We got through it!

Since becoming a mother more than 13 years ago, I have had very few brushes with the dreaded stomach flu. Usually we would get the runs and it would last at most 2 days. I recall only one or two incident where just one child threw up.

Well on Sunday midnight I was introduced to the nightmare of having child after child throw up and all in the wee hours of the morning – but of course It all started with #3. Then slowly but surely #1 and #4 followed the day after (Tuesday). Tailing very closely was #2, #5 and #7. Then the last one standing fell

It was a horrible experience for all – them puking their guts out and us having to clean up after them and to bring them to the 24 hr clinic at Mount Alvernia. Dh brought #3 there twice (on Sunday and Tuesday – both past midnight!) and I brought #2, #5 and #7.

5 got jabbed, 5 got a suppository inserted (no, I didn’t count wrongly. Three had both the suppository and the injection!)

Now either the jab given to #2 and #5 was lousy or their brush with the virus was just bad. Coz even after the suppository and injection they were still throwing up like crazy And I had to insist loudly to get them the jabs coz the dr insisted that the suppository alone will do the job.

Of course we came home with the whole pharmacy and more But thanks be to God, they are all on their way to recovery. Still weak but well enough to start bickering and hollering at the top of their voices

While I was at the clinic with the 3 sick girls, God sent an angel to lend a helping hand. While waiting for the suppository to take effect, a friend from our previous Church, Full Gospel Assembly, stepped in. He was also suffering from gastric flu and both his wife and dad accompanied him to the clinic. The dr (yes, the same one!) insisted that he be put on a drip for 2 hours! So in the meantime, his dad was just hanging around. He was so sweet, helping to hold the gag bag for the girls when needed, getting blankets and tissues and water for us. He even helped to stand guard at our car while I waited in the clinc to pay and collect our medication.

Thank you Lord for your Hand upon us!

 

* You can read Henson’s experience of the same story here

 

Who do you listen to?!

In my quest to heal our bodies, I have trawled the internet for hours, usually after the children have gone to bed. Which means I am often up till 2am or so

Before our eczema rash became so bad, I was often up surfing for recipes and/or menu plans. But since it has gotten a lot more worse, I am now researching the various diets that all claim to heal the body, specifically the gut.

There is the Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) diet, the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), the Paleo Diet, The Maker’s Diet, the Eat Right 4 Your Type diet, the Eat to Live diet, etc…

Just who do we listen to coz while they all agree that processed foods are bad for us and that we all benefit from eating whole foods, they all don’t agree on which whole food is allowed. And many of them highly recommend eating organic food or raw, umpasteurised dairy. Yeah, right. In Singapore?! Sure, if I were rich and/or had a farm of my own. How realistic is that???

And then there are many that are evolutionary-based. So do we, as creation-based Christians, automatically toss these diets out? Or are we throwing out the baby with the bath water? But if the basis of their theory is something we know is wrong, can the rest of their theory be right?!

Every diet has its proponent and their critic. So again, who do we listen to???

To complicate matters, if we know that we are allergic to certain food items and we follow a specific diet then we will limit even further the foods available to us.

Sigh.

It is not so easy to say that we should just go back to what our ancestors used to eat/drink. Take milk for instance. Sure we couldn’t get raw milk but all we had to worry about was pasteurisation and homogenisation. But now we have to worry about the growth hormones and antibiotics injected into the cows and even their diets! Cows are designed to be grass-eating animals but now, to fatten them up, they are being fed grains, specifically corn. If what we eat affects us, surely what they eat affects us???

So how? What does the Word of God say?

25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink;……31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’…33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:25-33). Emphasis mine.

Does that mean we don’t care and just eat what we feel like eating? Noooo. That would be called indulging in the flesh! Instead, we need to go back and seek God’s face for each of our lives and our families’. It plays out differently for each of us who grapples with different issues and are in different seasons of our lives.

I don’t have any answer at this point in time as to what to do, although I sure wished I did! All I know is that my God is greater than all this and He has a reason for not healing us instantly. My position is like that of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego in Daniel 3. They who told King Nebuchadnezzar that even if God does not deliver them from the fiery furnace they will still not serve his gods, or worship the gold image he set up.

