Saturday, August 24, 2013

My Journey To Holistic Healing

     
     This blog has been a long time coming. I was concerned that I wouldn't have enough information or that the information I had would not be useful to anyone. However, the more people that I've talked to and the longer time has gone on, I've realized how useful some of this can be to some who may find themselves in the same situations. So, with a little bit of extra time set aside (who has THAT?) and some encouragement from others, my blog has now finally arrived!
     The purpose of my blog will mostly be to share what I already have learned about ways I've helped to heal myself and also my family and friends. With permission I may mention people, products, websites, etc. that I've used as aids in healing to hopefully help send others on their journey toward finding what may work for them.
   It would seem like these short blog entries would take no time to type. Remember that "time set aside" thing I mentioned earlier? My "time set aside" consists of having the laptop flipped open on the kitchen table while cooking dinner, managing the house, spending time with the kids, cleaning up the kitchen and all those other paradisaical things that make up the life of a stay at home mom. Let me just mention now that so far my 2 year old son has stopped me 4 times just within these first 3 paragraphs (once for a drink, once to say hi and once because his toy toolbox wouldn't open and it was VERY important to get that screwdriver out!) Hopefully I will be able to get out my thoughts in a clear, orderly fashion within the 6 hours it may take to type this all out since I will more than likely stop every time my children need me. Family is most important of course! Nevertheless, I will proceed.
   I was never too into natural means of healing for a good part of my life mostly because I didn't have anyone around me who had experiences with it. I took my kids to the doctor every scheduled vaccine visit and gave them whatever drugs were "needed" at the time. I took antibiotics, acne medicine, birth control, anti-inflammatories, antidepressants, OTC drugs for allergies and eczema. I had NO idea of side effects of anything because I didn't know to ask and I trusted that because a trained doctor was prescribing them that I was perfectly safe. I was never informed of any repercussions of any of these meds.
   I will say now before I go any further that I am not anti-doctor. I believe that doctors have their place in the world. We need them. (That darn toolbox got locked again and I am now wearing my toddlers sunglasses as I'm typing this because I look "cool") I do, however, believe that there is so much more that we can do at home for ourselves and our families first before running to the doctor for everything and spending a ton of money on things that may help but can also do a lot of damage.
   My journey began after I had my 3rd baby two years ago. I had the perfect pregnancy. I gained about 15 pounds. I worked out everyday. I tried to eat as healthy as I knew how. My labor and delivery was even better. I went in at 9am and had my son at 3:47pm with no complications. I was SO happy. My older children adored this new baby and nothing in my world could go wrong at this point. Or so I thought...
   I started losing weight too quickly, my hair was coming out in gobs (which is normal after pregnancy but this amount was scary), I was feeling sick all the time and a rash started to appear on my face. I was nursing at the time and was worried that I wasn't producing enough milk. I think of it as the storm after the calm!
  I went to urgent care, a family doctor, an endocrinologist, 3 dermatologists and had blood work done so many times I lost count. No one could tell me why I felt and looked so bad. I wasn't having many mental/emotional difficulties at the time other than having a new baby in the house and having to adjust. I was diagnosed differently with each person I saw. I was given a new medicine from each person I saw. I was told to stop nursing for a time to take some of the meds. When I tried my baby on formula (every different one you could think of) he threw up forcefully and was very sick. When I took him to the pediatrician to let her know how sick he was she wanted to vaccinate him. I asked her how this would help his formula situation and the fact that he didn't have anything that he could eat?! She said that I would have to just wait until he was dehydrated to take him to the hospital. What?
   If I wasn't mentally strained before all of this, I certainly was after with all the doctors, meds, baby throwing up, side effects of meds, etc. (I am now cooking chicken at the request of my kids and need to run upstairs because my older son just told me he broke the shower curtain. Never a dull moment!) I realized at this point that I needed to do something different. The doctors couldn't help me, the meds couldn't help me and in fact, some hurt me. I just couldn't go on any further the way I was. I began searching for natural approaches.
   I don't plan to get into much detail in this particular blog entry about all the things I've learned and tried for healing. In future blog entries I plan to focus on specific healing methods, what I use them for and whether they were/are successful or unsuccessful (I've had plenty of both!). These are the things I have either used in the past or still use today but will get into further detail later: homeopathy, chiropractic, herbs, essential oils, diet, meditation, massage, muscle response testing, detoxing cleanses and more. Also, in hopes of healing skin ailments I have made no-chemical, homemade make-up, lotion, shampoo and deodorant.
   I hope that you will find what I have to say now and in the future helpful to you and your family. If not, maybe you can at least get a good laugh out of all the effort it takes me to write.


3 comments:

  1. Ang, your writing style is always so VERY entertaining! Nice work and I look forward to following you :0) Love You! -Jenne

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  2. I agree about your writing style. You have what it takes to inform and entertain. I am anxious to follow you in your journey.

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