Functional Medicine Reality Podcast

03. Unmasking the Journey: Mary Jo's Story of Resilience and Hope

• Dr. Mark Su MD, Functional Medicine Practitioner for Health and Longevity • Season 1 • Episode 3

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This is a deeply personal and meaningful episode.

In this conversation, I’m joined by Mary Jo Anderson, who courageously shares her health journey for the first time publicly. This episode marks the beginning of a longer, unfolding story and a new chapter for both Mary Jo and this podcast.

Mary Jo’s story is not just about chronic illness or Lyme disease. It is about what it feels like to slowly lose your health, to feel unseen and unheard, and to keep going even when answers are not coming.

What This Episode Is Really About

At its core, this episode explores:

  • What it feels like to slowly stop feeling well when life once felt full and vibrant
  • How chronic symptoms can be dismissed or minimized within the healthcare system
  • The emotional and relational toll of prolonged, unexplained illness
  • The loneliness that can exist even when you are surrounded by people who love you
  • The breaking point that forces many patients to seek a different path
  • The power of listening to your intuition when something does not feel right
  • Why resilience is often built through suffering, not before it
  • How vulnerability can open doors for healing and connection

Mary Jo shares honestly about pain, fear, self doubt, and the moments when she questioned whether she would survive. She also shares about faith, perseverance, and the quiet strength it takes to keep searching for answers.

A Story Many Will Recognize

If you have ever:

  • Been told your labs are normal while your body says otherwise
  • Felt dismissed, minimized, or labeled without explanation
  • Wondered if your symptoms were “all in your head”
  • Felt like you were carrying your illness alone
  • Had to fight for answers while caring for others

This story will resonate deeply.

Why This Episode Matters

Mary Jo’s journey reflects the lived experience of countless patients navigating chronic illness. It highlights the limitations of a system that often lacks time, depth, or tools to fully see complex cases.

It also reminds us that healing is rarely instant, rarely linear, and often begins with being truly heard.

This episode focuses on the beginning of her story, including the years before diagnosis and the emotional reality of being undiagnosed. In future episodes, we will explore her diagnosis, treatment journey, and ongoing healing in greater depth.

Key Takeaway

If something feels wrong in your body, listen.
If you are not being helped, keep looking.
And if you are in a dark place, you are not weak for needing support.

Sometimes the bravest thing you can do is keep going.

Resources Mentioned

  • Rootseek
    Virtual functional medicine practice mentioned in closing
    www.rootseek.com

Thank you for listening and for holding space for stories like this.
This is how clarity begins, through truth, vulnerability, and human connection.

Dr. Mark Su:

I'm Dr. Mark Su and welcome to the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast. Join me and our community weekly as we bring you unfiltered health from inflammation to longevity. Real stories, real people, real solutions. Experience real life health changes from both patients and practitioners. And learn how to turn cutting-edge information into real results in your own life so you can feel better, live longer, live healthier, and be confident and clear in your healthcare choices. Let's get real and get results. Welcome friends. This is the Functional Medicine Reality Podcast. I'm Dr. Mark Sue. We have a special episode here today. We're here, as always, to create clarity and to help you live your best life. And so today I want to introduce a special individual. Her name is Mary Jo Anderson. She is going to be a recurring co-host on episodes going forward. So for those of you who don't know her yet, you'll get to know her over time. And if you are already connected with Mary Jo through various numbers of possibilities, if you're if you know her locally or you're connected to her online, you're going to meet a different Mary Jo who you've never met before. She's had, as some people know, a really meaningful journey and life lesson, ongoing life lesson for the last seven years with her health. And she's not been ready to able to process or ready to share that until now. And there's a reason that we're here and in this moment, and we'll get into that shortly. So if you are a person who has wrestled with chronic Lyme disease, you've wondered if you may have chronic Lyme disease, excuse me, you're going to resonate with the story. You're going to, you're going to learn a lot here and you're going to hear her story. And I think it's going to shed some real light for you. If you're alternatively, if you're an individual who has felt dismissed, devalued, disbelieved, marginalized by the mainstream medical society, the medical community, and not as a judge, not as a judgment, it's just the way the system is. You're also going to resonate with this, no matter what your symptoms or condition or diagnosis or diagnoses may actually be. So without further ado, this is a sentinel moment, I think, for both of us, certainly for me, and I know for you. So thanks for joining us. Thanks for being here. And for some people, maybe to in your shoe to have the courage to step out into this space. But let's just settle in a little bit. All right. You and I have only started to more get to know each other for the first time in maybe the last four months or so. We have kids who are in the same friend group, but we're not actually, we've not actually worked together professionally in the brick and mortar office. And we don't know each other well socially, even though we've had touch points and some connections. But just as a starting point, can you maybe just I know a lot of people know you, but especially for those who don't know you, or people who may only feel like they maybe they only know certain sides of you. Who's who's Mary Joe Anderson just as a person as a whole? How relatable are you? Are you a normal person or do you walk on water? Do you know does every does Red Sea part for you? Were you raised with silver spoons, or did you come from a slum background? Who are you and how can people relate with you?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Good morning, Mark. That's a loaded question. There you go. But I appreciate it. No, I do not walk on water. We we know who does though. I appreciate you giving me this opportunity to be here and tell my story for the first time. There is, it's a massive can of worms that I'm excited to share. I'm excited to give purpose to the last seven years of my life. Yeah. That has been ongoing suffering. And I'm excited to share a little bit more about some successes in my health in the last few years. But thank you so much for giving me this opportunity to be on this podcast with you and sit here with you and getting to know you over the last few months has been a joy. And being here today is just a full circle moment for me. So I really appreciate it.

