A Journey Toward Wellness

By Aileen Dodd | Jan. 30, 2025

Overweight, exhausted female complaining of pain. It’s what the doctors saw when Andrea Reed of North Carolina, would walk into an examination room searching for answers for the malaise and aching joints that haunted her daily. With her family history of autoimmune disease, she knew that time was of the essence. But Andrea just couldn’t seem to get her doctors to take her seriously. 

So, the undiagnosed and undermedicated seronegative spondyloarthrits that caused her hip and back pain in her 20s progressed through her 30s, causing irreversible damage to her spine. 

Andrea’s arduous arthritis journey has inspired her to help others in the gender pain gap advocate for better medical treatment. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, women are 25% more likely to experience chronic pain. Their suffering is more often dismissed, misunderstood, or mistreated compared to men, according to studies.

“I used to have body aches, every day; it was like I had the flu, every day,” says Andrea. “When I would go to the doctors, they would always talk about my weight. They thought the reason that I was having so much pain was because of my weight. It was almost like I wasn’t treated adequately because I was overweight. It was so frustrating.

“I had a C-reactive protein of 30!” she says. “That level of inflammation is when you have an active infection or significant inflammation going on in your body.”

Andrea understood her charts and knew which medications could help to alleviate her symptoms. Afterall, she had spent eight years studying the human body and chemistry, first earning a biology degree at Indiana State University, then a PharmD degree at Purdue University and eventually an MBA from East Carolina University a decade later. She currently serves as pharmacy vice president at the integrated medical system Novant Health, which has more than 850 locations in North and South Carolina.

“I don’t know if [my pain] still would have been treated if we hadn’t seen the inflammation on my spine,” Andrea recalls. “I have multiple areas where there has been damage to my spine from such long periods of inflammation, which could have been prevented.”

Andrea grew up in Indiana seeing the women in her family battle autoimmune disorders. Her mother and aunts had Graves disease; her cousins had Hashimoto’s. Over the years, Andrea says she has seen a parade of physicians, from neurologists to gastroenterologists as her fatigue and pain persisted. 

“At one point in my 30s, I just physically felt like I couldn’t move,” she says. “The pain would be a 7 to a 9 — it did not ever let up!” The throbbing in her hips and lower back was so agonizing that at night, Andrea would toss and turn because she couldn’t get comfortable, and then wake up groggy. It would take her an hour to get going in the morning. She would stretch and wince. Stretch and wince. And then find fleeting relief in the embrace of a hot shower. At the time, Andrea was juggling the schedule of a busy soccer mom and an emergency room pharmacist.

It wasn’t until after her inflammatory rheumatic disease had spread destructively down her spine damaging her Achilles tendon that she received her diagnosis. Ironically, in 2020, her Achilles ruptured the day after she had powered through the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell Run fundraiser. “I went to ortho, and they said, ‘Your Achilles has basically turned to bone — it’s disintegrated!’” says Andrea, who is co-chair of the Arthritis Foundation board in her state. She has helped the nonprofit raise hundreds of thousands of dollars over the years. 
 
It took two more years for Andrea to receive the biologic Humira to slow the progression of her spondyloarthropathy. It was Dr. Amit Patel, a Novant rheumatologist, whom Andrea credits for escalating her case and finally getting her a prescription for a biologic.

 

“I’m in a completely different place now from the medication,” Andrea says. Her sons, Austin Parker, 24, and Alex Parker, 18, who used to see her nap daily due to the pain and lethargy caused by her condition are glad to see her effervescence. She exercises daily and has lost the steroid weight. “We play tennis and do family walks.” 

Andrea is reminded of the pain when her dosage wears off. “When it comes back, just for a little bit in between my doses of Humira, I’m shocked that I had that every single day. It impacts your ability to concentrate.”

And now she’s sharing her arthritis journey with others living with pain. And she’s building a growing profile in the wellness community. 

In November 2024, Andrea signed a contract to open a Di Thurma wellness spa in Wilmington, North Carolina with her oldest son, Austin, who will manage daily operations. She frequents the Di Therma in Cornelius, North Carolina closest to her home practically every day to get red light therapy for rejuvenation. Because of her positive results, she wants to share the therapy with others. “It pushes out nitric oxide from your cells, and pushes oxygen in, so your cells are full of oxygen for exercise and to help with pain. This place has been so impactful for me.”
 
Andrea is also co-launching a new wellness podcast with her pharmacist colleagues called “Pharm Alive — Pharmacists Keeping You Alive.” It will share news on preventing chronic diseases and views on medical therapies, diets, exercise regimens, and more, empowering audiences to advocate for the lifestyles they deserve and doctors who will listen to their concerns. “If your doctor is not supporting you in total wellness, … you shouldn’t feel guilty about going to look for better care.”