Eli’s Story of Healing
Never Stop Fighting
4 months.
This week marks 4 months since Eli has had any trace of a flare up. For several months now, I’ve held my breath. Not wanting to even celebrate outwardly afraid that as soon as I do, it will show back up.
Very few people know what he was truly going through last year. The first half of the year it was like a recurring stomach virus that kept coming back once a month. Vomitting, diarrhea, whole body aching, never a fever.
But as frustrating as that seemed, it got worse. It turned to intense abdominal pain. Always starting late on Sunday night or first thing Monday morning. Lasting 3-4 days. Recurring every 3 weeks.
And then it got worse again.
Curled in the floor sobbing in the fetal position. Almost hyperventilating from the pain. Holding his breath, and then crying out, “Please help me. I can’t. I…Please make it stop. Please.”
Severe abdominal pain. Now, it was lasting an entire week, and happening every other week. He couldn’t get out of bed. He couldn’t eat. He was losing weight. Panic attacks were starting. Prolonged, intense physical pain, eventually spills over to emotional and mental pain. I was watching this vibrant, life chasing child of mine slip into a darkness and defeat that we all felt powerless to stop.
I prayed over him. Constantly. One hand on his body, one hand on the throne, pleading the name of Jesus. Until eventually, with every attempt to help him failing, all that came out was, “God, I trust you. God, I trust you. God, I trust you.”
One night at the end of December, lying underneath the Christmas tree, curled up from the pain, but growing quiet, he closed his eyes and said, “Mom, am I dying? Am I going to die?”
you can trust him
I pray you always remember that any time it feels like giving up is the only answer, it never is.
Approach His throne boldly. He’ll bend His ear. He’ll open the next door.
And when it feels like you’ve run out of options, close your eyes, quiet your heart, and remember:
You can trust Him. You can trust Him. You can trust Him.
You could see every bit of pain, dread, fear, and defeat in his eyes. That is no exaggeration. What you’re picturing as I’m describing it? It was worse. And he had no relief. Until the week was over. His body exhausted from the pain had a short window of relief for a handful of days, and then it would start all over.
I shook every essential oil in my artillery on him.
I guessed my way through different supplements.
We took him to 4 emergency rooms.
They ran all of the tests. Multiple times over.
We took him to a GI specialist.
We did a scope.
I even caved and gave him prescribed pain medicine.
NOTHING. Nothing even dulled the pain. No one could find anything. They said he was perfectly fine. The GI specialist said there was a possibility that it was just “largely psychological”.
I was LIVID. She had no idea the level of desperation it took to even be sitting in her office. We lost our faith in conventional medicine a long time ago. For us to go to the emergency room was a big deal. For us to go to a GI specialist was bottom of the barrel desperate.
She wasn’t even going to come across the room to look at him until I asked her to. She prescribed a medication that – even from her words “was just to block the pain receptor to the brain” – and then was going to send us on our way with a 4 month follow up appointment.
4 months! This month. Sit tight. Do nothing. Drug your brain to think nothing is wrong for 4 months, and then come back, and we’ll see where you’re at. Or, maybe it’s just all in his head anyways.
I called back. Rescheduled with a different doctor, and requested a scope. I needed to know we weren’t dealing with something major. All those big fears you start to worry about. The scope showed absolutely nothing. Just a perfectly red picture of intestines, and we were given no suggestions for what to try next. There were no suggested “possibilities”.
Done. I was so done. I didn’t make another appointment with any conventional doctor again after that.
Something shifts in you as a parent in moments like this. There’s a determination that begins to root down with a fierceness to the deepest part of you. It’s like taking a beating over and over, finding yourself on the ground about to give up, when something snaps, and you begin to rise back up with 10x the strength you started the battle with.
This is MY CHILD.
Something is WRONG.
If you won’t listen, then I’ll find somebody who will.
SOMEONE has an answer.
SOMEONE has a remedy.
Thank God for naturopathic doctors!! Thank the Lord for a community of like minded people who’ve also left the system. Whose collective knowledge and resources are invaluable.
We took Eli to a naturopathic doctor who utilizes frequency treatments, homeopathics, red light therapy, and several other methods in St. Augustine, Florida. We rented an AirBNB, and settled in for the week as Eli did 3 days of treatments, 4 hours a day. We came home with treatments to continue and a new diet to embrace, at least for a time, as Eli’s body continued to heal.
That was in January. Exactly 4 months ago. And do you know? He’s not had a single flare up since those treatments. Not a single symptom.
*Cue all the tears and praise for God’s mercy, intervention, and guiding hand!*
You will never tell me holistic methods do not work. You will never convince me they’re a scam. I watched them save my child’s life. Change everything about the way he’d spent 11 months of his life over the course of 3 days.
Free from the pain.
Free from the dread of knowing what’s coming.
Free from the defeat of feeling like this is just how your life is now.
Free from all of it.
Mamas Don’t you ever stop fighting.
Eli For every time you cried sorry for not being stronger, braver, tougher…
100x over, I want to tell you, you’re the bravest, toughest, most incredible kid.
I pray you always remember that any time it feels like giving up is the only answer, it never is. Approach His throne boldly. He’ll bend His ear. He’ll open the next door.
And when it feels like you’ve run out of options, close your eyes, quiet your heart, and remember:
You can trust Him. You can trust Him. You can trust Him.