Dr. Mark Su:

And synergistic symbiotic project here. This is not one way.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yes. But for those of you who don't know me, and I'll share a little bit about myself. But I'm a mom of three kids, 18, 15, and eight years old. They're the joy of my life. I have a community of family and friends locally, and I'm very blessed to have. I have a community online that I've been building and creating over the last seven years on Instagram.

Dr. Mark Su:

Organically, unintentionally. To my understanding.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Unintentionally. That's been one of the biggest blessings of my life. It's my creative outlet being on Instagram and connecting to so many people. But throughout that journey in the last seven years, I have a story that I have not shared with a lot of people, just my close-knit family and friends have known what I've gone through.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

But I'm at the point now where I am not on the other side of healing, but I'm awoken to a lot of what I've gone through. And I'm excited to share a little bit more about that process in order to try to help someone else maybe with their journey.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. And so that's a great quick segue of context that this conversation was from my perspective was rather spontaneous, organic. I don't remember how it started. I may have reached out to you, but I don't remember how it happened four months ago. Basically, correct me if I'm wrong, but it's one of these magic moments to me, anyway, in life where just timing and you're exploring the space of wanting to fulfill a male calling to be of more service to humanity, to be an advocate for others who are suffering. And so that really is the genesis of this of this initiation, where what we're doing right now. Fair to say?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Very fair to say.

Dr. Mark Su:

And then somewhere recently, maybe a month ago or so, you're telling me a story that sort of highlights or illustrates, well illustrates that want, that heart mission that you had. So can you review from for me, for us again? What happened in that moment? What did you experience when you were in NTG with your family in meeting that couple in the gift shop?

Mary Jo Anderson:

So for the last, I'd say two or three years, I do feel like God has been placing people in my path to have the conversation with them about health, about wellness, about my journey with suffering. It's been very specific how it happens. I don't know if the word would be serendipitous, but it's very ironic how it all happens. Anyways, just a few weeks ago, or about a month or so ago now, I was in a gift shop in Nantucket with our family. And I had bumped into a couple that I had seen or only really met one other time about 10 years ago and crossed paths with them in this gift shop and big hugs and had a very unlike you. Very unlike me. Big hugs. And immediately she had asked, like, How are you doing? How are the kids? And I went on to explain how where the kids are at in life. And I had she been sick for the last seven years, and she didn't know that. So I dove right in pretty quickly, but kept it on the surface because I don't want to overwhelm people with this big story about how what I've gone through. So I just dabbled in sharing that I'd been sick for the last seven years. I'm finally on the other side of feeling well.

Dr. Mark Su:

And isn't that spontaneous that you you know because you haven't seen these people in two years? Yeah. It was it just came out.

Mary Jo Anderson:

It poured right out. Felt very organic to share, felt safe sharing with this couple. And immediately when I cracked open a little bit about what was going on in my life, and it was basically an invitation for them to open up to me. So in that conversation, it quickly turned to them sharing with me that her husband that was standing right next to her had been very sick and they didn't know what was wrong with him.

Dr. Mark Su:

Could you tell looking at him?

Mary Jo Anderson:

I could tell looking at him. Yeah, I could tell that he was not feeling well. And we got into a quick conversation where they shared about what was going on with him, some initial symptoms, some dead-end roads that they had been in with some doctors that they had been meeting with. And out of his pocket in the conversation, he drew a little tissue. Yeah, a little napkin. And I don't even think he knew that I was noticing that's what he was doing, but he pulled out a little napkin. In the napkin was quite a few pills of Advil and some what he referred to as gabapentin, which was a drug that I was prescribed when I was really sick and not diagnosed. And he had it crumpled up in a napkin in his pocket for quick, easy access when he's not feeling good. So, anyways, that triggered me immediately when I saw him do that because that is something that I did for many years that I was sick. I kept my Advil and I kept my gabapentin in my pocket. And I just was completely dosing every six to eight hours to kill the pain that I was in. So, anyways, that conversation quickly led to my suggestion of a few things. It was almost divine intervention that God crossed our paths in that moment. He was, God was encouraging me to share what I had experienced in to some degree, which then encouraged them to share their experience. And then I immediately just made offered some suggestions.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And they were incredibly appreciative of it. They pulled out their notepad, they wrote down a couple of things, your name specifically, and just some panel testing, some things that I had told them that I did that might be of a resource for them.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So it was very divine how that interaction happened, and it was encouraging to me. And that wasn't the first time I've been in conversations like that, but it was definitely encouragement to me to be able to speak about what I've gone through that I've been wanting to do for a very long time now. It was almost like a warm-up for me and an encouragement, like you can share your story and you can help people. And I'm gonna give you the opportunities to do that. So that was just about a month ago. And so we're sitting here today, and I feel very excited again to have this opportunity to share a little bit about my story in hopes that it really does help someone else.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. I'm hearing you saying in that moment, you're feeling affirmed. You said, I hear fueled, perhaps. They're feeling how did you perceive their thankful?