Whether He heals me or not should not be the basis of my faith. My faith is in who God is, not what He can do for me. He isn’t Santa Clause. I just remember daily that His grace is sufficient for me, for His strength is made perfect in weakness. 2 Corinthians 12:8-10. And then I cry out, “Lord! Have mercy on me!”

 

Frustrated

Since my last Allergy Update on June 18th, things were really improving really well. So much so that I thought that by August 25th, which will mark 1 year of Sarah’s very strict diet, we could have a celebration of sorts!

Sadly though, that did not come to pass. Instead, shortly before August 25th, we all fell ill and with that we started on a downhill slide. Rashes that we thought had been banished reappeared and mine re-appeared after many months of regression. That was around the time that the LUP for all our neighbouring blocks started. Sigh.

Nothing else had changed. So I suspect that the dust and the compromised immune system triggered an allergic response all over again

While dd’s skin condition improved slowly, the rash on her neck area refused to budge. In my case, it spread from the left index finger to almost the entire back of my left hand.

Started at the knuckle of left index finger

Infected, swollen and hot!

So in my desperation, I told dd that we should go on a vegetable and fruit fast for 5 – 7 days and see if there is any improvement. She was all game for it, my brave gal!

On September 19th, we started (remember, before this we were already on a very restricted diet). I bought a huge amount of vegetables (mostly local, non-organic), fruit (bananas, apples, pears, grapes), chickpeas (for snack) and coconut (as a non-dairy drink) as I knew we would be terribly hungry. Guess what? The 1st thing we discovered was that coconut made the itch worse! I made fresh coconut milk for us to drink on the 1st day and we both itched slightly. The next day I mixed it with avocado to make into a smoothie (super delicious I must say ) and we both itched badly

So no more coconuts. Meanwhile whenever we were hungry, we ate boiled chickpeas (just 1 day since I ran out) or bananas (daily). But we were still itching. Then my friend told me that her mil mentioned that bananas are a common allergen! Yikes! Was that why we were still itching??? So off with the bananas. The itch did lessen considerably (all in the mind?!).

From here our experience started to differ as I continued with the vegetable and fruit diet while I introduced meat into her diet.

Dd’s Experience

Dd’s skin improved tremendously except her neck area – again  No change when it was fresh beef. But when it was frozen beef, she scratched a little more. Hmm………do they add anything into frozen beef?! Anybody knows for sure? Meanwhile, her skin recovered once I stopped the frozen beef. (She thoroughly enjoyed her steaks and Shabu Shabu beef slices )

On Day 4, I started her on pork (fresh). She itched more than usual on the 1st day. On the 2nd day, it was bad. Her neck area turned red and angry. She said she felt awful. But she also ate chickpeas for her snack. Hmm…..

I told her she had to go back onto the vegetable and fruit (sans bananas) for the next 3 days before we try the chickpeas or pork again Obviously she wasn’t thrilled. But already, I can see her not scratching as much.

She is looking forward to eating lamb and mutton but ooohhhh! The smell! The smell! I think I might just faint from it Yes, I do not like mutton or lamb, thank you very much!

My Experience

As for me, I was scratching so badly till my skin was red and angry (above photo). After battling with it for a few days and seeing no improvement, I succumbed to taking a course of oral antibiotics together with the application of an antibiotic cream. Anyone who knows me knows that I absolutely hate taking medication, especially antibiotoics and I actually haven’t for the past 13 years or so.

Guess what?

The antibiotics did not do anything for the infection at all! Grrrr!!!!!!!!! Meanwhile my skin continued to bleed and ooze pus even if I lightly brush on it. This is the consequence of using steroid creams, even though I used it very sparingly and only just a few times (less than 5).

I suppose I could go on a stronger course of antibiotics but I am going to avoid that path as much as I can for what if it also doesn’t work? Besides people with eczema already have a messed up gut, I really do not need antibiotics to wipe out whatever good bacteria is in there trying to right the bad ones.

