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Born out of struggle, stress, health challenges and determination to get on the right path to healing became BBAT Enterprises.
In my mid 30’s, I was on top of the world. I had been married for 5 years to my college sweetheart, Maria, with a toddler and a second son on the way. All was going amazingly well! Then my mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. She was my rock and my mentor. As strong of a woman as she was, my mom succumb to the cancer within months. My parents had been married for 39 years. This was incredibly difficult for my dad. Soon after I started noticing my health declining.
Meanwhile, my job was becoming increasingly demanding and anxiety was taking over to the point that I started to feel bad more than feeling good most days. This was only the start of it. I didn’t listen to my body nor my symptoms but fought through the physical pain that was a direct result of my mental stress. Soon I got the worst news… my father was diagnosed with dementia. As his care-giver, that added responsibility was more stressful than anything I had experienced. After my father passed away my health continued to decline. In my mid 40’s, all hell broke loose! I contracted a softball sized cyst in my groin area which became septic and underwent two surgeries to remove it. In less than two years I was diagnosed with macula edema (fluid build-up in the back of the eye near the retina which causes swelling and blurry vision). After months of successful eye treatments and laser surgeries, the majority of my sight was restored.
However, in September 2017, I started quickly losing my vision again. The retina specialist said because of the eye injections (part of the treatments) and laser surgeries, I developed cataracts and had to have cataract surgery on both eyes. After successful procedures earlier the next year, the blurred vision returned. Further, the eye doctor noticed that along with fluid build-up, abnormal blood vessels started growing around the retina which were damaging the good blood vessels. This left me with only 15% of my vision. This was very devastating to Maria and the boys. I had to have more laser surgeries and eye treatments over the next five months. This required me to go on short term disability with my job.
In June 2018, I sustained two detached retinas of which a more evasive surgery was needed which required me to go on another stint of short term disability. I could only have surgery in my right eye in order to manage and maintain the sight in my left eye as much as possible. Taking multiple eye drops for the right eye pre-and-post surgery and separate eye drops for the left eye became a daily routine.
In addition to eye issues, I was also diagnosed with bilateral gout making me paralyzed for two months…short term disability number three. To close out 2018, I researched, sought out and began transitioning to different specialists (my health squad) including an endocrinologist, urologist, pulmonologist, rheumatologist, chiropractor, and ophthalmologist. I also changed my primary care doctor who was in tune with all of these specialists. Diagnosis included asthma, severe sleep apnea, diabetes, high blood pressure, dish & osteoarthritis, chronic kidney disease, bilateral gout, neuropathy, macular edema, glaucoma, and a compromised autoimmune system. After lining up my physicians to get me back on track with my physical health, I knew I had to do the same for my mental state…which was unstable to say the very least. I sought out therapy and counseling in January 2019. During our counseling sessions, it was recommended that I visit an upper cervical neck and spine specialist to help find the source of my ongoing back pain. In December 2019 I was diagnosed with Cranial-Cervical Junction Misalignment and Upper Cervical Spine Subluxation Axis, and Scoliosis. This was the final piece in understanding why I was having continuous back and neck pain. During this time period I also changed my eating habits, incorporating natural vitamins and minerals that target certain areas of the body with the help of a doctor/herbalist specializing in Chinese medicine.
My transformation over the last year has been nothing short of amazing. With all the physical and emotional challenges that my family has been through over the years, we stay positive! We continue with the doctors and treatments to maintain balance and strength and overall physical and mental wellness. Every day I am thankful that we found our path to wellness.
I continue to work in corporate America in the IT management space. Maria and I see the therapist every week faithfully and continues to this day. With the love and support of my family and friends along my “health squad” I am able to live a life to the best and fullest.
We are proud members of the St. Louis Society for the Blind and Visually Impaired Minority Advisory Board and Board of Directors and the St. Louis Women's Safehouse Board of Directors. Further, Maria and I are members of The Sight Collective DEI Roundtable, among other volunteering responsibilities.