Mary Jo Anderson:

I did feel like in our conversation that some of the language that I was using, functional medicine, a full tick piano test, like there's some some prescriptions that helped me through my journey, just different modalities that worked for me. Sure. I was assuming or under the understanding that they had never heard any of that language before.

Dr. Mark Su:

And did you get that sense that was true?

Mary Jo Anderson:

I I did get that sense. Yeah. Yeah. They it seemed like they had never heard any of the things that I was suggesting, which five years prior was where I was at.

Dr. Mark Su:

I was just getting ready to say, yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I had never heard anything about functional medicine.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Or that there was access to more broad testing for what I was experiencing, which were an array of symptoms that weren't giving me a proper diagnosis.

Dr. Mark Su:

So my experience for folks in that shoe, their shoe a month ago or whatever it was, your shoe five, seven years ago, it's five years ago, is it's a little bit of an eyes wide open. It's also hope.

Mary Jo Anderson:

It's definitely an exploratory phase. Because if you've been through a lot and you've seen a lot of doctors and you have a lot of different symptoms, that's a place of like really feeling very discouraged. You're hearing a lot of things, you're giving maybe a misdiagnosis or treatment that's not working.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And you're constantly, if you're resilient, which you become resilient really quickly, you're seeking answers constantly. Hopefully that's what you're doing. And that's where I was at, is that I was just consistently seeking answers and new information in order to find answers to feel better.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. So let's jump into that. Yeah. You're summarizing an awareness that they were going through that on some level in recent months or a half year, who knows what? But you're, I surmise from you're reliving, or it's bringing back memories of what you went through when you were in their shoe five years ago, right? So what was that experience like for you? I think for the most part, like what happened when life came crashing down, what, seven years ago?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Seven years ago, the realization of not feeling well is something that I always refer back to not feeling well. Seven years ago, I started not feeling well. And what does that mean? What does that look like?

Dr. Mark Su:

What was the backdrop before that?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah.

Dr. Mark Su:

Because I have a lot of patients who they're saying, I say, how long have you had symptoms? Oh, three months. But then if I asked more, no, it's actually been going on for maybe two years before that, just so mild, right? Were you feeling for some time or no? Things were good. What was life like before seven years?

Mary Jo Anderson:

So life before not feeling well was very active. Three kids, we had just bought a second home. I was online in my Instagram community building that out, just very busy. I was teaching a lot of fitness classes. I was working part-time as a fitness instructor. I played college basketball. So it's like I've always been this very active person. So for me, physical activity was just in our family. It was in our lifestyle. It's just who I am.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And to not be feeling well was something I actually had never experienced. Okay. I always felt very well. Okay. I always felt very strong and healthy and on top of the world, lots of energy, very outgoing, vibrant person, now with a big family and a big life. So for me, feeling well was, yeah, I felt like I was at the top of a mountain. So to start not feeling well seven years ago, again, I was teaching a lot of fitness classes. My initial not feeling well, I always attributed to taking or teaching too many fitness classes. That sore feeling that you get when you take a really hardcore fitness class, a strength training class, and you come home and you're, oh, my back is sore, my arms are sore. That just attributes that you maybe worked a muscle group in a different kind of way. It was a good thing. So seven years ago, I always thought that like my sore neck, my back hurting at 35 years old, maybe it's just age, maybe it's just I'm taking too many fitness classes or teaching too much or picking up the kids the wrong way. I always attributed these symptoms to all of those things. Yet when I started to really pay attention, but to start paying attention and know my body, I started realizing that these weren't those things. The neck pain was severe neck pain, which became even more severe as days and months and years went on. Yeah. Debilitating pain. I always, when I do share the story, I always say at 37 years old, after two years of being sick, when I would get up out of bed in the morning, I couldn't even stand up straight.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

37 years old, I couldn't straighten my spine or my shoulders back. I couldn't turn my neck without incredible pain.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And so I realized that this was, you know, I had been going to the doctors. I had been doing my annual visits and with my primary care, my massage, I was doing massage, body work, all the modalities to try to feel better. But I quickly realized that these symptoms that I was having were getting stronger and more symptoms were coming.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And as those more symptoms came, I started really advocating for myself in my doctor's office and saying, these symptoms I know are not normal. This is not age. This is not working out too much. This maybe is a little bit of busy lifestyle. Yes, I get that. But these symptoms in as many symptoms as there were, which were many. I always make other ones. Yeah. I'm when I revert back to my symptoms, I'm like, God, there must have been 50 symptoms at one time. And one of the m major symptoms that really drew the line this end was neurological. Okay.

Dr. Mark Su:

I was gonna say what crossed your mind is the first next three is besides the aches and pains.

