The End
This will be my last post on this blog. Not because I don't like sharing our recipes but because the word "allergy" no longer defines our family. Let me back up a bit and tell you our story...Sickness and Diagnosis
In college I sometimes felt sick after eating a bowl of cereal or yogurt. I tried to stay away from over doing it when it came to dairy but I still could eat plenty of it. David and I were married in August of 2009 and shortly after I started feeling really sick. My mom and two sisters were diagnosed with food allergies a few years prior to our wedding. Between the three of them they had gluten, dairy, eggs, peanut, beef and garlic. We saw a significant family trend and while my mom's mother had already passed, we remembered her complaining of stomach aches from time to time and suspect she may have had allergies as well. In September of 2009, my sickness was bad enough that my coworkers would joke I was pregnant but this was far worse than morning sickness. Curled up in the fetal position, crying in bed almost every morning at 5 am, as well as many other digestive symptoms and I didn't know why. I eliminated dairy for the next year but was still sick! Finally in July of 2010 I went to the allergist and had a skin and blood test for a handful of allergens. A few weeks later I received a letter in the mail that my blood test had showed levels slightly above the norm for whey (dairy), 4 times the norm for eggs, and 5 times the norm for gluten! The doctor told me I would need to eliminate dairy, gluten and eggs from my diet. I was devastated and cried a lot! In denial, I gave myself one last weekend of food freedom and paid for it dearly.
The Diet
Over the past 6 years, I've practiced a very strict avoidance diet for eggs, dairy and gluten. It's been more expensive, emotionally draining, socially isolating at times and all around exhausting making things from scratch all the time. On the plus side, I lost 15 pounds and feel much healthier! The majority of the years I've had to cook for myself have been spent learning and practicing to cook free of allergens and to read a ton of labels. Despite being so careful, I've been "poisoned" plenty of times. Sometimes it was that well meaning relative that forgot they put flour into the food when they said it was gluten free, sometimes I misread a label, cross contamination at home with David's food or in a restaurant, the list is endless. I've also tested the waters myself a few times, but very very rarely. Each instance getting sick. The last "poisoning" was this summer when I ordered a bunless burger and said to hold the cheese. Halfway through my meal I see melted cheese on the bottom of the burger and they had clearly melted cheese onto the burger and then done their best to scrape it off....yep...got sick!
Another Generation Affected
September of 2014 our first little girl was born. Feeding her in the hospital was different. She was fussy and I felt immediately it was food allergies. Her doctor wasn't much help and really didn't even believe me. In November of 2014, I tried some goat cheese to see if my body could tolerate it, in hopes that maybe my allergies were no longer. Not only did I have symptoms but our daughter had her first bloody stool the next day. She was only on breast milk so there was only one likely culprit. Now the doctor was finally taking me serious. Two more months of issues for her and no answers. We tried a special formula for a week that made her condition much worse. She wouldn't even soothe for me most days. Allergy testing wasn't much help because she was only 3 months old and testing is highly unreliable at that age. Finally a very strict soy free diet for her and I that included no soybean oil, MSG, or eating out was the answer and we saw a change in less than a week.
So Many Attempts at Remedies
Throughout the past 6 years I've tried almost every home remedy for food allergies there is! We've done a strict candida diet with candida killer pills, reduced our overall sugar intake, tried probiotics, chiropractic care, and a mix of a Whole 30/Paleo diet. I'd lost all hope in any of these so called cures to finally cure me of my allergies. Some others in my family have also done parasite cleanses and probably more diets and remedies that I can't even remember without any success!
The War Room
There's something about seeing your child in pain that sends you into momma bear mode. This was me in December of 2014 when we were dealing with finding out why our daughter was having issues and trying to find which food needed to be eliminated! Once we discovered it was soy, I had a lot of guilt about it being "my fault" and because of "my genetics." Nothing I obviously had any control over. I decided that as with everything on this Earth, this was not a battle of flesh and blood but a spiritual battle. I decided it was time to start praying firmly against food allergies in our family and to break any curse that might be over my daughter's generation, generations to come, my generation and the generation before me in our family. A few dear friends came along side of me to persistently pray for healing and against these food allergies. While specifically upset and fighting for my daughter's healing, I also continued to pray over myself, my mom, and both of my sisters. Not only fighting the enemy but also claiming life, healing and restoration. Fervently asking God to fill our bodies with his peace and presence and to bring his healing touch to our bodies.
In the last 22 months that I've been praying for allergy healing, you wouldn't believe the amount of spiritual warfare God has opened my eyes to and I have experienced. It's exciting and overwhelming all at the same time. I'll spare you all of the stories (for now) but one big one is that this April (2016) my dad was diagnosed with a huge mass on his left kidney. Doctors told us they were 99.999% sure it was cancer. Lots of praying from over 10 churches happened between his diagnosis and surgery. Dad had surgery in May to remove the mass and left kidney (doctors say only 1/4 of it was even left!) While we had a peace about the situation being in God's hands, we had to wait until they could biopsy the mass to know what kind of further treatment he might need for cancer. A few days later the results from his 5.25 pound mass were in....NOT CANCER! He had a follow up appointment this summer to make sure he's feeling good but that's it! He's free and is living a miracle story.
Matthew 18:18-20 (NIV)
18 “Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.
19 “Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.”
Healing
My daughter's allergist told me that since I was diagnosed as an adult there was little chance that my allergies would change after 6 years but that I could pursue retesting every 5-10 years. I decided to get retested on September 16th. A few days after testing we visited an event service for one of our local churches. The sermon was about how God has the very best for us so why settle for less. Although in his sermon he noted that's easy to do when you live in Minnesota and are a Vikings fan! This is true but hopefully not this year!
John 10:10(NIV)10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.
One week later my lab results were in. I received the phone call on September 23rd and was very brief with the nurse on the other line because I couldn't hardly believe her, negative for all allergens tested. While I was excited, I was also skeptical. Remember I had just gotten sick a few months prior from cheese slime and residue on my burger! I did some research and found that blood tests can be unreliable, yield false negatives and the fact that I've eliminated those allergens from my diet the past 6 years, may explain why my levels fell within normal limits this time around. Scared by science and the possibility of getting sick, I was unsure if I wanted to try any foods and decided if I did, I would need to take it very very slow! A few days later we went to our home church. We had debated going to a different church because we were late (again) walking out the door. At church every aspect of the service talked about healing. Worship was fantastic and the worship leader sang parts of "Worthy of It All" and said God was saying "you were worth it." This resonated with me and brought me to tears. