Nutritional Goodness

Well, it has been several weeks since Michael has been in touch with a new doctor- Dr. Campbell, who is a nutritionist from South Carolina. Dr. Campbell's son has had Crohn's Disease since he was 9 years old and almost died a few times. At 15 years old, he weighed a mere 70 pounds and was so weak that Dr. Campbell had to carry him into his doctor visits. Dr. Campbell (who had a career in Johnson & Johnson) exhausted every possible medical resource in order to seek help for his son- including taking him to Dr. Crohn's himself. Long story short, they received a phone call from a complete stranger who gave them a name of a nutritionist that he thought would be able to help. At that point, the Campbells had tried every medication possible and were willing to do whatever to get their son feeling better. deSo, skeptically, Dr. Campbell took his son to the nutritionist and watched as the doc hooked him up to some wires and pull on his arms and stretch out his legs. He seriously was annoyed by what was going on and amounted his shannanigans to being like witchcraft, but his wife convinced him to give it a try. Following that appointment, they discovered that their son was highly allergic to gluten- a protein found in wheat. After that appointment and following new diet changes, his son started his recovery. The frustration that Dr. Campbell experienced through the years before and seeing the success of the natural treatment of his son prompted him to pursue a new career- nutritional healing.
It was encouraging listening to his story and his knowledge of this disease that seems so mysterious and unpredictable. Since Michael has been consulting with him a couple of months ago, he has taken the time to explain to us how the body is affected by this disease and how different foods relate and affect him. He has been restricted from eating wheat and heavily cautioned to stay away from dairy and foods with a lot of sugar.
When we heard these restrictions at first, I went to my pantry and started to read labels. It seemed like wheat was in almost everything we had. A matter of fact, I had a lot of whole wheat foods- thinking that whole wheat is definitely healthier to eat than processed flours (which it is, but not in Michael's case). Here I was, attempting to provide healthy foods for Michael and little did I know that those foods were actually hurting him far more than doing any good!
It was an overwhelming blow for me and I felt that I was starting over when it came to meal-planning and grocery shopping. But it really hasn't been too bad at all! The most difficult things have definitely been:
1. Lunch (we just recently found a bread that he likes)
2. Location- we are far from any type of store that caters to diets like this (that provide a lot of variety)
Within days of eliminating wheat and dairy Michael began feeling much better. He has not had a relapse since and he feels stronger than he has in a couple of years. We too, met this new change with some skepticism, but Michael was willing to try whatever in order to start feeling better. I'm so proud of him- he has had to exercise a lot of self-control and discipline by passing up foods that he really enjoys, but knows will make him sick. We are making changes still, little by little. I am super thankful that the change comes during a season when local farms sell fresh produce for great cost! We've been enjoying a lot of veggies and fruit. Michael was visiting an older couple from our church this past week and they gave him a whole bag of freshly picked blueberries from their garden. I had purchased some blueberries last week from the store, and Elliot would not eat them. THESE blueberries, though...he couldn't get enough of!!

While we were in South Carolina last weekend, we passed this store on the way to Michael's appointment with his nutritionist. I had seen this same store while visiting the Landry's in Boston and wondered what it was like and whether they would have a good variety of foods helpful to Michael's specific diet needs. Before we left to come home, I made a trip to see what I could find. I could've spent hours in that store~ it was amazing!! A lot of their produce is grown by local farmers- and it's all labeled where is came from, so you know how fresh it actually is. There was so much variety offered~ fresh meats, seafood (I cooked salmon for the first time last week), fruits, veggies, grains, nuts etc. The prices were moderate- a lot of the wheat free foods were cheaper than I've found at Walmart or Farm Fresh probably because they have their own store brand of these foods. So I stocked up on some things and we've been eating very well this past week!

Unfortunately the closest Whole Foods Market is almost 2 hours north of here. But the good news is that when we move to Fishersville next year, a WFM will only be about 45 minutes from us- definitely worth the drive!!

Thank you all for praying and asking about Michael's health. We have been encouraged, and continue to see progress in recovering!