Raise The Anchor
Raise the Anchor- is a transformative podcast hosted by Melissa Burbridge, where ordinary people share extraordinary stories of life-changing moments.
From overcoming health challenges like a life-saving liver transplant to bold decisions like a career pivot or adopting a life-altering diet, each episode dives into the pivotal moments that reshaped lives for the better. Through Melissa's thoughtful interviews and powerful narratives, "Raise the Anchor" inspires listeners to let go of what holds them back and set sail toward a brighter future.
Join Melissa each week for stories that will spark inspiration, ignite courage, and remind you that it’s never too late to rewrite your story.
Raise The Anchor
From Chronic Struggles to a New Solution | Jen Vey’s Journey Continues
In this powerful follow-up episode, we reconnect with Raise the Anchor guest Jen Vey—an unstoppable force navigating life with brain tumors, dystonia, and the lasting impacts. Jen shares an honest update on her health, the realities of living with chronic illness, and how she’s transforming pain into purpose through her new platform: Temporary Experts.
This innovative business is built for people who can’t work traditional 9–5 jobs but have incredible knowledge to offer. Whether you live with disability, chronic illness, or are simply forging your own path—this conversation is for you.
*Don’t miss the surprise laugh-out-loud moment at the end if you're watching on YouTube!
-Learn more about Temporary Experts
--Health, hustle, and hope—this one hits deep.
👉 Like, comment, and subscribe for more stories of resilience and reinvention.
Welcome to Raise the Anchor, the podcast that explores what happens when we stop drifting and start choosing. I'm your host, Melissa Burbridge, and each week we dive into real, raw stories of transformation, moments when people dared to raise the anchor and change course. Whether you're navigating chronic illness, burnout, big life pivots, or healing from the inside out, you'll find inspiration and truth here on Raise the Anchor. This is your space for honesty, hope, and the courage to begin again. Let's raise the anchor and set your course. So this episode is brought to you by Capture It Photography, headshots for people who hate having their photos taken. Highly recommend. Today we're welcoming back Jen Vey. She's been a friend of mine for many years. We've gone through many seasons together with our children and with our husbands and, you know, with our illnesses. I loved hearing your story last time. Can you refresh a little bit on what your story was?
Speaker 01:Well, I was diagnosed with cervical dystonia when I was a child, which is rare. Cervical dystonia, dystonia in general is a cousin to Parkinson's, basically. I also have some brain tumors. Luckily, they're benign. There are nine of them. Yes, nine. And yeah, so I've had a journey when it comes to my health. I've had a journey when it comes to having my children and being educated and having a degree and have skills I have to offer. And yeah, it's been quite a ride. And you
Speaker 02:have a beautiful journey in your own business as well, which we'll touch on. But getting to learning about those nine brain tumors was quite a bit because we knew you had a little bit. Yeah. But Nova Scotia wasn't very helpful. And we had to take a girl's weekend.
Speaker 01:We did. Yeah, she saved me.
Speaker 02:To Toronto.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I still take the meds that we got in Toronto. Yeah. And it's
Speaker 02:crazy that we even had to take
Speaker 01:a girls weekend to Toronto. Yeah. And that's how we presented.
Speaker 02:That was quite an adventure. I remember probably my most favorite moment was walking into the Christmas store, even though you were about to have an episode as we called it at that time.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 02:Your face lit up just going into that store and that like made it all worth it. But I remember us trying to get onto the plane and trying to make it look like you weren't having a stroke. Yeah. And make it look like you weren't a drunk because you were stumbling a little bit.
Speaker 01:Exactly.
Speaker 02:And we were so nervous that we weren't getting it home. Yeah,
Speaker 01:I forgot about that. Yeah,
Speaker 02:I remember that now. Probably your least favorite part of the trip is when I flipped the script and made you the nurse and not me.
Speaker 01:That was unreal. Unreal. I
Speaker 02:remember the pure terror on your face. And I'm like, we're at the keg. Yeah. We're finishing up, and I'm like, we're leaving. We're leaving right now. If you want dessert, take it to go, because we're leaving. We're finding a pharmacy. I need Benadryl. yesterday and you're like what's going on where do we need to go I'm like let's just breathe let's just go we're gonna go and I walked you through how to help me
Speaker 01:yeah because I'm I had an allergy as a kid where I had to have an EpiPen on me so I'm thinking anaphylactic shock where's your EpiPen and not like let's go get Benadryl
Speaker 02:yeah because I wasn't allowed to take my EpiPen on the plane I don't know why but it's yeah Neither here nor there. I knew Benadryl. I didn't want to go back to the hospital because we just spent the whole entire day at the
Speaker 00:hospital.
