When Doctors Miss the Bigger Picture - Sondee

Finding Yourself Through Illness. Healing from Chronic Symptoms. Rebuilding Life.

"The sickness slowed me down and gave me time alone to get to know myself, reflect on my life, and learn who I was." — Sondee

In this episode, Sondee shares her journey through hyperacusis, misdiagnosis, and the fear of losing independence. A persistent low-frequency hum triggered her nervous system, causing vertigo, migraines, and months of denial, financial stress, and the emotional weight of parenting while unwell. Her pursuit of answers led her beyond symptom labels into functional medicine testing, which uncovered food sensitivities and root causes that transformed her health.

Sondee also opens up about the emotional journey, the cost of staying silent, the courage to ask for help, and the power of rebuilding community. Her story is a guide for anyone seeking honest healing, root-cause solutions, and a path to reclaiming their life.

Connect with Sondee:

Business website:  https://yourmoneygal.com

Email: info@yourmoneygal.com 

weVENTURE: https://weventure.fit.edu/

Resources heard in today's episode:

Dr. Jorge Campos - Chiropractor: https://www.totalchiropracticcare.com/

Dr. Tinney -  Functional Doctor: https://integrativemedicineofbrevard.com/

Radiantly Healthy MD -  Functional Doctor: https://www.rh-md.com/

Learn more about THIS: www.thehealinginsharing.com

Follow: 

Instagram: @TheHealingInSharing

YouTube: @TheHealingInSharing11

Email: TheHealingInSharing@gmail.com

Subscribe: Apple podcast, Spotify, etc

Book: Why I Survived; Where Survival Becomes Strength

The background music is written, performed and produced exclusively by Melissa Turri.
https://melissaturrimusic.com/

Transcript

Opening And Mission Of The Show

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Imagine when you share your darkest hours, they become someone else's light. I'm Jennifer Lee, a global community storyteller, host, author, and survivor, guiding you through genuine unfiltered conversations. Together, we break the silence, shatter stigma, and amplify voices that need to be heard. Each episode stands as a testament to survival, healing, and reclaiming your power. Listen to I Need Blue on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or your favorite platform. Learn more at www.eneedblue.net. Trigger warning, I NeedBlue shares real life stories of trauma, violence, and abuse meant to empower and support. Please take care of yourself and ask for help if needed. Now let's begin today's story. Her story touched me, a friend shared. I reflected in this moment and it reminded me how often we skim the surface with people. Just a quick yes, I deal with this or that and never reach the real journey underneath. But when those sometimes moments finally turn into now, that's when healing and connection truly begin. Today, I'm honored to introduce my friend and special guest Sunday. Through her work with WeVenture as a business coach, she has poured her passion and wisdom into helping women like me grow and believe in ourselves. She's been a steady support in my life and a part of the I Need Blue and the Healing and Sharing journey. In February 2022, Sunday's life changed. Ordinary sounds, the hum of an air conditioner, the pulse of music outside a concert became unbearable, even triggering panic attacks. Vertigo, migraines, and hypersensitivity left her bedridden. Doctors dismissed her pain, and after one and a half years of suffering, it seemed this would be her forever. But Sunday didn't quit. She became her own advocate, diving into research until one doctor uncovered the truth. Her body was at war with itself. Even the foods she thought were safe were triggering inflammation that attacked her brain and senses. She was living with hyperacusis, a rare condition that makes everyday sounds feel unbearable, affecting only one and fifty thousand people. We will discuss what happened in 2023 that began Sunday's healing journey. Her story is one you'll never forget. Sunday, thank you for being my guest today, and welcome to the I Need Blue podcast. Thank you so much for having me. Of course. You know, I have to tell you, I was sitting outside with my husband at about 8 a.m. Today it's Saturday, having our coffee, and he was like, huh, do you hear that humming noise? And I remember thinking to myself, knowing that I was going to be interviewing you today, like, wow, what was it like to even just sit outside for Sunday when she was going through this excruciating experience? As we get started, can you take me into what that was like? Something as simple as just sitting outside trying to enjoy the day?

