LDS Podcast "Latter-Day Lights" - Inspirational LDS Stories

Finding Hope, Faith & Joy While Dealing with Chronic Pain: Crista Thomas' Story - Latter-Day Lights

• Scott Brandley and Alisha Coakley

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Have you ever wondered how to find joy in the midst of chronic pain?

In this episode of Latter-day Lights, Crista Thomas shares her incredible journey of faith, resilience, and hope. From battling an undiagnosed chronic illness as a child to enduring a terrible car accident that miraculously brought unexpected healing, Crista reveals how her trust in Christ has carried her through unimaginable trials.

Through her story, Crista opens up about the struggles of living with multiple chronic conditions, the emotional toll of being misunderstood, and the profound ways her faith has sustained her. Now a child life specialist, she uses her experiences to bring comfort and understanding to others, living out her belief that life’s purpose is found in serving others.

Don’t miss this inspiring episode that reminds us all that even in the hardest moments, there is light, love, and a greater plan at work.

*** Please SHARE Crista's story and help us spread hope and light to others. ***

To WATCH this episode on YouTube, visit: https://youtu.be/jdcVW4czJtU

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Scott Brandley:

Hi everyone, I'm Scott Brandley.

Alisha Coakley:

And I'm Alisha Coakley. Every member of the church has a story to share, one that can instill faith, invite growth and inspire others.

Scott Brandley:

On today's episode we're going to hear how one woman has learned that, despite having a chronic illness, life can be filled with joy when Christ remains at the center of it. Welcome to Latter-day Lights. Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of Latter-day Lights. We're so glad you're here with us today and we have a special treat for you. Krista Thomas has joined us. Welcome to the show, Krista.

Crista Thomas:

Thank you, I'm so happy to be here.

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, thanks for reaching out to us. I'm curious. I don't always ask this anymore, but I am curious to know how you found the show. How did you come across Latter-day Lights?

Crista Thomas:

So I found the show from my husband. He had just been looking for uplifting podcasts to listen to and he found your guys' show. He started listening to it and I at the you know, at the end you guys say if you have a story, reach out. And he was like kristen, you have to do it. And he kind of, and I was very hesitant and he's like just do it, just put it in there. So that's how I found it.

Alisha Coakley:

It was from my husband yeah that's probably a little bit bigger of a deal than like nudging someone during testimony meeting. Being You're like, you should go up there.

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, it is, you should share your story?

Scott Brandley:

Yeah, you want me to do what?

Alisha Coakley:

Yeah, exactly, funny. Well, maybe you'll have to think of a story that your husband has, and then you'll just nudge him back. True, I'm sure? Right, I mean True, I mean, every member has a story, awesome. Well, miss Krista, why don't you, before you get started, tell us just a little bit about yourself?

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, so I'm Krista. I was born and raised here in Utah. Those of you from Utah, I'm from the Murray area. I just graduated this spring from the University of Utah and I'm working as a child life specialist. So not a lot of people know what that is, but we work most commonly in healthcare settings and our job is to basically support kids and families when they're in the hospital and try to make it a less traumatic experience.

Crista Thomas:

So, yeah, I've loved it. It's our backgrounds in child development, so we learn how to talk to kids, how to get on their level, how to advocate for families, all that sort of stuff. So we have a lot of roles in the hospital.

Alisha Coakley:

That is so needed. What kind of stuff do you guys do to kind of make it a less, you know, traumatic environment?

Crista Thomas:

Yeah. So, um, it kind of depends on what unit of the hospital you're in, what setting you're in, um, but some of the things we do we do, um procedure preparation. So if a child is in the ER and they're going to get an IV that happens all the time, um, they would call us in, we'd go in and we'd explain what an IV is. We'd show them an actual like IV without the needle in it. We'd let them play with it. They'd kind of um understand what it is. We talked to them in language that they can comprehend.

Crista Thomas:

Um, and then kind of give them some control. They can, like, put an IV in a little doll so that they understand what's going to happen. They understand the sequence. So when they do it, they're aware of what's happening and they have a little more control on it. We come up with like a comfort plan of like okay, here's your plan, you want to sit on your mom's lap, you want to play with a poppet toy while it's happening, you want a countdown before we put the IV in. You know, we kind of just give the kid more control so that they can cope better.

Alisha Coakley:

It's. I mean, it seems almost so simple, like when you're explaining it, but it I can just see how it could make a world of difference, cause I feel like a lot of times it's just the fear of the unknown causes trauma right and makes trauma linger. So that's so interesting, that's amazing. I didn't even know that existed. You're right.

Crista Thomas:

A lot of people didn't. But yeah, we do that. We do a lot of play, Like, if you're inpatient, we do a lot of play to just make the hospital feel normal, help kids kind of communicate because that's how they communicate and cope and so lots of different things that we do in the hospital. But it's been around since the fifties. It's just not super well known.

Alisha Coakley:

I love that that's awesome. Well, do you have kids of your own? I know you're sitting here.

Crista Thomas:

No kids, nope. So I just got married just a couple months ago. We got married the end of May.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, you're a newlywed, you still like your mother.

Crista Thomas:

Newlyweds? Yep, we're newlyweds.

Alisha Coakley:

We're just getting used to everything, so no kids oh too fun, have you guys had your first big fight yet, oh yeah oh okay you already know this is like oh, forever is a really long time but we learned how to come back together.

Crista Thomas:

I think those are the big good lessons. So it's been really good.

Scott Brandley:

All part of the experience right.

Crista Thomas:

Oh yeah, that's funny.

