What happens when the medical system fails you—but you refuse to give up? For Leeanna Walls, a nurse, health coach, and martial artist, her journey through chronic illness and self-discovery led to a mission much greater than she ever expected.
In this episode of The More Than Your Age Podcast, Leeanna shares how she went from being an overwhelmed, misdiagnosed teenager to a passionate health advocate helping others reclaim their lives.
Living Undiagnosed: A Long Road to Answers
Leeanna’s story starts with years of unexplained symptoms. From her teenage years, she experienced food intolerances, allergies, and overwhelming stress. Yet, despite the clear signs of something deeper, doctors often dismissed her.
“It was just like, ‘You’re tired, you’re stressed, take a nap.’ Or, ‘Here’s an antidepressant.’ But I didn’t want a bandaid—I wanted to know what was actually going on.”
It wasn’t until the age of 31 that Leeanna finally received a diagnosis: a connective tissue disease. The journey to that point included a $500 out-of-pocket specialist visit in Los Gatos, California—an investment that turned out to be lifesaving.
A Hidden Infection—and a Turning Point
One of the most shocking discoveries? A severe jaw infection stemming from dental work in her teens. The infection had gone undetected for six years and had to be surgically removed.
“Within 20 minutes, that doctor said, ‘She’s very, very ill. Let’s do some work here.’ He fundamentally saved my life.”
That moment changed everything. Her physical health improved, but more importantly, it reignited a calling inside her—to help others who felt lost, overlooked, or invalidated by the healthcare system.
From Burnout to Calling: Becoming a Health Coach
Though already a nurse, Leeanna didn’t stop there. After a coworker asked to pay her for health advice, she realized her lived experience could become her greatest asset.
“I felt, well, I’ll help you out, but I don’t want to be paid until I’m more qualified.”
Leeanna returned to school and became a certified health and wellness coach, adding credentials in both nutrition and functional medicine. She now guides others in navigating chronic illness, advocating for themselves, and finding healing through sustainable lifestyle changes.
Starting Martial Arts at 41: Fighting Fear with Action
Leeanna also took on a personal challenge many would shy away from—she began martial arts training in her 40s.
“If it scares you to death, you should probably do it. Nobody cares about you failing as much as you’re afraid of failing.”
Her message is clear: stop letting fear and perceived age limits define what you think is possible.
Healing the Mind, Not Just the Body
So much of Leeanna’s transformation came from healing not only physically, but mentally and emotionally—from religious trauma to coercive control.
“Is your barrier really a barrier? Or is it your mindset?”
She emphasizes that true healing requires surrounding yourself with people who support growth, being willing to lose those who don’t, and facing hard truths with courage.
What She Would Tell Her Younger Self
Looking back on her high school years, Leeanna offers a powerful reminder for anyone who has carried shame from other people’s actions:
“It’s not your fault. You are not responsible for someone else’s actions. That’s a reflection on them, not you.”
Words of Encouragement for Women Starting Over
To any woman who feels blocked by her age or life circumstances, Leeanna’s message is one of fierce hope and empowerment:
“Don’t let someone get in the way of you fulfilling what you’re supposed to be doing with your life. You don’t want to drown in your lack of purpose. Most of the time, the biggest barrier is you.”
Listen to Leanna’s full story on The More Than Your Age podcast, or watch via YouTube:
Episode Transcript:
Welcome to The More Than Your Age Podcast With Host Erica Pasvar
Erica Pasvar (00:01)
Leanna Walls, I am thankful to have you joining me today on the More Than Your Age podcast. Welcome.
Leeanna Walls (00:07)
Thank you for having me, very good to be here.
Erica Pasvar (00:09)
Yeah, it’s absolutely. Well, Leeanna, we connected back in, I guess it was July, sometime in the summer through a Facebook group and then tried to get together this fall. And so now at the time of this recording, it has been several months. So I’m finally glad that we are making it happen. So
I had posed a question and on your Facebook response, you shared, I’m going to read this to the listeners. You shared that you had a career change in your late thirties, became a pandemic nurse, trauma survivor.
41 year old martial arts student with an autoimmune disease and now you are a coach. So there’s so much to get into with your story and then you shared so much more with me separately. And so you had experienced a traumatic event in high school and I’m just curious to know how this event changed you.
Leeanna Walls (00:58)
Being very young, I was a freshman in high school. I experienced assault and very early on I realized that life can change on a dime. So I very much felt like that experience shaped quite a bit of my young adult life because I never fully processed it until much later. So I really boxed things up.
kind of just compartmentalized and moved on. And that was a very formative experience. And I really didn’t realize it until the damage had been done, just shoving everything down, not
processing it. And I just realized that it’s going to come out somewhere. It’s going to come out at some point in time.
and it did much later on.
