Lessons Learned with Karen Kiki and her guest Johanna Henz 3_11_21

All podcasts are designed to assist and aid listeners to meet their challenges in life. We are here to support each other... Johanna Henz is an inspiration - I was diagnosed with a form of Leukemia after being exhausted for two years, thinking I was just "tired all the time." I was anemic, but that was never addressed by my doctor. I thought maybe I was depressed, though I couldn't think why! But I had a lot of the symptoms - exhausted, unmotivated, irritable, etc. I asked for and was put on anti-depressants but they didn't help with the exhaustion. I chalked it up to being busy - working full-time, two young kids, etc. - but finally was examined by someone I worked with (I was the director of a health care organization at the time) and after some time and many tests, found out about leukemia. Ultimately I had a bone marrow transplant, after which I developed a rare (and I mean RARE) complication that shut my lungs down and I ended up having a life-saving double lung transplant six months after the bone marrow transplant. Long story short - who thinks to go to the doctor for being tired?! Certainly not me. But we know when something is not right, and advocating for ourselves - and being persistent - is sometimes the only way we end up getting our answers.