SPEAKER_00 4:23

Yeah, there are low frequency sounds really disrupt my nervous system more so than any other sound. And it doesn't have to be loud. So sitting outside, and then maybe your neighbor's noisy pool pump comes on, or maybe there's an AC unit close to where you're sitting, those noises can disrupt my my nervous system, even though the sound isn't that loud. And I notice these hums. And I'll say something to somebody that I'm with, I'm like, do you hear that? Where's that coming from? And they're like, hear what? And then I'm like, listen. And then they're like, oh, I didn't even notice. So most people don't notice these low frequency humming sounds because it's just part of life. But when you're sensitive to sound, you hear everything. Sound can be exhausting because it really does aggravate your nervous system.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

Yes, but you have experienced this on a totally different level. And it really kind of all peaked in 2022.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

You know, I had been experiencing some sound sensitivity leading up to it, but I didn't realize really what was going on. And then it all made sense to me. In 2022, I had gone to a concert with my brother, and concert was fine, had a great time, got into the car to go home, and everything started spinning vertigo, like really bad. I woke up the next day with the worst migraine of my life. Probably should have gone to the hospital, but I didn't. I was throwing up all day. It's not from alcohol, it was from the sound. That's when my situation got worse where I was extremely sensitive to sound. It wasn't just a little bit. So that's when the air conditioning started bothering me when it would turn on and off, even like even the slightest sounds at a certain frequency would bother me a lot. I couldn't do dishes, I couldn't, I couldn't go to restaurants anymore. My life changed.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Was it a slow progression where you all of a sudden realized you can't handle a lot of sounds? Or was it from the moment that concert happened, all of a sudden it was like that migraine hit? And then everything just went drastically downhill from there.

Denial, Disability, And Daily Survival

SPEAKER_00 6:50

Well, back in 2019, I was playing soccer and I had fallen and hit my head, and then realized that I was a little dizzy, so I stopped playing and came home. And on the way home, I felt nauseous and realized, oh, great, I got another concussion. I've had over 10 concussions in my life because of just being so active and playing sports and stuff. Um, I did notice after that concussion that I was more sensitive to sound, but it wasn't debilitating. You know, I could still work, I still functioned, I still went out, but I noticed that I was more sensitive. And then when that concert happened and then the horrible migraine uh in 2022, that's when, yeah, it was pretty instant. After that migraine, I was never the same. You know, I only had so much energy.

SPEAKER_01 7:43

Yeah, and you're a mom, you're the breadwinner of the family, and now all of a sudden you're finding yourself in uh in unknown territory.

SPEAKER_00 7:53

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

So aside from the physical ailment, then uh, you know, you have the emotional, the mental, you know, from being this independent person now all of a sudden having to rely on others to help you, help your daughter. And how do you take on and deal with now that emotional stress? Not to mention stress is bad for the body to begin with.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

You don't really realize what it's like to go through something like this until you actually do. I was kind of in denial because I was literally disabled and I couldn't wrap my brain around that fact. Like I didn't want to believe it. So I kind of was in denial about it. And I just thought it, I'll get better, you know, I'm not feeling well right now, but you know, in a week or two, I'll be back to normal. I'll be fine. And it just, it just got worse. It didn't get better. I finally came to terms with the fact that wow, I'm disabled now. Like I can't work like I could before. I couldn't even put things away. I had no energy. I was so fatigued. My bedroom was so messy that I barely had room. And this is hard to admit, but I barely had room on my bed to sleep. It was just covered in stuff, stuff all over my dress. Like my room is a disaster. It was a slow progression to the where it got to where I could barely sleep on my bed. And when I finally opened my eyes and was like, oh my God, I'm this is not me. Because I was so organized. I mean, I even have a label maker. Like I label everything, like I'm that organized. And then to see my room like a tornado hit it was like, wow, something is really wrong here. And so, you know, being a single mom, I didn't really have anybody in my life saying, You're not good. You need help. Like, what's going on? There was nobody saying that to me. You know, I'm my daughter, you know, she was young. She was like 13. And so she she just wanted to know when I was going to start working again because we couldn't do anything extra because we didn't, I would I didn't have any money. I was living off of savings at some point, and and then credit cards. I even thought about selling my house at one point. I couldn't work. Working like maybe 10 hours a week, and that's all I had the energy for. And part of that time was from my bed. I was able to venture out every now and then, and then I'd have to go home and rest.

SPEAKER_01 10:18

Oh my goodness. Did it get to a point where when you finally realized, oh, you know, there's something not right, did you reach out to others? Did you reach out to friends uh for support?