Erica Pasvar (01:59)
So was that when you realized like, man, I did suppress a lot of things was later on or was it like in your early twenties and you’re in midst of real, you know, of life, just going through your day to day or you thought no, no, or you realized no, it was later in life where it’s like, no, that’s what that was.
Leeanna Walls (02:20)
It was much later on when I realized just how much damage had been done. I was in my 20s and I kept on having this feeling like, is just life so hard? Like, why do I feel so overwhelmed? Like it’s just one thing after the next. that’s, know, later on I realized, it’s because I’d never really fully healed, processed that experience, grieved, you know.
I didn’t really move on from that. So I had a whole new box of surprises that opened up on me later on, much with PTSD after that.
Erica Pasvar (03:00)
You told me too that you were in this survival mode
I’m curious what survival mode looked like for you through this time. Did you realize you were in survival mode or I guess based on what you just said, maybe not until much later.
Leeanna Walls (03:16)
I didn’t realize that I was in survival mode. I was very much in work mode, distraction mode for a very long time. Keep busy, be active, and just keep going.
Erica Pasvar (03:32)
So what you know now, cause I feel like a lot of people when they experience, and this is just based on people that I know,
or have had conversations with that they know. When a really hard thing happens, tragic thing happens, it’s kind of like you busy yourself so that you don’t have to think about it. And then it’s not like in your experience, not until later that you realize, man, like I should have dealt with that a long time ago. And they, know, it’s this like, like you said,
busy, busy, just work, work, work, work. What, in your experience, what is the damage of doing that, of not addressing it at that time or maybe a year later, two years later, and then waiting until much later or not at all?
Leeanna Walls (04:18)
I think a lot of the damage is done in the in-between where you don’t realize how much you’re really isolating yourself because you’re not probably processing it, verbalizing what you’re feeling, vocalizing it
your support network around you. So you tend to kind of live in a bubble. And I felt like…
I didn’t want to really see myself as a victim. So I put it in a box, packed it away. And then later on when I had the physical symptoms pop up and where it actually began to be a problem, where I was being triggered by larger male patients or circumstances where I didn’t feel safe, I didn’t really have a good way to
I didn’t have any language to describe what I was going through because I hadn’t talked to anybody. I hadn’t shared what I had went through. And in fact, it was until I was much older, even my friends that I had for years, they said, you know, I knew something happened, but I never knew what actually happened to you. And that was very strange because I was
book about a lot of things in my life. And then all of a sudden I’m not an open book.
and it was a little bit of a mystery. And they kind of just looked at me like, that’s kind of a big thing. And you don’t really realize it until you start unpacking it. It’s like, you didn’t, you’ve never experienced anything like that? That’s kind of strange, right? And so in unpacking it, you realize like, yeah, that was actually some really big stuff, some really heavy stuff. And…
Erica Pasvar (05:54)
Yeah.
Leeanna Walls (06:16)
that I think coming back into community with folks is really where for me, in my experience, I just isolated myself and boxed that up. So I really held myself back from having a lot of very good relationships because I wasn’t verbalizing, processing and just packing away.
Erica Pasvar (06:40)
Well, I just want to address that.
We can’t control certain things that happen in our lives.
I just want to acknowledge and apologize, know, I’m sorry that this is something that you experienced and obviously it has affected you your whole life.
Something you shared too with me is that you were raised in a very religious conservative background. And I’m curious to know with that, how did that play into relationships as an adult and affect you as well?
Leeanna Walls (07:12)
I think that what I experienced as a very young adult and also what I grew up in, it was a world in which I never really felt safe. It was a very religious world, very conservative.
If you’re familiar with a lot of very fundamental movements, very similar. And I definitely feel like
I had just felt unsafe for very long time. So by the time that high school hits and there’s an assault, there was traumatic experiences that came out of that afterwards at the same school that I went to, which then led to me switching to another school for my safety because I kept that a secret for several days. And it wasn’t until I actually
became so scared for my physical safety that I voiced it to my parents, to which my parents were beyond shocked. the environment in which I had grown up in being very conservative, very male dominated, honestly, and I don’t say that to cite anyone of those same beliefs. I believe that there were a lot of very sincere, very wonderful people in that.
And I’m very fortunate to have met a lot of really great people in that circle, but also that environment very much shaped the way I looked at men. So a lot of times, you know, I was, I was already scared for my physical safety, but I was also very afraid for my emotional safety. And there was a lot of spiritual abuse that went on in that movement. So.
A lot of times men were seen as a threat, honestly. So it’s sort of having a love-hate relationship, you know.
Erica Pasvar (09:17)
Yeah.
