Keeping it Real!

Keeping it Real My Story (short version) I have been encouraged by many people to share my story with my network and my followers regarding my life journey and how I ultimately ended up becoming a Business Coach.  This story starts like many others of an abandoned and abused child.  It then has its ups and downs and some very dark periods, but also some very inspiring periods. It's a story that proves that even when facing death, a positive attitude, hope, resilience, and God can change that sentence. I hope you will enjoy reading something that is very personal to me and has taken me months to agree to write and share. But I think in the end, being vulnerable is what God has asked me to be.   I grew up in a small town in WI. One of my first memories is of my sister and I being left alone in our house for days with no food. My dad had gone again for work, and I guess my mother just got tired of it, or us, so she left. I was almost 5 and my sister was an infant. On day ten, and the last day, I remember the thought going through my head that my sister was going to die. I had been feeding her for several days with sour milk via the corner of a washcloth.  In the next memory, we were both in different ambulances. I was worried they were separating us. But I didn’t speak. That was the last memory of my egg-donor mother as a child. My early childhood was filled with neglect, abuse, and malnutrition. When my sister and I were punished we were thrown out into below-zero temperatures without coats for things like spilling our milk or getting into the cookie jar. I was kicked out of my first year of kindergarten because the only gift I had received from my father, a Snoopy watch, was taken away by the teacher. It was taken away because I was bullied, and a little boy told the teacher it was his. Naturally, she believed him over me. I won’t go into my reaction.   On to year two of kindergarten and a new start in a new town where my father met my mom, who was the shining light in my life. Just months after meeting her, my grades started to shine, I had new clothes and started to trust other children, which allowed me to make friends. Still, through the years, I took several beatings, along with my beautiful mother. In high school at only 5’3” I was point-guard, I was Captain of my softball team and made All-State, was Student Council President my Senior year, and had a Debate scholarship which I turned down. I turned it down and entered the Air Force in a Law Enforcement career and served during Desert Storm. I was finally free from my father. I also managed to attend Boston College, met my husband, and had twin boys.   In 1993, my mother was sick with terminal breast cancer, so I decided to depart the Air Force and be home for her last days which are still some of my hardest days when I look back. I remember when she died that I felt that sense of abandonment again and I was angry. I knew it wasn't her fault, but I didn't understand why God didn't want me to have a mother.  I eventually came to terms with that. My husband was then stationed at Good Fellow AFB in San Angelo, TX so we drove from WI to TX to start our new life. Reversing a bit, I must divulge when I was still on active duty, I was a first responder to a C5 Galaxy crash in Germany and a Stealth Fighter crash in NM. The chemicals from both crashes really affected me and I was sick for weeks after each of them. I also had a very serious head injury from a large and extremely heavy gate guard slamming down on my head during a freak windstorm in Germany in 1990. So, it was not long after that began complaining of migraine headaches and debilitating fatigue. I also started to get unexplained tingling or a feeling of pricks and needles in my extremities. Each time I went to the doctor I was told there was nothing wrong with me. I also had unexplained and rare medical emergencies that happened over the course of several years.   Despite all of this, I led a very successful professional life for over 25 years. The tingling in the extremities would come and go but I noticed there would be times I had very poor balance, brain fog, issues with my eyes going in and out of focus, and always there was that overwhelming fatigue. The fatigue was so debilitating, I could no longer perform normal duties at work without help, so I went to a psychiatrist and was put on Adderall. Still, it didn’t feel normal, so I kept going to the doctor, I was then misdiagnosed with Lupus and Fibromyalgia. However, I knew there was something different wrong, and to sustain my high-level corporate career, I just had to keep taking more and more Adderall until I was an addict taking up to 5, 30 mg Adderall per day just to make it through. This brought on an entirely new set of issues, like a complete personality change, I was an addict.   It was in 2016 under severe stress, severe pain, brain fog, and several Adderall into my day that I had a major stroke. That stroke ended my career. I stopped my Adderall cold turkey because I knew how close to death I was.   Several months later I was diagnosed with not only MS but eventually Epilepsy. My body was in constant painful rigid spasms and Parkinson-like tremors. I did not sleep 5-6 nights in a row routinely, and I developed Paresthesia which is the feeling of bugs crawling all over you, 24/7. Even though I didn’t sleep, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea. Our twin boys and their girlfriends at the time were all home for the weekend when they all witnessed my first Grand-mal seizure. In April of 2020 I was told by doctors that I most likely have less than one year to live.   