Julie Gilbert - Stop Ignoring Yourself And Know Your Worth

Julie Gilbert

[00:00:00] Wendy Manganaro: Hi everyone. My name's Wendy Manganaro and I am the Host of the Wellness and Wealth podcast. I'm so happy to have you find us. And if you could take a moment and hit that subscribe button, I'd really appreciate it. This is the podcast where we believe when you show up better for yourself as a woman business owner, you show up better for your business. 

So sit back, relax. And learn from the practical to the woo-hoo, how to best take care of you. Have a great day. Stay blessed. And leave a review when you're done listening to the show, thanks so much.

[00:00:38] Wendy: Hi everyone. Today we are talking about stop ignoring yourself and know your worth. Our Guest is Julie Gilbert, and I'm gonna read her bio. Then we'll get right into it.

Dr. Gilbert is a pharmacist licensed in multiple states with the years of experience in positions of leadership across various pharmacy arenas, military, US, navy, nuclear retail, long-term care and pharmacy benefits management. As the owner of PGX Solutions llc, she's focusing on education of healthcare providers, patients, and the public on the merits, both financial and clinical pharmacogenomic. She also brings innovations and wellness to the populace, so they may be aware of alternative therapies available. So welcome. Thank you for being on the show with me. 

[00:01:26] Julie Gilbert: Thank you.

Wow. Real pleasure and very excited about this topic. 

[00:01:32] Wendy: And I love your backstory and we'll get into that because you have an amazing, history of what self-care ended up looking like to you based on non selfcare. So I'm really excited to talk about that because I think that's so important.

And I definitely think that you're not alone and that a lot of entrepreneurs are going through learning what that is for them today. But to start it off, I wanted to ask the question, what does being your own healthcare advocate mean? 

[00:01:58] Julie Gilbert: So that's gonna lead right into the story, of course, because being your own healthcare advocate means taking the time to care for yourself.

In my case, for myself. A quick example, in January of 2020, I had been experiencing shortness of breath and ache in the center of my chest that I could really feel. It felt more like not an ache, but like a piercing pain that went straight through to my back, like between my shoulder blades. I was busy just like everybody else.

I ignored it, thought, okay, I'll call and make an appointment later. Three days later I was exercising, in a neighborhood back behind my house and almost fainted as the pain went into my jaw and into my left arm and, shortness of breath. So I recognized the signs, of course, but I still walked my home, rested on the couch, then drove myself over an hour to the hospital.

I didn't even call my husband because again, as women so many times, we think, this is ridiculous. They're not gonna find anything. I'm being silly and they're gonna send me home. Well, I ended up having two stints placed the next morning. They kept me in the hospital. 

So even though I knew the signs and symptom, I chose to ignore him because I had others depending on me. I was busy and that was not being my own health advocate.

[00:03:30] Wendy: And that's so interesting because I think a lot of us feel that stuff in our bodies and we go, it'll pass. I don't have time especially for doctors appointments, I'm guilty of it.

I'm like, do I really wanna do this? Or do I wanna finish working on this? And I think it's really common because, we don't wanna look at our own health, but B, we also don't think that there could any ever be something wrong with us. Like we just really think oh, I'm gonna go forever.

So when this was happening and you were driving yourself to the hospital and everything, what was your first thoughts when you got there? And they were like, no, you need two stints. Did it take a while to sink in or were you still in disbelief?

[00:04:10] Julie Gilbert: Yeah, no, so I still just felt ridiculous, if you will, for going to the er, because I always think, oh, well there's, other people have it worse than me, right? So I just still felt like I was being silly, like it wasn't necessary. But yet, they took my blood pressure, it was like 1 99 over one something.

It was crazy high. And I was like, huh, that's odd. I've never been diagnosed with high blood pressure. And so even when I did call my husband, my thought. Was more of, oh, well it's about time for him to be getting off work. I don't want him to go home and wonder where I am. So I called him and I said, hey, don't be alarmed.

I'm fine, I'm down here in the hospital. I was like, no rush. Even then in the hospital telling him, no rush, I'm fine and I look back on that and it's so strange, but I think again as females, at least of my generation, that, you tend to not make a big fuss of yourself.

So that's definitely something I had to address within my own life. 

