How to Cope with Uncertainty When Life Feels Unpredictable with Guest Susie Marsh

What happens when the person everyone else depends on suddenly becomes the one who needs help? 

In this episode, we're joined once again by professional organizer and Michigan NAPO President Susie Marsh. After an unexpected series of heart health challenges turned her world upside down, Susie shares the realities of navigating chronic illness, accepting support, rebuilding her health, and discovering new priorities along the way. Her story is an honest reminder that healing isn't just about recovering physically—it's about learning to adapt, finding gratitude, and creating systems that help us through life's most difficult seasons. 

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Website: LessStressinLife.com/podcast/

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Transcript

Deb Timmerman 0:05

Welcome to the Less Stress in Life podcast. I'm Deb Timmerman, founder of Less Stress in Life, registered nurse, and board certified reflexologist. I help people navigate the stressors of chronic illness and understand how stress can feed ongoing pain cycles and impact overall health.

Lindsay Vertalka 0:24

And I'm Lindsay Vertalka, a master's level licensed physical therapist. I help people move through injuries, disabilities, and chronic conditions using a holistic approach that blends movement with the mental and emotional side of living with pain. Between the two of us, we've worked with and experienced chronic illness, both professionally and personally.

Deb Timmerman 0:44

This season, we're focusing on what it really looks like to live well with chronic illness. We're here to bring you practical tools, research-backed insights, guests who are walking this path, and fresh approaches you may not have tried, so you could feel more hopeful, more informed, and more supported along the way. Joining me is my co-host, Lindsay Vertulka, physical therapist. And today we're welcoming back a familiar voice to the podcast. Many of you may remember Susie Marsh from our Empowered Wellness Series. She's a professional organizer who spent years helping people create spaces that support calmer, more intentional lives. She serves as the Michigan president of the National Association of Productivity and Organizing Professionals. Over the last year, Susie's life took a little bit of an unexpected turn as she navigated some heart health issues. So, like many people living with chronic illness, she found herself learning how to balance recovery work, leadership, and everyday life in a different way. So in today's conversation, we'll talk about what that journey looked like, what she's learned along the way, and how her experiences have changed the way she thinks about stress, priorities, and even the spaces we live in. Susie, welcome back. It is so good to have you back with us. Good morning.

Susie Marsh 2:19

Good morning. Thank you. Thanks for having me back.

Deb Timmerman 2:22

Good morning, Lindsay. Hey, it's good to have you here again, Susie. Thanks. So let's kick things off by having you talk about what happened, Susie. Bring our listeners up to date.

Susie Marsh 2:35

Yeah. So back in 2025, I started noticing I was having some heart issues. I don't know how to describe that part, but kind of like my heart would just speed up kind of thing. And so I was being monitored by my doctor, and by February of 25, they diagnosed me with atrial flutter and was put on a heart medication for that. Things were going fine. By the middle of summer, I was noticing I was having more issues with my GI tract as well. I was like, after I would eat, I would feel like I would be like clearing my throat constantly, kind of thing. Even my husband noticed and asked me what was going on. And I said, I don't know. I think my allergies must be really, really flared up. And so I never really thought anything of it. Well, by Labor Day, things went off the rails. I ended up in the ER near the Detroit area. I was in full AFib, atrial fibrillation for those that don't know the term AFib. And I was put on heart medications, I was put on a blood thinner. It was sort of controlling it at that point. I would say I was able to function pretty well, you know, my normal, but by Labor Day, I definitely felt my body was changing. But then November hit and everything really went off the rails. I was having issues eating. I every time I ate, I would have pressure in my chest and it would go all the way through my back. And then it would trigger the apib and it was going nonstop up and down, up and down. I had nine ER visits between Labor Day and January 1st, trying to handle it. And yeah, it was a lot. November, I couldn't work. My sister came and took care of me because my husband and son had to work. And there were many nights I had them up with me as the AFib was triggered, and I was working with my doctors, trying to figure out what the right dosages were for medications. I don't deal with medications very well, and heart medicines are heavy duty. And I kept telling them I need to be on baby doses of medications because I just don't react well to them. And they said, Well, you're on the lowest dose possible. And I said, Well, I'm still reacting. And so they were sort of helpful, I would say. Uh they tried to give me some direction in that. And I ended up having to kind of figure it out myself on what the correct dosage for me would be. It would make my heart rate go too low. And I had episodes where so my vagus nerve is affected as well. And for the listeners that don't know, you have your vagus nerve that runs from your brain and goes all the way down your spine and goes out into your stomach area. And so all of those were playing together and not playing together nicely at all. It was between the GI stuff triggering the vagus nerve, which was triggering the AFib. I had a period where, or an evening, I should say, that I actually passed out. I woke up in the middle of the night and I passed out, and it took, I mean, they called the ambulance because my family didn't know what was going on. I could feel myself, I was slurring words. I was um not able to come back to full consciousness essentially. It took a while. And it was just yeah, it was mind-blowing that this was all happening to me.