Alisha Coakley:

Cool. So well, I guess we'll go ahead and just kind of turn the time over to you. Do you want to go ahead and tell us where your story begins?

Crista Thomas:

Yeah.

Crista Thomas:

So when I was about 10 years old it was the end of the year, it was during Christmas time I just started to get very sick, like I was having a lot of pain in my stomach that I couldn't really understand and I couldn't really communicate very well either. I was just like I don't feel good. You know, my mom was like this is weird. You know she just kind of kept an eye on it, but also I'm a kid, I'm a 10 year old, that kind of happens, they get sick, and so didn't do anything crazy for that at first. And then it was when it was Christmas and I like chose to stay on the couch instead of like go play with my cousins or whatever, cause I was so sick and she was like this is weird. So from then it just things just started to get worse. I couldn't eat very well without being in a lot of pain. I was just always in a lot of constant pain and discomfort in my abdomen. So we started to go to a lot of doctors, tons of specialists, to see what was going on, and all the tests we ran came back normal, and it's funny because you'd think that's a really happy thing. But when I was just getting worse and worse. It was like, okay, we know something's wrong, but why is everything coming back normal? So that went through all the next year. We were doing lots of scopes which they put cameras down your throat and they look into my stomach and things looked very inflamed but they had no answer for it.

Crista Thomas:

And throughout that year things just started to get a lot worse. I wasn't eating nearly at all. I was losing a ton of weight. I wasn't really moving a whole lot Because, as a 10-year-old, moving, walking, getting up and down that hurt. And so I'm like well, if it hurts, I'm going to stop. Right, we know better now that we're older, of like, you've got to push through things. That's healthy for your body, but when your body's telling you this hurts, this is making it worse, you stop. So, um, that's kind of how that went.

Crista Thomas:

I started, I stopped going to school. Um, that's kind of how that went. I stopped going to school and we just kept going to doctors and getting no answers and they kind of started to tell my parents that it was just in my head that there was nothing that was showing up, and so I must have just been making it up or it came from stress or all that sort of stuff. We ended up going across the country. We went to Georgia we have some family there that had connections so we got this test done and the doctors pulled my parents aside and they said take her home and make her comfortable, because she's not going to make it. We don't know what's wrong, but she's not going to make it.

Crista Thomas:

And if you saw some pictures of me, you know why. I had lost all my weight, I looked gray, I didn't have any life in me and there was no answer. That's what was so hard, and I think it was hard for me as a kid too. I was now 11 years old and I had picked up on the fact that they didn't think anything was wrong. They thought it was in my head. I was now 11 years old and I had picked up on the fact that they didn't think anything was wrong. They thought it was in my head. I had realized that because I heard conversations from my parents and they're trying to navigate it all, and I think I kind of felt like I had something to prove. I was like, okay, well, if I do this, they're not going to believe me. If I try to push through. They're not going to believe me. But then I was just kind of not living. So it was.

Crista Thomas:

It was a really hard year. Nobody knew what was going on. My ward fasted for me every single week and we just didn't have answers. So that kind of led through that rest of that next year in 2013. And symptoms just got worse. Didn't see many sign of hope there or of light.

Crista Thomas:

And then in October we were driving up to my grandparents house up in Northern Utah and it was actually general conference. So we had general conference on in the car and my whole family was driving and I was sitting in the middle seat of our first well, the second row of the car and my dad was driving, my mom was in the other seat and then my siblings were to either side of me and in the back and out of nowhere I just remember hearing screaming from my sister and glass just all over the car and it was the scariest feeling, like you just felt, like I felt like we were just tumbling in the car. We weren't, we didn't roll, but it just felt such a disorienting feeling. You don't know what's going on. You feel like you were in a dream, disorienting feeling. You don't know what's going on. You felt like you were in a dream.

Crista Thomas:

I woke up to a very nice, redheaded lady right next to me asking me if I knew who I was, what was going on, and my dad was in shock, just yelling I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. Is Heather okay? That's my mom, just over and over. And then I looked to my mom and she's not moving. Is Heather okay? That's my mom, just over and over. And then I looked to my mom and she's not moving. She's just by flush, her eyes are closed, she has blood running down her face and it was super traumatic.

Crista Thomas:

What had happened, I found out later, is there was a tire. Well, so there was an RV that was going southbound, we were going northbound, we were in the left most lane of the freeway, right next to the medium barrier, and a tire had come off of the RV, which they didn't notice because it was like a fifth wheel, so it didn't cause a lot of problems Right, and it had bounced over the barrier and landed, like right on top of our car, and so that's why all of the windshield spread everywhere. Yeah and um, the top of the car came down and since I was in the middle seat. It hit me right in the chest, um, so I ended up getting some, um, internal bruising on my lungs and a heart contusion, which is essentially bruising on your heart, and and how they handle that is basically like it's like you have broken ribs. It's super, super painful. They have to monitor you, but there's not a ton they can do for it. And so I was in the hospital for a while.

Crista Thomas:

My parents both fractured their necks and my dad had a spinal fusion. He broke a bone in his back as well, and they had said after the fact that if that tire had hit even a centimeter to the right or to the left, one of my parents would have died, undoubtedly, like it was exactly in the right spot where both of them lived. So they both, they both did live. My mom ended up waking up after minutes of being unconscious and not responding, um, and then my siblings, other than a couple of bruises and scratches, were, um, pretty unfazed, for the most part physically.

