Self-Help, Self-Healing (Part 1)
My story
Having been told that I would not be able to have children, my husband and I were very surprised to find that I was pregnant. By the time I was five months we were optimistic that we could indeed look forward to the birth of our child. However, at seven months pregnant my hormone levels were barely sufficient to sustain the baby’s wellbeing and growth. We limped along to a natural birth at nine months for our son Matthew. Matthew’s liver was very slow to come into action and for the first 10 days of his life he was severely jaundiced and had to stay under an infrared (ultraviolet) lamp.
Things improved very slowly. He appeared to be a happy and healthy growing baby but I knew a different story. Matthew could not sleep lying down for more than an hour before he would awake with chronic abdominal pains. This seemed like a severe form of colic. The only thing that helped him was to hold him over my shoulder for 10-20 minutes and bounce and rock him vigorously. However, if he was put down in the flat position, or not bounced around for long enough, his pains would return and he would again wake screaming with pain.
This was my first child; I did not understand what was happening. I felt sure that this was a genuine physical problem for Matthew. As the months went on, with the help of my local doctor and a special diet, his condition became more manageable. The local doctor identified his problem as a congenital liver condition that was not life threatening, but would have a severe effect on his health due to his inability to digest certain foods, especially all dairy products including goat’s milk and my breast milk, and all meat products or derivatives from any form of animal product. These indigestible foods fermented in his lower intestines and produced gases which created pressure and pain.
At 8 months Matthew was weaned on to a lactose free milk powder and he blossomed into a radiantly happy child. However, he still suffered from fermentation of food which woke him many times each night. Throughout each night I got up to help him through these painful sessions and between 5 and 8 o’clock I slept while his father took over his care before going to work. Matthew could now sleep up to two hours at a stretch before the gases built up in his abdomen and woke him again with internal pain. Things were certainly improving, albeit slowly, until……. at 16 months Matthew became hyperactive; sleeping only a few hours each night and literally bouncing off our sitting room walls by day. Once again his diet was critically analysed, now all artificial additives and stimulants had to be removed – if any of us were ever to associate night-time with sleeping!
Then shortly before his third birthday Matthew became unwell with a strange illness that kept him listless, vomiting, and unable to play or eat, sometimes he had a fever. After a few days I called the doctor who prescribed antibiotics. After a further few days and a further deterioration Matthew was sent to hospital. There different doctors came forward with various explanations for his illness and prescribed intensive administrations of different drugs. They proposed serious conditions, none of which could be verified because the antibiotics Matthew was given originally made all testing unsuccessful. Did he have a rare and often fatal infection carried by rats? Did he have a form of meningitis?
After 10 days he was close to death and no more medical treatment was possible. He lay lifeless, drifting in and out of a semi-conscious state and death like sleep.
While Matthew was in hospital either I, his father or my mother stayed beside his hospital bed. My mother intuitively thought that Matthew had scarlet fever. She had seen many children with it when I was in hospital at his age because they thought I had scarlet fever. Later a new sister came to the ward and heard what my mother was saying about scarlet fever. A new doctor came on duty and she gave Matthew a course of three injections of a special antidote for Scarlet Fever. Matthew came round and recovered slowly, within a few days he could drink and eat a biscuit. Having seen our level of care for him, the hospital allowed us to take him home. He was placed under the care of a liver specialist and so began the journey of recovery from a near death experience due to liver failure. His congenital liver condition had failed to safely manage the conventional drugs and the subsequent liver damage had induced the near life threatening condition of chronic liver failure.
Upon returning home Matthew slowly re-learnt all those normal skills, walking, talking and playing, that he had now lost. He had also lost his hair, and the tops of his fingers peeled, an unusual post illness condition specifically seen in cases of Scarlet Fever. I promised myself and Matthew that we would seek alternative and more natural ways of supporting his recovery and future health.He wore a medical disc that warned doctors that conventional medication was likely to cause adverse affects, and that he had a very strict special diet that excluded all meat and dairy products. It was critically important that Matthew remained healthy for even something as simple as a common cold brought him down with jaundice. His stamina levels were always very low. At the age of nine, even though he could walk and run and ride a bike, it was normally difficult for him to venture far even on the flat paths in the children’s park adjacent to our house. With a great deal of specialist treatment from an alternative healer, Dr. Nelson Brunton *, we found a successful path forward. By the age of 12 Matthew had recovered from all aspects of the congenital liver condition that nearly took his life at birth and again at three years. Nelson is an expert within the field of natural healing and successful recovery from ‘incurable’ health conditions. With his help Matthew resumed the rest of his life as a normal fit and healthy young man. He could eat a normal diet of his choice and the only thing that remained for him to be cautious about was allopathic medication – even a simple paracetamol would make him very ill.
*[www.freewebs.com/naturalhealingcentre Witham. Email: naturalhealingcentre@tiscali.co.uk or info@naturalhealingcentre.org.uk 01376 511069 Book: Alternative HealthHomeopathy by Dr. Nelson Brunton, Macdonald Optima 1989]
I believe we cannot save anyone from death; however, we can bring a quality of life to our living and dying. If Matthew had died my biggest regret would have been around my inability to give him the quality of care I wanted for him, emotionally, physically and spiritually. My story presents the same ethos as that of the true story presented in the film ‘First Do No Harm’ and the story of Raun expressed by his parents Samahria and Barry Neil Kaulfman in their book ‘Son Rise’ and the story of ‘Doran’ written by his mother Linda Scotson. As a teacher, I have also personally experienced children who have successfully recovered from severe, presumed incurable, conditions related to epilepsy, autism and brain damage through alternative healing programmes.
Matthew’s illness initiated me into a new journey – that of the study of natural medicine and diets for healing and good health. I have always worked with children and families so I particularly wanted to find ways that would not be entirely dependent upon specialized healing therapists. I wanted to study the maintenance of good health and establish a first-aid-kit that could be administered by anyone to promote natural healing when injury or illness was encountered.
Many years later I was with a friend and her four year old son in hospital with kidney failure. I was re-living our experience with Matthew. This time I knew how to support both mother and child on all levels. My friends son also made a marvellous recovery without needing kidney dialysis and continued to successfully manage a long slow recovery to his present situation as a normal healthy adolescent.
My studies into natural medicine have led me on a journey of personal discovery. I consider that if ill health and injury is indeed initiated by a disruptive energy within our own inner state of being, then there could be a kaleidoscope of different ways that could successfully harmonise the unstable disposition. However, one aspect of all healing seems to be that of faith and belief, along-side good energy experiences. For example, the placebo experiments illustrate that the belief is more powerful than the administration of the medicine. One might therefore consider the power of the mind, faith and beliefs of notable importance when considering our own conscious responsibility for identifying health problems and supporting natural healing processes. The naturopaths view adds one more aspect to this argument that of the physical energy transmitted into the body by the substance itself. Thus it is argued that if a strong allopathic drug is used, it can have disruptive after effects on the body due to the person’s overall physical and mental disposition. Side effects from allopathic drugs are an ongoing dilemma for the medical profession and their patients.
The only notable side effect for natural healing is that of de-toxing, where by the body needs the time and support to clear out unhealthy toxins built up during an illness or injury. Thisbuild-up of unhealthy substances and dead tissue can be almost entirely responsible for an illness or slow natural healing processes. Detox systems within the body are helped by drinking water, fasting, and exercise as well as specialised detox diets. Indeed all the aspects associated with healthy living will help the body manage to successfully clear out unwanted toxins that will adversely affect our health and fitness.