Muscle Testing: "This isn't working."

It has come to my remembrance that I once mentioned muscle testing in a post some time ago. We had heard about it from our doctor’s office and knew nothing about it – just that it was supposed to be a way to determine (better stated, discern) what foods the twins may or may not react to. Muscle testing, we were told, would be a good indicator of what NOT to try. We were told that if a food “failed” we should consider that food unsafe, but if it passed, we should consider it a “maybe.” We were not told much about how it would work, but that it would be the body leading the whole thing. At the time we didn’t think much about it. We had absolutely NOTHING to go on, and so we figured it would be worth a try…either it would work or not – nothing gained nothing lost.

We went to see a chiropractor who was said to be good at the muscle testing. He was younger and nice enough, but a bit rushed with us. Nevertheless, we were absolutely AMAZED at the results. Shawn would hold each child on his lap with a given food placed next to the chest of the child. Then he would raise his arm up and outstretched and hold firm as Dr. M tried to push the arm down. If the arm stayed up this was a “strong” sign and the food was a pass. If the arm went down this was a weak sign and it was a fail. As I mentioned we were AMAZED with the results. Each child passed and failed a number of foods. LittleR failed more than LittleM; this made sense to us. I was so glad that Shawn was the one who was the “surrogate” since I knew he would be skeptical if he had not actually felt what had happened. No kidding, on the failed foods his arm would simply give way – there was nothing he could do about it, and on the passed foods his arm would NOT go down. There was truly something to this.

We took our list and went home ready to use it as a guideline of what to try next and what to stay away from.

Fast Forward

At one point the same woman at the doctor’s office recommended that I go and have some muscle testing done to help determine what was going on in my body that doctor’s couldn’t answer. I made an appointment with the same chiropractor and had the opportunity to experience the phenomenon for myself. I too was AMAZED at the results of the testing and even more AMAZED at what happened when Dr. M. attempted to use the same practice to determine my course of treatment.

Dr. M. tested multiple points on my body that would “tell him” which parts or systems of my body were not working properly. I help my arm up as he tested different things. My arm was very strong for the most part. I was a little weak when he “tested” my digestive system, but when he got to my thyroid my arm FLEW DOWN to my side. I had been tested for thyroid dysfunction a number of times and had even had more specific testing done to determine that the thyroid looked “good enough,” but I had always suspected that there was perhaps a sub-clinical issue with it. This was AMAZING. I was shocked at the TRUE reaction my body had.

Now it was time to test the treatment. Dr. M. left the room and returned with a couple of supplements in his hands. He placed them on me and began to test again. To my amazement my arm was weak for one and very strong for another. Dr. M. explained that the strong reaction was the right supplement and then told me that we would test for the correct dosage. I was excited! The next thing out of his mouth gave me a whole lot more information than I was expecting.

He said something about how open I was to this and that was why it was going so well. Then he finished, “now just open your mind.”

“Oh SHIT!” Was the next thing that went through my mind.

Yes, I swore about it in my head. I suddenly KNEW what was going on here. I remember all too well my days of “opening my mind to the universe.” I knew that I was NOT interested in opening my mind to ANY spiritual realm that was not firmly rooted and PLANTED in the GOD of the universe. I IMMEDIATELY began repeating the name of Jesus in my head.

“Jesus, Jesus, Jesus…” I kept going.

I was lying there in complete panic, but calmly calling on the Blood that never fails.

Dr. M. was pushing on my arm - testing. “The correct dose is one pill.” Nothing.

“Two pills.” He pushed again, but my arm didn’t move.

“Three pills.” He was going a bit faster now, but again pushed on my arm.

“Four pills.” He paused then went on, “Five, six, seven, eight…” He quickly ran through the numbers up into the teens, and then simply stated, “This isn’t working.”

OH. MY. WORD. I certainly knew what was blocking this “power” from revealing itself. I wanted out of there. I was conflicted about the results though. Dr. M. just told me to start with 2 pills a day. I purchased the supplement (which I have never been able to bring myself to take), went home, and researched muscle testing (Applied Kinesiology) and the occult. I was shocked (but not so much since the experience I had just had) to learn of its roots in the occult, and I thankfully educated on how the practice didn't fit at all with my faith.