Speaker 02:But you just listened to what I needed and you became the best nurse. Thank you. You helped me.
Speaker 01:Thank you. I know about every department now. I can imagine. Between me and my son's journey and yeah. I think we could
Speaker 02:probably have a whole 20 part series on your health journey. But today I want to touch back into some of those things that were so inspiring for others. So before when I helped you in Toronto you weren't very helping or you weren't very wanting of others to help you because you felt like a burden. Do you still feel that today? I
Speaker 01:think anybody who's chronically ill with a disorder like mine is concerned about that in the future for their families and loved ones and people around. I always check in to make sure that everything's okay, about me not being a burden, but yeah, I feel absolutely supported.
Speaker 02:Good. And since we last met, you weren't really working much because it was limiting you. You were working for the property management when you could. Your husband was away for weeks at a time.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 02:Your boys were now home because of the pandemic, and you had to not only be mom, you had to be teacher. How has your journey from then to now kind of happened? We can do touch points and come back.
Speaker 01:Yeah, it's been just as interesting. So, yeah, there was the pandemic. My husband worked away in rotation, and then he came home, and thank goodness he was home because... Over the last little bit, my father unfortunately got cancer. He thought he had it for a while and it wasn't diagnosed and we thought we had more time and we didn't. And so I spent the whole summer every single day in the hospital. And since he didn't have a family doctor, I was his doctor. So I did all the advocating. I did all the notes every single day and everything. And in the last days, when we had our family meeting, I had to say, OK, I'm not going to be his doctor anymore. I want to be his daughter. And one of the doctors stepped up and said, yeah, well, I'll take that role.
Speaker 02:That must have been such a hard time because you're with your sickness. You have your family. And here you are being your dad's doctor.
Speaker 01:Well,
Speaker 02:you are daddy's little girl. I
Speaker 01:am.
Speaker 02:Watching you two together. Luckily, I had that. I have those memories of you guys being together. I'm going to try not to cry.
Speaker 01:It's still hard years later. I was crying the other day. Yeah.
Speaker 02:Because that's, yeah, you guys talked all the time.
Speaker 01:He
Speaker 02:wanted to be your caretaker for a long time. I remember him coming over when you got your dog, your therapy dog, and just like, here's lunch for you girls today so you don't have to worry about it. He's such a beautiful person.
Speaker 01:Yeah, he was.
Speaker 02:But I like that you advocated and said, I no longer want to be the doctor. I want to be the daughter because that's important for your healing process after. Yeah,
Speaker 01:there are two things that I can say about that. One is a funny story because... my illness sometimes I look like I'm going into a stroke um kind of a thing where I start flopping and they were trying to treat dad and next thing you knew I was flopping up against the wall and the nurses were like what's going on and I'm like don't pay attention to me just take care of him I'm fine and they're looking at me going you're not fine and so that was kind of funny and you have to have a bit of humor when you're chronically yeah you do and um Yeah, the other thing was after he had amazing doctors around him, he really did, and one of them after, we found out he had a very rare type of cancer as it moved, not originally, but as it moved, and he said he was fortunate he passed away as quickly as he did because it was a very, very painful type that went to his bones and then started... going on to his spine and his brain. And so the way you see it on TV, you know, your last words and stuff. It just didn't go the way you picture it to go.
Speaker 02:So a little bit of a silver lining in there, even
Speaker 01:through the hard time. Yeah, he needed to be at peace.
Speaker 02:Yeah, and that's hard for... I watch it all the time, so I often forget. I often forget what it's like for families, and I have to bring myself back in. He
Speaker 01:didn't touch the nurses. They were all crying. They were all crying. We're not supposed to go with you.
Speaker 02:I don't know how many times I... I think it's just therapeutic. The last time we spoke, you talked about a grieving process. So this is another grieving process, but the grieving process with your illness. Are you still grieving the old you, or have you decided a new path forward?
Speaker 01:So it's kind of a double-edged thing. People have different beliefs about when you have an illness that's ongoing, how it goes and how you should treat it. I think there's a grief process in everything you lose from the person you were before. And so I do go through a grief process, but it's a healthy one. And then I move on. And then, you know, it's day by day. So, you know, right now we're looking into some things because I just found out I'm more limited. Hopefully it's temporary. But, yeah, this grief process behind that.
Speaker 02:And that's a heavy weight to bear, thinking that there might be more things you have to give up.
Speaker 01:Yeah, the things I absolutely love, yeah.
Speaker 02:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Yeah.