Crista Thomas:

So when the tire had hit, everybody had passed out, other than my brother in the back, and so my dad. He was obviously driving the car, he didn't have any control of it and we were right next to the median. So we could have either turned right into the median and absolutely crashed right into that median. So we could have either turned right into the median and absolutely crashed right into that median or we could have gone into ongoing traffic. Because he had no control of the steering wheel. But my brother, he was awake and he saw it all happen. He saw the steering wheel slowly turn to the left and we just rode right next to the median until we slowly, like leaned into it a little bit and just stopped and somebody was in control of that car. That was not my dad chills.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh my goodness wow it's crazy.

Crista Thomas:

It was such a such scary, scary car accident that had, like so many miracles in it, so many little things, and I mentioned that red haired lady that was next to me. There were three people who had stopped and they were three nurses who had helped three people in our car accident that were actually injured.

Alisha Coakley:

Oh, my goodness.

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, it's amazing, right, it's not a coincidence. Oh man, yeah, so that was a very scary car accident and we were thinking in that moment we're like, after the year we just had, like now we get in this car accident that could have, you know, could have killed one of us and has permanently changed my parents' lives because of, you know, neck and back injuries, right. So we were just like, why is this happening, you know, and we had amazing support and felt so much love through it all, but it still just didn't. It just didn't make sense, and things don't always make sense, but that's just kind of where we were at in that moment. Um, but what's crazy is, a couple months after that, as I recovered from my injuries from the car accident, um, a lot of my symptoms that I had been dealing with started to suddenly improve with, started to suddenly improve. And we had no answer for that, we had no reason, but we also weren't second guessing it, right, like nothing else was working. And so we were like, okay, like this is this is crazy. We didn't know if it was really related to the car accident, we didn't know, but things started to improve. Um, I still had problems, I still had GI problems and not feeling a hundred percent, but it was things where I could still have a good quality of life that I just wasn't having before Um. So I was like, okay, we'll take this, and I kind of just ran with it for the next couple of years. Really, I had things I thought I'd live with my whole life, but I wasn't on my deathbed, you know, I wasn't not living. So that's kind of how that went. Um, not really understanding how it all worked out, just kind of trusting that this was the plan. Um, well, that all went um that way. I stayed that way, um, until the spring of 2017.

Crista Thomas:

Um, and I was at the end of my freshman year of high school and I woke up one day with a ton of pain, just tons of pain, and I didn't want to relate it to the same thing. I my mom was like Krista, do you think this is insane? And I was like no way, it can't be. You know like I was like we're not going down that road again. Um, and it was on the different side of my abdomen. It was on the right side where your appendix is at. So we were like, okay, I have appendicitis Right. And for me. I'm like great, that's perfect, let's just have appendicitis.

Crista Thomas:

Well, we went to the ER and basically our whole journey started again. They said, well, we can't find anything, everything looks okay. I'm sure just go home In a couple of days you'll be feeling better. And I didn't get any better. I got a lot worse and we started going to the specialists again. We tried, I tried every diet that I could think of that everyone gave me. I tried all the supplements. I was so open to trying everything and we were kind of just back on the search of getting tests done, getting results back that were normal, and just feeling progressively worse. Um, and that was very, that was hard. That was really hard Cause I was just like I thought, you know, we had passed this.

Crista Thomas:

I was blessed really that whole time to remain mentally pretty stable, like very strong. I had my times, because that's a really hard thing to go through and when your body's physically weaker, your mind, just it is physically weaker. Your mind, just it is physically weaker too, right, like they're. They're one. So it was hard but I was able to stay. I had so much support and I was able to stay really strong through it all um, mentally, but just, and I think oh, I know that the gospel played a huge role in that, because all growing up and into high school years, that's what I really held on to, when things didn't make sense and I'm like, okay, we're back. This could get really bad. I just had to hold on to the fact of there's a purpose in it, there's a plan, god has a plan for me and he's going to guide me and I guess my mindset was like I'm going to try everything I can, do Everything in my power.

Crista Thomas:

I'll use all the resources I have and then give the rest to God. And that's kind of been my whole mindset throughout all of it. So we did, I tried everything I could and I just got sicker. I was on my high school drill team, which is a dance team, and I danced my freshman year and then I got sick and I had to kind of stop and I did my best to push through my sophomore year and it was really rough. I would dance a routine and then kind of go and just pass out in bleachers and that's just kind of how it went.

Crista Thomas:

But I loved people and I loved being around people and that's what kind of gave me my purpose and so I kept doing it. But the reason that's significant is because my sophomore year, when things were just getting worse and we weren't getting any answers and I was back to being told it was in my head or I had an eating disorder or all of that sort of stuff, I found out someone on our drill team that was new to it. We hadn't seen her much throughout the year because she had been getting a lot of surgeries. I'm like I should probably talk to her about this. And so that December I talked to her and we had all the same symptoms and I'm like, oh my gosh, we had all the same symptoms and.

Crista Thomas:

I'm like, oh my gosh, like we had all the same symptoms, which I hadn't found anyone that had all the same symptoms of me, right, like, and it wasn't. She was like, yeah, I've been tested every organ you know the gallbladder and the liver, and gastroparesis, like all stomach stuff. It had all been tested and all come back back normal and, um, she had all the same tests and she was like I think you need to go to this doctor that I go to and I was so excited about it. Um, and I brought it to my mom and she was kind of like, just very hesitant, cause she's like we've been so many like I just don't want to get your hopes up again, you know.