I found the list we had gained from the children’s muscle testing and threw it away.

Ephesians 5:11

Take no part in and have no fellowship with the fruitless deeds and enterprises of darkness, but instead [let your lives be so in contrast as to] expose and reprove and convict them.

Colossians 2:8

See to it that no one carries you off as spoil or makes you yourselves captive by his so-called philosophy and intellectualism and vain deceit (idle fancies and plain nonsense), following human tradition (men's ideas of the material rather than the spiritual world), just crude notions following the rudimentary and elemental teachings of the universe and disregarding [the teachings of] Christ (the Messiah).

http://www.gotquestions.org/kinesiology.html

"Yes Nichole, I Will Heal Them"

I am reading a book about embracing the pain you are facing in order to find the “hidden treasures” that the Lord has for you in that dark place. This book will prepare me for a journey of personal healing from things in my past that have gripped me (on some level) for many years. I think that this season with the health of my children is a pretty dark one. It is by no means the darkest season of my life. Not by a long shot. When I give it a second or two of thought, I can see so many treasures that the Lord has given me in this journey. I know beyond any doubt that I am stronger and more able to hear His voice – as a direct result of this journey.

Again and again I have veered by one degree (or maybe just a few) from the path that the Lord has set us on with the kids’ healing. There have been 3 separate seasons during this journey that I have really implored the Lord to heal the children. I have struggled trying to figure out why He has not done so with just one word, or one breath, or one thought, or a thought of a thought. I know full well that this is all it would take for the creator of the universe to heal them. I have struggled with believing that He will. I have wondered if my lack of (enough) faith was the reason they were not being healed in the way that I was asking. But nevertheless, I have petitioned God three major times and each time have come to hear the same thing.

FOLLOW THE PATH THAT I HAVE LAID OUT FOR YOU, AND I WILL PREPARE THEIR BODIES ONE STEP AHEAD.

Hearing these instructions for the third time on January 15^th really made me realize that it was time to stop asking and DO. If faith without works is dead than I need to live out my faith in what God has told me, and I need to do it right.

Over the past few months the kids have been very sick. I had veered from the prescribed healing protocol that God so clearly led us to. Not by a lot, but my a little here and a little there. One little step at a time – adding foods that they were not ready for - led us to a cycle of illness and food reactivity. LittleM and LittleR had multiple ear infections, general respiratory infections, stomach bugs, and bronchitis twice (probable pneumonia for LittleR). All of these illnesses took place in just over 2 months. They were never well for more than 4 or 5 days before the next illness set in. This really brought me to a place of fear and questioning - and ultimately petitioning God for that healing zap. What I failed to realize at the time is that we had not gone backward for no reason, but because I had not stuck to the path that had been laid out – BY GOD – for their healing.

It took me three times of hearing God “tell” me to follow this healing protocol for me to realize that he was not saying “no.” He was actually telling me, “Yes Nichole, I will heal your children – just not in the way you are asking me to.”

After realizing this and thinking that I had surrendered to this PROMISE I took the kids to the new immunology and allergy specialist. This was a nightmare! But it showed me yet again where I was not truly surrendering. I was still looking for answers and still trying to figure things out outside of God’s leading. It took 2 more weeks for me to really get it.

On January 29^th I knew that something was about to change. LittleR was sick. LittleM’s immune system was actually fighting off this illness – all she wanted to do was sleep, but LittleR was sick. His temperature had reached 102 degrees (this new illness started on the same day we finished antibiotics from the last illness!) I sent out an email to my Mom’s Group for Prayer.

Hello Ladies!

I hope that you all had a blessed day! I have had a very long, difficult day...but a BLESSED day!!

I just want to ask for prayer for M and R. We didn't even finish the antibiotic for R's most recent ear infection when the new illness started. Yesterday afternoon R spiked a fever and it has just progressed from there. It is 102 tonight and he is complaining that his stomach hurts, he seems to be achy (best I can discern), and does not want to eat anything. The doctor thinks it is a virus that is going around. The one thing that concerns me at this point is that the lymph nodes behind his ear (that was just recently ruptured) are VERY swollen. I don't want to see complications with the healing of that eardrum. I did test his hearing by whispering questions to him on that side. With each question I got further away and as quiet as I could - he answered all of them.