Speaker 02:I don't like that season. I hope it is temporary for you.
Speaker 01:Thank you. I hope so.
Speaker 02:Because you're such an amazing person. I also know that you're proud, which I love. And it's kind of an invisible illness, even though it's not an invisible illness. Yes. So you have to constantly advocate.
Speaker 00:Yes.
Speaker 02:Um, I've seen a few posts recently where people have like the wheelchair thing on their license plate. And then, um, they get out and they don't have a wheelchair, like it has the disability. So nobody can actively see your disability unless they spend a little bit of time with you. So can you walk us through a little bit of advocating that piece? I know we didn't talk about that, sorry.
Speaker 01:This is so interesting because I actually talked to somebody this week. I met for the first time somebody who had dystonia, along with something else. But It was just such an incredible conversation because you see me, you might see my head shake a bit, but inside I can feel myself vibrating all the time, which is exhausting. It was just such an incredible conversation. But things like going to the grocery store. I don't know why, but the local grocery store, if I go in for more than 15 minutes, I end up with the left side of my face goes numb. I start slurring. I'll start going into what people would think would be some sort of a stroke because it's like a seizure, but it's loose. Yeah, so... Yeah, people don't really, and we were talking about how I kind of fall through the cracks. I don't feel like sometimes I fit in with the disability community, the disabled community, because I don't, I don't present that way, but yet I don't really fit into an able-bodied community either, and I'm starting to learn that language of, you know, able-bodied.
Speaker 02:You're that unicorn or that snowflake. You just remind me of the snowflake. Everybody's different. I love that. Does your husband still work away for weeks at a time?
Speaker 01:Thank goodness he doesn't. He does go away once in a while, but he has been home, thank goodness, because since my father passed, my mom does have Parkinson's, and I had been taking care of her for the last few years. I just didn't have any bandwidth. No, I don't blame you. He's been the biggest support. A lot
Speaker 02:on your plate. The last time we spoke, you were having a hard time finding a diagnosis. Is that still kind of an issue?
Speaker 01:What happened was what a lot of people go through. Even though I had the diagnosis of dystonia when I was young, I also found out I had two brain tumors that they forgot to tell me about for two years and then I found out I had nine brain tumors and it happened at about the same time I started really storming with dystonia and So I saw two doctors here, and they, of course, thought it was in my head and tried to give me drugs that weren't appropriate. And then after two years of being bedridden, I got to see a movement specialist here. I'm so fortunate there's only two. I know they're very hard to get in to see. Yeah, really treasure your specialists. Yeah, and I take Botox now, and Botox is one of the original treatments for things like mine, not like, you know, puffing up your face and doing all that fun stuff. It's really... I get shots up and down my neck that are ultrasound-driven. It's pretty interesting. That's super cool. Yeah, and it allows me to... It's helped so much between the prescription they gave me in Toronto and the anti-seizure and that. It's... It's kept me pretty good.
Speaker 02:Because you're right. When you think of Botox, you think of thinning your lines or migraines. No, I love that.
Speaker 01:Yeah, migraines is a good example. Yeah. I know it was offered to me when I was in my 20s, but I wasn't really feeling it as much then. And I didn't think taking botulism toxin for the rest of my life was good. That's why it was so funny when people started taking Botox. I'm like, you want to shoot yourself up with botulism toxin? Okay. I know. Now I'm
Speaker 02:learning the benefits. Yeah. Yeah, it's crazy. I never would have thought.
Speaker 01:Yeah, I'm so fortunate. I have a movement specialist neuro in Halifax, and I also have my neurosurgeon in Halifax, so I get to have scans every two years to make sure that my tumors aren't changing at all, being benign.
Speaker 02:And is that something they would ever look at, removing?
Speaker 01:One's in a tricky spot, and there are nine. If you see them on the scan, there's one behind my eye, behind my ear, all over the place. This big one in the back where the blood comes out of my brain, which is tricky, but they said they can do it. We're pretty much trying to wait out the technology. So until I get really symptomatic where they have to go in, they wouldn't go in to remove that. Because it is a big risk.
Unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 01:Yeah, you know, brain surgery, who wants that? Yeah, no. Nobody does. Nobody
Speaker 02:does.
Speaker 01:But,
Speaker 02:yeah. So the last time we spoke, we talked about how you casually worked at Happy Place Property Management. We both were working there
Speaker 00:at that
Speaker 02:time. And you worked here and there casually because you had to work around your illness. At that time, you were having so many tremors and freaked us out every day.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Yeah, I did. It was hard to
Speaker 02:shut off nurse mode. Yeah, yeah. So what does work look like now for you? Now four years? Yeah, four
Speaker 01:years. Wow. I'm so thankful for all the time I had there. And Jenna continues to be a mentor of mine and a very, very close friend and taught me so much. And I'm so thankful for the time that I got to work there for the few hours because I really– You know, I can only work for a few hours at a time. And yeah, and now my life is changing having to do with that.