Deb Timmerman 6:26

That must have been incredibly scary.

Susie Marsh 6:30

It was, it was incredibly scary because I didn't know what the heck was going on. Why was I passing out? Turns out my heart rate, I looked at my Fitbit, my heart rate was going um in the low 30s. And so then it popped back up once I was coming around and the emergency personnel was here and they were monitoring me, and they said, Yeah, you got to go to the hospital. We don't know exactly what's going on. That was one of the ER visits.

Lindsay Vertalka 6:56

Wow, Susie. Thanks for sharing. I knew you had a lot going on, but I didn't realize it's been this much. Um, you've had a rough year.

Susie Marsh 7:04

Yeah.

Lindsay Vertalka 7:05

We refresh our listeners. Of course, Deb and I know you were working full time prior to this, right? Yeah. And so did you just have to stop working for how long?

Susie Marsh 7:16

When it came to a head in November, I had to stop totally working. I could not function. And then going into early December, I couldn't either. But they got me on a different heart medication. So things I could regulate it, but I had to like really watch how I was working when I did get back into working. I essentially went back full time once I got everything regulated with the medications, but it was frustrating just trying to get all of that figured out and knowing that the doctors figured that they were doing the best they could and they told me what they could, but it wasn't working well for me. But yeah, it was very frustrating. But the other good part of what happened was is that my aunt was getting sick at the very same time. She was 90, well, turning 91 during all that period. And in my my well, I don't know everybody's spirituality basis of where you are, but for me, I felt it was a time that maybe God was slowing me down enough to be able to help take care of her. She I was a long-distance caretaker. She was in the Detroit area. So um I was able to slow down and really pay attention to what was going on with her and with the caregiver that was doing the care on that end. So um I slowed down with that. And maybe it was just saying, hey, Susie, you need to slow down a little bit anyway. But I was able to get what's called a pulse field ablasion, where essentially they go into the atrium of your heart and they're like scarring the back of your heart where the electrical impulses are incorrectly firing. And that's where they essentially turned it off for now. I'm not ever going to be cured of AFib, but at this point, I have not had an AFib issue since I had recovery probably for about the first month, you know, after I had it in February. Really just getting myself back into routine and getting my stamina back because I mean, walking up and down hills and everything, I would had no problems usually, but I was out of breath just walking up my staircase, trying to function that way. But the ablasion really helped tremendously for me. And I had an 80 to 90 percent chance that it was going to essentially turn it off at this point because I caught it at an early stage. A lot of people don't catch it early enough and they just let it go, and then it becomes a permanent AFib, and then they're constantly dealing with it and always on medications. My goal was to get myself back heart healthy, uh, because structurally, my heart is good. My cardiologist on my heart is very good. It's just the electrical current that's where the electrophysiologist um handles that portion of your heart. So it was misfiring. And what they figured was that because I've had underlying thyroid issues for probably 25 years, that was underlying. And so, and then I had a booster shot, and my it was just too much for my body to handle, and it just threw it over the edge and the electrical current, which is going nuts. So I essentially had a fib and a flutter, which are two, they're in two different parts of the heart, uh or the atriums, so right and left atrium. So I had both of those taken care of during the ablation.

Deb Timmerman 10:54

So, Susie, that was a very different role for you to be in. Usually you're on the flip side, you're the caregiver or somebody who comes in and helps people organize. What was it like for you to be on the receiving end of being cared for?