Leeanna Walls (09:18)
So that had a huge impact on the way that I viewed the world and the way that I carried myself in the world because I didn’t feel safe.
Erica Pasvar (09:29)
Where would you say you are on your faith journey now?
Leeanna Walls (09:34)
I would say that after experiencing what I did in such a fundamental movement, I made the decision, I feel very fortunate personally to have had my own faith experience. Aside from the religiosity, I would say that I’m very much in a reconstructed phase of my faith.
and that I feel like I had to, I hate the word deconstruct because I feel like it’s so trendy right now, everybody’s deconstructing everything. But in reality, I really did have to tear everything down and start with just the basics, square one. What does that actually mean to me? Where did this come from? Is it my belief? Is it just my family?
Erica Pasvar (10:06)
Right.
Leeanna Walls (10:29)
Is it just my social circle? What am I doing out of peer pressure? So really, I’m probably in the best, I feel like the best faith phase of my life right now, because I feel like there’s nobody in the room except for me and God. Where before there was a whole lot of other opinions that I had to take into account.
Erica Pasvar (10:33)
Hmm.
Yeah, yeah, that’s interesting. You know, I’m gonna take us on a tangent. I’m not gonna take us on a tangent. We’ll just pause there. So I guess to go back to just like this whole, you know, experiencing trauma, also questioning faith, going through that whole thing to get to where you are now, you also…
having panic attacks and experiencing anxiety regularly. So you started walking a track indoors because you were afraid to walk outside. How were you eventually able to become more physically active and then go to therapy and then eventually went back to school and to become a nurse? So how did that kind of unfold?
Leeanna Walls (11:43)
I had so much social anxiety. started to…
engage after I got off that track, after I was able to walk that track, shut down the panic attacks, really process a lot of what was going on again, because I felt like once I got in a safe spot, all of that healing started. So all of those feelings just started rushing out that had been packed down for so long. And so I started feeling everything all at the same time, very strongly. So
the PTSD walking that track, I could concentrate on what was going into my earphones and I wasn’t afraid for my physical safety there. It was an indoor track. So I could, it started out walking, then it started jogging, then it started running. And then I got brave enough to where there were other people on this track and I wasn’t as self-conscious. So then I started doing like group classes at our local Y.
And then from there, I just got braver and braver. I started to make it into the weight room where there were other people and I didn’t become an instant viral meme of falling off a treadmill in front of people or something like that. So I thought, okay, maybe I can do this. So I just got braver and I met a lot of really nice people and there were so many very supportive women in this environment. I just loved it.
So I just got braver and braver and braver until 2021 after the gyms opened back up, I was able to get into a CrossFit gym, met a couple of other females that were just so nice, got into
CrossFit, which again was a very scary thing because that’s a lot more extreme than just like your little weight class at the Y.
Erica Pasvar (13:43)
Yeah.
Leeanna Walls (13:45)
and ended up meeting a friend, following her to a martial arts studio and just never stopped experimenting. So.
Erica Pasvar (13:57)
Hmm.
Okay. And so that was you were around 41, right? When you started in martial arts or is that where you are now? Okay. Okay. Okay. And I’m curious to know just with that, that has helped you, you’ve got the support from the other women or the people that you do this with. has that helped you just in your…
Leeanna Walls (14:05)
I’m 41 now, so I was 38 when I started Brazilian Jiu Jitsu.
Erica Pasvar (14:27)
confidence and feeling secure and when you go out compared to how it was previously.
Leeanna Walls (14:35)
I felt much safer in my body after being able to come back into my body after a lot of that trauma. I didn’t realize that how much I was really disassociated from myself physically. So I’m not a natural athlete. I have to work really, really hard at it. I’m more bookish. I am definitely an academic. So working really hard, coming back into my body.
I began to realize how much I had really disassociated because I had felt so unsafe for so much of my life because, you know, I don’t feel safe at school. I don’t feel safe at church. You know, where do I feel safe? And I felt safe alone, isolated in my room, honestly. As a teenager, some of my best memories are me by myself in my room with music. And so I had
started therapy
the age of 33 and I realized I’m not in my body. I’m very much held back by what I believe everybody’s looking at me, which they were not looking at Very much needing to be in an environment where I could just
concentrate and work on myself. And I wanted to be in that room with people who were so focused on their own goals that they didn’t care what I was doing. So that meant the gym. So
when I started actually gaining a little bit more confidence in the gym and then started to gain confidence on the mat in
the martial arts gym, I started feeling, okay, well, I’ve actually got a fighting chance. I’m looking around and it’s not because I was feeling so full my wonderful new skills that, you know, I was just a loosed killer on the streets. No, it wasn’t that. It was just the fact that, okay, I actually have a few things now in my toolbox that
Erica Pasvar (16:40)
you
Leeanna Walls (16:54)
are bleeding out into my life where I could walk into a room with a large patient who might be very boisterous, might be very vocal, and I could honestly feel like I could manipulate myself to where I could at least get to safety. Maybe not I’m fighting, you know, but I
dealt with dementia patients all the time. And some of these folks in their decline are very, very strong still physically, but mentally.