Speaker 02:Yeah. And how is it changing?
Speaker 01:So about four years ago, well, about during that time. It was during COVID, and I started to see, because I'm an entrepreneur at heart. Yeah, she's a workaholic. Yeah.
Speaker 02:So not working was really hard
Speaker 01:for her. I tend to hyper-focus because I'm also a neurodivergent. So, you know, I was seeing these signs, you know, close for business, that they didn't have any help and things like that. And then I'm thinking of... people that are chronically ill, people that have any sort of illness that keeps them from working a nine to five. And then it kind of morphed. And then I'm thinking, oh my gosh, there are all these categories of people. Like I'm a mom, I ended up staying home with the kids. But you also feel like you want to get out there in the community and work and all these different conditions get you in a place where you're at home. And I'm like, let's get people out in the community working that can't work a nine to five and help businesses out. A lot of businesses don't need to hire somebody for 40 hours a week. They may need just a replacement person. And to me, if you've had skills, you're an expert, you feel like you could jump into a job without having your hand held. Why not? So I'd like to say it's like Tinder meets Fiverr. So I've developed this platform called. Yeah, it's temporary experts. And it's it's been four years in my head and then a year in development because there's it's a huge platform. And I hope it's going to change and help. helps so many people and businesses.
Speaker 02:I think it'll help a lot of businesses because starting and growing your own business, as both of us know, can be labor-intensive, and you need that extra help, but you don't want to hire somebody full-time because that's going to hit your bottom line that you're trying to start to get. Yeah,
Speaker 01:definitely.
Speaker 02:I love that. So in the past, we've talked about fear. And we talked about your fear is not dying. It's having a stroke or a dementia because a lot of this can bring on dementia. Has your fear changed?
Speaker 01:I'd say the stroke fear is always there because I present kind of like stroke when I have my... dystonic episodes with half of my face going numb and slurring and like I tick off pretty much every box yeah I got it all so as I get older that part of the fear is more there because you know you never know when to present to the hospital or not but Otherwise, it's, you know, it's day by day. Things keep happening and it's just day by day, really. Well,
Speaker 02:that's all you can do. Talking about day by day, are you able to plan out your days and your weeks ahead?
Speaker 01:I try, but I can't. Like, there's certain things like... by the time nighttime rolls around, I'm not as good. And a lot of the networking events at night, unfortunately, I try to sign up for, but sometimes I can't make. And everybody's given me so much grace when it comes to that. I've met so many people that are absolutely amazing and inspirational every day. And so, no, I don't, I plan as much as I can, but I'm intentional instead of goal-driven.
Speaker 00:So
Speaker 01:I have intentions for the day. And when I complete, you know, some things, I feel absolutely proud of myself. No, I
Speaker 02:love that. I love that you're not putting that extra pressure like most people do. We have to have a thousand and one things done before we can feel accomplished. Just one small task is all you need to be able to do. So we've talked a little bit about temporary experts. You have a podcast coming out soon. I
Speaker 01:do. Compassion works. I'm going to start that up. Well, the platform is going to be coming out in June. So when this comes out, our platform will come out. It really took a community since I can't work a nine to five. And it does take so much work to start a business. Really, the people around me have been amazing. They all understand my journey. They're all on their journeys that are similar in some ways, so they have a level of understanding and they're ready to jump in. And Yeah, so then I have a podcast that's going to go along with that to introduce myself and my story and other people's stories because they're just so inspirational and all the different groups that we hope to help through this fractional employment online platform.
Speaker 02:I love that. What movement are you wanting to start with your podcast and your platform?