Frustrated is what I feel!!! Why am I ***still*** itching despite being on only vegetables and almost no fruit? Ok, I cheated by sneaking in some salmon sashimi yesterday but honestly, it made no difference to the itch level.

2 days ago (Thursday), my friend recommended that instead of the antibiotic cream I should try an antifungal cream as I may have a fungal not bacterial growth. I was leery of putting anything on my red and raw skin. What if I reacted to the cream and made it even worse??? But in desperation, I went to rummage in our medicine cupboard as I thought I had a tube of Daktarin cream in there. Nope. I must have thrown it out at the last spring cleaning But I found a tube of Neoderm which had “anti-bacterial, anti-fungal & anti-inflammation” printed on it (no more box). Bingo! I thought.

I applied it before I slept and the next morning it was less red. I applied it again on Friday and this morning. Look at it now.

Less itchy, less red and definitely less infected, if at all.

A vast improvement, right? Amazing I thought! Then it dawned upon me that I should check what Neoderm is. Ahhh!!!! It is indeed an anti-bacterial, anti-fungal and anti-inflammation cream BUT it also has steroid in it!!! Betasone to be precise. ARGHHHHH!!!!!!!!! We are back to square one!

Looking at the bright side of things, I guess I must have had a fungal infection because when I applied betasone on its own, nothing happened (well, something happened – my skin got thinned out!). When I applied the antibiotic cream nothing happened. Only with Neoderm that there was some improvement.

So what am I going to do now? I have no idea!!! I am just so, so frustrated.

Just in case someone wants to recommend something, do note that we are already either using or have used/taken the following :

1. Prayed incessantly
2. Showering and shampooing with California Baby Super Sensitive Bodywash and Shampoo
3. Showered with Physiogel and applied Physiogel cream (no effect, rather drying)
4. Showered with oatmeal wash (no relief and left the bathroom floor feeling oily)
5. Do the dishes with gloves on (plastic then latex)
6. Used and still using California Baby calendula cream and ointment
7. Used and still using California Baby aloe vera cream
8. Used olive oil (sometimes made it itchier)
9. Used coconut oil (sometimes made it itchier)
10. Used shea butter (made it worse)
11. Used Melaleuca’s Renew Lotion (no difference)
12. Prayed incessantly
13. Broken generational curses
14. Attended healing servics
15. Been a patient of the National Skin Centre
16. Seen a TCM practioner
17. Taking various supplements like Flax & Borage oils, EPO, Salmon Oil (we are allergic to cod), Vit E, Caprylic Acid, MSM, Quercetin with Bromelain, Multidophilus, Lacto-GG, Magnesium, Zinc, Digestive Enzymes.
18. And did I mention that we prayed incessantly

Please do not tell me that perhaps the skin and TCM doctors we saw were no good. There is no end to the recommendations (believe me I have had many people provide highly recommended doctors). It is not that I don’t believe that your doctor is good but I have been running around bringing dd to this and that doctor to no avail. It gets very tiring and is honestly a waste of time and money.

Western doctors will only prescribe steroids (topical and oral), antibiotics and antihistamines. I don’t know enough about TCM but thus far I haven’t been convinced of its efficacy or the purity of the herbs used. There is often a high heavy metal load in the herbs.

I personally believe in nutritional medicine but unfortunately in the field of alternative healing (NAET, Bioresonance Therapy, homeopathy, etc), there are many quacks out there and they often cost a bomb and provide no result. They tend to blame something or another when their method don’t work. So at the moment we are still on our own and trying out food by food to see if it helps.

I am just waiting impatiently for the major LUP stuff to be finished (supposed to be at the end of the year) and see if our condition improves tremendously. I have had a few friends whose eczema condition (less severe than ours) disappear totally when they moved to another country. They do not have to watch their diet at all. So I am taking a chance that I may, in the end, be barking up the wrong tree. But I really do not wish for us to be on long term medication that works by suppressing our immune system. There will be severe consequences to reap later on.

And yes I know I should keep my hands dry but really it is not a practical piece of advice at all. In fact with the need to cook everything from scratch it is impossible to not get my hands wet.

So if you could remember, do utter a prayer for us as and when you can. It will be much appreciated!