they are compromised some of the time or all of the time. So you never know what you’re going to get. So really that whole principle of this could change on a dime and I need to be ready was definitely in the foremost part of my brain on the shift. So.
keeping as much space or being able to be aware of the door. And I don’t feel like that they were actually teaching any healthcare workers this for the most part. I had worked for many years in a hospital inpatient pharmacy. I was in certain parts of the hospital that were locked
down and I never had a course on that. I never had a training on that because I was told that I didn’t have direct patient contact. So that wasn’t important.
And unfortunately, proved many times to be untrue. But thankfully, just a little bit of knowledge can go a very long way, especially when it’s repeated multiple times training a week. just get used to that muscle memory just kind of picks up where your experience might leave off where…
Erica Pasvar (18:37)
Mm-hmm.
Leeanna Walls (18:52)
you are bracing or you are protecting yourself when threatened.
Erica Pasvar (18:57)
Well, you know, that is something the nursing industry is not my background, but like that is definitely something that I don’t think people would normally think about as far as like, no, the nurses, the caretakers in there need to have this training and be protected because yeah, like
you said, you’ve got patients with dementia or something else might be going on or they don’t like what you’re doing. And if they are physically stronger,
then that’s gonna be a problem. And is that what led you to start your coaching as well? Is that kind of what the coaching is?
Leeanna Walls (19:34)
Well, the coaching is a combination of many things. So through this whole trajectory of this journey of both recovering from trauma, healing, having a nervous system that was absolutely shot, and then going into pandemic nursing and just the trauma on top of that was a little bit ridiculous. I’m very
I feel very blessed to have been there because I was there in a lot of intimate moments with families. I felt very honored to be part of their journey with them as they went through COVID. But I really felt like we forged such strong friendships and battle buddy-like relationships.
on those units, working together, experiencing all of those really dark and heavy moments together. We were just pulling together as a team. So often we were just trying to help each other out as much as possible. At this point in my life, I know what trauma feels like. I know what burnout feels like. I know what a shot immune system feels like. I know what a shot nervous system feels like. So…
what I had done for myself in order to survive, I started passing on tips and tricks to other people. And at one point I remember a nurse saying to me, I would pay you to help me out, for you to help me out in this. And she listed so many different areas. And I remember healing from a lot of what I had went through and I needed a therapist.
I needed a primary care physician. I needed a specialist. I needed a whole team to get me to where I am now. It took me a very long time and also a lot of knowledge navigating the healthcare system to get me to where I am now. And I thought the average person, if I feel like with this much education, I’m struggling after 15 years in pharmacy.
Erica Pasvar (21:32)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.
Leeanna Walls (21:52)
pursuing another degree in clinical science and then later on a bachelor’s of nursing. If I feel like I’m struggling at this point, the average person on the street has no clue where they should start. If their life is in a period of reconstruction, recovery, whatever their journey is right now, walk provider does that. Walk provider touches all of this because I don’t need somebody to write me another prescription right now.
Erica Pasvar (22:04)
Right.
Leeanna Walls (22:22)
I need somebody to help me plan this recovery phase of my life. And so it turned into coaching. I just found myself trying to help other people survive. That’s all I really wanted to do was create something to help somebody get from A to B and not fall out in between appointments.
Erica Pasvar (22:25)
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm. Yeah, because that definitely does happen. And like you said too, it’s, I mean, you have this background, but there’s a majority of people do not. when whatever the health situation may be, there’s like, there’s so much that encompasses it. I think that that’s super important because people are lost and really there’s, they have no idea what to do. And so I love that that’s something that you’re doing. You touched a little bit on what you did before
Did you say chemist or pharmacist?
Leeanna Walls (23:18)
I was a pharmacy technician. I was an inpatient pharmacy technician. Well, long story short, in high school and during my first degree pursuit, I was a retail pharmacy technician and then became interested in clinical science. So converted over to inpatient pharmacy technician. And I stayed there for a very long time. I really liked the technical work.
Erica Pasvar (23:46)
And then in your 30s, you decided to switch to nursing. So why that switch? And then were you worried like, I too late to do this? Am I too old?
Leeanna Walls (23:50)
Yes.
