Strange but true...

Lila is five months old today. We went to her four month check up today (because that's how we roll). Ever since she got her two month shots she had been very sick. It progressively worsened over those nine weeks. It got to the point that she was wheezing and choking all throughout the night, a few times losing color like she used to in the NICU. It became very scary and sometimes we would be shaking her to get her to take a breath. During the course of this, I took her to the doctor four separate times, each time receiving another medication or machine to put her on. None of them had any affect so I stopped all of it and told the doctor that none of it was helping. He told me to just take her to the emergency room so they could give her some steroids. When we took her there, they told us that it was just reflux and that she would grow out of it within the year. They also said there was nothing in her chest and that her nose was stuffed and was echoing in her chest. We left there feeling so frustrated. I am so sick of the reflux line. All the things wrong in this little girl's life is not reflux. I don't need a doctor to tell me that my kid throws up- I do laundry all day, I'm well aware of that. Braden had a pretty good crash on his bike the other day and he came home with an impressive gash on his leg and told me what happened. I looked and it and said, "No. It looks like a wound from the bike accident, but it's actually just reflux. It should go away within a year". When Lila was having grand mal seizures around the clock, it was just reflux. It's like every doctor looks at her history, sees the reflux, and attributes anything going on to that condition.

Anyway the day after we spent the night in the ER, we were sitting behind a woman in church who heard her wheezing and asked if she was sick. I gave her the rundown and she asked if I would bring Lila to see her (she is a chiropractor). I wondered what she was going to be able to do to help but I was more than willing because I was desperate. We were at the point where I was going to say whatever I had to say to get her re-admitted to Children's so they could see how bad it was. So I took her the next day and was unprepared for her unorthodox treatments. It involves acupuncture and other oriental medicine ideas. Not exactly mainstream medicine (which I'm happy to get a break from). She practices a holistic technique called NAET (Nampudripad's allergy elimination techniques). Through some resistance testing, she concluded that Lila is allergic to my milk, among other things. She treated her for this allergy and several others since. Each time she had a treatment (which are a little weird but very quick, painless, non-invasive), she would get a little worse that night, then get better. She had a treatment last Friday that was a very strong allergy apparently, and it totally cured her. I do not pretend to know how it works, I'm reading a book about it. And to be honest, if I didn't just watch it heal my baby, I would probably think it is a bucket of hogwash. I really don't believe that after all these weeks of trying to help her and watching her suffer, in my most desperate moment, that it was just a coincidence that this woman happens to be sitting in front of me and offers to help. What a blessing. What an absolute answer to my prayers.

So at the doctor today I told him that I took her off all the meds he had prescribed long ago and that none of them had worked. I told him what had worked and he didn't say anything. He did take pretty copious notes though. He checked her out and confirmed that she seemed to be healed and then prepared to give her shots. I told him that I didn't want her to have shots because that is exactly when she got sick last time. I feel that she is a sickly little thing with no immune system and don't feel right about pumping her full of toxins that she is highly unlikely to encounter at this point. I want to do some more research and identify which ones I think she needs and when is a better time to have them. He basically told me I have to find a new doctor. Which is okay with me. I'm not anti-vaccine, I just want the ability to put her on a slower track and be able to have a say in what she gets and when. It made me sad because I felt like that was such a business call- it wasn't about Lila's health at all. But anyway, she is about the 10th-20th percentile on growth. But she is growing well, she's just a dainty little thing. I mean, Anabelle and I are both feeding her around the clock, she better be growing. She would do well to team up with Anabelle the Tank early on in life as a means of protection.

But she sure is the sweetest little thing. She seriously appreciates every kiss you give her. Even in the middle of the night when I kiss her she smiles in her sleep. For the first time in her little life she is not seizing or choking through the night. We are SO indescribably happy.