Lisa's Story ( long but necessary to know why I do what I do

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    My father would say this to me often.  He also would sometimes add...."the nut don't fall far from the tree"  I guess in some ways he may be right. My dad was very creative at times and very talented with what ever he would create. From his sculptures he would create by welding together scraps of junk metal, to his beautiful stained glass pieces he would create. My mother is equally, if not more talented with her many beautiful sewing projects.  From dolls to purses to custom appliqued quilts. So I can certainly say I got my crafty creativity from the both of them. I know it goes back way beyond them. My Maternal grandmother crocheted gorgeous quilts and afghans, My paternal grandmother sewed all her own clothes and knit absolutely beautiful sweaters and blankets. She was also a baker, she baked and decorated the most beautiful cakes and desserts. My paternal grandfather was a craftsman of stunning jewelry. I guess I could say, the talent in my family is endless and I have so much to be proud of . I learned from the best and I am so grateful for all of them. Some of my most cherished memories are of just watching them in awe as they create masterpieces and learning all I can from them.   

      When I was very very young I was seemingly  allergic to just about everything. I was constantly breaking out in hives for no apparent reason, to the point the doctors told my mother to stop all foods. Only introduce one food at a time to see what would make me react. Well it was pretty much everything. Some typical childhood allergies that they said I would most likely grow out of such as milk and dairy products. But I was also allergic to things like orange juice, strawberries and the one most devastating to me....chocolate. Pretty much everything I ate would cause me to breakout into hives. But my unordinary "allergic to everything" wasn't the only thing that baffled us. The strangest thing was the fact that pharmaceutical medications just never seemed to work on me. Almost like my body just completely rejected it all. That's right, even the simplest thing like getting Novocain at the dentist to drill for a filling was a challenge. Even after multiple injections I would have to have my teeth drilled while still feeling almost every bit of the pain. I'm sure they all thought I was a liar when I would say that I can still feel it, but I most definitely could. This was a very frustrating thing for me, to say the least. I couldn't even count on Tylenol or Advil to get rid of a simple headache. 

    When I was 22 years old, only a few months after Ray and I got married, I suddenly went blind. It started as  the loss of left side peripheral vision that progressively took over my entire vision over the course of two days. I was absolutely petrified. I was evaluated by many doctors and specialists and underwent numerous test after test. After a course solumedrol steroid infusions for five days my vision very slowly began to return in the same way as it left. like a curtain slowly being drawn across my sight. It was very slow and took months for my vision to return. This wasn't the only time I lost my sight, as it happened again in the same way about six moths later but this time with the loss of the use of my left side of my body.  I couldn't see and I couldn't walk without stepping on my own toes and breaking them.  I went from one false diagnoses to another false diagnoses over and over for the course of a couple of years. My life was a whirlwind of tests and drugs and off the wall scary diagnoses'. I was told it was a stroke....I was told I had a fatal blood disorder called antiphospholipid antibody syndrome for which they put me onto coumadin. They told me I could never have children, that I had to remain on these medications for the rest of my life and a pregnancy would not be a possibility for me. This news was crushing to me as Ray and I desperately wanted to have at least one child and we were ready to begin trying to have one. 