One day I was standing
one of our machines that we stock drugs in. So I had the opportunity as a pharmacy technician to be on every unit in the hospital wherever they had drugs. So I would go, I would refill their machines, I would make all of their inpatient.
drips that we made fresh. So I would be in their ICU. I would be in their ER. There were some drips that you have to be made fresh. They have a very short shelf life. And there, I can remember there was a code one day. So at this point, it’s a code blue, someone’s being resuscitated. And a light bulb just went off and said, you’d rather be in there with them than you would out here in this machine, by this machine where it’s called.
And I thought, okay, that’s interesting. Yeah, I think I actually want to run more towards the fire than away from it. And I like people. And I tell people I accidentally found out that I liked people. And when you work behind a locked door,
Erica Pasvar (25:11)
Hehehehehe
Leeanna Walls (25:17)
you know, glass where because you’re working with substances that are, you know, very much desired, you tend to be locked away and sheltered away from from the public eye. And getting out and engaging with the patients on the unit or, you know, the families on the unit may not be in a room. But at that point, I just realized I would rather be in there than I would out here.
Erica Pasvar (25:44)
Wow, so when you decided to go back to get your degree in nursing, how long did it take you?
Leeanna Walls (25:52)
It took me three years.
Erica Pasvar (25:54)
Three years, I’m assuming you were able to do that while working full time.
Leeanna Walls (25:59)
I worked actually part-time while I did that and went to school full-time year-round for three years. So the first time that I had went to school, some of those credits had expired. So here I am and starting over again and definitely thinking about, like you said, is it too late? What am I doing? Am I crazy? This is a very late in life career change.
Erica Pasvar (26:06)
Okay.
Leeanna Walls (26:27)
I was, you know, working part time at that point. I was very blessed to have a situation where I had very low overhead and I was able to qualify for a lot of things and, you know, raise two children, go to school full time, work part time and just absolutely run it and gun it until we got that degree.
over with and it was exhausting. Nursing school is exhausting.
Erica Pasvar (27:00)
believe that. Do you ever now just like look at that and think, how did I do that? How did I do all of that at that time?
Leeanna Walls (27:06)
I do because I can remember thinking, well, I can stay in the position that I’m in and I can work a whole heck of a lot more, or I can go back to school, work very hard for a couple of years and then have a better work-life balance later on. And I thought I don’t really want to spend the rest of my life working like this.
So let’s get a little bit more education behind us. And at that time I was very much emotionally exhausted. I’m doing a lot of the work, working through a lot of the PTSD, both from just growing up and becoming aware as a parent and as an adult female of a lot of what I had been carrying and thinking, I don’t want to spend the rest of my life feeling like this. And I really don’t want to pass this trauma onto my children either.
So I was exhausted in a lot of ways. And I just remember saying a prayer, God, if you are there, you’ve got to change the situation or you’ve got to change me because I’m exhausted. And I don’t even know how I would do all of that physically because I had so many severe autoimmune symptoms at that time, fatigue being one of them.
So I just remember being so exhausted, but then something flipping and changing where I had the mental fortitude to, okay, we’re doing this, we’re doing this, you know.
Erica Pasvar (28:42)
I mean, okay, and then adding on, you just shared that you’re dealing with some autoimmune issues, things that you’re going through. So there’s that. Also in the midst of still, like you said, this PTSD from this trauma that you had experienced and then working on that, then raising some kids and working part-time and going to school. I’m like, my goodness. And you did it, and you did it. Like that’s huge. I mean, that’s amazing. And then,
Leeanna Walls (29:08)
Yeah. Yeah, it really is.
Erica Pasvar (29:13)
then
you become a nurse and then not only just a nurse, then a pandemic nurse. And that has a whole other issue, you know, whole other thing that came with it. Did you become a nurse right at the pandemic? I feel like you shared this with me.
Leeanna Walls (29:25)
Yes, so I literally graduated from nursing school in July of 2020, which I was already employed at the hospital where I was going to be starting my nursing job. So I literally get out of graduation, go through orientation as a nurse on a med-surg unit where, you know, it’s where everybody honestly needs to start out with nursing because you get such a wonderful generalized
Erica Pasvar (29:38)
Mm-hmm.
Leeanna Walls (29:56)
diagnoses to work with. And I know more got out of orientation. I want to say I was it was probably only three to four weeks out of orientation then boom. We walk in and our unit is being converted to a COVID unit. Yeah, it was wild.
Erica Pasvar (30:21)
Where are you based out of?
Leeanna Walls (30:22)
Hamilton, Ohio.
