October 19, 2011

From our newsletter...

...On a personal note, since so many of you are friends and are aware of our hasty departure from Fort Collins, we wanted to acknowledge what's happened the last several months. We (Gary and Tiffany) have been out of town for a bit now, to care for our family.

We found out at the beginning of June, after two years of serious immune reactions (hospital visits) and searching for answers, that our 3yo, Max, has a rare and serious immune disorder called mast cell activation disorder (Mastocytosis Link on Mast Cell Disorders) . It involves severe food reactions, physical stressors (heat, friction, exercise), extensive chemical and environmental sensitivities. He has been responding really well to our elimination of even more foods than we were limiting before, the list is exhaustive (nuts, gluten, dairy, soy, eggs, olive oil, spinach, lunch meats, any fake sweeteners, dyes, preservatives, additives and more), but we still have plenty of whole, natural real food he can eat. Since nearly all medications have some preservatives, additives or fake sweeteners, Max does not tolerate medications. Traditional, western medicine does not have much to offer for people suffering from MCAD because of all the sensitivities to medications, so it's empowered us to find a lot of answers on our own. Surprisingly, some of the natural treatments we've found are really simple, like getting an epsom salt bath every night. We've been blessed with many friends who work in the holistic health field and have offered an abundance of helpful information concerning Max's issue. We are so very grateful for everyone's support.

We are also incredibly grateful for our Fort Collins health team, who have helped us through this entire process, and continue to support us from afar. These fantastic health professionals, whom we recommend highly, include Dr. Lisa Butler, Registered Dietician Nicole Eckman, Dr. Kim Bruno, Dr. Lorraine Caron, Dr. Jason Barker and more. Thank you all.

We are happy to report today, that everything we've been doing has created a MUCH happier and healthier little boy. In the last two months, Max's laundry list of symptoms (including stomach aches, other GI distress, skin problems, interrupted sleep, hives and flushing, any of which can escalate to emergency/anaphylactic status with his disorder-which we unfortunately experienced last year) have continued to get better. It requires continuous management. We do see regression when we miss a step of care, but his improvement has been cumulative, so we are certain that we are headed in the right direction. Next week, Tiffany will attend the national conference for mastocytosis. We hope to gain more insight from the doctors and researchers there.

We have to give a special shout-out to Antoinette, Miranda and Joseph, who are the awesome therapists who have been taking such great care of the clinic and clients, while we focus our efforts on our family. Thank you to everyone who has offered messages, calls, prayers and support. We are planning trips back to visit, work and catch up. We will post information about our trips back in the upcoming newletters, and of course on Facebook. :)

Thank you all! ~Tiffany and Gary