     I ended up seeking other opinions on my situation and was able to find a doctor who didn't necessarily disagree with the diagnoses but was able to switch medication options for me to be able to at least try to have a child.   The downside to this was that it was heparin, which meant giving myself multiple injections a day.  To me, this was a small price to pay in order to be a mother so I went ahead and started the new med so I could try to get pregnant even though the odds were stacked against me. After a year of trying and being unsuccessful, I was just about ready to throw in the towel and give up. I was convinced that it was just not meant to be for me to be a Mom. But it was in early march of 1994 when I wasn't feeling well with what I thought was a stomach bug that Ray suggested I take a pregnancy test, just to see if maybe that was why I wasn't feeling well. So I did. To my shock, I was in fact pregnant. My miracle baby was on her way. I do have to say, I had a pretty rough pregnancy. I was labeled a high risk pregnancy from day one given my already existing medical issues. I felt like I was under constant surveillance with the weekly blood draws and bi-weekly ultrasounds, and non-stress tests. Not to mention I was stricken with extreme morning sickness problems which they diagnosed as Hyperemesis Gravidarum. This made me even more of a high risk because with this, things could become more life threatening for me and possibly for baby as well. I was bound and determined to endure any amount of illness and discomfort for the sake of this miracle baby that I was convinced I would never have if I hadn't. It was a battle well worth fighting. By August they made me stop working and I was to be what they called "couched" I wasn't restricted to bed rest but I had to really take it easy and stay off my feet. There was resistance building in the ambilocal cord and starting to over stress the baby and restrict blood flow. I of course used this time as wisely as I could and I crafted. I started making crystal spider ornaments " The legend of the Christmas spider". This became the start of my very first business. Aptly named Allison's Wonderland for my baby girl on the way. I would sell these spiders in many local shop in my area. We pushed forward through it, all the way up to 5 weeks before my due date when I was told, after one of my now weekly ultrasounds.  The resistance they were monitoring in the ambilocal cord had now become so bad that the baby was no longer getting any nourishment or blood flow through it. We were told we had to deliver the baby ASAP. She would have a greater chance of survival in the neonatal ICU then in the womb. So off we went to be induced into labor. It was a very long 49 hour labor filled with a wealth of complications from the epidural having absolutely no effect on me due to my "pharmaceutical drugs don't work on me" issue. They said it was like injecting water into me. I assume they thought this wasn't possible that the epidural wasn't working on me because one of the nurses   stabbed me in the foot with a sharp object to see if I could feel it and I nearly kicked her so hard, screaming "OUCH!" Then they knew it was for real. So we just needed to get through this the natural way, but I would give my life for this baby. To the end, we came upon our next big complication. When it came time to push. Well, with the very first push the doctor yelled "STOP!....don't push" we need to do this a different way. The push was way to much stress on the baby and her heart stopped. Luckily she was fine as long as there was no pushing. Well, this meant the dreaded forceps delivery. I will spare you the gory details of that experience. When all was said and done...there she was. The most beautiful sight I had ever seen in my life. My teeny tiny preemie baby girl. My heart exploded with love for the greatest miracle I had ever been blessed with. She spent her first week of her life in the hospital Neonatal ICU due to the fact that her little tummy just was not ready. She had difficulty holding down any type of formula they would feed her. They started her off on the soy based formula from the start due to Mom's allergy issues. But even that wasn't sitting well with her. So while they were figuring that all out for her, I was having things figured out for me. I had a lot of healing to do after the forceps delivery. Almost immediately after the baby was born, The doctor came into my room with the coumadin and wanted me to get back onto that.  I was insisting the doctors re-run the tests that said that I had this blood disorder they said that I had. They insisted that wasn't necessary because it isn't something that just goes away and they said it would still show up positive. I wouldn't take "no" for an answer and I told them "I am the one paying the bill, and you work for me". "So pacify me and take the test." "I am not putting that pill in my mouth until you do, and you can show me the result." Sure enough...I was right. The result was negative and I had never needed those blood thinners all along. It was another false diagnoses right from the start. I went through this entire nightmare for nothing. But still I had no real answers for what started years ago with the blindness and the loss of left motor skills. This was something they just never revisited for me, until low and behold, it all happened again. My baby girl was about to celebrate her first birthday. Just days before her birthday celebration, I was losing my sight once again and lost control of my left side again and couldn't walk without using a cane. So here we go again. More tests after tests while trying to take care of an infant with the use of only half of my body. Maybe this time, just maybe. Maybe this time I will get answers.

     Well, MS. After many more test I now get the diagnoses of MS. Relapsing remitting Multiple Sclerosis. I didn't doubt this diagnosis  at all. It was almost like it was a textbook case of MS. My question then and still today is "what causes MS?" Not one doctor (and I had seen and asked many) Not one doctor had an answer to that question. This started me on my quest to eliminate the things I may be doing, eating, drinking, that could be causing or contributing to it. I started by eliminating any and all artificial sweeteners, colors and flavors from my life. This was really hard at first since I really loved my diet coke's. But it had to go. 

         Soon after my MS diagnoses, I got a phone call. I got a call from a woman who had been doing her own intense research on MS and the causes and possible contributors to MS. She asked me so many questions that really resonated with me, to which all of them, my answer was Yes. Did you have a lot of allergies as a kid? Yes. Was one of those allergies to Milk and dairy products? Yes. Were fevers almost non-excitant, even with illnesses that are know for fever to be the most prominent symptom? Yes. Did you grow up in a  high dairy production part of the country? Yes. It was amazing to me that she was basically spelling out my entire life to a T. Then she asked me about treatment options I had chosen for the MS. I giggled a little. Then I told her. "Well, I refused them all" I told the doctor that if they do not know what causes MS, But they say there is no cure. How could they possibly know that all these treatment drugs, which come along with many scary side effects, are going to help? I was completely skeptical of it all. I was scared and I just wanted to be left alone for one. Left alone to figure out what was best for me. The doctor proceeded to call me defiant. He told me I should not work, I should apply for disability. He told me I would be in a wheelchair by the time I was forty if I don't take these medications. I was scared of all of that but I was even more scared of the harm these drugs could potentially do to me and I didn't want to just live a life of existence and rely on my family to take care of me while  I just sit and wait for someone to bring me my next round of meds, slowly deteriorating before their very eyes. No, I wanted to live my life, I wanted to take care of my baby girl that I was told I would never have but now I do have. She deserves a mother who is always there to take care of her, not the other way around. 

