I'm Wanda

I’m a small-town mum, entrepreneur, and Registered Health Coach helping people with ME/CFS and Long Covid find hope, healing and happiness.

My days weren’t always a long list of doctors appointments, prescriptions and obsessive research…

Just a few years ago, you could have found me hiking volcanoes in Iceland, Costa Rica, or Oregon, ziplining in Whistler, climbing the Great Wall of China, or on the jumbotron dancing at Coco Bongo in Cancun. I spent my weekends with my family and friends snowboarding, riding motorcycles or paddle boarding down rivers.

Suddenly I found myself unable to walk upstairs because of joint pain, fatigue had me back in bed by 11 am, and brain fog made it impossible to work or drive.

Using my knowledge in health and wellness, systems creation and problem-solving skills, I created a journal to record everything and finally get a diagnosis. Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/ Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), Central Sensitization and Trigeminal Neuralgia triggered by a post viral illness.

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What chronic fatigue syndrome feels like

I’m most likely curled up on the couch drinking a dirty chai latte or kombucha.

Thinking up ways to help women like me with mild to moderate ME/CFS avoid crashes, learn to pace better and find more happiness and purpose in your life.

ME/CFS is hard. It's a roller coaster of ups and downs.

No one understands what it's like to be in your body trapped by unrelenting fatigue, pain, and brain fog unless they've been there.

It's isolating. Sometimes it feels like your only friend is your heating pad.

But I want you to know you are not alone.

I'm in this battle right beside you. I hope to inspire you by sharing my story and mission.

It's time to stop putting your life on hold, waiting to be 100% recovered from ME/CFS, and find acceptance and a new way to live and thrive.

My many roles…

Parenting with ME/CFS — If you're like me, your family is the number one reason you're fighting to get your health back. Every time I have a crash, my house falls into chaos. There's no clean clothes or food, and half my plants die.

Wanda Belisle- Fatigue Coach — I'm obsessed with science, nutrition and helping people. That's why I became a Registered Health Coach, Certified Autoimmune Paleo Coach, and Certified Holistic Health Practitioner.

ME/CSF impacts everyone around you. It's hard not to feel inadequate, but it is possible to enjoy one another and find new activities that you can do together. — ME/CSF and fatigue impacts everyone around you. It's hard not to feel inadequate, but it is possible to have fun and find new activities that you can do together.

How chronic fatigue syndrome ME/CFS is diagnoised — I've now spent decades dealing with doctors, and I know tons of tips and tricks to get heard and have your symptoms taken seriously. See the full story below

ME/CFS symptom tracker — Two and half years of hard work, trial and error, and The Ignite Wellness Journal is available to purchase on Amazon! You now a tool to help take back your health and keep a positive mindset.

Random Facts…

My Medical Journey

Featured

15 going on 50

On New Year Day 1992, my best friend Hanna, ended up in the hospital with mono.

Shortly after, I started to experience fatigue, problems with temperature regulation, mouth ulcers, dizzy spells, excruciating periods, discoid rash, joint pain and a seizure.

The doctors diagnosed me with Raynard’s and said the rest was stress.

Medical Gaslighting

I was 19 years old, madly in love (with my now-husband) and just got home from backpacking around Europe with Hanna.

I was excited about my future, except there was a pain in my abdomen that was so bad I feared I was dying.

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I went to the first Dr's appointment without my mum. With nothing on but a paper gown, my feet in stir-ups, mid pelvic exam, the Dr told me that there was nothing wrong and that I was depressed because all my other friends were away at university.

It was the 90's mental health was not talked about.

I had no idea what it meant to be depressed (I now know I wasn't).

This was my first real experience with medical gaslighting, and I left feeling like I was crazy and couldn't trust my body to know what pain was.

Advil & Cardio

(Picture: My lips swollen lips from 5 ulcers)
The next three years were spent in excruciating pain and did actually became depressed because I couldn’t get help.

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Finally, a laparoscopy showed I had endometriosis, and the doctor told me I had three years to get pregnant if I wanted children (no pressure for a 22-year-old, right?).

The surgery helped with the abdominal pain, but the joint pain and mouth ulcers continued.

I figured that I just ran hotter with inflammation than normal people and controlled the pain with Advil and a ton of cardio.

Boss, Mum & Burnt Out

Our little forestry business grew from 2 employees to over 100 workers. I was working 80 hours a week from home while my husband was out of province for three months at a time, plus raising two young daughters.

The stress was too much. I wasn’t sleeping, the inflammation was out of control, and I was exhausted all the time, but my blood work came back normal.