Mary Jo Anderson:

The aches and pains were the first thing, and then the second and third thing were I couldn't close my hands. My hands were becoming very stiff, neurological pain running up the side of my head into what felt like my entire brain, eye twitching that was non-stop 24 hours a day, disorientation while I was driving, disorientation all the time.

Dr. Mark Su:

You're confused, or you mean like visual?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Visual disorientation.

Dr. Mark Su:

Okay. Yeah. Dead perception or blurriness or all of it. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's scary. Yeah, very scary.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah, while driving with kids. Yep. There was one point where, and we'll get into this in a minute, I'm sure, but where I went to Bryce, my husband, and said, I don't feel safe driving the kids. I was that disoriented.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And this was before I was diagnosed with Lyme.

Dr. Mark Su:

Sure.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So these symptoms were coming, they were coming on stronger every day, every month. I was going to the doctors, just asking for more testing, more help. And it was dead end after dead end after dead end. The only, the only support that I got from that initial doctor was antidepressants and painkillers without a proper diagnosis, which I wasn't willing to take either one of those. So that didn't end well.

Dr. Mark Su:

Did those help at all?

Mary Jo Anderson:

I didn't end up, I didn't end up taking those because I never felt comfortable taking either one of those. I never even felt comfortable taking Advil in my entire life. I had never relied on any type of medication to feel so you were that one. I was that one. Yeah. And so being prescribed antidepressants and painkillers without a proper diagnosis or a fibromyalgia, which was the blanket diagnosis for what I was experiencing. I wasn't willing to accept that.

Dr. Mark Su:

So why the uh the antidepressants? What's the what was your experience of why you were offered that?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah. My doctor white had for many years through all children, for through all three of my children, no knows you know me, had suggested that I was experiencing severe depression.

Dr. Mark Su:

Okay.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And I was. Okay. I wasn't willing to take the medication because I kept saying to her, I'm expressing, I'm feeling depressed because I feel so awful physically. And I've been going through this for two years now.

Dr. Mark Su:

So we we call that secondary. Yes. Secondary depression, right? Which is still legitimate. But so do you think it was offered to you because, hey, even as if it's primary or secondary, this will help. Okay.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I wasn't willing to take it because I was wanting to just get to the root of something else.

Dr. Mark Su:

What makes you feel any better? So I think I told you before. My dad used to research for Eli Lilly, Big Pharma. Yeah. When he was offered Prozac, one of his better friends was one of the co-nerds of Prozac. Okay. And he was offered that years and years ago. And he was like, Yeah, no, no, thanks. Hey, it's okay. You're not, you're not alone. Thank you.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So yeah, that was two or three years into not feeling well.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

That was I was offered on a regular basis. And I was going things kept getting worse. Yeah, things kept getting worse. I was going to the doctor at that point by year two and three every month and demanding a little bit more attention, a little bit more testing. And by year three. A lot of work.

Dr. Mark Su:

A lot of work. Not just time, but did you feel like you were just kind of being a broken record each month? Or did you feel like, okay, yeah, there's I'm feeling hurt and I'm there's things that we were moving in different directions, or you know, every every month. It's kind of like a kid nagging at their parent. That's exactly how I'm what kind of responses were you getting?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah, that's exactly how I felt for three years that I was a nagging, nagging patient, demanding more answers, saying I was having the same symptoms, more symptoms as it was getting worse, and only being offered these this one diagnosis and these two treatments and not accepting that. Um, and by year three was when I walked out of that doctor's office for the last time and alternative medicines and modalities.

Dr. Mark Su:

And so, what took you to the breaking? Why why why did you hit that breaking that bottom rock bottom?

Mary Jo Anderson:

So the last visit with this particular doctor, I had asked my sister, who I'm very close with. She's a year older than me. She's by my side my entire life. I had asked her to come with me. She had firsthand witnessed how sick I was getting.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

But I had never really had my husband or my sister come to the doctor with me. It was like, I can handle this, I can do this myself.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And it was more of like a real big cry for help where I went to her and I said, I need you to come with me. I need you to come with me and sit with me in the doctor's office and hear what they're saying to me and just be supportive of me because I really feel like I'm breaking at this point.

Dr. Mark Su:

No particular ask or agenda, just support. Just support. Okay.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I had previous to that appointment, had told my sister that I was, because I had I had felt like I was dying, and I was.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So I had sat with her prior to that appointment and just really mapped out if I am dying, if I am as sick as I feel, can you please just take care of the kids?