The second week of April my Neurologist and Pulmonary specialist told me I had less than a year left to live.  I was having great difficulty breathing and this was caused by the placement of two lesions on my spinal cord. They were affecting the way my lung muscles worked. I was going to die like an ALS patient by drowning in my own lung fluids. I don’t remember much else of that conversation except, they were sorry but there was nothing they could do. But there is a light at the end of the tunnel. The next week of April 2020 our youngest twin married his beautiful wife. I was in bad shape. I remember praying to God to just let me make it through their reception which was held outside at his father-in-law’s house. There was this song I listened to when the pain was excruciating, and when I thought I may not make it through the night: You’re Gonna Be Okay by Jenn Johnson.  My son picked me up out of my wheelchair and carried me to the pool. David (the doctor) just kept staring at me and then he finally started a conversation with me. Well God appeared to through David to answer my prayers. Our Daughter- n- law’s father is a DO, who is a preventative doctor. He is more of a holistic doctor renowned for his work here in the US.  On the weekend of July 3rd, 2020, I received my first set of umbilical cord stem cell treatments and on Labor Day weekend I received my 13th treatment. He had to jump through hoops learn and get certified to give stem cell treatments. I can't imagine what kind of money he had to spend out of his own pocket to do this for me. I went on to receive 4 Exosome treatments the following year. By January 2021 I was out of my wheelchair walking, my tremors were starting to go away, my pain was dissipating, I was seizure free for two more years, and the constant paresthesia (feeling of bugs crawling all over me) was completely gone, my chronic insomnia of 5-7 nights with absolutely no sleep had greatly improved, and I just kept getting better. David and his wife Michelle, who is his Nurse literally saved my life.   MS is a non-curable disease, so I still struggle with good days and bad days, but I am no longer that person who must be carried to the bathroom by my husband, fed by my husband, confined to a wheelchair, and live a life of severe pain and disability. I have my independence.  I would never go back and change any of this. While still in my corporate career, I had to have the best car and go shopping for the best fashions, buy all the best make-up, and make sure my husband had all his toys. Since this journey, I have found God and have the best relationship with him, I have learned that you can’t take your work or your accomplishments to the grave with you and that it's family first always! My husband has always said that friends may come and go but family is forever. And he’s always been right. Yet, all this time I have been struggling for something more. A Purpose. I’m no longer interested in making the most money or having the best fashion and I can no longer drive, so who cares about a car? I would like to be financially free and allow my husband to retire from his second government job. Even though it’s dawned on me that money doesn’t really mean anything and I’m on this much deeper, more meaningful path.   It’s a path God has put me on. I have come to realize I am a Disciple of Christ. I know not yet what my mission is, but I do know he will reveal it to me when it is time.  I am starting to have several seizures a week again.  I don’t know what that means for my future, except that I have a ticket waiting for me in Heaven. Also important, I forgave my father before he passed. I realized, much like me, he had a disease.  His disease was called alcoholism.  My memories of when he wasn’t drinking are now filled with laughter and what a fun and loving father he was.  When the disease took over his body, he had no control, no memory of what he did. Much like I have no memory when I have seizures. My father was loved by his community. He always volunteered and committed random acts of kindness.  And now that God has helped me forgive, that hurt, that rage is gone.  And I see the good, the light in him.  I know he is in Heaven with my mother, and it fills my heart with such joy that I cry tears of happiness each time I think of it. I also now realize that the real reason I chose to hyphenate my name is because I needed to hold on to him. Hold on until I could forgive him.   I love people. I’ve always felt it was my destiny to in some way pay it forward or help people. My passion has always been in coaching people, whether it is sports, business, or just life. I coached young business leaders in my corporate career and then coached C-Level executives.  So, in 2022, I started working as a Certified Business Coach and I love it. I work from home, and I work with small businesses that are the heart of America.  I have switched gears a bit and now I am a Platinum Elite Certified Profit Coach. I help small business owners find hidden profits inside their revenue without spending additional money on advertising or marking, ultimately, I help them grow their businesses and generate massive profits so they can realize their dreams.  They deserve it.  I plan to start coaching C-level executives again as I have always been a natural at looking at a business from both a high-level perspective and digging into the details to help make them more profitable Either way, I have a Purpose again. Thank you for reading about me, and my journey.  If your or someone you know needs a business coach, or would just like to discuss options, please feel free to reach out to me.  – July 2022 (updated April 2023) Michelle F. Walsh-Vallejo Survivor Veteran Business Coach CHILD OF GOD