Susie Marsh 11:13

Oh, it was a struggle at times because I just wanted to get up and do it myself. And so I really could see how hard it is to be a caregiver of somebody that doesn't want to be taken care of all the time. And so I really could relate to that. And I know I needed help. I could not do it myself. And thank God for my sister. Um, and my other two sisters were there whenever they whenever I needed them as well. They just physically couldn't do a lot of the care either for me. But it was, it was just mostly kind of being there for me at night because that's when things would trigger terribly. So, you know, they were sleeping on the couch or they were sleeping next to me. Um, my husband had many, many nights where I was in full-on body shakes as my body was going up and down in heart rate, going from highs to lows to highs to lows, and my vagus nerve was going all over the place. So them taking care of me, I knew I needed the help. I could not do it myself. And I was so grateful for them. Both of my kids uh have been wonderful. They're adults. Um, so I it was like I I was so appreciative that they were there, and even my neighbors, one of my neighbors had to come over. And when I was in the middle of an AFib episode, and she sat with me while the ambulance was coming and and helped me. Uh so you know, everybody was helping me.

Deb Timmerman 12:45

How nice to have that kind of support. Yeah. So time for true confessions. At one time in my life, I was married to somebody who did auto body work, and I drove the worst car in the neighborhood. It was bungee strapped uh to hold the door on, and I had an infant in my back seat. Kid you not. We'd look at those people today and go, oh, what's wrong with them? So moment of true confession. Are you the person whose house is super organized? Or are you the person who helps other people organize?

Susie Marsh 13:18

It is organized.

Deb Timmerman 13:20

How did that help you while you were laid up?

Susie Marsh 13:25

Uh, it helped me with systems for sure. I mean, I knew right where my medications were. I could tell when I was in the middle of an AFib episode, I could tell my family, hey, they're all that bottom shelf of my medicine cabinet, just grab all of those because we need to go to the ER or we need to go to the doctor with those, grab those. Just having structure around me helped me to understand that I didn't have to think hard about it because I didn't have the brain capacity to have to think hard. When there's so much clutter around you, you have to constantly think like, oh, where is this item? Where's that item? I didn't have a home for that, and it's just in a pile somewhere, you know. So it helped me having this flow and structure in my house. Um, medications just was one idea. Uh, the other thing was having my my chart where I could watch everything and have it all together in that system, the health system. So I could tell my husband, hey, you can go into my chart and you can look to see what my medications are listed there. Or you can go in and see when was I in the ER? I don't remember because my brain was just overloaded. I didn't know what else to do other than just delegate to my family members, which that was very odd for me. I I I had to just let it go and let it be because I just I wasn't able to do it myself. Um, food as well. I had to really change up my diet because with the GI issues, I had to take out anything that was triggering, which was any spicy foods, garlic, onion, acidic, um, you know, citrus fruits. I mean, change my diet 180 degrees. And it's still going on right now. I'm still dealing with GI issues that are being taken care of. That's why it was fired up so bad last summer to where that it um actually caused all those things to happen and trigger the afib. So I have to go to the root cause, the underlying issue of why all of this was happening with the GI track. And now I find out what all it was.

Lindsay Vertalka 15:31

So, Susie, as an organizer yourself and somebody who's structured, was it hard to make those diet changes and be flexible? I mean, you've had so much happen in a year. You've had a lot of change, it sounds like.

Susie Marsh 15:46

Yeah. And it's an ongoing thing with my diet because I'm on an elimination diet right now. So if anybody's ever been on an elimination diet, it is not easy. You have to take out a ton of food out of your diet and have just certain things for three weeks, and then you bring foods back into your diet, you can tell whether or not things are triggering you or not. Um, so that's ongoing. And I would say I was already doing a lot of it starting last fall, just changing things up, and now it's just at a different level where when you have a health issue like this, it's not like where you're on a so-called diet. It's where you're doing this because you don't want to feel bad. And that's gonna, it's a real good motivator to eat right. So you aren't triggering yourself into having all these major medical things happening. So I'm just making the best of it and I am trying to find the best recipes, the best things to eat that are helpful for me. I mean, I've got no dairy, no gluten, and I do feel better. You know, my allergies are a lot better, a tongue better.

Lindsay Vertalka 16:54

That's amazing. That's a lot of the folks that I've worked with who have chronic illnesses that affect their gut and their diet. It is a lifestyle change, and it's great to hear you, you know, you recognize that and recognize like it's worth it to me to feel better. And this is just what I have to do. It's not a diet, it's a lifestyle. And that's a hard, you know, a hard thing to accept for some people, I would guess.