Dr. Mark Su:

Wow.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And do this, that, and the other thing. Or talking this really hard conversation with her, because that's where I was at. I felt that sick. I felt like I was dying. I felt like I had to go to my sister and just make sure that if anything was happening that I thought was happening, that she would pick up the pieces. And so she came with me to the doctor's, which was probably the following week. And she sat next to me. She heard me say the same things that I had been saying for quite a few years. And the doctor turned to me and said, I don't know what you want me to do. I have people in other rooms waiting for me. If you're not going to take the antidepressants, if you're not going to take the painkillers, there's not much else I can do for you. And really was blunt in how she said it.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Cold. She was frustrated. I was frustrated. I don't have, I don't hold anything against her. I understand it was a dead end for both. I picked up my bag, my purse, and I walked out of the office and my sister followed me. And she knew right then and there that this was not it.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

This was not it.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. It's like you're really fortunate to have that support. Anyone, whether a friend or family member will be in your life like that.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I think for the most part, because I think a lot of moms might do this for a lot of people in general. We can handle it ourselves. We don't want to ask for help. We can do it. We can get through it. We're resilient. We'll figure it out. This was something I could not figure out.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

This disease was killing me and I could not figure it out.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And I had to ask for help. Luckily, I have a sister and a family and a lot of people that kind of knew what was going on. My sister came alongside me, helped me. And then there was quite a few people in the community that had suggested functional medicine. It was the first time I started really hearing it. Mark Sue in town, there was this conversation around your name and your practice, which was an alternative to what I was in. And I had heard it so many times to the point where it was like, okay, I'm at a breaking point. I'm at a turning point. I need to explore something new.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And that's when I called your office, which was in, I believe, 2020. So as we said, as the world was ending. Yeah, that's right. I thought I was dying and the world was ending. It was you were my lifeline.

Dr. Mark Su:

It must have been a little surreal. Yeah. The parallels there. Yes. So again, we hadn't we this is we're not here as a culmination of working together. We haven't worked together directly in over the years. You've been working with one of our nurse practitioners, Mary, and who's already given consent to it's okay to use my name, right? Why don't you share a little bit about what a review for me even? What was your what was different? What was your experiences in those early days? Or on the first intro, walking in the door into this function medicine world. I don't know. I think you and I both know people who like, what is that? Trap voodoo? Is this like Eastern medicine? What is it? What do I mean?

Mary Jo Anderson:

When the time is right, I'd love for you to explain functional medicine because I'm not sure I could articulate it perfectly. I know it's been my lifeline. I know I have an understanding of it. But at the time in 2020, after being sick for quite a few years, I had never really heard about functional medicine. Maybe I'd heard the term, but I had no idea what it was. My first call to your office.

Dr. Mark Su:

But would you mind to say it open-minded or was it like it's foreign? So I'm not comfortable with it, or what was that like?

Mary Jo Anderson:

And path by nature, and I'm broken wide open all the time about it. Everything. And in the situation that I was in, it was just me wanting to explore anything that would potentially be helpful. Functional medicine for me was something that I was broken wide open to. I did I think it was hokey or weird or foreign. Of course, I didn't know very much about it, but calling the office and getting an appointment within a week and going in and sitting with Mary and really pouring out exactly what I'd been through. I don't know if it was like a two-hour plus intake.

Dr. Mark Su:

Wow.

Mary Jo Anderson:

It was pretty long. And I am a storyteller. So I was like, if I'm gonna do this, I need to tell you all of it. And I did, and and she was one of the first people that I felt listened, seen by, truly seen, in a very dire state of illness.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

She created a very safe environment for me to share everything and offered some initial suggestions, obviously, some initial testing. And within I think 48 hours, I was fully tested for everything. And within seven days or five to seven days, I was diagnosed Lyme and chronic or co-infections.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. And so at that time, did you ask for Lyme testing? Could you known about it? Or how did that come? Was it her suggestion? Or people had suggested to you and you just brought up into the conversation?

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah, I she had, I think she had suggested it. And then I had said, I think I was tested for Lyme way back with my other doctor and it came back negative. So there was, and she had offered the suggestion that this was more of an extensive panel that we're gonna do that was gonna be able to pick up on many more things, which I had never heard that or understood that before, but that was the process. It was she was offering more testing for me, and I had an understanding to some degree what that would look like. And within a week, there was a diagnosis. I was back in the office and she was really walking me through a lot of information that was foreign to me, but I truly understood. It was an affirmation that I was really sick with a disease and some coinfections that were making it worse, and some levels with my vitamin D and all these other things that were depleting my entire system.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So I don't know if Mary said this, and I'd have to ask her because we haven't never actually gone back to that day. But I had said, I feel like I'm dying. And I don't know if she said these exact words, but she was like, You are your body, your body is at bare minimums for survival right now. And so I again I don't know if she said those exact words, but that's what I took from it was that I felt so awful. The testing was showing all of these things were that were at bare minimums and disease and all these indicators for co-infections. And uh, she affirmed me that, yeah, you're really sick. Yeah. And it was like, I can't believe someone just told me that I am really sick because I had felt really sick.

Dr. Mark Su:

And I'm pretty sure a lot of the testing you'd had done through the routine testing, like you look pretty good. I'm guessing, which is like this constant paradox.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah. My original testing prior to that was that everything was fine all the time. You're fine.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah, a lot of people had told me it creates a lot of mind games, right? Oh, yeah. Sometimes you're told that, sometimes you're telling yourself that.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I think we've talked about this prior to this conversation, but there were many times in all those years that I was questioning my own sanity. I was, was I making these up? Was my mind, was my mind sick? Yep, my mind was sick. Yeah. Line was attacking the mind, but I was questioning my own sanity.

Dr. Mark Su:

Sure.

