This post will seem a little off topic, except that I feel it is a direct answer to prayer for my daughter who has been struggling with her health for so long. I feel it is also a direct result of this fast, as the conclusions I've come to have all come during this time of praying and seeking God, on all forms of oppression in our life, not just financial matters. I'm so grateful!
So my 10 year old daughter, just to recap, has been suffering for over 2 years now. It began with, "I don't feel well." "Hmmm...what do you mean," I'd ask. "I can't describe it. I just don't feel good. I think I feel nauseous." "Well, go lay down," I'd say. At first, I hate to admit, it's not that I didn't believe her, I just thought it was an odd coincidence that she always felt badly when we were just about to start school! It got on her older sister's nerves. She thought she was just a whiner. I didn't stop and really listen to her until I realized that girl wasn't doing any school anymore. She was now constantly saying she wasn't feeling well. After a trip to the doctor, it seemed they wondered if it was all in her head. I was shocked. But it did make me follow her moods more closely. Did she just need more attention? So we even tried that - giving her as much attention as we could, lots of hugs, time together. She actually perked up a bit, but not for long. It was right back to feeling badly all the time.
Then we finally got it to see a paediatrician and after many many tests, all the results came back that she was healthy. But she clearly wasn't, so one day, I don't know why, it occurred to me - it has to be her diet. I'd always known about gluten intolerance, etc., but there was no way that was going to be me. I also thought those people exaggerated a little, too. But then I realized it had to be that. So we tried it - she went off wheat and it seemed she improved quite a bit, but then within a few weeks, there were more symptoms and this time even more of them.
Now she had headaches, nearly daily. She complained of weird pains all around joints and random spots. I began to wonder if she had Lyme Disease, but the one test she'd taken said no. She was still always needing to lay down and if she did, she slept for hours! She was still not doing very much school and was rarely her perky self anymore. I was so discouraged. If it wasn't gluten intolerance, what was it?????
One of my friends had told me about the GAPS diet (short for Gut and Psychology Syndrome). It never struck me to do a diet like that as I'd never heard about it. It is often used for autistic children as this doctor who wrote the book has discovered that if autistic children, (or depressed, dyslexic - basically children suffering from pschological issues), are put on this diet, their gut heals and messages that were once sent to their brain, damaging the child's development, are no longer being sent, thus the autistic child can be healed! That didn't seem to be my daughter as she wasn't autistic, but she said I should look at it anyway as perhaps her gut was damaged. I still didn't take the time to read it.
Then, one awful day, my husband took the kids to see a movie (gift card! Remember, nothing full price!) and being the nice Dad that he is, they begged him for cotton candy and he caved. BAD DADDY!!!! I heard all about it that night and thought bad move. Sure enough, the next morning, my girl came down so sick and had to go right back to bed where she basically stayed for 3 days. Headaches, fatigue, feeling awful. She slept and slept. That was when I talked to my friend. I knew I had to get the book and find out if this was what she needed.
Almost immediately I was struck that it was describing my daughter's condition to a "T". To simplify, it talked about good bacteria and bad bacteria in the gut. If the bad bacteria takes over, due to diet, then it simply starts to drill holes in the intestines, letting out all sorts of dangerous substances into our blood stream that should never be there. For an autistic child, it goes right to the brain. For my child, it described how it can lead to food intolerances and food sensitivities. That was her.
Then, later on in the book, it talked about yeast in the gut. Again, to simplify, if you are on a poor diet and you have this yeast in your gut, you are basically creating alcohol. A sick child with this yeast, combined with a diet full of sugar, wheat, processed food (all things children love), then the symptoms can appear like they are hungover! That was her! She was acting hungover all the time - headaches, nausea, tired, bad moods. Then, suddenly I remembered something one of her doctors had told me that I didn't know what to do with at the time. He had said, "One really strange thing came back in one of her tests. It said she had yeast in her stool. That's really weird. I've never seen anything like that. I wonder what that means?" Then it was just left! Oh well! I guess if you don't know what it means, you don't have to worry about it!!!!!!! Looking back, it makes me crazy!!!!!! But these doctors all kind of fired me - one doctor actually said to me, "There's nothing more the medical world can do for your daughter. I recommend that you go see a naturopath." I couldn't believe it. I told her about the GAPS diet. She quickly pulled it up on her computer screen in her office. She took one look at it and said, "Looks a little extreme. Why don't you start with something more manageable, like the paleo diet and we'll talk in a month." But what if "EXTREME" IS WHAT YOU NEEEEEEEEDDDDD??????? I am so frustrated with doctors right now, if you can't tell.......
We did go see an osteopath for a bit, but no real changes and he refused to talk to me about her diet. So all this to say - I dove in, the day I finished the book. I explained to her, to my husband, to the family, what I'd read, then from that moment on, she was on the diet. Basically, I had to stop feeding the yeast, which thrives on sugar. I prided myself on the fact we didn't use all that much, but we were using enough to make her very sick. The book even claims that "in many cases, when the gut wall is healed food allergies disappear." In order to stop the feeding of the yeast, all sugar and all grains had to be eliminated from her diet. Even starchy vegetables to start, like potatoes and corn, also had to be taken out. No processed food either. But she was allowed all meats, all vegetables, dairy, and lot of fermented food like kefir, homemade yoghurt, etc. She was allowed raw honey, too, so she could even make things sweet if she wanted.
Within one week, I saw a difference. By week two, no more headaches. By week 3, her skin colour was coming back. Week 4? Completely wonderful, healthy, perky, happy, jumping around the house, full of life. It's a miracle. I've thanked my friend for this book and thanked God many times for how He has created medicine in nature to heal my daughter! She is a completely different person. I went back to my doctor and told her what I'd learned and what we were doing. She said, "I think you should keep doing what you are doing, but you won't get "buy-in" from the medical world." Once again, I was shocked. The GAPS diet was created BY A DOCTOR who actually took the time to study the connection between the brain and the gut. Even though she wasn't a Christian, it occurred to her, ALL THE DIFFERENT SYSTEM OF THE BODY ARE CONNECTED. But in the doctor world, you have specialists that ONLY focus on one system, apart from all the others. It doesn't seem to occur to them that they work, by God's plan, in conjunction with all the others!!!!! So it makes sense that if the gut is damaged, it will impact every system in the body as my daughter's body has clearly shown - it was crying out for help. No one would listen. Until now.
She will be on this diet for at least a year, then I can slowly add things back in one at a time. It hasn't been that hard to manage at all. She only gets bugged when it seems she can't have candy if others are having it, or yummy desserts she sees, etc., but I have some great alternatives so she usually bounces back.
I have my daughter back. Poor thing, now she'll have to do school for the first time in a couple years! I'm not even letting her repeat anything. I'm putting her right into the grade she's supposed to be in. She'll just have to catch up! But now there should be no more excuses. For myself, I'm applying to med school. I want to become a doctor. Now just any doctor, but a teacher of doctors! At all the med schools in the country - I want to go on a world tour, describing how God has made the body work. They don't seem to teach this at med school. Mind boggling. There's my morning rant for the day.....
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