Isolation, Finances, And Asking For Help

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Um not really. I should have thinking back, I should have reached out to some of my close friends and really let them know what was going on. But, you know, I'm the kind of person that, you know, I like to communicate with my friends and when I'm happy and when I'm not feeling well or depressed, I just want to go into my cave and wallow, I guess you could say. Not that I was wallowing, but I just don't, I don't, I'm I I want to be the positive energy in someone's life. I don't want to be the needy negative energy, which you can't look at life that way. Your friends want to be there for you when you're when you're down. And no, I don't think they really knew the extent to my illness and my situation. They knew something was wrong. I couldn't go out anymore. But I don't think they knew the extent because I didn't really share.

SPEAKER_01 11:30

I'm assuming now a few years later, uh, they understand what's going on. And they probably were like, Sunday, we would have helped you if you would have just told us.

SPEAKER_00 11:40

Oh, definitely, they definitely would have. But a lot of us deal with that, that in our personalities, we don't like to ask for help. We like to be the helper. That was always my persona. I'm the helper, I'm the giver, I'm not the receiver and then and the needy one, you know. But you learn that at some times in life you have to reach out to your support system and get the help you need and the support. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

And being that helper is what makes you such a great business coach, as you like, and I know firsthand to pour yourself into others, you know, and watch them grow. And I'm the one on the other side saying, Sunday, I need help.

SPEAKER_00 12:19

Yes, and I love helping.

SPEAKER_01 12:21

Yes. So moving along in your journey, you started to do your own research as you were getting frustrated. You're like, there's something not right. I don't wanna, I don't want this to be my forever.

Researching The Root Cause

SPEAKER_00 12:34

Yeah, it was very scary. So not only was I physically, you know, weak and debilitated and I wasn't myself, I was mentally not myself either. My personality changed, and then the emotion on top of it was really a lot to adjust to. I was just so scared. I was scared that my illness was going to get worse. I was on Facebook groups with other people with hyperacusis, with the sound sensitivity, and their symptoms were even worse than mine. And some couldn't even leave the house, some couldn't even use utensils. They had to use plastic and paper in the kitchen because the noise that the plates and the silverware made was too uh excruciating for them, that sensitive. And I was worried that I was gonna become even more sensitive and even more debilitated. So I had that fear, and then I had the fear of who's gonna take care of me. My mother was elderly, my daughter was still in middle school. So it was really scary. And I I had to figure out how to come out of this. And so I did a ton of research. I went to all the doctors, my general doctor, I went to an ear, nose, throat doctor, I went to a neurologist, I got the MRI, did all the things trying to figure out what's wrong with me and how do I heal. And no doctor could help. I wanted to figure out what was causing this so I could go to the root cause and fix it. I did a lot of research on the brain because I knew it was a brain thing. I came across these functional doctors online. Dr. Gundry and Dr. Hyman both, you know, had different takes on things, but similar. And, you know, they talked about toxins filling up your bucket. And when your bucket gets full of all these toxins, then your your immune system starts attacking itself. So that's when I realized, oh, maybe this is an immune problem, an autoimmune issue. They taught me that first you have to heal your gut. And so I started changing my diet, taking lectins out of my diet. Uh I took things to heal the gut and found a little bit of relief, but uh, you know, still with issues. And because these functional doctors were just making sense to me, I f sought out a local functional doctor here in Melbourne, and he is the one that helped me. It was as simple as taking a food sensitivity test and taking some foods out of my diet that I got better within three days. It was crazy. Within three days, I started feeling better just by taking some foods out of my diet. Wow. Yeah. So for a couple years I was suffering and I I had gained so much weight too during this time. I didn't talk about that. I gained like 20 pounds, which is a lot for me because I have a small frame, but I gained so much weight from eating carbs and sugar, just trying to get energy. And so that's how the the weight came on. The gluten that I was eating was really hurting me. The two things on the top of my list were gluten and egg whites, which I was eating every day. And then the second tier of foods I'm sensitive to were spinach, almonds, Brazil nuts, blue cheese, things that I was eating that I thought was healthy. I was putting spinach in my smoothies, almonds in my smoothies, or almonds as a snack, you know, the healthy snack, healthy food, but apparently it's not healthy for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 16:15

Wow. When you got your list of food you were not supposed to eat, you stopped all of them. And then within three days, what was the physical differences that you felt in three days?

