Ep. 205 - Nancy Deyo: Mountain High, Valley Low

Episode Summary

Nancy Deyo is a former Silicon Valley CEO, Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow, and author of the forthcoming memoir Perilous Ascent. After a medical crisis on Mount Kilimanjaro, Nancy entered a fifteen-year journey through misdiagnosis, chronic pain, opioid dependence, and identity collapse.

In this episode of Stories from Real Life, Nancy shares how the strategies that once defined her success—discipline, endurance, ambition, and pushing through—eventually had to be reexamined. Her story is not about a simple cure or a clean comeback. It is about learning to live differently when life no longer responds to effort in the same way.

This conversation explores chronic pain, medical uncertainty, high-performance culture, shame, adaptation, and the deeper meaning of resilience.

In This Episode, We Discuss

* The medical crisis Nancy experienced on Mount Kilimanjaro

* How chronic pain reshaped her identity and daily life

* The long road through misdiagnosis and medical uncertainty

* Opioid dependence in the context of chronic pain

* The emotional cost of high-performance culture

* Why “pushing through” can sometimes become harmful

* Attending graduate school while unable to sit

* Rebuilding a meaningful life without pretending everything is fixed

* Her forthcoming memoir, Perilous Ascent

* A more honest definition of resilience

Memorable Themes

One of the most powerful ideas in this conversation is that resilience does not always mean pushing harder. Sometimes resilience means recognizing limits, grieving the life that changed, and adapting with honesty rather than force.

Nancy’s story will resonate with anyone living with chronic illness, navigating burnout, facing medical uncertainty, caregiving for someone in pain, or rebuilding after a major life disruption.

About Nancy Deyo

Nancy Deyo is a former Silicon Valley CEO and Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute Fellow. Her forthcoming memoir, Perilous Ascent, reflects on a fifteen-year journey through chronic pain, misdiagnosis, opioid dependence, and personal transformation after a medical crisis on Mount Kilimanjaro.

Through her writing and speaking, Nancy offers a candid look at what it means to live inside pain, question old definitions of strength, and find a new way forward.

Connect with Nancy

Read Nancy’s Substack: Life Inside Pain with Nancy Deyo

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