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Out of desperation to feel better, I signed up to be a Beta Tester for Dr. Mark Hyman’s Ultra Blood Sugar Solution. For the first time, I was free of joint pain and fell in love with the science of healing, so I enrolled in nutrition school.

Life was great. In 2014 we hired an office manager, bookkeeper, and accountant to replace me. I pursued my passion for nutrition and helping people, running a medical weight loss clinic. I oversaw 130 clients and taught dozens of people how to get off their diabetes medication and blood pressure pills.

I Blew My Back Out…
In Bed

I went to bed feeling fabulous … but woke up on April 24th, 2017, with insane pain radiating down my legs.

The pain was only worse after months of physio, acupuncture, reiki, and fist full painkillers, anti-inflammatories and nerve blockers.

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I got an MRI and showed I ruptured my L1 S5 disk and was impinging on the nerves in both legs.

I waited 11 months from the initial injury for surgery, losing the feeling in both legs below the knee, ended up in a wheelchair, and had trouble with my bladder.

It got so bad, I received emergency surgery on February 19th, 2018. I woke up pain-free and able to stand and walk! (Some of the nerve damage was permanent, and I still have no feeling in my right foot, and it feels like I have to pee all... the… time…)

But this was just where my real health problems started.

WTF Now?

Soon I noticed another problem.

I couldn’t walk upstairs because of joint pain, fatigue had me back in bed by 11 am, and brain fog made it impossible to work or drive. My heart rate and blood pressure were all over the place.

I felt terrible, but all my blood work came back normal, and my family doctor did not know what to do, so she recommended me to a local naturopath.

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They charged me a fortune for tests and supplements, but I only got worst.

I started to document everything. I went back to my doctor and demanded a referral with my list. I was truly blessed to be referred to a fantastic doctor who is kind, empathetic, and took me seriously.

My new doctor put me on Immunosuppressant (for my unnamed mystery autoimmune/inflammatory illness), which helped the joint pain, face rash and mouth ulcers.

Still, the fatigue and brain fog persisted, and it would take me days to recover from a small amount of exercise.

Hard Lessons Learned

I was having terrible dizzy spells, and my legs were weak and shaking, but my husband and daughter had a snowboard race, and I didn’t want to miss it...

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I was crying because I felt too exhausted to go. But I pushed myself to show up.

After watching the time trials, we went to get lunch, a dizzy spell hit while snowboarding, everything went black, and I cartwheeled down the hill breaking my shoulder in 4 places.

Now, this is where I should have used this time off to rest and recuperate…

But instead, I tried to write a bunch of blog posts one-handed and ended up needing surgery on my good wrist, leaving me unable to use both hands for two months.

I should know better. I should have listened to my body when I knew I was too exhausted to go up the hill and not push through an aching wrist.

Rock Bottom

I now had a team that included an internist, rheumatologist, orthopaedic surgeon, neurosurgeon, physiotherapist, massage therapist, and gastroenterologist.

Still, no one knew for sure what was going on. I was more fatigued and had to quit work, working out, and travelling.

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On my 42nd birthday, I realized that whatever I had most likely wasn’t going to kill me, but I could spend the rest of my life unable to do the things I loved and gave my life purpose.

I had only a couple of friends left. I was a burden to my family.

I couldn’t keep going like this. I had tried every diet, supplement, seen countless holistic practitioners.

I couldn’t see how I could live life like this for 40 more years in pain, exhausted, un-showered and a total burden to those who loved me. I was depressed and hopeless.

Then I lost the feeling in half my face, and everything changed...

Answers & Diagnosis

I had three brain MRIs.

And finally got a diagnosis.

Trigeminal Neuralgia is a chronic pain condition that affects the trigeminal nerve, which carries sensation from your face to your brain.

Central sensitization, the central nervous system becomes hypersensitivity to stimuli. And Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS).

My doctor suspects the trauma for the back injury and surgery brought to the surface a post-viral illness that was burning in the background since I was a teen.

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It’s crazy, but getting a name for my illness gave me a treatment plan, hope, direction, and a community.

I used my nutrition and holistic health background, the skill I learned creating systems for our big busy company, and the Ignite Wellness Journal to create a plan to take back my health.

I've learned how to apply pacing to real life, why graded exercise was making me worse, how nutrient-dense low inflammatory foods helped with brain fog and joint pain. But in my desperate attempt to feel better, I admit to spending a lot of money & energy on "cures" that did more harm than good… so I can tell you what to avoid!

My mission is to share my knowledge and expertise, so you don't have to be stuck on the couch paralyzed by fatigue but find a new way to function and find joy and purpose in your life.