Crista Thomas:

And so we actually didn't go for a while, for a couple months, and then finally I just like I just kept feeling I'm like we got to go, we have to go to this. I feel so strongly about it and I'm very much a feeling person and I'm like we have, I just keep feeling that. And so she's like, okay, we'll go. So we went and I went to this doctor. It was interesting because they're they're an internal medicine doctor, but it's really like a primary care office. She had found my, my friend that had the same symptoms. Her mom actually went to this primary care provider and he just said she was talking about her daughter's symptoms and he said let me see her. I think I know what she has. So it was a very random like not a super specialized person of like this is what I've studied my whole life. This doctor just kind of was seeing these patients and so I went there and right away, after seeing all my symptoms and everything, he said, oh yeah, I think I know what you have. And it was just like the craziest feeling, because we've been told so many times of like you don't have anything, everything looks normal. You can tell you're sick but it's probably just going to get better in a couple of days. And to know like yeah, I think I know what you've got, like we should get these testing. And he was so confident and he was like this might be a hard journey but we're going to figure it out. And I remember walking. My parents were with me. I remember walking in the parking lot and I was just elated, like I was so excited and I felt so much hope of like okay, like this isn't for nothing, like we're going to find what's going on. And I look over and my parents are just in tears. You know, I think, I think I suffer a lot. But the experience of a parent that has a chronically ill child is a different kind of suffering that not a lot of people really talk about. But they, I think they were feeling every emotion. But it was just like, oh my gosh, like they had been told and questioned if really I was making it up. They didn't know they were being told by professionals and all this stuff, and so to finally get that answer it was, it was a really powerful experience. Um, so what they had found um. I did test positive for what they thought I.

Crista Thomas:

The first thing I was diagnosed with um was called MALS, so median arcuate ligament syndrome. I have a couple of different um. Vascular compression disorders is what they're called, and what that means is basically, without getting too wordy, because of my anatomy, how I was born, different arteries and different nerves and veins are getting compressed just by different parts of my body and then that cuts off blood flow. If it's hitting the nerves, that's creating a lot of pain. That's not supposed to be there and it just it affects body functions, the body system functions, and so that first one has to do a lot with eating food. That's how we found it, because that was really hard for me and my diaphragm sits just a little lower than everyone else's, like just slightly and so every time I was breathing it was hitting on this median arcuate ligament that was restricting blood flow of your celiac artery, which is like a main artery for your blood flow, for your gut, and then hitting all of these nerves. So that's what was causing a lot of problems and what's crazy um about that is as we were.

Crista Thomas:

I was getting this testing done for this and we were looking at surgeries and all this stuff, my, my friend I was in high school at the time and my friend that had been there since the beginning, um, since when I was in elementary school. She was like Krista, if you think about it like. So, we had found that when we were talking to my doctor about the car accident, we were like I did get in this car accident and then I got some relief. What they think happened is because of how the car hit me. It hit me right in the chest. It had actually shifted my diaphragm just slightly so that I wasn't getting that compression as much. And she was, and I and I had.

Crista Thomas:

Always I was like wow, that's so lucky, right, but she was talking to me and she was like Krista, that's such a weird car accident to get into. Right, like to be able to have that injury had to be that exact car accident, like if you rear-ended someone you weren't going to, you weren't going to get that impact on your chest If you got T-bone, if you, you know something like that. It just it didn't make sense. This was such a such a almost like designed car accident that you had to be in and I'm like you're right, and the fact that, like I was sitting in the middle right and I got hurt and nobody else, like no, well, other people got hurt but nobody died from it, and it was just like that's injury that I needed to get the relief that I did and it was like wow, seems like such a terrible thing to happen.

Crista Thomas:

But really that's what I needed, because we later put it together that that diagnosis Mal's didn't come to be in Utah.

Crista Thomas:

It wasn't really relevant in Utah until about like a year before I got diagnosed.

Crista Thomas:

So if I didn't have that car accident, I would have gone those three years just progressively getting worse and really at the state I was in, who knows really where I would have gone those three years just progressively getting worse and really at the state I was in, who knows really where I would be at that point until we found it. So it was like God gave me this little bit of relief in a way that seems so tragic. Right, he gave me this relief until I was able to find answers to me. That's such a testament of like God doesn't necessarily take away your trials, right, like he didn't take it away I, it came back and it's still really hard, but he he made it possible to get through it. It's kind of like you know that, um, the story of like you're climbing a mountain and there's a bunch of rocks in your backpack and Christ, he won't necessarily take your backpack off, but he'll take those rocks out of your backpack so you can get to the top.

Crista Thomas:

You know, it's kind of what I feel like that was. You know, he made it possible for me to keep going, he gave me that strength to keep going, for me to keep going. He gave me that strength to keep going, and so that was. That was a pretty crazy thing to realize after the fact, like wow, I really needed that. Um. So, unfortunately, that answer, uh, that diagnosis, um, that wasn't the end, and really the story after that just gets messier and harder. Since then I've gotten, I got two surgeries for that diagnosis. I didn't really get a lot better from the surgeries. I got a little bit of relief and then got worse. And then we found another vascular compression on the renal artery that goes to your kidney compression, um, on the renal artery that goes to your kidney, and so they had to take my left kidney out and put it on my right side. So I have both of my kidneys. They're just on my right side.

Scott Brandley:

Wow.

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, yeah, I know it's crazy that they could do that. They do it a little differently now, but I'm I've been kind of the Guinea pig at all of this, so that's how they were doing it back then. So they did that because my kidney was fine. It just wasn't getting blood flow because of how my body is and how it was being restricted.

Scott Brandley:

So how did they find space for your kidneys? Do things just shift over and fill that space, or what?

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, so how did they find room? Is that what you asked?

Scott Brandley:

Yeah.

