Family Health Update

It’s been awhile since I have done a health update, so I felt it was time, especially after we had 11 appointments last week!! 😁

It took me several hours after the week’s appointments to order all our new meds & supplements, organize all the lab slips & come up with a plan to get them all done – for which person, when they are to be done (now, every 2 weeks, every 4 weeks, in 2 months, which supplements need to be stopped before each lab order – 24 hrs ahead of time? 48 hrs? 1 week before?)

It’s a lot! Thankfully after spending a couple hours on it, it’s a lot less overwhelming & we have a manageable plan. It would be nice if it were the same for each person, but of course everyone doesn’t have the same tick-borne illnesses, so it makes sense that treatment will not be the same.

One has graduated from several months of antibiotics to going on a 3-6 month herbal route, but that is a lot more complicated… 5 herbal meds taken at different times throughout the day, some on an empty stomach, etc. Then the next month you add another several & more the next month.

Another finished one month on 2 antibiotics & now is switching to a different 2 this month, which you have to always start slowly (take one for 2 days, add in another & work your way up to both meds, one of which is 3 times a day, but has to be taken with food & at least a couple hours apart from the high doses of probiotics that we’re all taking right before bed. Etc. You get the idea.)

While on the one hand I thought it would be a good idea to just tackle everyone’s tick-borne illnesses all at once, so that we’re going through it together, it hasn’t necessarily been very easy! I still would choose to go this route again, though. AND, it has definitely been a plus that we’re all on the same food restrictions (mostly) at the same time.

I’m happy to report that 2 months into our gluten free, dairy free diet, we are doing really well. We miss convenience food on busy days & we miss things like pizza, but overall – it has been less overwhelming than I first expected & truthfully it is WAY easier than what I was doing – making separate foods for several different people based on their food sensitivities. For the most part now, we all eat very similar (there are 2 kids that can’t have tomatoes, for example, so they can’t eat the baked beans, tomato soup, etc & will have other leftovers. One can’t have regular potatoes & one can’t have sweet potatoes, so sometimes we make both.

We feel like we see making good progress and are grateful. We have seen some (honestly unexpected) benefits to changing our diet. Ellenor is now sleeping through the night consistently (who knew that food was affecting her??) & much more that I can’t even go into. ❤