God is good - I know we will get through this, in the long run. Right now I am praying that this cycle of illness will be interrupted so that we can get back onto the path of healing that the Lord as marked out for us.

Thanks ladies! Love to you all!

Nichole

The mom’s emailed back and prayed and a few hours later the Group's mentor, an incredible woman of faith emailed back her prayer.

Father in the Name of Jesus I join Nicole's prayer and I decree and declare in the Name of Jesus that this cycle of illness leave now by the power in the Name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth and the power in His Blood that was shed at Calvary. I pray that the wind of the Holy Spirit go thru the G. house and clean it of any spirits of infirmity. Amen so be it in Jesus Name. And I ask the Angels of the Lord to stand guard, and protect it from any more intrusion of the enemy.

Love Becky

Becky sent that email at 8:32 p.m. I didn’t check on LittleR until around 10:30 that night, but his fever was gone. It never returned.

Oh – and just in case you were thinking this was just one of those 48 hour bugs – maybe so, but LittleM and LittleR have never had a 24 or 48 hour bug. Actually they have. They have gotten things that for their cousins were, but those same bugs for them always last 10 to 14 day bugs.

Today LittleM and LittleR have been well for 2 weeks and 1 day!

Two Cakes It Is!

I wasn’t planning to make “birthday cakes” for LittleM and LittleR this year. Last years cakes took countless hours to make. This year we had really hoped to have some sort of cake like recipe that the kids could eat. Over the summer things were going so well that it looked like that might have been a possibility, but the backward momentum of this fall proved otherwise.

Somewhere along the line I realized that I was entertaining some “thinking errors.” Many in the FPIES community have heard my take on the impact of FPIES on a mother, and some have even quoted me. I believe that God revealed it to me in a moment when I really needed to understand why the reality of FPIES cut so much deeper into my being than it did my husband (not that he didn’t care – it was just different).

A mother’s created role is to nurture and NOURISH while a father’s created role is to provide and protect.

I have come to realize that as a mother, the inability to feed (nourish) my children, when left unaddressed in my emotional/spiritual self, is an injury to my perceived ability to be a mom. I am not saying that this actually does in some way impact my ability to be a good mom. I don’t believe that for a moment. What I am saying though, is that somewhere in the deepest and most vulnerable places of my soul – I FEAR that it does.

At some points this perception has pushed me into a cycle of trying to “make-up” for the kids’ condition. I have found myself overcompensating – trying to give LittleM and LittleR what they “deserve” in the absence of food. To that end, last year I planned the birthday party of birthday parties. This 2 year old bash was much more than a birthday party – it was an EVENT. It was wonderful and I am so glad that the kids had a great day, but I realized recently that THEY didn’t need all of it – I needed to give it to them. I realized that they were happy little people who really had no idea they were missing out on anything.

SO….this year I decided that we were not going to have a big, expensive, difficult to execute party. We planned to take LittleM and LittleR to Hershey Chocolate World with their cousin and best bud, LittleK. This would be low key, fun and free! It was all set until the beginning of the week when LittleR told me that he was going to have a cake.

Uh-oh! I didn’t even think the kids knew/remembered what a cake was – I was shocked that they remembered last year’s cakes. Then I remembered that we just had them out in December to have a professional photo taken of them before we took them apart.

Ok. Change of plans. Time to make a cake!

As I began work on a large food-free cake for the two of them LittleR excitedly told me, “we are gonna have two cakes and have fire (candles)!”

Ok. Changing the plans again…two cakes it is!

A Barrier System Issue

Last week we went to a new Allergy/Immunology specialist.

