How Are You Feeling?

When people ask me how the pregnancy is going, my short answer is usually A) “Great! Thanks to my chiropractor!” Or, I think I’ll add a B) “Great! I’ve got an amazing husband who massages my feet all the time!”

The long answer goes something like this:

I was more nauseated and pukier in the first trimester but the second and third have been much better than my first two pregnancies for sure! Part of it is because I’ve not been able to cheat on my diet without serious consequences. So for the most part, I’ve been eating a lot healthier. I’m tempted to feel bummed out, but really, it’s better for me and baby in the long run. So, while I miss Tillamook cheeseburgers and other junk food, I’m not missing the bellyaches, insomnia, and pain.

Another positive contributor to this pregnancy has been the fitness challenge that some friends and I restarted back in January of last year. Jack and I were the last survivors till June, and he has kindly continued working out with me once a week all this time! Love you, bro!

I also had a shift in my approach to wellness back in the spring. This pregnancy accidentally started during my treatment to kill off parasites and candida. I had been scared by the possibility of needing prolo therapy for my neck if I didn’t strengthen it enough with physical therapy. And my therapy wouldn’t do much good if I were still fighting chronic inflammation from critters in my guts. I was very motivated to get well, but was derailed a bit when I found out about this new baby on the way.

But God is good, and gave me hope that I could still improve my health throughout the pregnancy. I quit the drugs and started to focus on putting good foods (organic & antibiotic free) in my diet to detoxify slowly and naturally, thus begin the healing of my guts. Watching the documentary “Food Matters” gave me the perspective shift I needed. I don’t want to agonize and spend a ton of money on tests that don’t seem to catch or identify what kind of parasite has been plaguing me for the past 11 years any more. I don’t really care what kind it is now because my new goal is to just heal my immune system, and let it take care of what ever worms and flora imbalance I have.

When the body truly heals, it heals completely, and the more I read and learn, and with what my experience has taught me, the more I believe that healing the guts is the key to healing most everything else that’s wrong with the body.

I also began reading “Patient Heal Thyself” by Jordan Rueben. I like his holistic healing approach as well, being that he almost died of Chrones Disease at age 19 but was healed through diet and soil based organisms. He has created a company to make all kinds of gut healing supplements. What makes his stuff stand out above other products is the use of a special fermenting process. This enables people with poor nutrient absorption to have a better chance of actually getting something out of the supplements and foods rather than it just passing on through. Out of all the supplements I’ve taken over the past decade, his seems to be the best so far! No more feeling like a hot fist punching me in the stomach every time I eat, thanks to Omega-zyme. And the soil organisms, Primal Defense, or what I call “super probiotic,” has made my intestines feel more harmonized. Way less “bad days” of fatigue and pain are occurring.

Back to my short answer A), my chiropractor has helped me tremendously; not only with adjustments, but also with Frequency Specific Microcurrent. FSM treatments are not recommended for pregnant women because we can’t be sure what it does to the baby. My decision to continue using it is because it is a non-drug pain management tool, which I believe to be safer and less toxic to me and the baby than if I were using medicine. I feel that if my body is so stressed out from pain and insomnia, the baby would be getting 9 months of stress hormones and deficient immune support, and maybe even less nutrition absorption as my absorption suffers from all the inflammation. It is better for my baby to have me healthier and harmonized. I’ll be curious to see if this baby thrives better than my girls, who have many food allergies/sensitivities as a result of a weak immune system (leaky gut).

And concerning my short answer B), my husband has been so amazing in his support of all of these changes in our lives, as well as continuing to be a very healing person in my life. Just who he is as a calm personality, as a servant-hearted dishwasher, vacuumer, growing cook, and wonderful father… all of this and his tender care for me have done far more than any doctor or supplement could ever do for my well being!

Lest my long answer become way too long, I won’t go into detail of all that my parents and David’s parents do for us too, but I can’t begin to think how this pregnancy or my other pregnancies and child rearing would suffer without their loving care in our lives!

I’m so thankful to the Lord for leading me in this journey of healthy lifestyle changes. It sure took me long enough to get to this space of actually wanting these changes rather than feeling sorry for myself, and living in painful denial year after year. I once heard it said that you will change when staying the same hurts too much. I wish it could be of some noble strength I possess that has brought about these changes in my life, but really, I’m just sick and tired of being sick and tired for most of my adult life. And now that I’ve caught glimpses of hope of getting completely well, I can’t shake this vision away.

I have made up my mind to become young by the time I reach 40 years old. Not just for my sake, but for my husband’s and kids’ sake, and for all the dear friends in my life that the Lord wants me to be serving.