     From that day forward, I knew it was up to me to take charge of my overall wellness. No doctor knows my body better then I do. Yes, doctors are very important but we need to take charge of our overall wellness to prevent the emergent need for a doctors intervention. This means eliminating the harmful things we do and harmful things we take in or absorb into our bodies as best as we can. I feel like I have dedicated my life to research at this point.  I have realized over the years that I was obviously doing something right. Harmful chemicals and un-natural substances are causing preventable illness and disease in all of us. It is shocking to learn how many harmful and unnecessary artificial chemicals we expose ourselves to on a daily basis. Your skin is the first shield of protection. Being careful to only use products made with all natural chemical free ingredients is a good start. Detoxifying and cleansing your body from the inside is the key to combatting the root cause of any and all disease. This is the path I took for my wellbeing and I thank GOD every day for putting be on this path.

continued down below.....

I never imagined or even thought for a moment that it was possible. But low and behold, when my baby girl was just fifteen months old, I discovered that we were in for the surprise of a lifetime. I was pregnant once again. At first all that went through my mind was, is this going to be a repeat of the first pregnancy? Am I ready to go through all this again? I was nervous and excited all at once. Nervous that I was going to have to endure the extreme sickness again. Nervous that I was going to have to go through the awful labor nightmare I went through again. All of this while also taking care of a, now very active two year old. But I very quickly became overwhelmed with joy. This was going to be different. I could feel it in my soul. This little one was a true gift from heaven. She was heaven sent to show me how a true normal pregnancy should be. Yes, I still had the "normal" occasional morning sickness now and then and I was again put into that high risk pregnancy category and monitored with the same regimen as the first pregnancy. But for the most part, it was a completely normal pregnancy and pretty normal delivery. There she was, my perfect little sweetness.    I felt more blessed then I ever could have imagined. These girls were everything to me and I knew I had to be everything for them. I would give them anything. Even when they begged me for a little brother. I thought long and hard. Do we press our luck and try again? After the first pregnancy, the answer would have been a resounding NO. But after experiencing what a "normal" pregnancy was like. The answer was "we will see." Luckily that pregnancy came as a surprise or it never would have happened. We didn't necessarily set out to try for another, we just figured we would let the cards fall where they may. If it was meant to be, it would happen. It did happen once and then twice both ending as quickly as they began in early miscarriages and I thought for sure that this is a sign that its just not meant to be. But then I was pregnant again for the third time and this pregnancy was going along much better. Still considered a high risk of course. I had confirmation that this baby was in fact a boy and my two daughters where very excited they will be getting their baby brother. We chose a name for him (Scott Arthur) and we were very excited and patiently awaiting his arrival. At about five and a half months into my pregnancy, I was in for one of my very frequent high risk ultrasounds when the ultrasound tech asked me "when was the last time you felt this baby move?" I was a little thrown back by this question because movement has always felt pretty regular to me. Then she sort of just blurted out, which I know it wasn't her job to do, "I think this baby is dead." I could feel my heart pounding in my throat as I was trying so hard to hold back the tears I felt like I was choking on. Next thing I knew, they were rushing me up the back stairs from the ultrasound lab to the doctors examining room upstairs. By the time the doctor came into the room I was shaking so much and crying, that she knew that somehow, I already knew what she was about to tell me. She calmly offered me her condolences and told me this isn't how its supposed to be. The tech never should have said anything like that to me, albeit true, It was not her place or her job to do that. Either way, it didn't make the situation any better for me.  I now had to go home and tell Ray and the girls and then I had to be back there later that day for the part I dreaded the most. Delivering my lifeless baby boy and having a DNC to expel the pregnancy. What made things even worst was that it was Good Friday. 

      On a much more positive note, I did once again become pregnant. On the very day that I would have been due to have Scott Arthur, I found out that I was pregnant again. I of course was very very nervous this time around as we did find out through further testing after the miscarriages' that the problem was with the blood factor. My blood type is negative and Ray is positive. This means during pregnancy a negative blood factor mother needs to have Rhogam  shots at certain intervals throughout the pregnancy and delivery. I did have all my shots when needed but once again we run into the issue of "drugs don't work on me." I was told by the doctor that baby girls have a greater chance of survival with this and boys were not as strong.  Also if the babies blood type is also negative like mine survival rate was greater. My blood being the strongest of the negative (O) and his being the weakest of the positive (A) made it that much trickier. So I guess we just pray. Well thankfully by the grace of God, all went well with this pregnancy and we welcomed our baby boy in the summer of 1999. This would most definitely be my last.  My little family was now complete and my heart was beaming with love and happiness.