A little piece of heaven

After 2.5 years of knocking on doors, travelling around the country seeing doctors, and trying to find a way for Western Medicine to help Nathan, I finally realized that there really is nothing that Western Medicine can do to help him. WM can help with his shunt, and any necessary surgeries, but in general, I realized that WM doesn’t have much of an understanding of subtle bodily processes, energy, and other aspects of human health.

In October of 2008, I started reading/learning about dietary interventions and the connection between the gut and the brain. We started Nathan on some heavy duty probiotics and he started on a glutein casein free diet. We also started working on eliminating as much sugar from his diet as possible as well as the idea of using food as medicine.

In mid December we started working with a fabulous naturopath/kinesiologist. He got us started on using natural herbs for healing. It helped, but something was missing. About 2 months ago we met the fabulous Dr. Kenny, who is a chiropractor, biochemist and kinesiologist. She realized that Nathan wasn’t making enough B6, and this was causing general immune weakness.

We also started doing reiki, aromatherapy, using mineral bath salts, and ERT (emotional release therapy). All of these are natural, energetic, alternative ways of healing the body.

I realized that there is an entirely different way to approach healing. All of these alternative, “quacky” things actually WORK! Until now I thought all of that stuff was just mumbo jumbo, ways of tricking people and getting their money for nothing. Today I realize how mistaken I was and I just wish I’d known much earlier about all of these other healing modalities.

Most importantly – I know they work! I’ve seen an amazing transformation in Nathan’s health over the last few months. I think the first 3 months started detoxing him and laying the foundation for health, and the last 3 I feel he has healed considerably. I feel he is more present and connected with us, and is now more interested in the world around him.

He hasn’t made considerable developmental progress -we are still searching for the alternative modality that will help plug this in for Nathan. But we are hoping that by healing him from the inside out we will, over time, see some positive results. The idea is to help his body heal itself as much as possible, and ideally, to give the brain enough power and support so it can create new neuronal pathways and thus, new functions.

So an essential aspect of our paradigm shift is believing in the power of energy and of very subtle healing modalities. What you see is NOT what you get. I am now a believer. I believe that food can be medicine and poison. I believe that the olfactory sense can be used to stimulate brain development. I believe that the vestibular system can improve sensory integration. I believe that we can test our bodies using muscle testing, that it works because our bodies are made up of energy.

And now that I’ve laid the foundation, I will talk about what our new paradigm actually is!

This is the most important post in my paradigm shift series.

It finally dawned on me that the person who needs to be “guiding me” in this process of rehabilitation is Nathan himself. Of course he can’t talk. Of course he’s a child and children don’t usually pick what’s best for them – they pick what they want to do given their level of maturity.

However, I realized that I can observe Nathan and see what motivates him, what bores him, what he does and doesn’t enjoy, etc. Then I can build on that and deliver a rehabilitation plan that he can enjoy while being motivated.

I spent a lot of time trying to put myself in his shoes and to view the world from his point of view. And this gave me so much insight. If I were a 2.5 year old, I would be bored out of my mind if I had to spend all day going from therapy to therapy, from one adult to another! I would be bored out of my mind if I was forced to lie down on my back and have someone “pumping” on me for 3 hours a day! Now I know MANY kids enjoy this, but Nathan is my son, and despite his inability to move himself, he has the patience of a mosquito and prefers being moved, stimulation, different activities, etc. So it’s just not for him.

Also, I spent a lot of time in meditation reflecting over my observations of how he perceives himself and his life. And what I noticed is that he thinks of himself as being perfectly okay. In fact he thinks of himself as being some superhero, the center of so many people’s universe. He doesn’t view himself as being broken and needing to be fixed. He views himself as being perfectly okay. In fact, in one of my meditations, I realized that he gets through a lot of his therapies and things not for himself, but for me!

Again, this is avery tough thing to understand if you look at him from a worldly perception. How can someone so externally damaged think of himself as being perfect? How can someone who can’t do anything for himself, who can’t even hold up his own head, enjoy his life and not be motivated to change his situation. The best analogy I can come up with is a comparison to someone like Britney Spears and someone who barely gets by financially but who is incredibly happy because she feels wealthy inside. Britney may have all the wealth in the world but obviously she’s not a happy person. She seems to have so much but inside she has so little. Our other person is the opposite. She may not have money to buy new clothes or even money to buy meat every day, but she has a family that loves her, has peace in her heart, and thus she feels like the luckiest person on earth. I think this comparison applies to Nathan. He may not be able-bodied, but his soul is so pure and his heart so happy that I think he sees of himself as being one of the lucky ones. Why shouldn’t I follow his lead and view him in the same way that he views himself?

How do I know this is how he views himself, you might ask?

I know by the happiness that radiates from his soul. I know by the way he behaves when he is with his father, who never asks anything of him. I know by the way he looks and feels when he wakes up in the morning and coos and babbles and giggles away. He is deeply happy and content in himself. This may sound strange (but so have all of these posts) but I also know because he told me in one of my meditations. I prayed for a very long time for a connection and to know how he feels deep in my heart – and God answered, because I heard his sweet voice in my heart saying, Mommy I’m okay. I don’t need your help.

Finally, when I follow Nathan’s lead, I notice that he LOVES going to his Waldorf preschool, he loves playing in the pool, he loves getting together with his little friends, he LOVES going out with his dad and roaming the town, he loves Disney and Universal, he enjoys reading books and coloring and playing with musical instruments, he loves swinging and he loves the carousel, he loves going to the park and he loves bubbles and playing with toys that make sounds, he loves music, especially the sesame street CD, and he loves taking baths with mommy. When he is in these settings Nathan has a much easier time holding up his head, trying to hold up his trunk, trying to move his hands and to grasp things.

So I finally decided, why not use things that motivate him to help strengthen his body?

We’re going to Catalina Island tommorrow for my birthday so I am going to take a couple of days off the blog, but I’ll finish this Paradigm Shift Series early next week.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Easter!

We saw Nathan’s Korean doctor yesterday. He doesn’t speak any English. The last 3 appointments that we had with him were interesting, as I was trying to explain Nathan’s issues in my version of Korean. He did give Nathan some pills and some teas which did cure him from his asthma and cough, so somehow we must’ve understood each other.

Yesterday we went back and his daughter was there to interpret. She moved to LA from Georgia and will now be helping her father in his practice. She is also a trained herbalist and acupuncturist.

So I gave her Nathan’s medical history which she translated to her dad. Then I observed as they spoke in Korean for several minutes. At one point he started getting very animated and passionate, and I knew something interesting was being said. Finally his daughter explained.

“What Nathan really needs is a super super super super special concoction that has been used in Asian medicine for thousands of years. In Korea it is always used for children with brain injury. In the past, they didn’t go to hospitals, they saw an herbalist and used natural treatments. Nathan really needs these herbs. They contain very special ingredients like musk and other aromatic herbs. As you know, the olfactory sense is the best way to stimulate brain development. However, this treatment is very very very very expensive. So, as much as my father would love to give him this super super super super special pill, we’re going to give him an herbal tea instead. If you ever want to, let us know and we’ll make him the super super super super special pill.”

What would you say? What would any mother say? I need to try it. The good thing – the pills will last 4-5 months. The other good thing – since we’re not doing ABR any more we can afford the pills, which are slight less than the cost of the ABR satellite.

I have a very good, strong gut feeling about this. I myself have taken Dr. Kim’s herbs and they’re magic. An ultra super extra special Dr. Kim concoction? Hmmm. This has to be good.

So, courtesy of my visa credit card, tommorrow I get to pick up the super super super special magic pills. I am curious and excited. I’ll let you guys know if/how this works!