It had occurred to me at one point recently that perhaps the kids don’t have FPIES at all. After all, there is no blood test or imaging study that can confirm or diagnose FPIES. To the contrary, FPIES is more of a diagnosis of exclusion. Children with the constellation of symptoms that LittleM and LittleR have get tested for other issues and in the absence of real answers…FPIES. That being said, we didn’t really go down that path. For the first many months of the twin’s lives we were told that there was really nothing wrong. It took weeks for anyone to realize that they were milk and soy protein intolerant, but we were told that this was common and nothing to worry about – that they would grow out of it without incident. At 6 months when we began to feed them solid foods we started to learn how wrong they were. Actually it didn’t take that long, we just didn’t know it. After putting them on the “safe” formulas we saw increased reflux and vomiting, delayed gastric emptying, and other strange symptoms like gagging and choking. The kids didn’t tolerate the “safe” formulas either. We finally landed on one formula that they both seemed to do alright with. The doctors told us that this medical formula was a cure for the condition, and we believed them – but over time we have found that this is not a cure. No, this is a band aid.

Ok, back to the present. The allergy/immunology specialist that we went to see was not really all that interested in looking into the kids immunology, but she agreed to do some studies just the same. I told her that I was concerned that since I had been the one to find the diagnosis of FPIES originally perhaps the doctors agreeing with the diagnosis and not doing much to rule out immunological issues was actually a mistake – I was worried that perhaps we had missed something. What if they had a recognized immunodeficiency with the FPIES diagnosis? Well, the appointment was awful. I left there feeling defeated and confused. I just KNEW that she was missing the mark. In any event she concurred with the diagnosis of FPIES and did some blood work to be sure the immune system was ok.

Today we went to a neurological chiropractor. This was very interesting. LittleM has a number of strange symptoms involving her entire body really, but only on one side. She has uneven pupils, tongue weakness (in addition to her dysphasia), left toricollis at birth, and tightness in her left abdomen that when released improves her constipation. I have so many questions about what else isn’t working on her left. Can she hear and see equally? Is her GI tract sluggish on only one side? We can’t know the answers to these questions, at least not now.

The conversation with the Dr. Chris was so refreshing. This guy could actually carry on an FPIES conversation with me. Not only was he knowledge able on the “alternative” side of the conversation (not all that surprising from a chiro) but he was right there with the traditional medicine of FPIES. I am not sure how familiar he was with FPIES by name, but he was well versed in the idea of cell mediated allergies and even talked about the T-cell involvement in this kind of allergy. This is MUCH more than I expected!!

I was so relieved to hear him say – if their immune system can’t even handle food proteins how is it supposed to handle common issues like colds or vaccines. YES! This is what I have been asking all of our doctors. While some FPIES children’s immune systems are so over-sensitized they efficiently fight off every germ AND protein, LittleM and LittleR seem to not know when to fight. Their systems fight food, but don’t do so well with germs. An illness that lasts 7 days for our nieces and nephews will last weeks or even months for LittleM and LittleR. The other thing that was refreshing to hear Dr. Chris say was that kids like these are on a crash course headed for autoimmune disorder. No I don’t find that truth to be refreshing – what is refreshing however, is that he recognizes this truth. Unbelievably, most MDs do not. This leaves the FPIES community in an impossible predicament as it forces us to constantly butt up against the establishment of traditional medicine. It forces us to have to over-advocate, and this is a dangerous place to put a parent in. We can understand a great deal through research and experience, but we are still parents – lay people as related to medicine. We cannot possible know how to exhaust all possibilities. We are constantly put in the position of advocating for our children often AGAINST our doctors – with this being the norm – it is hard to imagine what might be missed. I can’t even recall all the comments and looks I have endured as that crazy mother who thinks everything is or might be wrong with her kids.

BUT TODAY…today we met with someone who knows what we are dealing with. He is ready and willing to help. He told me that it was easy to look at the history, do an examination, and name the problem. The fix though…he warned me that correcting the problem is a much different challenge. This will not be easy, but it is possible.

This confirmation from a doctor was a refreshing change of pace.

Now to get all of LittleM’s labs to him for review so that he can formulate his recommendations.

• Heal the gut.
• Heal the blood-brain barrier.
• Balance the two hemispheres of the brain. (LittleM’s history and examination confirm an imbalance. I can’t remember is her right brain is over or under-active, but I am sure this will be discussed once Dr. Chris formulates his recommendations.)