Crista Thomas:

They did have to take out. Like yes, things just kind of shift over, but for me they had to take out my appendix because it was just in the way. So they're like, yeah, we just took it out, you don't need it anyway. I'm like, okay, and then it just fits. It just fits like right there, and then it just fits. It just fits like right. There's another like really big artery coming up from your right leg. I don't know the name of it, but they can just connect your kidney to that artery and it gives it the same blood flow that it needs that it had on its left side.

Crista Thomas:

So they're now doing it differently, where they just move the left kidney down a little bit into that left side, like the left pelvis, but for me it's on my right, so there just is room there. I know it's crazy and I had a couple complications with that and my kidney popped, the sutures and flipped over into my pelvis and I was having some problems there and so after that surgery we went, we kind of my doctor that I did find and that had diagnosed me, he, he's been amazing. He I have never experienced like that kind of medical gaslighting we've talked about where they're telling you it's in your head and that you don't have it, that you're not sick. I've never experienced that with him since finding him. That was, that was a miracle because he's been so so, so great at just okay, I know something's wrong with you. This is going to be a hard path, but we're going to keep finding it right. We're not just going to give up. So he kind of was at the point where he was like we've tried everything that I have available right now. I think you should think about going to Germany because there's a specialized testing for these compression syndromes and we don't have the equipment they have here. You're kind of one of the cases that we've done everything that like the textbook says to, and you're just not getting better.

Crista Thomas:

And I wasn't the only one. He had a couple of people, Um, and I've met now many people that fit that little group, unfortunate group, Um, and at that point we traveled to California for a surgery, Connecticut for a surgery. Um, we had um a major, the major kidney surgery here in Utah. So we'd been traveling different places and so we thought about he was like I would just think about Germany. So we thought about it and it was.

Crista Thomas:

I have great parents that they were really good at helping me or letting me be a part of the decision-making Cause I was I was still at that point, I was just 18, but they were really good about. Okay, this is what I think, like Krista, what do you think? Well, this is your body, what do you think you should do? And so that's where I was. I was driving one day and thinking about all these big things and just like gosh, we're not getting anywhere, what do I do? And I got this overwhelming, like tears filled my eyes of just you need to go to Germany. So I said, okay, I, I. This was probably the end of summer and I went to my parents and I said I think we need to go to Germany and I think we need to do it by the end of this year.

Alisha Coakley:

Wow.

Crista Thomas:

They were like okay, um. So I told my doctor and um, it ended up that we ended up going in December. He decided he was going to come with because he wanted to see what they were doing. Um, and yeah, great doctor, he's wonderful. Um, and, and then two other of his patients ended up coming too. They were kind of in the same boat. Those are now some of like my really really good friends.

Crista Thomas:

It's funny because we're all from Utah and it took us going to Germany to meet each other. We always joke about that. We're like we're all like 30 minutes apart and to another country. So we went to Germany, another country. So we went to Germany, found a couple more things of like okay, I still have these compressions that I'm not seeing here in the United States. You know a lot of doctors are giving me differing views and all this sort of stuff.

Crista Thomas:

So we it was kind of hard because we got some answers. But then we came back to the US and other doctors were like we don't agree, we don't think that it's worth doing any other interventions with it right now, and so that was like gosh, did I? Why did I feel so strongly I needed to go to Germany. If that ended up in nothing, you know, and really I don't have a clear like medical answer in that but I I met those people that ended up being a huge strength to me. They've been a huge strength to me to the rest of the time and that's one. You know, that's one answer. It didn't seem like that's why I was. I didn't feel like that's why I was supposed to go, but if that's what God needed me to learn from that, then that's what I learned.

Crista Thomas:

I had another surgery to flip my kidney back over. I've had my gallbladder out. I've had lots of procedures to just try to help symptoms and I'm still very sick. Through the years I've been diagnosed with other things. I've been diagnosed with POTS, which is a lot more common. When I explain what I have people if they know one thing, they usually know POTS and what it is is have you guys heard of POTS at all?

Alisha Coakley:

I've heard of it a long time ago and I can't remember what it relates to, so I'm interested in yeah.

Crista Thomas:

So it's a disorder of the autonomic nervous system and basically what's happening is in really simple terms, your body's always in fight or flight mode and so your autonomic nervous system isn't like regulating very well at all. So that causes problems because that really affects like every body system, like system of the body, because your blood all goes to your extremities as if you're about to fight or run away, and so you're not getting blood flow to your brain, to your organs, like the proper blood flow that you need. Right, your heart rate accelerates and that causes a lot of fatigue. It causes, it causes like a very, very big range of symptoms, depending on your specific diagnosis of POTS. But that could be caused from a lot of things. It can be caused from a virus, it could be caused from they think it's caused from my vascular compression disorders and it could be caused from pregnancy. It's like there's so many different things concussions, and it's very. There's so many different things. Concussions, um, and it can, it's, it's very debilitating. You can't stand up for a long amount of time, um without feeling like you're going to pass out or passing out. Um. Going from sitting or laying to standing, um triggers your body a lot and so you get dizzy, you get nauseous, you get migraines, blurred vision, all sorts of things. Um, so that's something that got a lot worse as we were doing these surgeries, that kind of flared up and we got I got that diagnosis which I still struggle with and there's really no cure for it, it's just let's manage symptoms. And then I got a diagnosis of EDS, which is a connective tissue disorder which goes along with POTS. And then the third thing that they all kind of if you have one you usually have the other is mast cell activation syndrome, which is a disorder of the immune system. So I've gotten a lot more answers of what it is. It's now just how do we help it?