Speaker 01:I do want to start a movement for people to... understand that there are people and and everybody knows somebody like this this isn't this isn't only to me um there are people that cannot work a nine-to-five for whatever reason and they just need to be their experience they can work they can get out there but they need to be part of the community doing gig work at home does not fill your soul For some people, it's fine. But for mental health and all, getting out in the community is so important. And that's why it was a big part of this platform not to be at home. Now, you can choose to be at home if that's your choice. But doing community asset mapping and seeing how people can... get in with their communities. Interestingly, I've talked to a lot of like counselors or therapists. They're the ones who are asking for my card the most because you may be kind of in between your job, just trying to figure things out or just those few hours are so helpful. And I know one of the inspirations behind my business was when I was on the cervical dystonia help site, there were a lot of people we were talking off the cliff. And the common thread was them losing their job. I can't do my job anymore. How am I going to do my job anymore? You know, my employer says, you know, I just and that's what does it for so many people is their identity wrapped up in their job. So if we can get some of these people that have these skills. Working how they want to work, like empowering them to work the hours that they want to work. Say they can make their own calendar, set what hours they're available. And if you're a business, you can see what hours they're available. And that's it. You can set your boundaries, which is so important because they know what their boundaries are. Yeah. If you have something, you know what your boundaries are.
Speaker 02:Yeah, usually.
Unknown:Yeah.
Speaker 02:So, yeah. Some people. Yeah. Need to set some batteries.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Like some people might be able to set their calendar a whole month ahead and some people maybe a week before a flare up or something. that they can set their calendar ahead. And it
Speaker 02:also sounds like there's that flexibility if there is an off day, they can adjust and tweak it.
Speaker 01:Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.
Speaker 02:So when you are launching this, because our listeners are a little bit all over the world, for some reason this podcast goes really well in Ireland, so
Speaker 01:I kind of love it. My middle name's Connelly. I know they always hear that.
Speaker 02:Where is your platform going to be launching? Is it going to be just here in Nova Scotia, or is it going be a little more international
Speaker 01:so I have huge plans for the platform to help the most people possible beta is going to be released in Nova Scotia probably a year we'll see I hope a lot of people join in the beta and test it out and give feedback and everything and once we get it nice and tight we'll start expanding it to the Atlantic provinces and then all of Canada and then we'll go from there
Speaker 02:so we've discussed before that you didn't want to have a dream you didn't feel like you could have a dream. Has that changed for you over the last four years?
Speaker 01:I think that I don't dream like other people maybe, but I think this especially has been something I've always wanted to have my own company, and I've always wanted to help people, and I think of this more as my legacy. I hope that this will take off and help people and really become a legacy that I can share.
Speaker 02:I think it's a beautiful legacy and dream to have. For those who are going through maybe not the same road you're going through, but are going through illness and fighting and not being able to work, what advice would you give to someone who knows they need to advocate or need to work towards a solution?
Speaker 01:I think my sport background actually helped me with this because I just don't give up. So I'd say just advocate for yourself and don't give up. I don't think many people realize how exhausting it is to advocate. It's a full-time job, even more than a full-time job to advocate. And I just encourage them to stick with it because... There's somebody out there, even as rare as your thing is, that can relate to you and that you will find eventually. It may take a long time. But, you know, for me, for two years, I was pretty much bedridden. That was my bad time. But then, you know, now.
Speaker 02:Now you're
Speaker 01:up. You're here. I'm starting a company. You know, I'm here doing the podcast with you again. This is great.
Speaker 02:Yeah. So where can our anchor crew follow up and connect with you?
Speaker 01:So I'm always on LinkedIn. But the company will be on YouTube. T-E-M-P-E-X-P dot com, so Tempex.com. We're on Instagram on Temporary Experts S-E. It was important for it to be a social enterprise. Facebook Temporary Experts, you can find us in our logo and all.
Speaker 02:Looking forward to that. So the last question, and most people are a little iffy on this because usually people will think what motivates you, but I want to know what inspires you.
Speaker 01:Who
Speaker 02:or what, I should say.
Speaker 01:Yeah, so many things inspire me every day. Like I could be seeing a flower come up every day. I
Speaker 02:love the ebbs and flows of that, that it may not be just one single thing.
Speaker 01:No, like just getting up in the morning and having another day inspires me. But the people I've met, honestly, on this journey with Temporary Experts, I've met so many people that are so excited that think this is needed. It's really needed to help people. And their stories have really inspired me. When you think you're going through something and then you talk to somebody else, all of a sudden you're like, wow.
Speaker 02:I'm sorry. I'm still choking up from your just seeing another day. That touches on so many levels. Yep. It's so deep. Yep. I love that. Well, thank you for coming on the show today. I'm so excited to watch your business launch and grow. Thank you. The whole journey over the past few years is, I'm sorry. I love it. Thank
Speaker 01:you. Thank you.
Speaker 02:raise the anchor if today's episode spoke to you share it with a friend or leave a review it helps more people find their way to healing and hope follow along on Instagram TikTok or YouTube for behind the scenes extra content and real life moments and be sure to join the email list at linktree slash raise the anchor so you never miss an episode until next time here's to calm waters steady winds and the courage to chart your own course.
