healing Lyla

lyla has been feeling pretty lousy for the last year or so. terrible headaches-often to the point of tears, super low energy and an overall lack of desire for life. about a year ago she went gluten free with me. it helped for a while, but soon the symptoms came back and began worsening. the last few months have been the most difficult. it's been heartbreaking to watch our bouncy, happy, ENERGETIC girl turn into a groggy heap.

   we went to our pediatrician and he ordered tons of bloodwork. the only abnormal test that came back was her white blood cell count, it was high. so off to the allergy doc...a complete waste of time and money. "i see numbers way higher than this all the time," he told me, "it's not a problem." back to the pediatrician we went. he was not impressed with what the allergy doc had said. he told us a normal white blood cell count is a 2 and that lyla was an 11.  her body was allergic to something she was eating, but we didn't know what.

  this picture was taken on vacation in october. it was one of the most beautiful days at la jolla shores. the sun was out and the water was clear and the above is what our girl was doing...
     she eventually felt better and was able to enjoy the day, but it wasn't easy or pain free. she rallied and pushed through and had fun. but it shouldn't be so much work for a 10 year old to have fun at the beach on vacation! 

   when we got home i made an appointment with dr. gage at the behest of my mom. on november 6th, we started an anti inflammation diet and some supplements. she could only eat turkey, chicken, a few different raw nuts, fruit, vegetables, coconut oil, olive oil, sweet potatoes, beans, peas and buckwheat (it's a seed, who knew?). no dairy, grain, soy, sugar, sweeteners or meat other than turkey and chicken. 

      IT WAS HARD, but she was amazing, truly.  two days in the headaches began to ease up...four days in they were gone. GONE! it was miraculous. her energy was coming back, though having no complex carbs throttled her energy levels, but it was so much better than before. we were excited, but also exhausted. this diet was no joke. everything had to be made from scratch and bought almost daily. i didn't want her to have to go at this alone, so i decided i would do this with her. we both lost weight we didn't really have to loose (we've gained it back, for the most part:). 

   dr. gage began adding foods back in and over the next few month he added tomatoes, eggs, beef, cheese, yogurt, butter, potatoes, rice, corn, goat milk, tapioca, and cottage cheese. each time we introduce a new food we have to try it in different forms for a few days to make sure she can tolerate each one individually. so far, the only one we think causes her sluggishness is potato. other than that, it's been pretty smooth sailing. we've been on the diet for 3 months now and, for the most part, we have our lyla back! we hit a snag here and there, but really she has only had a few headaches since starting the diet, and we are not even sure what caused those. she has had days where we skip the diet all together (Christmas, Thanksgiving, and really special birthdays), but other than that she has stuck to it.  

UPDATE:

we found the culprit! safflower oil! who knew that one little oil could cause so much damage? so no gluten, oats or safflower oil and we have a happy girl.

  the best day for me was our first day skiing for the season. last year she could only do a few runs and back to the lodge she went. tired and just not feeling up to riding. but this year on our first day out she took more runs than any of us! she was aggressive and skied better than i have ever seen her ski. but the best, best, best part is she was having FUN. i was wiping away tears from under my goggles multiple times throughout the day. we are getting our girl back, and it's just the biggest, best blessing.