In the midst of all the bio-medical interventions we are pursuing in order to recover our son, God has led us to yet another source that I find very intriguing. Per the suggestion of our son's naturopath I picked up the GAPS book (Gut and Psychology Syndrome) , and wow, all I can say is "I see the light"!!!! This book clearly delineates all the health issues that my son has been battling with: yeast and bacteria overgrowth, casein and gluten peptides, allergies not to mention my own issues with yeast infections, chronic illness, allergies, etc The basic premise of the book is that poor gut health can cause all these issues because food is not being properly processed/digested,etc. The book outlines a program to restore a person to full health with no medicine, just good clean wholesome food. The only challenge with this is that will mean even more time in the kitchen than before and more food restrictions. Now our family will be grain free/starch free/and refined sugar free as well. Additionally, I will be culturing yogurt and kefir, making sauerkraut, soaking nuts, etc. to be sure that food will be able to be properly absorbed. For my type A personality, this is a lot to take on. Then there is the added stress of knowing that this can be that final puzzle piece I am missing to fully recover my son and the stress is really starting to mount. Thankfully, there is a saving grace to this giant elephant that has now died in our kitchen. There are resources (lots and lot of them) such as the GAPS Yahoo Group, Tribal Mamas, the book the GAPS Guide, all to direct me in baby steps towards our goal.
With each step I take, I know I am one step closer, and my family is closer to healing and fully restored health. My home is grain free now (aside from popcorn kernals and brown rice pasta (which will keep), we are whittling our pantry supplies down to only the essentials, I have our entire family taking cod liver oil now, I have my first batch of sauerkraut fermenting in our cupboard, and I bought a yogurt maker to culture our own dairy.
For some reason this takes me back to my senior year of college. It was my first semester and I was taking 21 units. To say I was overwhelmed would be an understatement. One night I called my mom crying on the phone trying to figure out how I could study for my finals and complete my (several) term papers at the same time. She stopped and prayed with me, but ended our conversation with a question. The question was: "Charise, how do you eat an elephant?". Since I don't regularly eat elephants I was befuddled. And so I said, "I don't know." To this my mom responded, "One bite at a time". From this lesson I learned that looking at the whole picture would cause this feeling of being overwhelmed. But if I just focused on the one project at hand, complete it, and then move onto the next project, it wasn't so daunting. It is this lesson that I am using to get me through the GAPS program. I am focusing on one project/food, etc. at a time, and I am slowly seeing my dead elephant disappear in my kitchen. All that is now remaining is a the skeleton and a few tendons and ligaments. Perhaps that will be my next batch of broth. :)
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