Susie Marsh 17:16

Yeah. I've not had any alcohol since probably September of last year. And I probably will not have anything. Uh, I don't know if I will drink again ever, because it's a big trigger for AFib. So I have to really weigh that out. And for some people, that's a really difficult thing to do is, you know, not have that that cocktail, that glass of wine. Um, but it it for me, it was never in my lifestyle either. I wasn't one to sit down and have a glass of wine. It was usually on the weekends. I live on a lake, so you know, a lot of people like to come over and celebrate. So I just do my do my own thing, and nobody cares. No, nobody cares that I don't drink alcohol. They're like, oh yeah, you're just taking care of your health. That's that's great.

Deb Timmerman 18:07

Susie, it sounds like you've come to this place in life where instead of seeing these things as losses, you're seeing them as lifestyle modifications so that you can live your best life. I know that sounds kind of cheesy, but uh, it's true. I mean, you get to choose what you put in your body, you get to choose your mindset, you get to choose whether you're going to wallow in that self-pity party, or you're going to look at this as an opportunity to still be here and live your best life.

Susie Marsh 18:44

Yeah. I mean, don't get me wrong. I had my my periods where I had my own pity party and was crying and was like, why is this happening to me? I've had enough things happen to me over the years, and it is what it is.

Deb Timmerman 18:57

It sounds like your family and your faith and the people around you helped a lot. What did you do on those really tough days when you found yourself feeling overwhelmed and grieving? What helped you get through that?

Susie Marsh 19:17

Well, I had to let myself sit in that and sit in the fear, sit in the anxiety, sit in it for a while and work through it and cry. I also had to talk to my family and let them know where I was at. They cried with me at times. I also just I saw it as a journey that it's okay for me to struggle and for other people to know that.

Lindsay Vertalka 19:43

I appreciate your vulnerability and and being here to share that. And I think our focus this season is we want other people who are dealing with chronic illnesses, such as you, to hear like it's okay, it's normal, um, it's not easy. So, thank you.

Susie Marsh 20:01

I started a gratitude journal that I write down it was pretty much every day during the the height of it being the worst. And just telling telling people I'm so grateful for you for being in my life and and just being grateful in general, grateful for my living on a lake. I'm grateful for the sunshine. I'm grateful for just the little stuff, all makes a difference. Grateful for my clients. Oh my gosh, they've been so so wonderful through all of this. And I want them to understand that, okay, hey, I'm back. I'm I've been working full-time, you know, since March, but I had to really know my body and know what my limits were. I mean, there's sometimes I told them, I said, I have to eat like every couple of hours. So if you don't mind, I'm just gonna bring my snacks with me and make sure. And then I got to drink electrolytes and I have to, you know, I gotta accommodate myself. And they're all great. They're like, no, you go right ahead. You do what you have to do. You let me know if that's too much for you to carry, or we can get somebody else to help with that. Or I said, I can bring another organizer with me that can help do some of that heavy stuff while I'm getting myself back into feeling more normal again and having the stamina. Now I'm back. I have probably 90% of my stamina back again, but I'm still very mindful of how is my body feeling because sometimes I feel like things trigger and it feels like it wants the AFib to happen again. It just doesn't have the pathway anymore to do that because I haven't totally dealt with all of the GI issues yet. I haven't gotten to that route all the way. So I have to be very mindful of it with my body that I cannot push myself too much and the hot weather coming this week. I cannot push myself.

Deb Timmerman 21:56

It's interesting that you just went through this whole great big. Health journey, and yet you've found some time to take on a new role as president of NABO for Michigan. You want to talk a little bit about how you made that decision and why you felt that it was an okay time for you to step into that role?

