one question you get asked a lot too is if you take insurance, do you want to talk about that. Yeah. So unfortunately and fortunately here at remedy we don't take insurance for visits. So you know, with an insurance model, insurance really dictates the care that we receive. So there's no way insurance would reimburse a 90 minute new patient visit. And all my follow ups are 60 minutes. I was the first two years I was offering 30 minute visits. And out of all my patients, I've only had a handful booked a 30 minute visit because they're like, no, this is my time. Yeah, I want to learn everything. They want a 60 minute visit. So for the membership and for visits, we don't accept insurance. However, most labs can be run through insurance, especially if we're just monitoring things like hormone replacement therapy. I also accept FSA, an HSA account. So if you're using like a health spending account, we can do that. And I provide cheaper bills. So some patients also get reimbursed for the visits, with their insurance with a super bill. Okay. What has been something just to transition a little bit on topics because like you said, you like on a business coach and stuff because like, although you're running a clinic like it is a business and a business model, what is something that you've learned as a business owner and like your journey? With the clinic, I think the biggest thing for me was really honing in on what I need as a patient. So, you know, this is why I built my clinic because I wanted to be the provider that I needed, five, ten, 15 years ago. And really honing in on that. Like what? What I want my provider to do for me, what kind of access? What I want is provider. And that's kind of built and helped me shape how I market and how I talk about my business. Yeah. So I it while I do have a business coach, most of it, most of my marketing, it's it's all relative because lots of a lot of my, most of my patients come from referrals. Just like, oh my gosh. Like, you know, I get why it's quote unquote expensive. But people come. That's so funny. The other day I was talking about you to a group of girlfriends, and I, one of the my friends, I was like, oh, I just actually heard of a different gal who's going to be at this event. And then she showed it to me. It was you. And I go, oh, that is you I'm telling you about. So it was kind of funny that like somebody else, I told her about you, and then I was telling her about it. You. Because you do like events and panels and things like that and like different workshops and stuff. This is coming out in September, this episode. I know you have something going on in October. Do you want to talk about that? Yeah. So, like I said, my background in emergency medicine and talking about filling in the gaps with health care and navigating health care, I really wanted to teach other clinicians how to do this. Yeah. And really bridge the gap between functional medicine and conventional care. And so I decided to start some courses. We've just had a few cohorts of clinicians go through the courses and I'm doing another one in October. So if you are a nurse practitioner, midwife, medical doctor doctor and or even you're a nurse in the ER and you're like, I want to learn more about this stuff, but I don't know what to do. And, where do I start? Where do I begin? How do I what does this all mean? Yeah. Then the filling in the gaps courses is for you. Yeah. And is that all digital or is that in person. And so it's it's all it's all via zoom. They are recorded. I try to make functional medicine practical and sustainable and effective. So none of this like, woo woo, like you're teaching clinicians to spend thousands and thousands of dollars and, oh, you know, testing. It's more about really honing in on the lowest hanging fruit and taking a different perspective on health. Well, one thing I've really always appreciated about you, I've seen you talk in large groups before, then one on one and stuff and back to your marketing too, is that it's very approachable, like because again, we're taught like, oh, that's sturdy or don't talk about it. I love that. Like meeting with you is just like meeting with a girlfriend, but you're just, like, super smart and know all the things. But, like, number one says that, like, ever feel judgy or anything? You're like, no, the body is a body. And this is like, what's going on and things like that. So I can only imagine your teaching styles the same way. Approachable. Yes. Yeah. I mean, I can't tell you, like, I may use a lot of dirty words in my, in my patient visits or in my courses, but it's like it's life. I mean, you should see my patient, like not going to show you, but patient portal messages are like pictures of poop. Oh, they're toilets. Like, you know, I have some patients take me on a zoom visit on their phone and take them. Take the phone to the bathroom. Yeah. And I'm like, does this look right? Like I don't get grossed out er, back around over here. So, yeah, I think it makes it a little bit easier to have that relationship with the provider instead of like, oh my gosh, like, yeah, you don't look at my poop. I yeah, yeah everything's fine. I'm doing all the things you told me that day. Yeah. I can't talk about sex with my provider. Yeah. Your course that's coming out is that on your website? Is that how they would. It is okay. Yeah, yeah. We will link her website and, social media pages and all that stuff with the podcast and on YouTube as well. But, you can always find it on remedy the website. Remedy, remedy functional medicine.com. Yes. Or remedy fun met.com. Either way you'll find it. You'll find it. It'll get you there. Nice. Thank you so much for having us today. Is there any last, like parting words or gifts of wisdom that you want to share with the group? I would say if you're a majority of our clientele are women, I would say you are not crazy. It's likely your hormones and or gut and there is something to do about it. Just advocate for yourself. Even if you, you know, don't have the financial means to work with someone like me. There are so much free information out there. And you can get to the root cause. Yeah, yeah, well, and sometimes too, like, I do think that this is one of those things that like find the financial means if you can, because it's really important, to really get to the root of it, like just a small sidebar story. The first time I met Stacy, I made a comment in passing that I'm allergic to B vitamin B, and she's like, who told you that? I was like and acting kind of in the air. What do you mean? I was having an allergic reaction. They're like, oh, it's probably vitamin B. And she was like, yeah, no, we should have a conversation about that. So it's just that kind of stuff like finding the time and the financial means to like, at least meet with you a few times to get like the knowledge and like the information to, like, be in the right direction. Yeah. And I totally get it. Like when I first went into my own journey of health and you were running at a time, but I was looking at prices and I'm like, oh my gosh, why is it so expensive? Yeah, but the amount of time that goes in behind the scenes is crazy. But even me, as a provider, I pay out of pocket to see other providers because we also need our own providers. Because you just get more done in 3 or 4 visits than you probably get done over the course of five years with your PCP. Oh, okay. I mean, yeah, the the sticker shock may be there, but the benefits and advantages of what you can get done and address are huge. Yeah. And I think there's a little bit of sticker shock. But to be honest, I feel like you're price really fair. Especially I try to be accessible. Yeah, I know I get it, I get it. Well, but like, I know people that have car payments larger than what you charge for consultation. So, like, that's what I'm saying. You can find the financial means for a certain amount of time to make sure that your gut health and your hormones and everything are where they should be and need to be. And so you don't feel crazy. Yeah. So and just don't end up in the air waiting in a lobby for 12 hours or in a hallway with no privacy. Oh my gosh. For sure, because I have stories. I don't want you sitting in a chair in the hallway for two days waiting for a hospital bed. Oh my gosh, it's. Yeah, that sounds terrible. Yes. Oh my gosh. Well, thank you so much. I really appreciate you and I appreciate expertise and your time. Cheers. Cheers. And thank you everyone for listening and tuning in. I can't wait to see you next time. Cheers. Bye.