SPEAKER_00 16:29

My brain was sharper. Uh the fog, the brain fog uh was started going away. And I was able to think more clearly. And if you've been through a paramenopause, you know what brain fog feels like. And I had more energy even. I felt less fatigued, more energetic in just three days.

SPEAKER_01 16:51

That's great. Well, I mean, you don't need any more motivation than that to keep going, right?

SPEAKER_00 16:56

Nothing tastes as good as healthy feels, no. And so staying on this diet was very easy for me because I was feeling so much better. And I stayed on it for three months. The 20 pounds came off in three months, yeah, which was too fast. But I wasn't dieting per se. I was eating as much as I wanted. I just couldn't eat these certain foods. But the yeah, I lost weight too much. I didn't look good because you know, when you lose weight that fast, it's it's not pretty. It's drastic. Yeah. Yeah, it's drastic, especially at my age, because then your skin just sags. So that really, really helped me. It wasn't just the change in diet, but also the supplements that the functional medicine doctor put me on as well, which helped a lot because you'd be surprised at what just a deficiency in, for example, iodine can do to your body. If you have an iodine deficiency, it can it can affect your thyroid. You know, just testing all he took like 22 vials of blood from me, figured out what I was deficient in, and so added those into my diet as well. So it was the the removal of the foods and the addition of the vitamins and minerals and nutrients that I was lacking. Those together, I think, is what helped me feel better in just a few days.

SPEAKER_01 18:22

Would you recommend a functional doctor or this doctor, even if you didn't have some sort of major issue like you have? It sounds like that that might be a good place for people to go as well if they have something they're trying to figure out.

Functional Medicine And The Food Test

SPEAKER_00 18:38

A lot of people I'm seeing more and more have these illnesses and the doctors can't figure out what's wrong or how to help. And for anybody in that situation, I highly recommend, strongly recommend a functional doctor because they are trained to look at the whole person holistically. They're not just a cardiologist or not just a neurologist, or not, they don't look at the one part of your body. They look at your body as a whole. They work very hard to find the root cause of what's causing your symptoms, and they're much less likely to give you a prescription to mask the symptoms or to manage your sickness because the body can heal itself if it's balanced. And most people with an illness, their bodies are out of balance for some for some reason. And it a lot of times it's some environmental, external situation, or maybe you're just lacking certain nutrients. And you know, in your research, you found inflammation is huge and wreaking havoc on our bodies. I believe that's what causes most illnesses is inflammation. And so figuring out what's causing the inflammation is really key. And for me, a big part of it was what I was eating, the gluten and the egg whites. I know that gluten is a very common intolerance or sensitivity for people. My functional doctor told me that nobody should be eating gluten, even if you're not, you know, quote unquote sensitive to it, because of what it does to your body. Um, it's not healthy, apparently, for anyone to be eating.

SPEAKER_01 20:21

What was the hardest food for you to stop eating?

SPEAKER_00 20:25

This is kind of embarrassing, but I'm gonna be honest. Oreos.

SPEAKER_01 20:30

Oh, I love Oreos.

SPEAKER_00 20:31

Or like chocolate chip cookies. I would eat Oreos or chocolate chip cookies every day. You know, not a lot. I would only eat like two or three, but that was my one of my pleasures, you know, and I had that sugar craving, yeah, I would reach for cookies and potato chips. I love to snack on something crunchy.

SPEAKER_01 20:52

Today, uh, if you were to eat a potato chip or a few Oreos, what would it do to your body?

SPEAKER_00 20:59

If I do eat something with gluten in it, like an Oreo, it's not gonna bother me. But because I'm not, I don't have celiacs, I believe it's called celiac where they can't have any gluten or they will immediately have symptoms. I'm not that I'm not that sensitive. That's why people don't realize, like, I've been eating gluten my whole life. It's like, why can't I eat it now? But you know, our bodies change. And it's not something that I eat and then I have a symptom. It's something that if I eat it over time, that's what these food intolerances are. I can eat these foods, but if I eat them every day for a week, maybe a week later or two weeks later, that's when I'm gonna have the symptom. And that's why it's hard to tell like what's causing your symptoms, because it's something you've always eaten. You just now have developed a sensitivity to it. Especially for women after when you hit paramenopause, your body changes so much. Yeah, I'm getting there. Yeah, well, you might if you notice anything, you might want to get a food sensitivity test. You really shouldn't be eating. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 22:06

I've put on my seatbelt and I'm holding on for the ride.

