It was the holiday season, Christmas had passed and the New year was upon us. Our son was in another state visiting family when I received a text saying he was very sick. He had already been diagnosed with Covid and now seemed to be showing a strange symptom: confusion. But in an extreme way- he needed to go to the hospital.

 He had bacterial meningitis which is an infection in the meninges, the three layers of protective membrane around the brain and spinal cord. It is serious and can be deadly. Without treatment, the death rate is 70%, with treatment, it is 20 to 30%. 

Treatment is 14 days of a very strong antibiotic and because he also presented fevers, he had additional antibiotics. We believe in modern medicine for life-threatening care only and this certainly fit into that category. However, it was still difficult to hear or read the enumeration of medicines. He was placed in a medically induced coma, fed with a tube and the medicines continued. When we left the hospital, he had a very weak immune system. Unbeknownst to us, he also still had bacterial meningitis in his cerebral spinal fluid. Four days later, he would be septic and have another 14 days of Rocephin, the strong antibiotic. 

It was a very difficult time. Our son needed 24 hour care and had no memory. He did not know who we were. He did not remember his job, his friends, or much at all about his life. But thank God, he was happy. He was acquiescent and was the master of puns. Of course, he told the same ones over and over again because he could not remember. But that was okay and I was grateful The Lord was placing joy in him during the most difficult recovery we have had.    

His first recovery was in 2017. Our son is a bilateral, SIGSW or self-inflicted gunshot wound survivor. This is a story for another time but probably is the reason the typical treatment did not work. It is also the reason he is blind. NLP blind, which means no light perception. As we commonly joke, “he can’t see a nothing, not a speck” The blind jokes around here are some of the best available. 

We were healing. I eventually was able to sleep in my own bed instead of the floor next to his. He was beginning to call us by our names instead of “nurse or doctor” but not with accuracy. He did NOT remember more of his life than he DID. He could not make his way around the home. His brain could not map the house and keep it. His brain was doing a lot of work. He was sleeping 18 hours per day and could have done more but we had a schedule and food was an important  part of it. He had tachycardia and his heart rate would get dangerously high from merely standing. He still had a catheter.  We had a lot of work yet to do. 

We also had a lot of obstacles. Only later would I realize that much like the evil spirit sent to Saul from The Lord, these obstacles were meant for His purpose. 

We could not get referrals. In fact, he has been home from the hospital for nine months and he has not seen one specialist. The referrals never went through and then his general practitioner moved about seven states away and left his practice. There was not another doctor in line to take his place. The new doctor called us six months after our son was home from his second hospital “jaunt”.

I was trying for the best food and supplements to support our son’s healing body, immune system and brain.We already had a good diet and understood the need for organ meats and that herbs were given to us for medicine. We were soon to learn so much more. God lovingly placed the information, a Christian naturopath and GAPS practitioner and a group of friends in our path. He told us in no uncertain terms how we were to continue on this healing journey.

A woman reached out to me from social media and asked if I would meet her at her office. She led a ministry for the disabled and worked at a local church. I certainly did not have the energy or desire to meet a stranger but knew The Lord wanted me to go. I went. 

Meeting with Lisa was the best thing I have done for Pagiel’s recovery. She explained how her daughter has spina bifida and had a partial kidney that was functioning just above the dialysis percentage. After meeting with Becky Plotner ND (the naturopath and GAPS practitioner)  and following her advice for two weeks, the kidney was out of the danger zone! TWO WEEKS!! We couldn’t even get healing from the two weeks of strong antibiotics. 

Lisa was so very kind and is now a dear friend and sister. She hosts a caregiver support group which we attend. She explained which books I needed and told me more about their experiences. Little did I know that our whole family needed GAPS, I had never even heard of it! I did buy the books. I made an appointment with Becky Plotner and made the first two weeks of food before I even went to the appointment. I read the books later and got just enough information from GAPS Stage by Stage with Recipes by Becky Plotner to make what we needed. I think I may be the only person who started the diet before reading the books. But I trusted my God!

Gut and Psychology Syndrome is what most Americans suffer from and have no idea that diet and supplements will heal their mental or physical health issues. Because of SAD-our standard American diet, we all have unhealthy guts and this is making us very, very sick. We visit medical doctors who look at our symptoms and try to treat those symptoms with pharmaceuticals. But the problem is that our gut makes up 90% of our cells. So basically, we are our gut! Russian neurologist/neurosurgeon Dr. Natasha Campbell McBride created this diet to heal her son’s autism symptoms and has subsequently helped more folks than I can imagine. She now has a beautiful empire of healing and we are grateful! 

Pagiel would definitely lose his autism diagnosis at this point. We have been on the diet for only six months. It is a pleasure to be around our son and his emotional reactivity is completely gone, his sensory processing disorder is healing and his memory is GREATLY improved! He is learning Dutch again, learning new songs and basically learning how to live again. But better!