Erica Pasvar (30:25)
Okay, okay, okay. So you graduate, you get this five week training, boom, you’re in it. And you had shared briefly earlier too that, you, I mean, we all know how horrible COVID was, especially at the height of everything. And you saw things and were with people and families in low times, low, low, low times. I know that nursing and the medical field,
during this time there was a lot of burnout and it was hard. And a lot of people left. What made you say, I mean, I you had just graduated, but what made you say, no, it’s important for me to continue and not quit?
Leeanna Walls (31:11)
I really felt like I was doing what I was supposed to do. I think that was one of the primary driving factors of me being able to hang in there and do what I was doing because I felt like I was supposed to be exactly where I was at exactly at this time. And I don’t know how to explain that other than I know that
the bedside nurse is an incredibly important role. And it’s also a business model that is very hard to survive in without experiencing burnout. Probably right now, I don’t have the exact numbers to it up, but everybody cycles through burnout, you know, in healthcare, particularly it can get very dark because we see such
high highs and such low lows on a regular basis and we experience things that most normal folks can never relate to.
And I knew that I wanted to be closer to the fire, but also I felt like there was something that I was about to experience historically. This was a wild time in healthcare. There was no other way to put that. And having been in healthcare prior to that, and especially
not new to inpatient life as a healthcare employee in a different area, I didn’t want to give up. I really didn’t. And I found that there were such moments that I shared with patients that I will never forget that I feel like made a permanent impact on me.
that continue to inspire me to hang in there with folks that are severely frustrated by their experience in this healthcare system. Because you are not just a number. That very much stuck out to me. You are not just a body in a bed. And with COVID, everybody, especially that first string that hit us,
so hard. You know, across the nation, you know, there were so many bodies in beds and I just wanted if I just helped one person because I knew I knew what my own health experience had been. But sometimes you really just need one person that actually cares. Bottom line, even though it’s hard work.
even though it may absolutely not be gratifying that day. But really honestly, just need somebody with a license that actually cares if I live or die that day.
Erica Pasvar (34:24)
Yeah. I think it’s huge and super important. And just the fact that, you you acknowledge that it’s not just a body in a bed, because sometimes you can feel that way when you’re receiving care, whether it’s at a doctor’s office or you’re in the hospital. And being the person that is with the family when they’re at their lowest, my family experienced something very, very
Traumatic and our nurse who was with us played a huge role and I’m gonna remember her forever. I’m gonna get teary-eyed So as you were talking I was just thinking like you have those moments with those patients and those family members and Your role is so important. And so I just went on behalf of my family even though it wasn’t you but just thank you for what you do because it is so necessary and I love that you have chosen to stay in the field because
families do need to know that they are valued and they’re cared for. So, Leanna, thank you for just sticking with it when I can’t even imagine what you experienced and I, you know, just what you witnessed. And so, I just want to say thank you for that.
Leeanna Walls (35:33)
thank you. And on
behalf of nurses everywhere, we appreciate the families that like you become a part of us. You know, you go out those doors. You are still a part of us. You know, the hands that we hold while they cross into eternity. You are a part of us. It doesn’t it doesn’t matter.
It’s wonderful to be thanked. I mean, it really is. just a simple thank you and acknowledgement really is. That’s all a lot of us want, you know, not for ego, but it’s just, hey, thanks for being a human with another human on this journey.
Erica Pasvar (36:13)
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, yeah,
yeah, very important. Well, we kind of, talked a little bit about this before, but you had shared that you became sort of a coach to other in regards to healing and health in your unit. And I’d love for you just kind of to share a little more about your virtual health practice that you started, Prefix Health Solutions. I mean, we did a little bit like why it was needed, but I just want you to share a little bit more so people have an idea and if…
they can receive any assistance from you, what that could look like.
Leeanna Walls (36:54)
So I created this virtual health coaching practice, like I said, to basically put something in place to help people that really needed to build a team to get from point A to point B with their health goals, but also with a very holistic point of view. Because sometimes I knew from my personal experience with having autoimmune struggles,
I had had autoimmune struggles for a very, very long time from the time I was a teenager. But, you know, I was born in the eighties, you know, grew up in the nineties. It’s, we know so much more now about things where I definitely very early on had some food intolerances. I had some allergies. I had
Number one, a very stressed out, overwhelmed nervous system from a very young age. So all of those things took a very long time to sort out and really put a name to my diagnosis. And I ended up having a connective tissue disease, which I started managing through diet and lifestyle. So a lot of my coworkers,
a lot of my friends and family noticed the changes that I had made and the results that I was getting. And, you know, it never occurred to me until literally that conversation happened with that nurse on my units. She said, you know, I would pay you to help me out. I’m like, you know, this is a specialty. Hmm. Maybe I should consider this. And
Erica Pasvar (38:41)
Mm-hmm.
