How my life has changed this year...

The day after Christmas my life changed.  I have always been really healthy, never thought I was the type of person that would have health problems or end up going to the doctor every week but now that's me.  In the early morning of December 26th I had a grand mal seizure and got my first ambulance ride to the hospital.  After a CAT scan, EEG, and other tests during an overnight hospital stay the doctors determined that they couldn't find anything wrong and sent me home.  I continued having small simple partial seizures at home, and felt bad some days, but I was busy taking care of the family and trying to home school the three oldest kids.  We hoped that it wouldn't happen again.

Then on February 9th I had two more grand mal seizures in the morning and got my second ambulance ride to the hospital.  I spent the night there again and saw a neurologist who put me on anti-seizure meds and told me that most of the time they never can figure out why some people start having seizures.  I wasn't really happy with that answer but didn't know what to think.  Thankfully a lady from our church recommended another doctor to us who is more of a holistic type of doctor.  He has helped lots of people with seizures figure out the cause and he really has helped me.  Through a test he found out that I'm really intolerant of gluten and am not digesting my food well.  There are lots of neurotransmitters in your stomach, so when things aren't working properly down there it can cause seizures. 

So, now I am off of all gluten, including wheat, rye, barley, rice and oats.  I'm also taking pills to help with digestion.  I'm taking 8 pills a day- the only trouble is the anti-seizure pills make me forgetful and I have to remember to take the other pills 15 minutes before I eat and 1 1/2 hours after.  Oh dear.  The hardest time was about 3 weeks after going off gluten, then I really was missing chocolate chip cookies for a few days, but I haven't been missing bread too much at all lately.  I eat lots of corn tortillas and potatoes.  It's all worth it because I feel so much better.  Before I went off gluten I felt yucky, nauseous and tired all the time but now I can go all day and feel good.  It's so nice.  The doctor thinks I should be able to go off the anti-seizure meds in 3-4 months.  That will be so great- I hate feeling so forgetful. 

Andy and the boys have been so supportive and patient with me.  For some reason they didn't want to go off of gluten with me though!  The little boys call my seizures, "ceasars", and one day I was arguing with one of them about something and when they asked, "How do you know?"  I said, "Because I'm smart!"  And he said, "No you're not, you had ceasars!"  I was laughing too much to be upset with him. (:

This has been a really humbling experience for me.  God has been teaching me a lot, and so because of that, I can truly say that having seizures and all that has followed has been a blessing in my life.  It's not the path I would have chosen, but I have definitely learned things I never would have learned otherwise.  A verse that has helped me this spring is Psalm 16:8, "I have set the Lord always before me.  Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken."