Our story begins almost a decade ago on a brisk November day in Central Texas. My husband and I welcomed our first born child into the world. He was a happy, healthy baby boy weighing in at 9 lbs 2 oz and over 21 inches in length.
As an infant, he was easy. Granted, we had the sleepless nights in the beginning and the occasional fussiness, but overall this kid was a breeze. He would go to work with me and just play in his stroller or on a mat on the floor beside my desk. When he got to be about five months old, I would take the playpen and he would nap in the empty office next door. He was funny. He was full of smiles. He was a joy.
And then "it" happened.
If I knew what "it" was, I'd have the answer to the million dollar question.
What causes certain children to have peanut allergies? Why are some children allergic to dairy? Why do some children react with anaphylactic shock while others experience behavior problems and yet others develop signs of autism?
Is it the preservatives and additives in our food? Is it the childhood immunizations? Is it purely chance? Is it linked to blood type? Is it predisposed?
There are many theories out there and I won't pretend to have the answers. However, something served as a trigger for our son.
At about the age of two, we began to notice changes in Craig. He began to exhibit signs of severe behavior problems. We would observe other two year olds and notice that Craig had an aggression to him that they did not have. As we would talk about it with our friends and family, some would tell us he was just strong-willed. Others would tell us that our discipline techniques as parents needed some fine tuning. One preschool minister went as far as to tell us she thought Craig was a special needs child and that we should have him evaluated.
Our pediatrician wouldn't listen. Our friends and family didn't have any answers. We were at a loss.
While we were trying to find some answers, my father was fighting a battle of his own. In 2004 he began to notice some different aches and pains that didn't seem to line up with part of the normal aging process. Having just moved to a new town and starting a new job he tried to chalk them up to the differences all around him. However, after a few months, he visited a local doctor to share his symptoms with him. With a prescription in his hand, he felt sure he'd find relief soon.
However, while attending a conference in Houston just a year later, his pain (which had progressed to almost every joint of his body by this point) got so bad he found it difficult to lift his fork to eat. This is when he began to research arthritis and found a doctor a few towns over from where he lived that thought he might could help. He gave Dad a few steroid shots in his wrists and within a few days, Dad found his wrists moving slightly better.
But, the pain in his joints wasn't letting up and it was beginning to affect every area of his life - including his job as a music pastor. He was having trouble with the stairs at work and when he would come home from work all he wanted to do was sit in his recliner. He wasn't sleeping and daily activities like climbing in and out of his vehicle and getting up from his office chair were becoming increasingly difficult. It got to the point that he was unable to shake hands with anyone (because of the arthritis in his wrists) and at his worst he had to resort to crawling from his bed to the bathroom because his ankles were so swollen and unusable.
Craig had officially started mother's day out by this time and his teachers were struggling to say the least. They called me one day (I was working upstairs as preschool minister) to tell me that Craig had thrown a chair across the room. He was removed from the program.
In a tearful phone conversation with my mother, she mused aloud if maybe it had something to do with what he was eating. She had recently kept him while I gave birth to his baby sister and we noticed his behavior was remarkably different. This led us to begin exploring his food.
Through a series of events, we determined that his behavior was remarkably worse when he ingested artificial sweeteners. However, it took us six more months to discover that he was ingesting aspartame in the juice he was drinking everyday at our church where I worked. I would love to tell you that we saw a huge difference when we removed the juice. However, in reality, we only saw a huge difference when he happened to accidentally get his hands on some.
About two hours west of us, my dad was struggling more than ever. He had gone to see a Rheumatologist and had been officially diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis. However, shortly after the diagnosis, he fell off of a tractor doing yard work and herniated a disc in his back. This required surgery and a longer-than-ever recovery. His doctor put him on a rheumatoid arthritis infusion medication that caused him to catch the flu twice in one two month time span and also caused his blood pressure to spike. Things were going from bad to worse.
Holding a cup of coffee was barely possible. My mom was putting his socks on him most days and tying his shoes. His favorite past times (fishing, golfing, and hunting) were completely out of the question. He couldn't even reach over to grab the seat belt to fasten it.
We weren't doing much better. Dad had a diagnosis, but we were still searching for answers on our end. By this time we had moved to another town and the kids had started preschool. At one point, the director called and told me that Craig was under a table refusing to come out. They had tried everything they could think of, but he wasn't budging.
Another time - at the age of five, a sitter that was watching him and his sister called me in tears to tell me that Craig had locked her and Julie out of the house and was refusing to let them back in.
We would take trips to the grocery store and I would have to haul him out kicking and screaming.
We would visit the neighborhood pool and I would have to get in fully clothed when it was time to go to catch him because he wouldn't get out.
We would take him to church and they would call us halfway through the hour and need us to come get him.
We made sticker charts, reward dime jars, Sea World trip coupons, and organized behavior contests. We disciplined by taking away privileges and toys. We sent him to his room. We spanked. We yelled. We tried positive reinforcement only. We threatened. We hugged.
We. tried. everything.
It was at this point that Dad reached his own breaking point. The steroids, the prescriptions, the shots, the infusions - they weren't working. And, worse yet, the side effects he was experiencing were just as bad (if not worse) than the disease itself. He began researching and reading and discovered that others were finding relief using a more natural approach. He had been told that there was a clinic in another nearby city that was using low doses of anti-inflamatories in the fight against R.A. It was worth a try! However, at this point his body was dependent on the steroid as well as some of the other drugs he had been taking. He spent weeks weaning himself down under the supervision of his new doctor before he could try the new treatment.
