She's off the Keflex

Late last week, we took Julie to the local laboratory for a blood draw.  Our homeopath and I were interested in seeing if her current exacerbation in symptoms was due to exposure to someone with an infection of any kind, or even if her strep titers were high due to her very own lingering infection from the strep bacteria.

As you would guess, she was extremely anxious about getting yet another blood draw since needles are not exactly a friend to anyone of any age.  The good news is she's now at an age (13) where we can reason with her about why we want the tests and what the tests will show us and help us determine the next step to take in her treatment.  Her famous last words after these types of conversations are, "Yeah, but...".

So, the results came back this week and the numbers were shocking to say the least.  Her ASO Titers are at the lowest level ever since we started lab draw some three years ago.  Other measures of inflammation also showed very low numbers, thus no current or previous infection seems to have caused her OCD symptoms to flare up so bad.  Simply put, the chicken roast smoking the house was merely a trigger for a very high level of anxiety and fear that compell her to smeel everything and fear all smells and their effect on her surroundings and her body.

We shared the lab results with the homepath and she was very happy to hear this.  We let her and her pediatrician know that we are going to discontinue the Keflex and stick to the supplements and remedy to help heal her of her obsessions.  Our current regiment is:

1. Arcadium Orientale (4-6 crystals a day)
2. DHA Fish Oil (up to 6 capsules a day to aide in skin moisture, brain focus, and mood stabilizer)
3. Multivitamin with Copper and Iron (2 a day)
4. Elderberry Extract (two droppers full of the liquid for immune system boosting)
5. Vitamin D Extract (3 drops for immune system boosting)

Julie had a very good session with the therapist yesterday evening whereby the doctor put it very plainly to her (at least that's what I was told afterwards).  Basically the doctor told her to stop trying to control her environment and her parents to avoid dealing with smell exposures, rather control her response to the situation(s).  Of course she didn't like to hear that, but at the same time this was validation of what we've been telling her constantly that she has to learn to use her tools for relaxation, breathing, and imagination to change her thought process around these obsessions.

So, last night we brough pizza home for dinner and while she did make a point of telling me her hands smelled funny, I pushed back saying that of course they smell......they smell like pizza, which was very yummy.  That seemed to help her avoid a blow up and even after she went upstairs to get ready for bed and she told us the hallway smelled a little, she did manage to narrate for us how she was coping with it.  Both Beth and I praised her for using her tools and relaxing.  So, last night was a good start to helping her cope better.

Beth and Julie went to Beth's parents to help setup the dinner table for the Christmas Eve dinner and found out that they had turned on the oven cleaning feature.  Obviously when they realized that it would smell up the place, they were very apologetic.  From what I've heard today, Julie managed to hold it together by working upstairs in a closed off room helping grandma wrap some presents.

The real test will be when she spends the night at my sister's house with her two cousins.  They baked cookies this afternoon, so I'm sure the whole house smells of cookies.

The reality for Julie is that she'll have to reverse years of hard-wiring of negative responses with good habits and good thoughts and new wiring in order to eliminate and cure these obsessions.  So, it's better the expose her to smells than to avoid them all together, thus reinforcing and strengthening those fears.

Merry Christmas everyone and we fervently pray for all our challenged children to be healed by our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.  Amen!

In His Grip,
Mark, Beth, and Julie