SPEAKER_00 22:11

I'm here for you. If you need somebody or to bounce symptoms off of, I can I can give you some good pointers.

Rapid Relief And Weight Changes

SPEAKER_01 22:18

Right. Thank you so much. So looking back now over this whole journey, what do you think has been your greatest lesson? And um, what are words that you would share with somebody else?

Gluten, Intolerance, And Tricky Triggers

SPEAKER_00 22:35

Wow, I definitely have learned a lot. I'm in a way kind of glad. I don't know if that's the right word for it, but that I went through this sickness, that this actually happened to me because before I got sick, I was the single mom doing it all. Um, you know, busy, busy, busy, doing the shopping, the cleaning, the cooking, the taking to activities, and the it just it was just a go, go, go life. The sickness slowed me down and it gave me time alone with myself to get to know myself more, to reflect on my life and who I where I was in my life. And uh it really just it was really good for me. I grew a lot emotionally, mentally, spiritually. Definitely brought me closer to God. It it taught me to, you know, don't keep things in. When you are going through a hard time, you really should confide in your friends and reach out and let them know what you're going through and give them the opportunity to be the friend that they want to be. Like if one of my friends went through this and they didn't tell me, and then I found out later, I would be so mad. I would be like, What? Why didn't you tell me? I could have helped, and then I would have felt horrible that I wasn't able to help. And so very selfish of me not to tell anybody really the extent of the how debilitated I had become. As we age, and especially for women, you know, it's also for men too, but women go through the menopausal phase. And as we age, people just think that being more tired, maybe not looking as good, having less energy, see, having the brain fog, losing a bit of your memory. A lot of people think this is just normal part of growing old, right? I thought it was. I'm like, okay, you know, everyone thinks the weight gain, the puffiness in the eyes, we just think that that is part of growing old. And it honestly is not. It's just our bodies can't filter out all the toxins anymore. We don't realize that it's not just the food we're eating, it's the air we're breathing, it's the water we're drinking, it's it's there's toxins everywhere. And if anyone is feeling more tired, more brain foggy, seek out a functional doctor to have your blood tested. Oh, and sleep. I had no idea how important sleep was. Our bodies rejuvenate while we're sleeping. So we need good sleep to heal. And if we're not getting a good seven to eight hours a night, then our bodies aren't able to heal what we just went through that day. So sleep is so important. I think it's becoming the catalyst to a lot of people having health issues because they're not getting seven to eight hours a night. Or they're drinking alcohol before they go to sleep, and that's preventing you from getting a good night's sleep. You know, alcohol has become the norm to have a drink every night, and it's really not good for you, mainly because, well, two reasons. It's not good for your liver, which is filtering out all of these toxins that we deal with every day, but it really is a sleep disruptor. And get a good 30 minutes of walking in, maybe 15 minutes in the morning, 15 minutes at night. And uh, you'd be amazed at how much better you would feel. We don't have to get tired and get puffy as we get older. We don't have to. It's not that you're getting older, it's just your body can't filter anymore. So you got to make some lifestyle changes.

SPEAKER_01 26:28

Wow, everything you shared is uh it's amazing. And it it's great for you for physically, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically. Everything you just shared. It all comes together.

SPEAKER_00 26:41

And your body will thank you for it. If anybody wants more information of my journey, what I did, and who I sought for help, like chiropractic also is very important. Um, finding a good chiropractor really helped me as well. You'd be surprised at uh what aligning the the spine and the vagus nerve, like all of that, how it affects all your organs. Um, yeah, just reach out to me and I'd be happy to answer any questions and help you with in your journey of being healthier and happier.

SPEAKER_01 27:14

Sunday will have your contact information in the show notes as well. So it'll uh easily be available for somebody if they want to reach out to you. And maybe we'll include the uh the name of your functional doctor as well. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 27:26

Sunday, thank you so much for being my guest today. Well, thank you for having me. It's been wonderful. And thank you for allowing me to share my story to hopefully help others.

SPEAKER_01 27:37

Of course, anytime. And thank you for listening. This is Jen with the I Need Blue podcast. If you want to learn anything and everything about I Need Blue, visit my website, ineedblue.net. And remember, you are stronger than you think. Until next time.