Crista Thomas:

So I don't have a great ending to the story yet. I don't know if there will be any time in the future. I wake up every morning feeling very sick. I kind of explain it like I wake up feeling like I have the flu, you have body aches, you have headaches, you're dizzy, you're super fatigued, eating is hard. Um, I go on ups and downs of symptoms, get better and they get worse, but I'm always, I'm always sick and that's really. It's really hard, and I have my days where it's just like I can't, I'm sick of being sick, I'm sick of doing this, um, but I have learned so much from it that it, in a weird way, it's like I wouldn't change it. I wouldn't change the experiences I've had because of how I've grown from it.

Crista Thomas:

I've always, I always say um, I'm not my sickness, but I am who I am because I'm sick right and um I that also plays into my testimony, because I don't think, I don't know how people with my same, with any chronic illness, I don't know how they get through it without me a knowledge of higher being, a knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ. And it's so easy to feel alone in this. It's especially when you're being told that you're crazy, that nobody knows what you're talking about. You know, and it's so easy to just feel alone.

Crista Thomas:

I was not like a lot of well, I wasn't like any of my friends in high school. You know. They were out, going to football games, doing all sorts of things, and I was at home, I was recovering from major surgeries, you know, and so it was easy to feel alone and the knowledge that there is somebody that knows exactly what I'm feeling, that like, took a whole nother level for me because nobody else could tell me that until I found my little group of people that had my same symptoms. But even then, we all deal with things differently, we all feel things, we feel pain differently, we mentally go through things differently and so, knowing that Jesus Christ has felt exactly what I feel, it's hard to comprehend that, but I know it's true and I have to know it's true, to be able to keep going, you know.

Alisha Coakley:

Right.

Alisha Coakley:

You know it's interesting because it's kind of like what you do now for kids in hospitals. You know, like you're not going to stop the procedure, you're not going to stop the scary thing from happening, but just kind of giving them that knowledge and giving them like as much control as they can. I feel like Heavenly Father is sort of doing the same thing for you and it's like, hey, I'm giving you answers, I'm giving you some knowledge. I'm not going to take this away. It's not going to be anything that dissipates right now.

Alisha Coakley:

You know who knows what's going to happen in the future and how you might be a pioneer for helping others in the future too. Like he might know that he can trust you with this to be the Guinea pig, unfortunately. Like to be the one that does the trial and error and that has the story that helps the medical professionals to be able to find the thing that's going to help others. So you just you have no idea how it's going to help in the end, but it's interesting. It's like he's caring enough to kind of give you as much as he can so that you can continue on. I'm getting all emotional thinking about that.

Crista Thomas:

That is a really great way to put that, especially like with my job and everything. I've never thought of it that way.

Scott Brandley:

How did you so? Did you know you wanted to help kids and do what you're doing? How did that all come to pass?

Crista Thomas:

So for as much time as I spent in the hospital growing up, I didn't ever have any interaction with a child life specialist and I didn't really know that role existed until I had gotten into college. Um, I knew that I wanted to work with kids, that I have always just been drawn to kids always, and I knew I wanted to work in the medical system because I I saw a lot of flaws in the medical system but I also saw, like, how important it is and I had a lot of great medical caregivers that helped me a ton. And I just also knew how hard that world is and people needed some light, people needed someone to be there for them. So I had thought a nurse for a long time and then that just started not to feel right.

Crista Thomas:

And then in college it was kind of a random way that it happened but I had a friend and she one of my best friends her family's in the Down syndrome community because she has a lot of siblings that have Down syndrome, and so there was another family that had a daughter that has Down syndrome and she was going through a lot of health problems. So I had followed her on Instagram and they posted something they said you know she's going to wake up soon. And the child life specialist came in and they decorated her room so that she feels more comfortable when she wakes up from her coma, like all of this stuff, or from her surgery. I think is what it was, and I was like child life specialist, like why do I not know what that is?

Crista Thomas:

I have been in the hospital all the time and I don't know what that is. So I started researching it and I was just super drawn to it. And then the very next day I had a somebody someone else I knew and followed on Instagram. She posted. She said I just started to feel like I should share what I am going into. I'm going to school to be a child life specialist If anybody has questions about that, please reach out to me and I was like, well, that was super direct, yeah, and I just have never had a doubt since I learned that of like this is what I need to do.

Crista Thomas:

So I think, because I didn't have that in that hospital setting and in the really hard medical experiences I had, I went. I had a lot of rough things that could have been better if I had someone to advocate for me or I had someone to kind of get on my level of like, okay, this is what's going to happen, how can we help it, you know? So that's kind of what drove me to it is I didn't have that and I feel like I see the value in it, I see that how much it can help the kids if they do have it. So that's kind of what led me to it. It totally came from my own experience, for sure.

Alisha Coakley:

But obviously one of those things where, like it's all working together to lead you down this path too. So that's really neat.

Crista Thomas:

Yes, yes, one thing, another thing I have like totally learned about this and seen in my job and just in my, you know, personal life is like we are put on this earth for other people. You know, like we, we are all a family. We say it all the time, right? But it's just I realized like if I'm just focusing on me, I do not do well, like I'm the. I've learned through this to kind of enjoy the really simple things, the really simple moments you have with people, cause I can't always, I can't always go on, I can't do everything everyone else can do. I can't go on the hikes, I can't go on the big trips all the time, I can't do everything that I maybe want to or get invited to do. But I've noticed just those little moments with people where you are understanding them and you're feeling their light and you're sharing your light. And it's why we're here and I'm the kind of person that, even if I'm not feeling good, I'm going to get myself to go to a family event or go be with friends, because that's where I feel purpose, that's where I feel like it's worth it, even if I'm struggling, if I'm making somebody else happy or I'm connecting with someone. That's what God needs us to do.