Leeanna Walls (38:47)
I felt, well, I’ll help you out, but I don’t want to be paid for my services until I’m actually more qualified to do so. So I did end up going back to school, becoming a trained health and wellness coach, getting two more trainings in both nutrition and functional medicine so that I could help other people with their health journey.
as much as I knew I was frustrated. knew there were other people that had been just as frustrated. So I definitely wanted to have a service in place that helps somebody navigate the healthcare system, come alongside in partnership, but also validate them when they felt unheard and lost in a very huge system.
So it was very important for me to be able to say, I see you, I hear you, you’re not crazy because one provider and I mean, symptoms from when I was a teenager, I didn’t get diagnosed until around the age of 31 is when they probably really started saying, hey, that’s legitimate.
where it was just like, you’re just tired all the time, you’re stressed out and you need to take a nap. Or here’s an antidepressant. I wasn’t wanting to put a bandaid on it. I wanted to know what was actually going on. So I did a lot of the work myself and I just wanted to come alongside somebody and do the same that had this one provider in particular. It was a last-ditch effort on my part.
Erica Pasvar (40:09)
Mm-hmm.
Leeanna Walls (40:38)
I paid $500 for a out of pocket, not covered by insurance to see a specialist one in Los Gatos, California. And within 20 minutes he changed my
20 minutes. This guy walked into the room and 20 minutes later said, yeah, she’s very, very ill. Let’s, let’s do some work here.
And he fundamentally saved my life because found out later on that I had a severe infection in my jaw that had been probably on and off infected for a period of over six years. I had had a reaction to dental work that I had received as a teenager. I ended up having to have jaw surgery and having all of that dental work removed, a bone graft.
Erica Pasvar (41:24)
wow.
Leeanna Walls (41:36)
my healing after that, came down
a parotid gland infection. So when they opened it up and scooped out the infection, I then had a healing crisis afterwards and it started to spread down my neck. So I firsthand got to experience being, you know, calling 911 later on. It got worse before it got better. But after that, I was
I felt so much better. But somebody finally looked at me and said, no, this is not what they think it is. And just listened to me, validated that everything that I was feeling was connected, and I was able to get a solution and my whole life changed. So I just wanted to help other people yet again. Go from A.
to be with a plan and feel supported.
Erica Pasvar (42:39)
Yeah, wow. And I get so frustrated sometimes too, because what you’re doing is so important, because it’s true, you just have no idea at all where to start, and then you get frustrated because someone’s like, hey, let me just give you some medication, and you’re saying, no, there’s so much more with that. Where can people find your information if they wanna reach out for some coaching or some help?
Leeanna Walls (43:02)
You can find me in several places. is my website. You can book a consultation and fill out an application to work with me through the website. You can also find me on Instagram. You will find me in two spots, both under Prefix Health Solutions and also the hyperreactive RN, where I talk a little bit more about violence against
health care workers, arts, women in my age group, really a good spot for female empowerment as well.
Erica Pasvar (43:43)
Yeah, okay. I’ll put all of that in the notes too and get that checked out as well. Okay, so I have just a couple more questions before I let you go. So I want to go back to the fact of when you started martial arts and now being 41 and pursuing that and just the benefits that it has with you. My whole passion with this podcast is to encourage women to chase after things that they want to do. And you’ve done that with a lot of things.
Leeanna Walls (44:12)
No.
Erica Pasvar (44:12)
regardless of your age and I think that’s amazing. let’s say if it is something like martial arts or something, let’s say it is martial arts and there’s just this fear of like, but everyone else knows what they’re doing. I don’t know what I’m doing. I’m gonna be the old one or I’m, whatever the excuse is. What advice or encouragement would you give to this woman as she is stepping into
something challenging like this in her 40s?
Leeanna Walls (44:43)
If it scares you to death, you should probably do it.
Within reason, I know take that with a grain of salt that sounds a little crazy, but if you are not learning you’re dying. So really I feel that you should just.
do it. I know that sounds very oversimplified, but nobody is watching you. Nobody cares about you failing as much as what you are afraid of failing.
Erica Pasvar (45:20)
Mm.
Leeanna Walls (45:24)
So really just.
Watching people die will have a profound effect on you and one thing that I’ve I’ve never seen any of these people Confess, you know before they pass. well, you know So-and-so did that and I was just you know, I I didn’t want to I didn’t want to look foolish. No Doesn’t matter. No, they absolutely are not caring
what anybody else is thinking. They’re literally coming out with those confessions. I should have done this and I shouldn’t have cared. You know, they’re absolutely, I don’t want to die with regrets. And I don’t want to pass on a legacy like that to my children. I’m doing what I’m doing.
so that I can create options for my children, where I feel like I grew up in a world that didn’t have a lot of options. No matter what my children do with the options I give them, they still have options. You still have options. It’s never too late for you. Forget what people are gonna criticize you for and go do what needs to be done, because it’s your life at the end of the day. Go for it.
