Keeping up with Gaby!

Purposeful. Passionate. Driven

Hi everyone, this is my first blog post and I thought that you may like to know somethings about me, and how I have become the woman I am today. I am happily married to an awesome man and we have four delightful children, three girls and a boy. I am passionate about preventive Healthcare, cooking and teaching.

As far back as I can remember, I have always been a go-getter, not bashful to try different things. My mom saw my drive, and she encouraged and supported me in pretty anything I wanted to do. I was not the shy child and I got involved in different activities that I was often the center of attractions. I loved to act and wanted to study acting in college. When I told my parents about my career choice, that was quickly dismissed by them. You see, at that time, I was living in Nigeria, West Africa, and to be an actress was not something taken serious by parents. Every parent wanted their children to be doctors, lawyers, pharmacist etc. these were the “reputable professions” not acting. Anyway, I ended up studying Food and Industrial Microbiology, which I guess was more “reputable.”

I met my hubby while I was still in college, and we dated for two years. By the time I graduated with a degree in microbiology, I was married, pregnant and gave birth a year later. My husband was living in America and joined him two months after giving birth.

Now freshly in the USA, I had to decide on a profession/career. With advice from family and friends, I decided to go into nursing. Since I am a people-person, I thought that it would be great way to incorporate my love for people with my hard-earned degree in microbiology. I started prudently, to test the healthcare-waters, by being a Nursing Assistant, to see if I would even like a career in healthcare. My initial decision to switch from microbiology to healthcare was driven by a desire for professional stability. As time went on, I soon became a Registered Nurse. Working with the sick and the vulnerable people, made it clear to me that I really loved the profession. Becoming a nurse gave me the satisfaction that was way beyond job security, I soon realized that it is my calling.

As a registered nurse (RN), and of course knowing the kind of person I am, (the hustler, the go-getter), I wanted to go higher in the profession, to be in a position to be of greater help and to make more impact so I decided to again go back to school to get my masters in Nursing and became a family nurse practitioner (FNP).

As time went on, working as an FNP, I began to have some frustrations with the traditional medical model which was all I had known. The frustrations included dealing with insurances, having too many patients, not having enough time to really teach and understand what is going on with the patients, prescribing pills to patients but some of them not getting better, and the list goes on.

Well, I did have many victories and a lot of patients got better. However, whenever I took a pen and prescription pad to prescribe another medication, I always thought: “there should be a better way.” Year after year, I kept wondering whether I was in the right profession. “I really still like to help people”, was the little conversations I would have with myself, which were becoming more frequent. Added to this burden was that I started dealing with multiple Gastrointestinal (GI) issues. I went from one doctor to another, did multiple laboratory tests and did not seem to be getting any better. Then, one day, after my fervent research, my prayers got answered when I found Functional Medicine. I liked this model which involved looking at the root cause of a disease or condition and applying the holistic approach.

A few months after seeing and working with A Functional Medicine Practitioner, my eyes seem to have opened to this new branch of medicine. I was quickly sold! Why not? I was getting my healing and a renewed hope for medicine that I had almost given up on. I decided right away that I would like to practice this way, and I quickly started training for it. Now as a Functional Medicine Health Consultant, I feel that I am in a good lane.

As a high achieving woman, who is purposeful, passionate, and driven, I believe I can relate to many women out there, like me, that are going to be my clients. Therefore, I have built this practice: Gaby U health & wellness hub, functional medicine & integrative health for women, simplified!

I see you!

I hear you!

Let us have a chat to see how we can move you forward!

I am here for you!