Crista Thomas:

And it's funny when my husband first met me, he's like wow, you are so sick, why don't you just stay home? And I'm like, because I need this. You know like I need other people. If I'm going to stay, if I'm going to stay in the right place, I need other people. And I think that's like goes along with like how you're talking about with my job, like being able to share just not necessarily all of my story with every patient I have, but like just share what I know and what, um, I know can help with other people. It's what really gives me purpose and what makes all of the suffering worth it. You know, like, if you help even just one person, it's worth it.

Crista Thomas:

So, that's what kind of has given me some hope and strength to keep going.

Alisha Coakley:

It's funny because when I I don't know if you've heard my story before in the past, but I I have a chronic myeloid leukemia and so it's like an incurable form of leukemia but you can live with it if you're on chemo for the whole rest of your life. But I've been off chemo for a few years now and I remember like my mom would tell me the same thing that your husband was saying to you like oh, you're not feeling good, you should just stay home. And I'm like why it's not?

Alisha Coakley:

like it's going to give me rest and make me feel better Like this is just how I feel all the time, so I can either feel bad and do something fun, or I can feel bad and be bored Like, oh my gosh. Yes, when you have something like that and you're just like.

Crista Thomas:

Yes, when you have something like that and you're just like, hey, not like I'm getting any better just laying on the couch, so no, I'll be sick if I'm at home or if I'm there. So you know, I'll do something good with it.

Alisha Coakley:

You know a hundred percent. I feel that totally. Sometimes I used one of my friends in the past and sometimes I would, I would use my sickness to get what I wanted, and just for fun, right, Like not really. You know, I remember we had this big activity and there were like porta potties, Like it was like a like all of the board got together for a 4th of July thing and they got a bunch of porta potties and brought it out to this property that we were going to set off fireworks at.

Alisha Coakley:

And I hate porta potties, Like I just, I'm just not, I I don't, I'll just hold it, you know. And so I said I do have leukemia. I should probably have a real bathroom. I think they should let me in the house. And she was like you are terrible. And I was like but you're guilty enough to let me in the house, Right, she's like go to my bathroom, go in the house. And so sometimes it's a benefit. And so sometimes it's a benefit. Sometimes you get a handicap sticker or you get to play that. Oh yeah, it's true, it's true.

Crista Thomas:

There's some perks. There's some yeah, do they outweigh the cons? Absolutely not. My family loves to go to Disneyland with me because they're like Krista, like I have a wheelchair, because walking around that much is too hard, and they're like this is perfect. Are you sure you can't do this right? Are you sure it's gonna? I'm like, yes, you guys, I cannot do this right, even though it'll cut your wait time in half.

Alisha Coakley:

There's some perks, yeah silver lining and all oh yeah how did you meet your husband?

Crista Thomas:

um, I met my husband, so one of his very best friends from high school was dating one of my friends from high school and we weren't like super, super close. But she had come home from her mission and we had started to go to lunch a little bit and I was about to leave the car one day and she was just like I want to set you up with someone. And I was like okay, and I had kind of gotten to the point where I was like I don't know how I'm ever going to find somebody, like I have so much going on that I am not the typical 20 year old, right, I don't have the typical college experience that everyone else does. And so I was just like I don't know how. I kind of I was losing hope at that point. Um, so she was like can I set you up? Like there's a blind date, you guys will be perfect for each other, and I'm like sure, whatever you know. So we ended up going on a blind date, a blind group date, and uh, now we're married.

Alisha Coakley:

So it worked out. That's how we met through some mutual friends. How was that conversation? Cause it's you're, I mean you're, you're kind of right in the sense that like this is your journey, but also in getting married, it's now his too. You know, like that whole in sickness and health thing gets really real when you have that conversation. So how, I you know, how did you guys navigate that?

Crista Thomas:

Yeah, so really with so Tanner, that's my husband Um, what was crazy and how I knew he was different is how easy it was to talk about this, because I had, you know, been on dates with other people and it had it gets brought up right Cause it's my whole life and a lot of the times I would talk about it and you could just tell they either it just went right over their head or they were just very uncomfortable, you know, and they didn't want to talk about it at all. And with Tanner it was not like that at all. Like, right from the beginning I was I'm pretty open about it I'm like, hey, we were going to ride scooters downtown and I was like, hey, I, I probably can't do this. You know, like I said, I probably were going to have to take breaks. Um, I'm going to try my best, but it might be kind of hard. I didn't give him a whole lot and he was like, okay, great, and we're with a big group and we would be, you know, riding scooters, and he would say, hey, at this next light me and you will go sit down. And I was like, oh, okay, and this is super simple. But it was just like he kind of understands and this is not. This doesn't seem like a burden to him.

Crista Thomas:

Um, and so then, as we went on more dates, he would be the one to ask me. He was like okay, so what does this mean? Like, what are you doing? Like, how do you feel? Why are you feeling like this?

Crista Thomas:

And the fact that it wasn't just me like okay, so this is what's going on. Like he wanted to know and he was so interested, so that's what kind of led it all and I would be really open of just like what I could do and how. And it wasn't just him asking like okay, so what are your health things? He would ask like okay, so like, how do you deal with that? Like, how do you get up every day? How do you stay mentally stable? Like he would ask all those questions and I'm like gosh, no one's ever asked me this before, you know.

