Today we’d like to introduce you to Pete Ostergren.
Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I had always had health problems my entire life in some capacity. I do believe it started with the fact that my mother’s pregnancy with me was quite difficult. She spent the last 19 weeks of the pregnancy lying down at an angle to give me the best chance of survival, though the doctors consistently told her there was no hope. Once I was born, the doctors called me a “miracle baby”.
Due to the stressful nature of the pregnancy, I suffered some neurological damage in the womb. As a little kid, I always felt sick. Lights bothered me immensely, loud noises gave me physical pain, I was constantly fatigued, and my stomach always hurt.
As I grew, we tried seeing different doctors, but we never got any answers other than the fact that I had severe allergies to multiple things. I was constantly in physical pain, I struggled with my mental health, and yet I committed to living a normal life to the best of my ability, despite always feeling sick.
By the time I got to High School, my health continued to decline, but I was playing year-round sports and had aspirations to play college soccer. By the time I was a freshman in college, playing soccer, my health took a serious turn. My whole life, I had always felt sick every second of every day, but this was the first time in my life when I was suffering spells that had me completely out of commission and in bed for multiple weeks at a time. Still no conclusive answers from the doctors, even though they knew something was physically wrong.
During my Junior year of college in 2016, things took yet another turn. The everyday sickness got much worse, the spells that kept me in bed became more prolonged and more frequent, and I developed other severe symptoms, as well as worrying physical signs. I developed massive golf ball-sized lymph nodes in my body that would not go away. I went through 3 surgeries whose cause was seemingly unexplainable to the doctors, and my chronic physical pain became worse.
Despite being extremely unwell, I continued to play soccer in college until I graduated. At that time in my life, I was a strong mix of stubborn and unwise. I knew my body was failing, but I refused to bend the knee. I started playing semi-professional soccer, hoping to lock down a professional contract. After attending a combine, I got offered a trial for a professional team in Sweden. Two days after the offer, my body completely gave up, and nothing was the same ever since.
Modern medicine no longer had answers for me, and eventually told me that I was crazy and that it was “all in your head”, although the physical evidence was clear as can be. I turned to alternative and natural treatments that confirmed everything I had been going through, and provided massive relief, although it was not true healing. Even the alternative doctors didn’t know what was wrong with me. “I have no idea what’s going on, but I think I can at least help the symptoms”, they’d say. I also had an infection in my hand that I had contracted a year earlier. Antibiotics were killing me and sending me to the emergency room every time I took them, because my body was too sick and weak to handle them.
By January of 2018, I knew deep down that I was slowly dying. With no answers in sight, I decided to power through and pursue a career in Strength & Conditioning, where I primarily worked with athletes. And though it was extremely unwise, I started obstacle course racing and long-distance trail running with some coworkers at the gym. I had no business doing anything of the sort with how sick I was, but I couldn’t bear to live a life where I was giving in to my sickness.
In June of 2018, I competed in a World Qualifying event for obstacle course racing. My health had only gotten worse at this point, along with my hand. 12 miles into the race, I broke my leg on a rock. After I broke it, I completed another 26 miles and 80+ obstacles. I blacked out and collapsed unconscious at the finish line, and I felt that the race almost killed me, as sick as I was, combined with the broken leg and infection in my hand.
Shortly after that race, things took yet another turn. My health became dangerous. I had always had food sensitivities, but now it seemed that every single thing, no matter what, made me horribly ill. My brain function started to decline rapidly. It began with severe brain fog, but it progressed to the point that I could barely function. I was forgetting who people were for short periods of time, I forgot my own name a few times, and I couldn’t remember anything that had happened. I had to write every single important detail about my life, or I would forget.
I was still working my job, but I could not stand up. I had to hold onto anything within my reach to stand up. My leg wouldn’t heal, and my hand infection became so severe that it started to eat the bones in my hand. My knuckles looked like they had a ping-pong ball inside them. The pain was so severe that I was only getting 2 hours of sleep a night by taking 2000mg of ibuprofen, numbing gel, and a bag of ice. It felt like my hand was being crushed in a vice 24/7. I tried different antibiotics, but the effects were so severe that even the doctor told me to try no longer. Surgeons refused to operate on the hand for months because they believed we could find an antibiotic that would work.
I was days away from cutting my own hand off because the constant pain was driving me insane. But at the last minute, I convinced a surgeon to operate. However, the surgery was too much for my body to handle, and the surgeon only got out half of the infection. It came back with a vengeance, combined with my health suffering even more after all of this.
At this point, I knew I was dying. I couldn’t eat without getting severely ill, the infection in my hand wouldn’t die, my leg wouldn’t heal, my brain was declining intensely, and I had a never-ending feeling of sickness that never ceased. Alternative treatments stopped helping, and I continued to push through with no hope in sight until February of 2019, when I finally found some answers.
