One of the most challenging things (for me) when we considered uprooting our family from MN to MO was the thought of ticks. Don’t get me wrong, MN has their fair share of these tiny parasites… but living in the city, it was not something that crossed my mind on the daily. I knew moving more rural, as well as further south, where the climate is warmer, would create more of an opportunity for ticks to create a real issue for our family.
Determined to not let fear rule, I did what I normally do and researched all the ways to prevent tick borne illness and naturally protect our property. We did all the right things, but somewhere along the way something was missed. Most likely a tiny pin of a seed tick, but really the origin is something that’s not possible to know. The onset of symptoms in our daughter was so subtle, easy to pass off initially as toddler tantrums or stress from so much transition in life with our move. Things like forehead headaches, ankle pain, debilitating anxiety, and disrupted sleep became a daily complaint over the course of a few short months. As things built up, it became very obvious that this was much deeper and a true health issue that needed addressing.
Because of our family health history, we chose to start with three months of eliminating gluten, processed dairy, and sugar from our daughter’s diet. I also added some gut supporting supplements. So many illnesses begin in the gut! There were a few possible causes I suspected to be the root (parasites, lyme, pans/pandas), but at this point we did not have a diagnosis. Within those few months, her symptoms improved significantly; however, we could tell that some additional help was needed to truly heal and overcome what was plaguing her body.
After looking at all of the options available to us, we chose to meet with a nutrition response practitioner. It was a huge sacrifice of both time (the location was 1.5 hours away from our home) and money (insurance covered nothing for treatment).. but looking back now it was absolutely worth it. Our daughter healed through God’s beautiful gift of herbal medicine - without pharmaceuticals, invasive testing, or traumatic procedures.
The path to healing was not linear. There were many ups and downs along the way as we adjusted protocols and worked with her body to heal what areas it was prioritizing. We had to open detox pathways first, eliminate parasites, and rebuild gut health flora all before addressing Lyme and its co-infections. It was a full year from the time we chose to begin any protocols to when we were able to taper off a treatment plan, and we felt like we had our daughter back.
There are many options to choose when addressing the body's healing, even on the natural healthcare path. Healthcare is not one size fits all which is why I am such a big advocate for informed consent and am so grateful we were able to choose what worked best for our daughter. To me, what we chose seemed to be the most direct way to discover answers to what was going on in her body and come up with a solution that dealt with the root cause.
As we faced the roller coaster path to healing, there were many times I faced guilt straight on.
“If we hadn’t moved, she wouldn’t have gotten sick…”
“If I had known more, perhaps I wouldn’t have missed the symptoms…”
”If only we had done more tick checks.. or treated the yard more.. or never went outside…”
”If… If… If…”
Living in the what ifs is a scary place to be. The mind spins off into the unknown, and it is impossible to stay grounded in truth. If is an indicator of there is a choice to make, a cause and effect. It invites in fear and doubt into the spiritual battle. Perhaps we will get into this more in a future post…
Over the years I’ve noticed the fear and overwhelm mama’s face when they find a tick on their child. It seems they’ve become more prevalent with each passing year. This led me to create our Tick Kit, free DIY Tick Kit Guide and share what we do when a bite happens. It is my prayer that God will use our story for His glory showing others that we do not need to be slaves to the fear and havoc that these awful little parasites create.
If you are in that place today, here is the truth: you are fearfully and wonderfully made. You are beautifully created for a specific purpose, and you are known by our Father God - from your name to the number of hairs on your head and everything in between. You are needed, and every single thing that you experience builds you up into a kingdom warrior. Your testimony is powerful. God creates beautiful things from ashes when we surrender them to Him.