Crista Thomas:

And and then later, as we continued to date, there was one night where we were just watching a movie and he was like hey, so I want to show you something and I want to make sure, like I want to get your input on it. And he pulls up his phone and it opens his notes and it was it just said. It said, like Chris does help, and it had all of the syndromes that I had told him I had and he had written descriptions of what it was symptoms that can come with it, ways to help like you know, interventions that can help and then ways he could help me with it. And I looked at him and I was like where did you come from?

Scott Brandley:

you know.

Crista Thomas:

So that's what it has. I mean, we there's definitely things that are tricky and we're still navigating, um, but as far as like talking about it and him understanding, it's like he was prepared for it beforehand, you know, and and it was just so easy to talk about it that way. There's, like I said, obviously a lot of challenges that come with it, but that part of it of just talking with it is, it was so seamless almost, which is a blessing. It was so seamless almost, wow.

Alisha Coakley:

Which is a blessing. That's great. That is fantastic. Yeah, you don't see that often.

Crista Thomas:

No, no, you don't. I know he's awesome. He's amazing. He helps me more than I can say. He's your life specialist, he is. He's my child life specialist. He's the crystal, your life specialist, he is he's my he's my child life specialist.

Alisha Coakley:

That is so cool. Yeah, well, krista, do you have? I mean, this has just been fantastic, but do you have any like, any final thoughts, anything that you'd like to share with guests? You know, before we?

Crista Thomas:

wrap up, yeah, I guess the final thing that I want to share, a couple things. Um, life is really hard and I think sometimes in people that are really religious, can just say you know, if you just believe everything's gonna to be fine and the reality is like, no, I still. I feel so much pain all the time. I have really hard things going on. I get really sad and discouraged all the time, but what stays constant is that hope and that's what helps me hold on.

Crista Thomas:

So, like it's okay that you're, that you struggle with things, it's okay that things are hard. That doesn't mean you don't have faith. That means that you're living in a, in a mortal body, and you're living this life, that we're supposed to learn and go through things. Um, but focusing on Jesus Christ and realizing God's got a plan for you, he's put you in this space with other people in your life for a reason, and focusing on other people Because, right, like when we're doing that, we're really becoming more like our Savior. That's what's going to help you get through it. That's what's helped me get through it, at least least of understanding there's more than just me and I am part of a really a bigger purpose than maybe it looks like right now, you know there's, it's possible to be happy, it's possible to have joy and go through something really, really hard, because we have a hope that this isn't the end. I hope that there's a plan and I hope that there's a purpose through all of the suffering.

Alisha Coakley:

Amen to that.

Scott Brandley:

That's inspiring Krista.

Alisha Coakley:

Thank you. I'm sitting here and I'm like, oh, I have a backache. And I'm like, don't even think about Alicia, everybody's hard.

Scott Brandley:

I love your positive outlook and and your attitude and just your faith. Like it's. It's very inspiring and thank you for being willing to share it. And thanks for to Tanner for kicking your butt. And thank you for being willing to share it and thanks for to tanner for kicking your butt and making you come yeah, I know, I know seriously I owe it to him.

Crista Thomas:

He's always like you just gotta share it, like just get it out there, and I'm like I don't know if people will want to listen.

Alisha Coakley:

So I'm glad I have his yeah there's a there is such a power in sharing and I think it's a power for everybody it's it's a power in those who get to hear, but also those who get to actually speak to. You know it. It gives you a little bit of of control over your story and it helps you to see, you know, like all of the little places where heavenly father has intervened, and you know sometimes it does take like like your best friend that you're talking about.

Alisha Coakley:

Sometimes it takes someone else hearing your story to help you see where those interventions have been with Heavenly Father and and with Jesus Christ. And so, yeah it, I love that you were able to come on here today and share your story and I know it's not the end and it's not like this big huge happy ending type of thing right now that a lot of people like to hear.

Alisha Coakley:

but I love that it's real and I love that it's yours, and then it's something that, like can still bring about so much good, and so I just I thank you for doing that and I really do like truly from the bottom of my heart, like I hope that, however long this journey is and however, you know, arduous it might be, that you can continue to keep that that light of Christ shining as brightly as it is. It just exudes from your face Like you just have this like beautiful look I'm getting teary eyed again beautiful countenance that I mean I can see why Heavenly Father wants you working with children, you know, like they just, I'm sure, can feel his love for them through you. But I really do hope that you're able to find, you know, more healing and and peace and and direction and resources and all the things that you need, and that that you'll continue to be a force for good. So thank you, so much Thank you.

Scott Brandley:

Awesome. Well, thanks again, Krista, for being on the show and thanks all of our listeners for tuning in and hearing Krista's story. Please help us get this story out there. There are people that need to hear it, that need Krista's spirit and her light in their lives. So hit that share button, do your five second missionary work and let's get this story out there for other people to hear.

Alisha Coakley:

Absolutely, and for all the tanners out there, if you know somebody who has a story to share, or you are somebody who has a story to share, please don't hesitate to reach out to us. We would love to hear from you. We'd love to get you guys on the show to be able to spread more light and love and and hope and healing and inspiration and all those good things. Um, you can do that by either commenting somewhere we, we, you know, either on YouTube, facebook, whatever else or head over to our page, latterdaylightscom. There is a form that you can fill out at the bottom of the landing page there that will get you in contact with us and we'll schedule a short call with me and chit chat a little bit about your story and then get you scheduled for the show. It's really easy, it's not. It's not as scary as bearing your testimony in sacrament, I promise it is easy.

Crista Thomas:

I can attest to that awesome.

Scott Brandley:

Well, thanks again, krista, and thanks everyone for tuning in, and we will talk to you again next week with another story. Until then, take care bye guys.

People on this episode

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Scott Brandley

Host
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Alisha Coakley

Co-host