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

From Stories from Real Life by Melvin E. Edwards

June 2, 2026 · 44 min · Season 4 · Episode 205

About this episode

Nancy Deyo shares her journey through chronic pain and identity collapse after a medical crisis on Mount Kilimanjaro.

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…

People in this episode

Host: Melvin E. Edwards

Guest: Nancy Deyo

Topics covered

chronic pain
medical uncertainty
high-performance culture
resilience
identity
opioid dependence

Keywords

chronic pain
medical crisis
identity collapse
opioid dependence
resilience
high-performance culture
misdiagnosis

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Stanford Distinguished Careers Institute

Books & works: Perilous Ascent

Places: Mount Kilimanjaro, Silicon Valley