Susie Marsh 22:20

Sure. So, I've been on the board a couple of times now. And first I was vice president years back. And then I was I've been the secretary for several years. And our president was ready to go off into you know a different position. And they were looking around and they said, Susie, you're a good person to do this. You have the experience on the board, you've been on other boards, you have the understanding of what's required. And I knew being president was going to be more of a responsibility, but I was very upfront with my expectations too and my parameters, boundaries. I said, if I don't have a full board underneath me to do all of this work, then I really don't want the role. But I do have a full board. I have a wonderful board that's working with me. And the former president, she's been on the board for the whole time the chapter's been in existence. So it's great. I have her her to rely on. She's right there whenever I need her. And sure, I got a learning curve. But and I said, as long as my health was good at the point of where the elections were happening, I would go ahead and do that. And that's how I made the decision. As long as I had the support there. And I said, well, if some things have to fall off because I can't get to them, or uh, you know, I'm too busy in my organizing work to get to all of it, then we either delegate it or it's just not going to happen now. And they were all fine with that. And it's been fun. I mean, I'm in a couple of months now since I I was elected. And I'm looking forward to it. You know, we I like having new energy. I like just trying things different, new. You know, some of the newer organizers have great ideas. So kind of bringing that to the organization because NAPO's been around for 40 years. And so it's got, you know, how organizations they get used to doing things a certain way. And but you got a lot of this young energy that's out there that wants to be part of things. And if they see you as an old organization, then it needs some freshening up, essentially. And I'm hoping to be part of that. Even though I'm 60, I like new ideas, I like brand new things. I've been mentoring organizers all over West Michigan for years. And I learn from them every single day. It's not just me teaching them, it's I'm learning from them all the time. And I think that's the heart of it. I like helping, I like being a part of it, I like the energy.

Deb Timmerman 25:04

So, as we wrap up, what advice would you give other professionals facing unexpected health setbacks?

Susie Marsh 25:13

Wow, rely on your peers if you can. When I was at the height of it and I had clients lined up, I just contacted my other organizers in the area and I said, Hey, do you have any availability to step in for me? And I know their work, I know they're great, they're awesome. And I told my clients, I said, Hey, I am not able to do this right now. Are you okay with having these other people? And most of them said, yes, absolutely. And so they took over. And so having that network of people around me helped tremendously. I also took a deep dive look into me with my business. What if things go off the rails again for me? Do I have the right estate planning, the right paperwork in place? So I have a great attorney that is just wonderful. She walked me through the process, my husband and I, to make sure that my business end is taken care of, in addition to my own estate planning, because because of my aunt, I had to, she ended up passing away in February, 10 days after I had my ablation. And so I had to go full on because I was her trustee and her estate representative. So I had to go right into working on that as well. And it made it very clear to me that if something more happens to me, I need to be prepared. So having that estate planning is crucial to know what's what and make sure your family members all know what's going on with you work-wise. I would just really highly recommend that. And save for the future if you're able to just have some fun set aside in case of emergency. Even if you work for an employer, you know, that kind of thing. When you have time off from work and it's not paid, that's a big thing. It just all came to a head for me so quickly that luckily I did have some money that I put aside that I knew in case something did happen, I would have some availability. And of course, I have wonderful family that stepped into as much as I needed. So I know not everybody has that, but as much as you can, be prepared, especially as you get older, do that. And oh, the other thing I was going to mention is I did join a Facebook group of AFib people that have had AFib. That was a wealth of information. And I thought it was great. I mean, they gave me every information of what I should know going into the ablation and what to expect after, and things about medications. And so that community was super supportive. So if you're going through a health issue like that, just find where your people are that are handling it and dealing with it just like you are.

Deb Timmerman 28:09

So Susie shared a lot of wonderful advice today about being prepared and building a support system. We'll try to wrap that all up and some hints in our show notes so that you could print it off if you needed to, listeners, and use that as a guide to help yourself through a health crisis. Lindsay, any parting shots before we end our podcast today?

Lindsay Vertalka 28:36

Susie, I you know, it's really interesting as a social worker yourself to hear your story and how you kind of had to reverse roles. I'm sure it's going to make you an even better social worker and great at what you do. So thank you for sharing today. And it's been it's been great to talk with you both again.

Deb Timmerman 28:54

So you can follow Suzy on her Facebook page. Do you want to share where that is, Susie?

Susie Marsh 29:02

Yes. Um, so you can get there by you can type in Suzy's Organization Solutions L L C or the short tag for that is Suzy's Org, so S-U-S-I-E-S-O-R-G, and you should be able to find me.

Deb Timmerman 29:17

Perfect. We will hyperlink that also in the show notes. Thank you all for joining us today. Susie, we wish you lots of good things coming your way in the coming days. Thank you so much. The Last Stress in Life podcast is for informational and educational purposes only, and it's not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Listening does not establish a provider-patient relationship. Always consult your physician or qualified health care provider with questions about your health or before making changes to your care. Do not delay seeking medical advice because of something you heard here. If you are experiencing a medical emergency, seek immediate care or call 911.