Erica Pasvar (46:56)
That’s good. Like I’m like all of that, all of that’s good. Yep, jot that down. That’s so good. Something I wanna know too, because you have accomplished and overcome so much, looking back on high school what would you say to yourself now?
Leeanna Walls (47:14)
High school Leeanna was very afraid of.
I felt like I was to blame or I was at fault or I was, I shouldn’t have done this. I was always responsible for somebody else’s actions. There was a lot of responsibility passed on to me as a female in the belief system, which I grew up in. So I very much internalized that. And I would say that I would definitely tell
young Leanna, it’s not your fault. You are not responsible for somebody else’s actions. That’s a reflection on them. That is not a reflection on your value. And that speaks very poorly on them. But what you can control is yourself. And you can take accountability for yourself and your actions. But just because somebody mistreats you or doesn’t
perceive you as valuable does not mean that you are not valuable.
Erica Pasvar (48:19)
That’s very good. Yeah, Leeanna you’ve done a lot of work. You’ve gone through some things. And I love that you, I mean, like I said, you had to work through it. You shared that. It wasn’t like a, we’re all great. But the fact that you are still utilizing just life, like you said, nothing changes your perspective by watching somebody on their deathbed.
Leeanna Walls (48:37)
Erica Pasvar (48:48)
I mean, haven’t experienced that like you have experienced that. And I bet that definitely does change your perspective and shift things. And just the fact that you made the switch, you want to become a nurse and you didn’t let the age stop you or the fact that you had so many other things on your plate stop you. And you are starting this coaching business, you’re doing that and then picking up martial arts as well. And while still raising children.
you know, doing all these things and showing them, like you said, that you have options. My last question is very similar to the question I asked about the martial arts. And so if you have anything else to say, because you said so many great things, but this is a question I ask everybody. So I want to ask you as well. But you’ll see it’s very similar. you could encourage one woman who does feel blocked or limited to pursue a dream or goal based on her age or life circumstance, and we can maybe go through the since you kind of did the martial arts example.
you had a really tough life circumstance. So if you could encourage that woman, what would you say to her?
Leeanna Walls (49:50)
Is your barrier actually a barrier?
Is it a perceived barrier? Is it really the biggest barrier? Is it your own mindset? Because it was definitely my mindset. I didn’t have as many barriers physically or monetarily speaking as what I thought. It was my mindset. So getting your mindset under control, but also coming from a place of where I was recovering.
from trauma was very much recovering from a place of coercive control. Get your mind in check, which it’s easier said than done, but not being afraid to go get a good therapist. Go make sure that you surround yourself with a support network that is going to absolutely condone you to be the most healthy version of you.
that you don’t realize that sometimes your mindset as you change and you grow, you’re going to outgrow some of those people. And your new mindset or your new goals or your new journey, it’s not going to suit their purposes. So you are going to lose people, but get your mind under control because there are other people who want to be in the same room with people.
who have a like mind, who want to overcome, who don’t want to maintain a victim mindset. I absolutely would go through everything that I went through again to get to where I am now. I know that sounds crazy and harsh. I hate some of the things that have happened, but I feel like I’m exactly where I need to be. And I’m very much…
fueled by the people that I meet. And, you know, it’s not always as financially rewarding as, know, you see all of these people talking about coaching and these big ticket sales and everything like that. That’s not why I’m doing this. This is literally gives me the drive to get up every morning because I know I’m supposed to be doing what I’m doing.
Don’t let somebody get in the way of you fulfilling what you’re supposed to be doing with your life because you don’t want to live that life. You don’t want to drown in your lack of purpose. You absolutely make sure that that barrier, see what you can do to get around the barrier. But most of the time the barrier is you.
Erica Pasvar (52:47)
Yeah, we always get in our own way. And Leeanna, thank you. I know sharing and probably opening up some things is not easy at all. And just your wisdom and the things that you shared, I know is going to be so helpful to somebody listening. I it was already helpful to me. So I just appreciate it. So thank you so much for joining me today on the More Than Your Age podcast.
Leeanna Walls (52:49)
Mm-hmm.
Well, thanks for having me. I really had a great time. We can’t fix what we don’t talk about. So even if it is a little sometimes hard to pull out, I’m willing to do it because like I said, I found out that there were just people literally sitting in the same pew beside of me, going through some of the same exact circumstances, suffering their silence. And I don’t want that blood on my hands. So.
I’m happy to talk about it. I enjoyed it very much. Thank you for having me.
Erica Pasvar (53:42)
Absolutely, thank you so much.