[00:05:26] Wendy: And that's k ey because I think of that too. Like I've always been told like, it's not a big deal. If it happens to you. It's a big deal if it happens to somebody else. I've also been told, you always look out for other people before yourself and a lot of that ideology from my generation, probably the, we're probably around the same age. So for you to realize, a, there's something wrong and b to go to that depth of no, really, it's okay don't even bother coming here cuz part of the topic is knowing your worth. What have you learned since then about how much of that was actually cultural and how much is that really a worth thing?

I know it ties together.

[00:06:08] Julie Gilbert: Right. I think that ties in together the worth and, I am in my almost mid fifties, just turned 54. I don't mind telling everyone because it's a blessing to be here at this point, two years later. But even though it was never explicitly said, I learned and absorbed, I guess, from my parents , Especially my mom of course, being the female in the home.

My dad was away working, but it was, you always put the needs of your family and everybody else first. And so, my husband and I are big believers in the power of positivity and, mindset. Of course, I didn't know all of this then, when this first happened, what it was called, let me say the term terminology and this kind of thing.

I'd always been a strong manifestor, but I didn't really know that's what I was doing my whole life, but anyway, it comes back to knowing and believing in your worth and that you are worthy of health and wellness and abundance, in all things positive and that Midwest, where I was raised mentality as well was, don't be greedy.

Being selfish is a bad thing. And I just had to unlearn all of that unconscious programming and realize that being selfish isn't or doesn't have to be a bad thing, and you can't enjoy anything if you're not around. So, a lot of that mindset shift had to come into play. 

[00:07:52] Wendy: I like that idea. Because we forget about that stuff. We're so busy doing others things for other people that we forget that if we are not here, we can't take care of anything. It's amazing how we forget this. We'll run ourselves, ragged and go, oh, maybe I would like to continue to give something, but I can't because I won't be here because I've literally not taken care of myself. Obviously the heart attack in itself, not taking care of yourself to that point, getting there. I really do truly understand that I have not had a heart attack, but there's been many times where I've gone to the doctors and I'm like, it's nothing. And they're like, you have the worst strep we've ever seen.

I'm like, I've been like this for three weeks, and I think that I'm Great, because I've gotten through this. And it's not really an award, Wendy, to say that you've been able to get through and keep powering through a strep throat for three weeks or anything for three weeks.

 So for you, when did you understand that you needed to, start, to be your own healthcare advocate? Because it sounds like they obviously took care of you at the hospital. So what happened after that? 

[00:08:59] Julie Gilbert: So very interesting thing that happened while in the hospital and getting ready for discharge, that is the most, impactful.

I think thing that really led to me realizing that if I didn't speak up, no one would, because while the hospital cardiologist, the specialist was going through my discharge meds and I questioned him on one of the drugs being prescribed without a pharmacogenomics test. This specialist cardiologist, actually said to me, you're talking over my head. I have no idea what you're talking about. Just take the meds. Well, that told me then and there that I had to speak up for myself. Healthcare providers, myself included, I, we don't know everything. And if I don't take charge, who will? And I've had to question professionals on my husband's part and my parents' behalf as well in different situations.

And that was new for me because again, growing. You know it, the unspoken rule was you don't question doctors or those in positions of authority. But then I had to realize they're human. They're tired, they're stressed, they wanna get paid. It's a job to them, just like everyone else has a job. So, 

I had to speak up. No one else was going to, and that was my discharge was on a Sunday. That Monday morning. I went and got my pharmacogenomics test. I had that done. The results came back, and low and behold, I was a non-responder to the antiplatelet therapy that had been prescribed, and so I had my outpatient cardiologist change my medication.

As soon as that report came back, and thankfully I'm here, today, but I think to myself all the time, what, if I hadn't been a pharmacist, and what if, I was a pharmacist but wasn't aware of pharmacogenomics? Because when you're a non-responder to that medication, it's essentially like you're taking nothing.

So that would have put me at a very high risk for a secondary cardiac event, a stroke, and so forth. It's just eye-opening to realize, what if I never raised the question, what if I was too, I don't know if submissive is the right word, but timid, maybe, or non-confrontational.

And I hadn't asked that question. I may not be here speaking to you right now, so that nailed it home to me that I have to speak up and I have to put my own health, above others and be my own health advocate. 

