Over the years I have been given the "seriously, just accept it" face whenever I begin talking about a "new" treatment option. Believe me, talking about this diet intervention has made many eyes glaze over. Faces and comments like that don't even faze me anymore. God put this seed of hope in my heart, not the worlds;) I have to admit, I do feel different at the start of this. There is increased knowledge and understanding of what I did wrong the first time I wandered down this path. A second chance. That is what this is. God is giving me a second chance to try the diet. A second chance to get it right. It just reminds me of the Patricia Shirer Jonah study I did last fall. She talked about how God loves to give people that second chance, even when they run 500 miles away to avoid the assignment he has given! I don't think I so much ran away, as much as I was lost in confusion mixed with desperation. Whatever ----- his timing is perfect, right?
So, I started the into diet slowly the first week of December. I first started giving her a cup of broth a day. I took away some of the foods that are recommended in a stage further down and took a "wait and see" position. I don’t know why I am so nervous. In addition to the broth, meat and well cooked vegetables, I will be putting her on homemade fermented vegetables. I know this may seem odd, but it is well studied and documented. Thank God I have my mother!!! She is making the broth, and soon will start making the homemade fermented vegetables.
She went through many different phases -
REALLY weak and could hardly pull herself up from a laying position.
Overly congested. Having a hard time breathing - SOOOO stuffed up.
Walking around like she was drunk, running into walls, tripping.
The whole month of December was pretty hard. She was so sick, so congested and so very out of it. Her and her string – that is the only thing she could focus on. She hasn’t been able to be present and do something as simple as open a gift for 11 years. Unable to think, unable to participate…..unable to live her life without a constant feeling of something miss firing in her brain. I will never forget that first Christmas after this happened to her. The heaviness hung in the air as we sat down to open gifts and all she wanted to do was stim on the ribbons. Marty and I went to bed and we both just laid there crying softly to ourselves. The despair was overwhelming and laying there in the dark of the night just sealed that hopelessness even more intently. It seems so weird it was 11 years ago!
One day over Christmas break, we were running up to Brooklyn Park to meet with a salesman for an adapted stroller for Olivia. She had a really big seizure in the car. Lauren was in the back and she just started screaming “I hate those seizures…..I want to punch them out of her….I hate watching her throw up.....I finally pulled over and looked back to see her curled up with the biggest alligator tears that just kept rolling down her chubby little cheeks. It's hard for all of us to watch them.
Since Olivia went through the initial "die-off" stages of the Intro diet, her seizures have been kept to a minimum. We even took her off all of the Pfeiffer morning compound all at once (5 capsules), and she seemed to handle it pretty well. I know this was due to the diet. In the past, if we took her off 1/2 of a capsule she would go through a weeks worth of seizures as her body adjusted to the new dosage. The hypersensitivity is down for sure!!! She has also GAINED 3 POUNDS!!!!!!
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