Meet Dr. Mundorff (Rener), MPH, MSN, ND, RN, CNC, CTN
Dr. Mundorff, is not a Medical Doctor. She is a Registered Nurse and Board Certified Traditional Naturopath. She has over 25 years experience in curriculum and workshop development, teaching, and nursing. She holds Bachelor degrees in Health Education and Nursing; Master degrees in Public Health and Nursing, and a Doctor degree in Naturopathy. She holds Certifications in nutrition and as a school nurse for grades k-12. She is the past Director of Nursing-Related Programs at Red Rocks Community College and Associate Professor.
Over the years she had helped many take control of their health, find optimal wellness, and happiness. As a patient advocate she spoke to a wide audience about the importance of self-advocacy in health care. Her college classes in basic anatomy and physiology and medical terminology had helped medical non-professionals and laypersons alike have a better understanding of the human body. Through her vast background in nursing and health she had been able to develop a keen sense of deviations in normalcy and thus had helped many seek relief where traditional medicine had failed.
Now retired she devotes her time online offering free information to help others become proactive in their health care.
ASSOCIATIONS:
American Naturopathic Medical Association (ANMA); American Naturopathic Certification Board (ANCB); Colorado Nurse's Association (CNA); American Nurses's Association (ANA); Sigma Theta Tau International, Honor Society of Nursing; and the Anerican Association of Nutritional Consultants (AANC). Past member of: Eta Sigma Gamma Health Sciences Honorary Society, and Blue Key National Honorary Society.
COMMUNITY SERVICE:
Dr. Mundorff participated in a number of community-based projects, lending her services and expertise in the following:
Medical Coordinator 9-HealthFair @ Red Rocks Community College in Lakewood Colorado, 2003 and 2004. Colorado Patient Resource Advocate for the Cleft Palate Association, 1995-1998. Youth Education Alliance (through Exempla Lutheran Hospital, years 1998-2002); Past-President PTA, Margaret Walters School for Children with Disabilities, 1996-1998, and participated in a variety of community-based CPR programs, 2000-2004.
Dr. Mundorff is passionate about self-advocacy in health care. She had developed and implemented a variety of seminars and workshops designed for the non-health care professional and layperson in developing skills in: medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, and proactivity in health care. She is the author of three books, dozens of articles, and college level curriculum all designed to educate and empower her audience.
Dr. Mundorff can be reached at bridges2hlth@aol.com.
Click here for links to more news on Dr. Mundorff: http://search.lycos.com/index.php?src=T7&query=linda+mundorff+in+colorado
My Disease: How it Has Changed my Life!
Undifferentiated Mixed Connective Tissue Disorder
It All Began in 2007
In mid-2007 I began to feel tired and weak and my joints ached and my muscles felt as if someone used me as a punching bag. For over a year I found myself in and out of the hospital with the most unbearable pain. The doctors were dumbfounded as they had no idea what was wrong with me. At first they thought I had some disease that I might have picked up in another country, except I had not been to any other country.
I went from one specialist to another. My primary care doctor thought I might have developed some chronic pain condition from my lower back injury (I fell down a flight of stairs and broke my ankle in 3 places and messed up my lower back). The neurologist thought I had a misfiring of my nerons, the rheumatologist thought I had fibromyalgia, and the hospitalist thought I had lupus.
In the meantime my sister, Judy had the exact same symptoms that I had and died 6 months after they finally figured out her diagnosis! And then in 2004 my other sister, Tami developed similar symptoms and was in the ICU with heart and respiratory involvement - she almost died from her condition as well. Believe me I had no intention of following in the same footsteps as my sisters. I decided to take matters into my own hands and began searching every reputable site I could find on the Internet to try and figure out what I had.
Autoimmune Disease
After alot of tests and many specialists later, I was told that I had an autoimmune disease. The doctors were not sure which one I had, there are so many, but they narrowed it down to Lupus, Scleroderma, and a couple of others. I certaintly did not want scleroderma because that condition can be fatal. Lupus wasn't much better but at least there have been some wonderful strides in treatments and those that can control the disease can live a fairly normal life. The problem was that my blood work didn't fit any particular condition, I had some of the markers for lupus, but not all of them.
Finally, after what seemed like an enternity, my rheumatologist determined that my condition was called undifferentiated mixed connective tissue disease - an umbrella term for an autoimmune condition that could affect any connective tissue in my body. Now I wished for Lupus....
I was on high doses of Prednisone for a year, along with some other medications to reduce inflammation and the severe pain. It is now 2009 and I am in remission, but have residual problems that I am learning to live and cope with. Some days are better than others, and on those days I take it one hour at a time. I look forward to and enjoy my good days and prepare for the not-so-good-days.
I was so depressed after my diagnosis but I have taken the last couple of years to do some internal housekeeping and in a way this illness has really saved my life.
I have learned that too much activity and stress makes it worse, so I follow two philosophies:
1. Don't sweat the small stuff and everything is small stuff
2. The 24 hour rule: Will this _________ be important tomorrow? If not then I don't let it get me upset.
If the siutation is going to impact my next day then I have to ask myself if worrying is going to change anything? If the answer is no, then I try to wait it out to see if things will resolve on its own.
Worrying really does no good except to increase stress to the heart and other organs. Life is too short to worry about things that I can't change - I have to save my energy for those things that I can change.