Mary Jo Anderson:

That's exact fault for many years, which I'm not the smartest person in the whole world, but I was like, no, I know that these symptoms are something. Yeah, I know something's wrong. I'm a physical person. I can do anything. I'm on top of the world all the time with the movement and all these things. And this is something so different.

Dr. Mark Su:

You mentioned, so you know, your sister came with you to that and that became point. Was she, did you feel hurt and by her or other people in your life? Or how much do you feel supported and affirmed that yeah, this is not normal, it's not just in your mind? Or were you how alone were you in that journey before that, before that sort of diagnostic point and redirect?

Mary Jo Anderson:

So the two closest people in my life are my husband, obviously, and my sister. And they know everything about me. They've walked alongside me, I've walked alongside them. And to say that they were there, they've never left my side in this seven years, this journey. And but neither one of them had an understanding because I didn't even have an understanding of what was going on with me. Of course, I felt the love and the support, but we were all very confused on how I first fell ill, had no answers, and then continued to get sicker and sicker.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So nobody knew how to handle this situation. We've never, none of us, the three of us, had never been in anything like this before. So I share that because of course I felt love and supported, especially by these two people in my life, but I also felt extremely alone and that this was a very personal journey. And now on the back end, it was almost like I was never alone. Something that I came to shortly after a diagnosis and feeling well was that I was never alone. I always felt like someone was with me and God was beside me the entire time. I felt him. I felt him saying to me consistently when I was sick and on the journey to healing, keep going, keep going. It's such a stupid, silly phrase, but it was like he was whispering it in my ear, keep going. And so I built up a lot of resilience. This has been a very personal journey for me. It's been my biggest life lesson. I didn't really, I didn't realize how resilient I am, but this entire journey has been my greatest lesson. My cross to bear, yes, but I'm also oddly very appreciative of all of it. No resentment towards people that didn't know what was going on with me. I wasn't really expressing or sharing it on this public level or asking for help.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah, you're very fortunate.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Yeah, yeah.

Dr. Mark Su:

And uh you have you've had people in your life to support you. You have a, I don't know, whether it's factory setting of your resilient sort of personality, profile, attitude, or whatever. So a lot to be thankful for. But at the same time, it's easier to say that now in those darkest of dark moments, as you're talking about being feeling like you're that alone. I can only imagine. I've heard the I've heard variations of that kind of sentiment or story from a lot of patients over the years, but it it's a different, it's a different experience for everybody about how alone and how dark it is.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I think there's points through my story where not only did I think I wasn't gonna make it, literally did not think I was gonna make it. There were points throughout those first years that my prayer every single night or a lot was for God to take me. I had suffered for so long. And I have shared this part of that story with a few people. It's it's a very dark place that I was in, but my prayer was for him to take me because I did not want to be in suffering anymore, physical and mental suffering, or please, God, bring me just people that can help me, people that can help me find answers. That was my consistent prayer. And he would say, keep going. So that's what I did. And did you did anybody else know you were that dark that there's points I think in in the journey too, where these type of things can break relationships, marriages. Absolutely. I definitely, Bryce and I, you wouldn't mind me sharing this. It almost broke us. Even on the back end of all of this and my healing journey now, and in and having conversations with him, he's so empathic because at the time he didn't know how to help me. He didn't know what was going on. I didn't know what was going on. And there was quite a few years where I was so sick and he's going at the same pace that we usually go at. And I'm not only lagging behind, I'm falling completely behind. And there was resentment, lots of fighting. There was a broken marriage and all of that. He didn't know how to support somebody that was very sick.

Dr. Mark Su:

Sure.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So we went through quite a few years where it was really not good. But these things, death, loss of a family member, loss of a child, there's all these things in life that health crisis like this, yeah, that can break families. They break people.

Dr. Mark Su:

Absolutely.

Mary Jo Anderson:

They're really hard things.

Dr. Mark Su:

