Rainclouds + Sunshine = Rainbows

Everyone experiences rainclouds in life. Sometimes I wonder just how many rainclouds can gather over my head at once. This past month was a doozy for us, but thankfully we had God as a big umbrella over us, and some glimpses of sunshine through our friends and family.

Back tracking a little to springtime, I saw my beloved Dr. Carol McMakin who is the guru or “yoda” of Frequency Specific Microcurrent. She is the one who, by using FSM, diagnosed I had a bulged disc in my neck after Kadie was born and I was able to treat it with my personal FSM machine and shrink it down.

However, I’ve still had chronic neck instability, and Dr. Carol wanted to find some more answers. She ordered an x-ray and found out that C3 and C4 in my neck slide forward a couple millimeters when bending forward, and also slides back a millimeter when looking up. And then C5, 6 and 7 don’t move at all. So rather than a nice curve when bending my neck, I have a 45 degree angle, with my spinal cord being pinched and facets hitting each other, and terrible headaches that don’t let me sleep.

Dr. Carol asked me if I’d ever felt disconnected from my feet, and I do recall making myself go dancing even though my neck and head hurt, and then feeling like I couldn’t really tell my feet or body where to go. I was frustrated that I wasn’t in control of my body, and now I know why.

Thankfully, my neck isn’t so bad off that I need surgery. A translation of 4 millimeters is surgery-worthy. So I’ve been pretty diligently going to my physical therapist and doing my exercises at home to try and strengthen my stabilizer muscles. If that doesn’t work, then I am faced with an injection therapy where they line everything up, then inject something like sugar to cause inflammation and a build up of scar tissue to hold my vertebrae in place. Apparently it’s a pretty painful procedure.

So back to the month of July, I made some poor choices to skip my exercises to get ready for Violet’s birthday, and go off my diet a little, and as a result, I hurt more. There was also some emotional things going on since I was sad my cousin, Wendy and her son, Ryan were going to move away at the end of the month.

The biggest raincloud was at Violet’s first year check up, when I found out that she had lost almost 2 pounds. They had to draw her blood out of her tiny arm, which took forever, and was horrible! I haven’t got results back yet, but the doctor and I agree that she must have leaky gut like Kadie does. Around the same age, Kadie had remained 16 pounds for 6 months. Violet had gone from 17 pounds to 15.

I felt devastated. A couple of naturopathic doctors had warned me that some of my IBS issues could be passed on to my children, whereas a medical pediatrician had told me that they would be safe from them. I wanted to believe the latter, but unfortunately that isn’t the case.

I had been through the process of doing a low allergen rotation diet before and I dreaded the thought of having to cook that much when I felt my own health declining. I had a very overwhelming feeling hang over me for a week or so, as I cried and prayed to God for help. I was angry at myself for not noticing Violet getting thinner. I knew she had started to refuse to eat more, and she was fussier. I guess I was getting absorbed in my heightened state of pain and fatigue.

Somewhere in the middle of all this, I read an article that reminded me that happiness comes from outward circumstances, but true joy that comes from the Lord can be found regardless of circumstances. It was something I had known before, but it was a timely reminder and encouragement to me that God’s still in control and he’s going to make good come out of all of this.

After not sleeping well, myself, due to a painful stomach, head, and feeling something systemically (Candida was my only guess) spreading through my whole body, I decided I needed help. I sent an email to my close family and friends, and was blown away by the response! I struggled with feeling like being a burden, but was then brought to my knees in awe of the love and servant-hearted support from the dearest people in my life.

Alex brought us dinner the very next night. My dad and Wendy came over with tons of food, and helped me shop, and watch and feed the kids so I could rest and do my exercises. My in-laws cooked rice porridge and more food. Leah baked special gluten free, egg free, dairy free muffins and such. Rachel came over and cared for the kids, did my dishes, and not only folded my laundry, but put the baby clothes away in the drawers! Travis came and cleaned my bathrooms. Tiffany agreed to help experiment in baking more G free, D free, E free things for me. And we had many more offers of people cooking for us or watching the kids. Talk about blinding sunshine!

On a side note, God also did a miracle in my cousin’s life which turned my sadness to great joy. Without going into details, Wendy is staying until she and her man marry! So excited!

In the middle of all the help pouring in, I saw Dr. Carol again, and she and I deduced that the main culprit for my gut pain and all chain reactions stemming from it, was from the Tetanus and Pertussis (DTaP) booster shot I received the Friday between Violet’s birthday and mine. She treated my small intestine for those specific vaccines and I felt much better! I’m still not normal, but better.

I can’t believe I let myself get talked into getting the shot! I’m mad at myself for knowing that people with IBS or other immune problems can have adverse reactions to vaccines, and I still got it! Dr. Carol said to don’t even get her started on the subject of vaccines. She is the person people go see when they’ve had bad reactions to them, and that no level of mercury is safe for human consumption. Yet some vaccines still contain it! My naturopath, Dr. Dramov was also shocked that I had gotten the shot and said that fibromyalgia can be induced from vaccines. A lot of other ingredients, including aluminum, are toxic.

These are the things that are never told to mothers when they find out they are pregnant. Vaccines are an issue I never wanted to dig into because there’s such conflicting information and I couldn’t figure out what to believe about them. Now I know enough to be careful with my girls and myself, especially since we have immune system problems.

Another raincloud that came to hover was a virus that Kadie caught, and I think I did too, that is similar to chicken pox. She had itchy bumps for a week, and she and I shared GI crud, more than I already had going on.

To sum up, I’m on the mend, Kadie’s bumps have disappeared, and Violet is a little more comfortable since avoiding certain foods. A small, yet so huge of a victory, is that she’s gained 2 pounds and 5 ounces in under 2 weeks!

Thankfully, Violet still nurses 4 times a day, and I think the extra probiotics and fish oil are helping as well. I started giving the girls some special food powder from Mannatech, and am hoping for results similar to a fail-to-thrive baby’s success story I heard about with it.

David’s gotten me out of the house a bit more so I can have a breather between all the feedings and cooking I do each day. And everyday, I’m so thankful for all the rainbows God has made from the struggles and triumphs of our current health journey as well as many past journeys in my life so far.