An Update on Taigen's Health

I said something about an update on Taigen health after the kids' birthday post. I'm sorry I haven't gotten to that until now. Whether you wanted it or not...here ya go!

Many of you know that Taigen has ulcerative colitis. He started having symptoms for this back when I was pregnant with the twins, so it's been just over eight years of having this disease and its symptoms. Since then, he's had his ups and downs, his on's and off's of meds (including nasty, nasty steroids), and his drastic fluctuations of weight due to those meds or being extremely sick.

This past year Taigen had a rough year. He had been on and off steroids. When we were in Austria, Taigen was feeling great and was on the "weaning off" stage. He was finally off of them just after we got home. We were so excited! However, two weeks after that, Taigen's health took a downward spiral worse than we've ever seen it. He was SO sick. I won't go into detail, but let's just say that we were praying for him to just be able to make it through his sermons every week. The gastroenterologist told him that he had basically become "steroid dependent" and if this next round of steroids didn't help then we would need to start the ball rolling toward him taking a more powerful medicine that would require him to go to the hospital approximately every other month for infusions. This is something we definitely didn't want.

Years ago, dear friends of ours recommended that we see a naturopath. The husband had been diagnosed with a form of colitis, and with a naturopath's help had basically cured himself. This was not your run-of-the-mill colitis either. The doctors were wanting to take his colon OUT and give him a bag. Yes, that kind of bag. 30+ years later, he is still symptom-free. I call that "amazing." We had asked both our gastroenterologist up in Maine and here in NH how we could alter Taigen's diet in order to help alleviate or eliminate the UC symptoms and BOTH of them said there was nothing we could do. It was genetic and only drugs could help. Well, with a horrible diagnosis staring us in the face we decided to bite the bullet and go and see a naturopath. What did we have to lose? Insurance wouldn't cover it, so we knew we had to pay out of pocket, but we really had no other alternative except the infusions. We decided that Taigen's health was worth the sacrifice we needed to make.

Now, I want you to know that we were skeptical. As if you didn't already know, we're not the granola, earth-friendly, yoga, zen type. We knew there were things involved that we wouldn't agree with, but we went to the naturopath doctor with hope in our hearts. Could she help us at all? We found a naturopath right in the Dover area, not five minutes from the church. This was a plus since the next nearest one was almost an hour away! After a half an hour phone call, I was convinced that she could give some relief. We procured a kid-sitter for the twins and went in.

She took over two hours for that first appointment and was a huge encouragement. There was no incense burning, nor did she offer to have us sit down for yoga and green tea, but she did offer some suggestions in altering Taigen's daily habits and then printed off a list (a short one, mind you) of foods that Taigen could eat. It was a little mind-numbing to think through all of what I could cook, or maybe I should say "couldn't" cook for Taigen with that list of ingredients. He couldn't have any dairy, sugar (including honey, syrup, agave nectar or sugar substitute), eggs, pork, fruits (except watermelon and blueberries), most veggies, wheat or oats, and juice. It was a little overwhelming to think that I had to come up with something tasty for him out of that. Some of the things he could eat I knew I could only procure in one of those health food-type stores. There were a couple in Portland, ME, and I would be within about 15 minutes of those when we went up to Maine for the twins' piano lessons, but that would have to wait until Tuesday. This was Thursday. We'd have to do the best we could until then. Taigen cut out what he could, so the first thing to go was all forms of dairy.

I've known children (not mine) that when you've given them some pain relief medicine, they swallow it and say, "Oh! I'm feeling SO much better." You raise an eyebrow & smirk, and think about the validity of how sick they really were. However, don't think that when I say that by Saturday and Sunday Taigen was feeling much better. We were surprised too. In fact, in two week's time, Taigen was UC symptom free...completely and has been that way ever since. No joke.

The diet for the first month was both a wonderful challenge and an extreme frustration at the same time. Either things didn't taste good, were too dry, or were completely flavorless. I was in the kitchen in all of my "free time" pureeing things, steaming things, chopping things, baking things, boiling things, freezing things or looking for recipes online. We learned about things like quinoa (pronounced keen-wa), spelt, millet (Hey! It's not just for birds apparently! Bletch!), hummus and almond butter. Taigen was a trooper through all of this. He was extremely grateful, but after two months & 30 less pounds, Taigen finally had had enough. No, he wasn't ready to quit the diet, but he was ready to stop trying new things. We had a pow-wow and narrowed things down to what he really liked within the limitations and we came to an agreement that this was all that we were going to cook. What a relief! With hope, we forged ahead, eager for the December colonoscopy with his gastroenterologist AND the next appointment with the naturopath where she would start re-introducing foods.

The December 6th colonoscopy couldn't have gone better. The gastro was extremely pleased and was positive about how things are going. In the eight years since diagnosis the UC had gone from left-sided (early stages of UC), to transverse (more extensive & severe), to minimal inflammation in the left side again. Yay! This told us that what we were doing was working!

Our appointment with the naturopath went just as well.  She too was thrilled with the results of the colonoscopy and was ready to give Taigen some more options for diet. (I've never been so excited to get to cook with tomatoes!) The options just that one little thing opened for us was exciting. She allowed Taigen to have another bread option and some fruits and nuts.

Taigen has an appointment with his gastro this coming week and we are eager to find out his next step. He is feeling better now (and over 40 pounds lighter!!!!) than he has in over eight years. I want you to also note that this is the longest he's been off steroids and felt this great.

While seeing a naturopath might not be THE cure for everyone with UC, this is proving to be an excellent option for us. We are rejoicing in the Lord seeing fit to helping Taigen in this way. Continue to pray that he will feel great in the days to come. Our specific prayer for the immediate future is that the gastro will start tapering off the other UC drug that Taigen is taking and that even more foods can be reintroduced in June at the next naturopath appointment.

Rejoice with us!!!