Absolutely.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Like us as humans don't want to do hard things sometimes or don't know how to do something that's hard. So like this situation was really hard for Bryce. It's really hard for me, obviously, but it was really hard for him. It was hard for our marriage. And my sister Melissa, on the other hand, she's just uh, everybody get on my back, I'll carry you guys. And she's wanting to fix everything, but this wasn't a really fixable thing that she could do. Yeah. So it was a learning lesson for all of us. The on the back end of all this, not that I'm completely through it, but the fact that we are on the other side, we talk about these things on a regular basis because we're still working through a lot of it. It was a very traumatic time in our lives, and it still is this residue that lives within our lives. This is health crisis at its best. And I think a lot of families experience things. And if you haven't, sure, most likely you will.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. No, it's uh yeah, I colleagues and I who work in the space, we see it all the time. And not to minimize anybody's single individual experience, it's a common theme, definitely not anywhere alone in that story. And on multiple levels, it's sometimes just venting and frustration. It's a it's supposed to be a safe place in the home to yourself. Don't not put on the right shiny face in public. There's the expectations piece, and then there's the financial piece. And who doesn't get crabby when they're not feeling well? As an understatement, okay, crabby is nursing. And then obviously I'm thinking about when you when you feel that in in medical terms, we call it passive suicidality. The term is always like active suicidality, right? Where someone's like possibly gonna take action themselves. Passive suicidality, which is a fine line sometimes, where I think a lot of people on some level experience, especially people with chronic illness like you've described, I I would like to go. I'm not actively trying to impart this world, but I just want to escape and suffering. And God forbid, I think a lot of people, I'm guessing you experience the same a lot of people in that moment, especially you've been offered in depression. If you voice something like that, then who knows? Not just the healthcare practitioners, but your family members, your friends, where what are they thinking about if I actually say I have those thoughts? Sounds like you it is a dark space, it's a lonely space, a lonely space.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Leading up to that very dark space where I was an undiagnosed and having those thoughts, which I had never had thoughts like that. It was such an eye-opener. Like, what is my brain doing? That's where things came into question. Why am I thinking like that? Now I'm praying for God to take me because I don't want to be suffering. Like this feeling, this dire feeling. I can't imagine that people that are experiencing, I can't imagine it, severe grief or trauma, like these thoughts must be common. Unfortunately, like, how do you get through something like that? These are extremely traumatic events that happen in people's lives. Yeah. I've gone through it. Yeah, I understand it now. I have deep empathy for people that struggle with mental illness for whatever reasons.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah. And so here you are. I'm here. Still here. Exploring this chapter in your life where the world is a better place with Mary Joe here. Oh, God. In many ways. I have to no doubt there's you just you alluded to people who were like lighthouses for you or supports along the way. You've mentioned to me people you called angels in your life and your experiences in your life journey. And I don't know, my conviction is I think we all on some level have that role, at least at times in our life. And so I think bringing this full surface is we're looking to explore ways for you to be able to be a voice for those who don't have a voice, to be an advocate, to to shine a light for other people where they have darkness in this right now. We're we decided we're gonna just sit in this space about where you were at before and the reality and human experience of that suffering at the beginning. And then we'll kind of in a subsequent session get into okay, hey, did everything just magically get better within two months? Not so much. The journey is still uh a meaningful journey. That'll be next time. But there's a lot of people out there who don't have you and I both know many people, they don't have a support system like your sister or like your husband. They don't have the factory setting of resiliency and courage and or access. Or access. Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I understand. That's one of the lessons that I've learned in all of this is how did I do it? There's a huge part of it that is I put I was able to put two feet on the ground every day. I was able to do that. I was able to show face like I was okay. I showed up on in my Instagram community, I showed up in my community, my kids' school. There's a lot of things that kind of kept me going in my community. So I showed that I was okay to some degree as best I could when I did have support and access so much. This was finding an answer and being sick, bring becoming resilient was a full-time job for me. And that's an extreme privilege that I'm really aware of. How do other people do it when they're this sick and they don't have access? They don't have support from family members or friends, like it that is a level, leveled system that is broken.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And I have a guilt about that through this whole journey, which I don't try not to carry a lot of guilt, but I have an understanding of it. And now on the back end of it again, how can I be a resource for other people, a lighthouse for other people? How can I share my story in order to help someone else? I'm excited about that opportunity. And how can I somehow plant seeds in shifting our system, even in the most minimal way? That's where the gold is. That's where change actually happens. I don't have those answers exactly how to do it yet, but speaking the story out loud is maybe the first step.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah, we'll figure out tomorrow. I don't think 40 years. Yeah, you're no, you're uh you're such a positive person. I've only I've not known you nearly as long as a lot of people haven't had the the the opportunity and gift of Mary Joe's giving on so many levels. So that you've been our family's been extremely thankful to you in just in the last month. I can only imagine you you have a lot to give to this world, to, to humanity, to people. And we'll see where this goes. But I know that you've had looking forward, whatever it looks like for you, I think being able to be a voice, a light, an advocate, a connector. I've I know you've alluded to having certain messages or take-home points for somebody who might be in a dark spot right now for any number of symptoms, diagnoses, reasons, whatever.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I'm excited to share this entire story, the beginning which we're sharing right now, my onset of symptoms back seven years ago. We're rewinding. This is the initial part of my story as I fell ill and what that looked like in suffering, in chronic or health crisis. I'm excited that I shared a little bit about it right here. But my take home in all of this, that first chapter, is that in the first few years that I was sick and becoming sicker, I knew something was wrong. I knew something was wrong. And I knew my doctors didn't have the answer. And I knew no matter how many times I was going and saying the same thing over and over again, it felt like a dead end road. And luckily, I did have access and someone did plant the seed of functional medicine and that there were other ways of finding out what was going on with me. I wish that I had listened to myself early. Something was wrong and that hitting my head against this wall over and over again, I wish that it ended sooner. I wish I made a ship sooner. Anyways, the only reason why I share that is that I think we all have an intuition. We all know. And if we close off a lot of all the noise sometimes and you really listen to what's going on with you in your body, you'll know when something's not right.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And it's gonna take resilience, it's gonna take persistence, it's gonna be able to, you have to speak up. Like those things you have to, you gotta listen to this first, your intuition, your heart, maybe say a prayer on top of it. And just be resilient in that if you know something is not wrong and the doctor is not helping you or giving you the answer that you feel good with, or the diagnosis, or the treatment, all these things, you just it doesn't feel right. You got to find a different path.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

And I know that's not easy.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

You have to find a different path. The first time that I sat in your office was the first time in three years, which I again I felt like I was on my deathbed, was the first time in three years that I'd ever felt like a doctor had truly listened to me, was wanting to help me and knew what I was talking about. So it's just encouraged that I have for anybody that's listening, anybody that might have symptoms or in any part of their health journey, or keep it in your back pocket for a day that maybe someone you love is experiencing something like that. Like just be resilient and listen to your intuition and seek out the answers that feel right. Yeah. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's my encouragement for this first chapter of my I'm 100%.