Trying was all we were doing at our house. Craig had started Kindergarten by this point and we were getting notes daily from his teacher regarding his behavior. We moved again before his first grade year and a new school and new teacher did not improve his behavior any. We were still fighting the same battles daily.
He was a constant ball of movement. He could not sit still to save his life. And he never walked. If there was somewhere to go, he was running. It's as if his internal motor never slowed down. He was in constant fast-forward. And woe to the person who attempted to slow him. His agitation would turn to fury and there would be tears and anger and fists.
We hit our breaking point one Spring when Craig had an abscessed tooth. We went to the dentist to have it fixed and they put him on antibiotics. (Pink ones to be more precise.) Just two days later, my grandfather died and we traveled for the funeral spending the night at a hotel. We literally could not keep Craig in the room. We tried locking the door. We tried threatening him. However, every time we turned our backs, he was jetting from the room and down the hallway. The next day at the funeral we lost him momentarily only to find him spinning in circles in the middle of the busy street outside. It was by far the worst he had ever been. It was as if he literally could not control himself.
However, while we were still struggling, Dad was ever-so-slowly showing signs of improvement. Some of his swollen joints began to go down. The constant ache had gone from a 9 on a scale of 1-10 to a 5 and he was beginning to move a little easier. In fact, his doctor was standing back in amazement watching his progress.
Originally, it was Dad who approached the doctor and asked him to put him on the non-traditional treatment. The doctor assured Dad that he was his own health advocate and that he would try anything Dad thought would help, but Dad needed to prepare himself. His R.A. was so advanced that it was very unlikely that he would see results. In fact, the doctor confided in him that Dad's Rheumatoid Arthritis might be the worst he had ever seen. He put him on the treatment, but as his physician he held very little hope that there would be any improvements.
However, improve is exactly what he did. In fact, he noticed a difference within eight days. After a few months on the treatment, the doctor said he didn't need to see Dad back in his office for three months. After a few more rounds, he was so astounded at his improvement, he told him not to come back for six months.
This just happened to be the time when we found our own diagnosis with Craig. It happened one September afternoon when I was crying on the phone with a friend regarding Craig's behavior that day. It was football season and I was single-parenting again and Craig had absolutely brought me to my knees.
My sweet friend was trying to give me some parenting techniques when I told her I was convinced his behavior was related to food. So, she recommended I take him in for allergy testing. We didn't have the money or the time (or the patience left) for expensive allergy testing. However, she told me one of our friends who was a chiropractor did muscle allergy testing that was completely different yet just as effective.
Our first visit to the chiropractor led to the discovery that Craig did indeed have very severe food allergies. On our first visit alone, we discovered Craig was allergic to eggs, chromium, and fungus. We also discovered that his liver was not functioning properly. (This was due mainly to his body not being able to process the foods he was allergic to. Everything was getting hung up in his liver.) We removed the eggs from his diet and that along with weekly adjustments at the chiropractor led to a remarkably different little boy. He got started on some supplements and within a week we saw a glimpse of that sweet boy that we had known that laughed, smiled, giggled, snuggled with us and loved on us.
However, as his mom, I knew something was still missing. Something was still not quite right.
In an effort to find treatment closer to our house, we came across another chiropractor that we trusted who was able to conclude that Craig was allergic to gluten and food dyes as well. We saw the most remarkable improvement when we completely eliminated gluten and all food dyes from his diet. It was as if the little boy that we lost so many years ago was finally returning.
Meantime, Dad was returning to a few things himself. He had picked back up his guitar for the first time in seven years. He was golfing again. He was hunting and fishing. We took a family trip to Disney World for Christmas and instead of renting a wheelchair (like his last trip to Disney), he was able to walk all four parks keeping up with both grandchildren.
Craig continued to improve as well. His liver function began to return to normal and his behavior problems were manageable. This is when we discovered the role of salicylates in his diet. Salicylates are a fruit or vegetables natural hormone defense. They have been known to cause significant problems in those with salicylate sensitivities.
However, to remove salicylates from Craig's diet would be an enormous amount of work. It would mean he would be artificial-sweetener-free, egg-free, gluten-free, dye-free, sulfite-free and salicylate free. It would leave very little on the planet for the child to eat. But, we stepped out in faith and ...
That's when "it" happened.
We got our boy back.
Where does that put us today? Well, the web address for this ministry describes it perfectly:
"Give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life. So use your whole body as an instrument to do what is right for the glory of God." Romans 6:13
We were dead. We had a son that was headed towards prison or death. Dad was headed towards immobility or death. And through truth, God redeemed us. Through truth, He showed us how our bodies were designed to heal themselves. Through truth, He showed us that good nutrition is a key component in the healing process. And it is that truth we want to share with others. So, we designed a program that can be presented in time increments that fit the needs of churches as well as other groups.
Body, Soul & Mind was birthed from a season that brought us to our knees - literally, figuratively, and spiritually. However, through those tough times, we learned an enormous amount of information, came across a number of products, and discovered new ways of healing that we want to share with you.
As Laura Story sings
"What if your blessings come through raindrops
What if your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know you're near?
And what if the trials of this life are your mercies in disguise?"
