We had an enjoyable 5 hour drive, taking a back road that wound by an old canal system was most interesting, particularly, being that it was winter we could actually see the canal through the leafless trees. Several years ago, I studied the historic Canal Systems in this country with our third daughter. Canal history is fascinating to me, partly because so much labor was put into building them and their usefulness was so short lived due to the railroads being built right upon their heels. It is a wee piece of history that we can only get a glimpse of here and there and in our days of fast trains, semi-truck transport, and cars we could almost neglect to appreciate how very important the canals were for the short time that they were used.
Well back to the visit with the doctor. She practices out of her home and requests that you take your shoes off at the door. (But you expect this because it is in the upfront paperwork) Upon first glance you see a frumpy late 40’s early 50’s woman complete with the worn Birkenstocks, skirt with a tear at the hem….a typical homeschooling mother, that works part time out of her home.
They have three dogs, although we only got to meet the one, two rabbits, and two cats. Toward the end of the second hour, this big old yellow tabby shows up and walks across the desk and sat down like a Sphinx on top of Savannah’s file…Not a one of us thought anything about it, most particularly the cat!!!
The doctor made a favorable impression with both Savannah and I. She was easy to talk with and she listened. She was pretty much what we expected from what we read on her website. She lists herself as a consultant, which is exactly what Savannah wanted. This doctor is also in favor of using herbs over mega-antibiotics, for the same reason that Savannah wanted to avoid them. She did a good job of illustrating and explaining all the details that are happening within her body. She then looked at Savannah’s box of herbs and supplements and made some suggestions. Because Savannah has had improvement with what she is doing, the doctor did not see any need to mess with the protocol that she was using. She did suggest “cleaning up the clutter” and recommended as she ran out of what she was using to switch to some “combined” formulas thus in the end it should save us some money, which we would be thankful for…With Savannah taking 60+ pills a day, you can imagine the costs incurred.
Oh yes! There was one thing the new doctor wanted to see was a bit more care on the detoxing front. Liver, guts, and lymph’s, this was something we too were glad to hear. Knowing how very important detoxing is to the body. Savannah talks a lot about feeling like her lymph glands are full all over her body.
Our darling daughter is to have 33 vials of blood drawn and is to go back in a month for the follow-up on the lab results. Then again in two months, but for that appointment, we are going to take along the second daughter, who in the meantime is to slowly begin the protocol that Savannah has been using. I explained that her leaky gut issue has gotten worse instead of better with the GAPS diet. That she has unexplained pains in her joints, swelling in a lymph gland, has bouts of malaise, and overall just not herself…and that we suspect that she has this as well. (We actually think we all have it…yesterday, Katherine was showing me an unexplained rash in the palms of her hands…)
So we move a bit deeper into this Lyme thing but are thankful for this new doctor, who seemed to be a nice enough woman, rather easy going, and far less expensive than the last one. (Even though we have to spend the night in a hotel.) While Savannah could have gone to a doctor much closer, I think we are happy with the choice that was made.
So really there is not anything earth shattering about this past week and our visit to the new doctor.
On the home front, and particularly talking about the Lyme issue. About two or three weeks ago, Savannah decided from her own research to step up her treatment and added some new things. She felt like she had come to a plateau and knew it was time to move on. So she added some more bug killers and feels like she is getting the results—thus she feels extra tired and achy.
She thinks the biofilm in her blood had broken down some because bruises heal up faster and she will bleed now if she gets scratched or cut, whereas before it took weeks for a bruise to heal and she simply did not bleed. And she has been able to read again!! And just the other night, I heard her playing the piano again--what a joy!