Dr. Mark Su:

It makes a lot of sense to a lot of people. Like what's really meaningful here is in winding down is you've had the courage to be vulnerable, right? That's a huge crack in the screen. That's a hard, it's a hard thing. You experienced that difficulty years ago to be vulnerable to say, I need help. Then after all this time, it's still difficult to talk about, process, and then talk about. But you've shown that vulnerability. You showed that vulnerability to that couple in the gift shop, but that that that vulnerability is a gift in and of itself. You shared that's what happened in the gift shop by you taking down the walls, they take down the walls. So for me, just reflecting on this conversation, I'm just my assumption or at least hope is that the vulnerability cracks the screen for other people to be willing to be vulnerable, also, just to say, okay, yeah, I do need help, whatever that looks like. And I think that's what a lot of my experiences is on the other side of the coins when we when the practitioners are also vulnerable, either to say, I just don't know how to answer, but I'm gonna keep batting for you. I'm gonna keep bathing that happens a lot. Hate it. Hate it because it's not for ego, just hate it's difficult to watch people suffer for for me and a lot of colleagues.

Mary Jo Anderson:

But I want to affirm you it's a gift. I think we're in the same boat. It's a gift. Yeah. The gift that you and your practice and Mary and everybody give to people. It's a gift from God. And I appreciate it. It's been a lifeline for me. You're how you talked about angels earlier. Yeah. When got connected just four, four months ago, it was a very full circle moment. You've been an intricate part in my journey, your practice, Mary, and the fact that now we're sitting here in a full circle moment is a really great gift for me. It's part of now my my true healing in what I've gone through and with the intention and purpose to help other people.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

So it has started with you. So thank you.

Dr. Mark Su:

It's a it's a work together. It's a work together. So thanks for being vulnerable. And and and I'm looking forward to whatever ways we can collaboratively and support you, support each other to make the world a better place and reduce suffering and whatever that means.

Mary Jo Anderson:

We've talked about this before, but I'm hoping to be on again and share the second. It's the second chapter, which is my true diagnosis and then treatment.

Dr. Mark Su:

Yeah.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Because that's a huge part of the story. And maybe a third chapter if you'll have me to.

Dr. Mark Su:

Maybe you're being modest.

Mary Jo Anderson:

I won't ask for a fourth chapter. That's already the plan.

Dr. Mark Su:

The plan, that's already the plan. We wanted you, you need to, this is this needs to happen not partly for you, even as much more so for others. You have you have that connector magnetic gift where people feel comfortable around you, from my experience, and I can't speak for everybody. Obviously, one's 100% right. But look, you have a purpose, you have a calling in this world. I believe that. I believe everybody has that. It's just a matter of how do we fulfill that. So, whatever ways that I, Rootseek, can help support that for you, create that space for you, or share in that space with you, be in that space with you, that's what that's what our mission goal here is here. And but ultimately our goal is for me personally, as I've shared with you, after 22 years and I have 51, I don't know how long I'm gonna live, right? I don't know. But how do I help more people get better faster? As many people get better faster as possible. But you, how do I be an advocate? How do I be a connector? How do I tear down walls? How do I help help people move in the right directions? It's uh we're on the same page, on the same page. So looking forward to it. Thank you. Yeah, so we'll wind down here. And as we say to everybody, Root Seek is our virtual practice. We ultimately don't care if we're involved in people's journeys to healing or not, we just want to see people get better. And if we can, if if we are or can be of help and service, and we're part of that journey in whatever way, it's a small way, planting a seed, it's a bigger way of watering the ground, or we're out there with in the harvest field in the end and we're helping people and seeing the fruition of all the collective work that the individual, you or other people, other practitioners have worked along the way to get to that point, we're just one piece in the puzzle. Yeah. If you, as always, if you're if you're new to functional medicine, like Mary Jo was five, six years ago, as many of us as practitioners were years ago, and we usually come to it because we've gone through journeys ourselves and discovered this ourselves ourselves the same way you do, okay, because we're patients too. Then if it's a new for thing for you, hopefully you would find Root Seek to be a safe place for you to explore your journey as well. If you're needing any kind of like second opinions or yeah, looking for just a different angle, we're available and ready and willing to walk that journey with you. So next time. Till next time. Next time. All right.

Mary Jo Anderson:

Thank you, Mark. Thanks, Mary. Thank you, everybody.

Dr. Mark Su:

So fresh, just the way you like.