A guest post by Sam:
Raleigh has been having an issue with his fingernail beds lately. You see, he scratches himself all the time. There are precious few moments throughout the day when his fingers are attending to projects other than scratching parts of his neck, back, arms, and stomach. He’s a kid who can’t help but touching himself constantly. It’s those little things in our day-to-day existence that I think people truly don’t understand.
I think people mostly understand that it’s hard to deal with food allergies, but it ain’t impossible, for goodness sake. Right? We just avoid those foods and then move on. I think most people, too, understand that eczema is a real thing. Right? I mean, how many of you parents out there have kids who’ve had bouts of eczema during their early childhood? Just put some coconut oil on it, or maybe even something strong like VaniCream, and it should suffice. Well, for my Raleigh, it doesn’t suffice. Since 2.5 years old, his skin has been a wreck. It’s been red and blotchy, consistently, for almost 3 years now. It’s been incredibly itchy, every day, for every moment of the day, consistently, for almost 3 years now. Even we, as his parents, aren’t much concerned about the food allergy for his quality of life. We can deal with that. But, the improvement in his quality of life when he no longer itches 18 hours a day (only not itching for about 6 hours when he’s in a deep sleep) would be such a significant change. At this point in his life, Raleigh, realistically, can’t participate in any sports. For everyone who knows me, you realize how big of a deal this is to me. But, why would he? Standing in the middle of the outfield on a hot summer day with pollen flying around everywhere sounds like a literal horror story for my boy. He wouldn’t be able to handle it. However, when GAPS finally does it’s job, then we will see how his quality of life will improve. It will truly be a revelation when he is no longer itching his skin consistently.
But, this post isn’t about the end product. This post is about progress. You see, with Raleigh’s finger issues, we have been quite scared of needing to see a doctor and being prescribed antibiotics. Antibiotics will literally kill all of the good work we’ve done over the last 6 months. Literally. And y’all, it’s been good work. Let me tell you how we know. We first went to Raleigh’s new Holistic doctor in June when we first started GAPS. She made note of his skin, was very supportive of our choice to use GAPS as a solution, and sent us on our way. We got to visit her again this week. During the entire consultation, she was GUSHING about his skin THE. WHOLE. TIME. I can’t describe for you how much she mentioned his skin. She said he looks, absolutely, 100% better than when she saw him in June. Her advice on his fingers was simple: soak them in bleach water and/or epsom salts for about an hour a day for about a week and things will be fine. However, that wasn’t the focus of the meeting once she saw him. The focus was on how amazing he looks. And we, as parents, couldn’t help but feel a great sense of pride and relief walking out of this meeting.
You know, if you’ve read these posts consistently, that this has been an incredibly difficult journey. It’s really hard to put a four year old on GAPS. It’s even harder to put a four year old with a six year old sister on GAPS. But, our son has been a trooper. He’s been fantastic this entire time. But there are many days when we’re in the thick of it, and we can’t tell if the diet is actually working. When your boy itches his skin at every minute of every day, you sometimes take a step back and wonder if it’s working and if it’s all worth it. However, after this innocuous visit to the doctor’s office about Raleigh’s fingers, we now have even more confirmation that things are going in the right direction. If you could see her eyes when she looked at him, and if you could hear her voice when talking about him, then you’d understand our joy and excitement. We have been confirmed! Our choices have been reconfirmed! Our journey has been validated! And, if you’ve ever been on a journey; either through fitness, nutrition, health, whatever, you understand how important validation is when you’re in the thick of it all. This validation has encouraged us in the midst of the storm. We’re in a two year storm, and we’re only at six months. So, we need as much validation as we can get. We’ll gladly take it at any moment.
You reading and sharing of our story is also validation and confirmation. Please share our story as much as you can. Tell all your friends about our journey and have them jump on the train with us. We know we have a story to tell that can help lots of people. Help us share it with everyone so those who need this blog as a support can have it.
Thanks for praying for us and please continue to do so. God continues to bless this journey that we’re on with Raleigh. We now see his healing more and more every day. This is more confirmation that God is working through food to heal our son. It’s an amazing story; help us tell it to the world.
Sam