[00:11:52] Wendy: So for our listeners who may not know what is pharmacogenomic? . What is that exactly? For those who don't know. 

[00:12:00] Julie Gilbert: Yeah. So in a nutshell, it's a cheek swab. It's a d n a test, totally painless.

You can do it in, the privacy of your own home. But it is a clinical test, an informational test. So it does require a prescriber's signature to order the test, but the test can be shipped to your home. It's a cheek swab, and then the lab runs their assay and the report. What comes back is how your d n A causes your own body to metabolize or not metabolize, several hundred

prescription medications. So, those medications fall into 16 to 20 different therapeutic categories. So even though the person may not be taking clearly a drug from each of those categories, should they ever have an acute illness, injury, or later develop hypertension, oncology, whatever.

Their doctor would already have on file that d n A profile showing what drugs work for them and what drugs do not work for them. And that's in a nutshell, it goes of course way deeper than that, but that's essentially it's a D N A test, showing how your body metabolizes or doesn't metabolize prescription medication.

That's pretty interesting. And 

[00:13:30] Wendy: I'm wondering, I know this is gonna sound crazy cuz I've watched my husband go through this. He's got, some autoimmune issues and I've watched him suffer from taking a generic. He been through the gamut trying to find medications that work for him correctly based on his autoimmune disease. And I'm wondering if that would've avoided a lot of his issues.

[00:13:52] Julie Gilbert: The whole reason for that, for pharmacogenomics testing is, why go through trial and error when you can know the first time what medication is or isn't going to work?

And so a lot of times, as you've probably experienced indefinitely, he has experienced, it sounds like when a drug isn't working, the doctor tends to just add more drugs to it. When it may be a situation where your DNA, your body simply can't do anything, if you will, with that medication. So it doesn't matter how high they increase the dose, it's never going to work.

You're never going to get any benefit from it. So, a pharmacogenomics test, it's run somewhere now on average, about 300 to $400 out of pocket. I'm saying that's the cash cost insurance in some very limited cases because it's still considered new, even though it's been around since 2005. But, it's not that expensive.

Three to $400 and it only has to be done once per lifetime. 

[00:15:09] Wendy: Wow. That would save a lot of aggravation for a lot of people. I'm just saying, it sounds to me. I'm not A doctor, but after seeing what I have seen some of my friends go through with, Reactions to medications not working, working. It makes sense.

So for those who are listening, because again, I think that it's really important and because we have such a tendency to ignore ourselves, what are the signs, being that you've now gone through this, what are the signs of a heart attack? Because again I know even for me, I'm like, I've got this project due or, and I will push through what I think is pain, wanting to pat myself on the back.

And I may not realize how serious it, it is. 

[00:15:56] Julie Gilbert: And for women, the signs are different than for males. Which I think is also feeds into it. You grow up. There used to be commercials on tv, things like that. You grow up seeing heart attack signs and symptoms.

But those were mainly for men and for a female it presents differently. So there could be a tightness or an ache, a dull ache in the chest or around in the back between the shoulder blades. Shortness of breath on exertion. Tiredness that you didn't really experience before. And even those symptoms, you look at that, they're so non-specific.

Of course, they're easy to ignore because a lot of us are tired every day. We're stressed and so we justify it, with other things going on and we just keep going because they're non-specific, a dull ache. Tiredness. Well, I'm stressed. I worked extra hours, et cetera.

Shortness of breath, and those are the things that I experienced. And those are easy enough to brush off. I'm a healthcare professional. I knew what the signs and symptoms were and I still actively chose to ignore. So don't do that to yourself. , anybody don't do that to yourself. 

[00:17:23] Wendy: Because then it becomes a real emergency.

[00:17:24] Julie Gilbert: You can't suffer and sacrifice enough to be well. I think a lot of us, like you were saying we feel like, oh, I pushed through that. That's a badge of, honor or something. But it's not, why suffer when you don't have to? And that is a whole new, concept for me.

[00:17:42] Wendy: For those who are not into the mindfulness mindset, and I talk about this a lot on the show this is the anti Hussle and grind show because for me, I know there's wonderful motivators out there. I find that they're really male oriented of go push and you're almost less than if you can't push yourself to the strengths of what's being said. And hustle and grind for me is the same concept in a business where it's like, ignore all of the sign. Keep pushing and keep pushing, but it'll exhaust you at some point in time.

Usually life's like, yeah, no, you're gonna stop. If you won't stop something in your life medically, physically most is gonna stop you because it's not sustainable. And I'm all about what is sustainable in our life. 

[00:18:40] Julie Gilbert: Right. I had to realize that to succeed, we touched on this a minute ago, but to succeed, I have to be loyal to myself first.

I have a responsibility to care for myself because if I don't, how can I expect others to respect me and make time for me and my business and the things that I do when I don't even do that for myself. So it's a whole new mindset and concept. But you can change your mindset. You can change how you think.

And business is exciting and exhausting, but if we don't take care of ourselves, we won't be around to enjoy the journey. So you have to realize that you choose your thoughts and you choose to be happy, grateful, thankful, or bitter. Anxious, et cetera.

And, for me, I've always been a positive person, but being aware of my thoughts and choosing my thoughts. It makes me so much of a, I think a better and a more fully content and in the moment, person, and of course, success follows When you're in a good mood, and you're healthy.

Absolutely. And I think that's, part of what I say in the show is when you show up for you, you show up better for your business. That's so true. Well, we show up better for everything when we show up better for ourselves. So for you, and I'm glad that you talked about this idea of signs of a heart attack and because I really don't think that women think it can happen to them.

They probably don't know fully the signs and see that we ignore them. So for you, when this happened, what kind of changes did you have to make, like at home, with your family, with your friends? What was those changes like, because, For me when I'm not taking care of myself and you just touched on this, then nobody else respects me enough to take care of me or my business.

So what kind of changes that went on in your world.

So, the big thing was of course, I lost 85 to 90 pounds. And let me say, I was exercising when I had the heart attack.

So through high school throughout my life, I'd always been a varsity athlete in multiple different sports. But I'd always been heavy now prior to the heart attack, and even still now, I don't have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, I'm not diabetic, et cetera, et cetera. Never smoked, but I was overweight and I look back and I think throughout my life, I was always active, but always overweight and I never, I was one of those that would say, I'll start a diet tomorrow, or, Hey, this is Thursday, so let's start a diet on a Monday.

That kind of thing. And I just never did. And I think what it boiled down to is maybe I just didn't feel like I was worth good health for me, it just comes back to, to worthiness and understanding that taking care of yourself is not selfish. So I actually like I said, lost 85 to 90 pounds.

I stay within a five pound range now. That was the big thing and my husband encouraged me and I think, having that support and encouragement, and my friends, they all supported me. No one was joking or, laughing, putting me down for saying, oh, I don't eat this or that any longer.

This kind of stuff. I had a lot of encouragement and support, but again, you're not gonna do it if you don't believe in it, and if you don't believe that you are deserving of good health. Then you're not gonna make that happen. So I can't say it enough. I had to make a conscious decision that I am worth a long and happy and healthy life, and then everything else followed the exercise, the eating, making better choices.

All of that stuff fell in with that one conscious decision of self-worth. And self, awareness too, if you will, and making a conscious choice to eat this or that. So was it for me. And I swear that's what it all goes back to that mindset. Mindfulness and actively choosing.

Don't float through your day, actively choose your thoughts, and take it from there and be grateful for the enlightenment and the things that you do have, and build on that. 

[00:23:25] Wendy: I love that. That's awesome. I can't agree more with you. So, one last question and I'm gonna caveat this cuz I literally had a friend call me yesterday, so disappointed that her doctor refuses to listen to her and keep telling her like, we don't know what's wrong. So it's frustrating and I know she's not the only one. I've heard this or I've had to advocate for my son, myself, too.

So, when it comes to changing doctors or asking different questions, like when is the time to do that, when they feel unheard? Or do you do that? Do you change doctors or do you insist on saying, no, you need to listen to me? What's the best way to go about it? Because I think sometimes what happens too is, as you were saying, the doctor has this power that you don't question.

Or you think this is the only doctor that can see you. How do you navigate that? 

[00:24:18] Julie Gilbert: I can say this on of course, behalf of myself, but some other, examples as well. One being, my parents, my dad never asked questions. He just wouldn't, he's 80 years old. My mom, 78 comes home from her appointments usually crying about how much she can't stand her doctor and saying, oh, he brushes me off this and this. And I say to her, why are you still going to him? Why? You can change doctors. And her excuse generally is, oh, well, it's just too much trouble.

