Revamp!

I have a new blog design!! Yipp Skip! My new header and button are thanks to Michelle at Waddlers and Toddlers blog! Isn't she talented? This new design has truly been an act of kindness. Michelle, a woman I have never met, offered to help me when I wrote an entry a week or two ago asking for advice on a blog revamp. This new design has come at a time when I have really needed a change for the immediate and obvious better (not the kind of "better" that you realize months or years down the road was for the best. I needed something to be obviously better NOW - there goes that lack of patience thing again), even if it is a change to something some might perceive as lightweight and minor. Michelle's gracious design has made me smile and given me something to look forward to during a difficult time in my journey, and I thank her so much from the bottom of my heart!! It has meant so much to me. My husband said, "Oh no, you have a new toy." He knows I will be playing for a while. Thanks, Michelle for this generous gift!!


My son had a revamp today, as well! We took him to a naturopathic doctor, Dr. Tara Hickman of NWA Natural Health. She explained to us that Max's constant sinus infection is most likely a result of an environmental allergy and a dairy allergy. This makes complete sense because Steve and I both have environmental allergies, plus I have a dairy and gluten intolerance. His immune system is constantly trying to fight these allergies, therefore there is nothing left over to fight the infection. She recommended that we first build up his immune system to defeat the infection, then revamp his diet to accomodate his allergies. She also explained to us that steroids and steroid creams (which were prescribed to us for Max's eczema, although we have never used them because there is no way I'm rubbing steriods on my son's skin) and antibiotics only deplete the immune system further, instead of building it back up. We are now giving him Vitamin A, Vitamin C, probiotics, and a homeopathic med.


I am so relieved. I feel MUCH better about giving him vitamins and natural remedies than one pointless antibiotic after another.


I have been disappointed in the medical community since I became a mother. I know doctors are amazing and intelligent individuals. They are. I just wish more of them would incorporate nutrition and natural medicine into their practices. Antibiotics aren't a cure-all. Vaccines aren't always the answer. "Just rub a cream on it" isn't always the solution for a rash. Sometimes the answer is diet. Sometimes it's allergies. Sometimes it is food intolerance. Sometimes it is just a virus!


In Arkansas, naturopathic doctors are not licensed to prescribe pharmaceuticals and are not covered by insurance. But in licensed states, such as Arizona and Kansas, they can be primary care physicians. Why is Arkansas always so far behind the times? We're not all hillbillies, ya know. Although most of us have at one point, whether in jest or because of true excitement, said, "Yeehaw!" I, too, am guilty of watching "Hee Haw" and secretly enjoying it.


I am hoping Max's symptoms will finally start to improve. I'm tired of finding smeared boogers in my son's hair and on my clothes, his toys, dried boogers on his cheeks, his highchair ... well, you get the slimy picture! I have hope! Yeehaw! (see, it happens)