There was a local doctor known as one of the top alternative Lyme doctors in the country. I had been tested for everything (including Lyme 3 times), but I wanted his opinion anyway, because I was desperate. He had a long waiting list, but because of the severity of my illness, he fit me into his schedule. Long story short, we did some intense and diverse testing, and he told me that I had one of the worst cases of Lyme that he had ever seen. “You’ve had it for at least 10 years, and it’s wreaked havoc on your cells and every organ in your body*. He had me undergo a CT scan, which revealed brain damage, and he then started me on very intense treatments for Lyme that did not involve antibiotics. I had to quit my job and focus on healing.
I also got another hand surgery to remove the infection. This helped, but alternative treatments from the Lyme doctor were what finally healed my hand.
After months of this, I could tell that the Lyme was being killed, and eventually was gone, but the damage to my body was severe. I had been bedridden since I quit my job, and I could not eat anything. I had to force-feed myself at least once a day, although it would make me horribly ill for the next 6-8 hours. “You have to eat every day”, I’d tell myself. “If you don’t eat, you’ll die.”
At this time, I also had my 6th and most unexplainable surgery that left doctors baffled.
At this point I linked up with another renowned alternative doctor for “curing the incurable”. He was a few hours away, but with my parents driving me, I was able to see him regularly. He told me that in 45 years, he had never seen anything like my case. The treatments started to pay off as the months went by, and I would notice minor improvements. By February of 2020, I was able to start going on occasional walks or light swims, and I could eat a handful of things without feeling too ill. I was still bedridden for almost the entire day, but I was getting better.
By the fall of 2020, I was healthier than I had been in years. I moved to another state, started trail running again, and got a full-time job. I still felt sick all of the time, but I could eat a list of at least 10 things, I was active, and I was living on my own and providing for myself. This lasted for about 18 months until I felt my health start to slip again. I ended up having a relapse in the summer of 2022, which was much worse than the first.
I was bedridden again, for the most part, although able to eat this time, even though it was a small list of things. Due to years of brain damage, I developed an extremely severe case of Electric-Hypersenstivity (EHS) that forced me to live completely off-grid (no phones, lights, AC, heat, cars, electricity of any sort. I could not even live in a house with the breakers on, and I could not be near power lines or cell towers. I could feel the electricity, and it would make me extremely ill to the point that I wanted to die. It started as moderate sensitivity 3 years prior, with symptoms being limited to headaches, nausea, dizziness, and physical pain, but it quickly became extremely severe. When it first started, I had heard of others like me with the sensitivity, but once it progressed to it’s full severity, I knew I was a very rare case.
Over the next 26 months, I went through more alternative home treatments and slowly found healing. By September of 2024, I started to return to a normal life slowly. Over the last 14 months, things have progressed in my favor, physically. I can eat whatever I want; I am back to trail running and climbing; my brain functions well; I can use electricity in any capacity I want, and the list goes on. It has been a slow journey back, but I am getting closer and closer to 100% for the first time in my life.
This last year, as I have been recovering and re-entering normal life, I have been training a handful of people remotely—some of them athletes, but also people with chronic pain. After years of chronic pain and severe movement and neurological issues due to my brain damage, where I couldn’t move normally or pain-free, I am passionate about helping others in that area. I specialize in movement and biomechanics, and I have reprogrammed my body and nervous system to move fluidly and pain-free.
Now, in November of 2025, I feel healthy enough to pursue a life full-time. I am looking for a full-time career while continuing to train people remotely on the side. I live in the mountains of North Idaho, and I am finally excited to live a normal, healthy life. I spent a cumulative several years completely bedridden, years unable to eat, unable to use electricity for an extended period of time, suffered six surgeries, horrible chronic pain and sickness, and now I’m ready to get after life.
Some of the most challenging parts of the journey were the years of silence while looking for answers, as well as getting mocked and ridiculed by doctors or even people who were close to me. I was walking around knowing the truth while everyone called me a liar. I knew I was sick. I knew I was dying. I knew a lot of my symptoms sounded nuts, and even as I’m typing this I’m sure some will read my story and chalk some of my story up to ‘mental health’ issues. But regardless of the lack of conclusive answers from almost every medical test under the sun, at the end of the day, I had a severe case of Lyme disease that ravaged my body for about 15 years because it went undiscovered. I also know the issues during the pregnancy started me off with a weakened immune system, some neurological disorder, and other physical problems.
All in all, it was just a combination of many things–a perfect storm. There are many people out there like me who are genuinely sick and suffering and are not getting answers from the medical system. I want them to know they’re not crazy. Your sickness doesn’t have to have a name to be real. It’s real because it’s killing you. I got better without having an “official” diagnosis. They can too.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know?
I’m a health and fitness professional. I spent most of my career training college athletes, but because of my experiences, I am now equipped to help people who are currently recovering/have recovered from serious illness as well as people with chronic pain. I specialize in movement and biomechanics, and reprogramming the body to move correctly and be optimally aligned.
What matters most to you?
My faith in Jesus Christ. I am a Christian and a follower of Jesus. I believe in the Bible and that He is the way, the truth, and the life. Throughout all of my struggles, I have grown closer in my relationship with God, and I want those who are suffering to know that even if there is not always hope here on this earth, there is hope for eternity. And even if you’re suffering in this life, you have a God who loves you and wants to have a personal relationship with you.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://onward-fitness.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/pete.onward/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61569415007835