No, it's not. How much trouble is it? They send your medical records electronically onto the next doctor. It really isn't it. And when you break that down and you look at it, essentially what my mom is saying to me out loud, is that, oh, I'm not worth the 20 minutes it's gonna take on the phone to contact a new doctor, set up an appointment, and request my records to be transferred.

Essentially, That's what she's saying. I'm not worth, 20 minutes to change doctors. Instead, she continues to suffer, feeling unheard. She gets frustrated. She's in tears when she comes out of these doctors with this particular person and clearly that's not good for your health when going to your doctor,

causes you to have anxiety and cry. Clearly, that's not helping the situation. So what I wanna say is no one knows you better than yourself. And if you aren't being listened to, you're being brushed off, you're being rushed. Clearly that's not the person for you whether it's a medical professional or any other, person that you are paying to take care of you.

If they're not listening to you, clearly they think you are not worth their time as well. So there's no shame in changing providers. You're not gonna hurt their feelings because most likely they're not even gonna remember you. But there could be some serious consequences if you don't speak up or change providers.

There's no penalties for changing providers, and you are the most important person in your life. So take the time. Don't put yourself through the anxiety and so forth of going and seeing somebody that you are paying to take care of you. And they're not even listening to what you're saying.

That makes no sense. And yes, I did that as well until my eyes were opened. So I'm not putting anybody down. That was my experience. You have to advocate for you. 

[00:27:15] Wendy: Thank you for saying cuz I've never heard quite put it like that, is that when we don't do these things like something so somewhat simple of changing doctors is like saying, I'm not worthy.

[00:27:27] Julie Gilbert: Exactly. You're allowing that to continue because it's not gonna change. You're allowing that behavior from that person to continue. And when you dig down and you say, why am I doing that? What's the response? Well, apparently I don't feel like they should treat me better.

For whatever the reason. But that's what it boils down to. And again, I did that same thing. I'm not trying to say that I'm above that, it's just I learned from that and was able to step out of that. 

[00:28:02] Wendy: And it's so funny because if it was, I've been in that situation with my son when the doctors weren't listening to me, he had severe RSV and low oxygen and my Pediatrician blew me off.

And told me that I was being an overreactive mom. I had no issue changing pediatricians. I was like, oh no.

[00:28:20] Julie Gilbert: And you do that for your child, but do you do that for yourself? That's what we all do.

Exactly. 

[00:28:26] Wendy: That's my whole point. I did it without even thinking for my child.

I was like, oh no, we're not doing this. And he had to be hospitalized. The moment I brought him into my new pediatrician's office. he was like, no, he has to go right now. I think that's what we're looking at though, that when we were talking about that worthiness is it's so easy us for us to go, no, this is what you need to do, or this is how I'll advocate for my mom, my son, my husband, my whoever.

And it's just very different when it, when it comes to those worth issues, that's where it gets us in trouble. We'll take the time to do it for everybody else. Find the time to do it for everybody else and not do it for ourselves. Well, this has been a fabulous conversation.

I want to thank you so much for coming on the show. I do know that you have an offer for our listeners today, so I wanted to let you explain it and tell 'em how they can contact you, and of course I'll put it in the show notes, but go ahead. 

[00:29:17] Julie Gilbert: Yes. So, I am, as you know, through the introduction, I am a licensed pharmacist in multiple states, but I also have a national pharmacogenomics certification.

For listeners that mention, Wendy's show, you contact us via the website, which will be, in the link as she said, but you can contact us via the website and we are offering our P G X consulting services $45 for 30 minutes, and it's regular $60, for that 30 minute time slot. And that you don't have to get your test done through us.

If you have a pharmacogenomics test from another source and you want a pharmacist to go over the report with you, we're happy to do that. It does not have to be one of our tests but we do have pharmacogenomic testing materials, available as well. So contact us through the website.

We're happy to answer any questions, give you more information. we just want to spread the word that this technology is available. So happy to talk with you and answer your question. 

[00:30:24] Wendy: Thank you so much and thank you again for being on with us today.

[00:30:29] Julie Gilbert: Thank you.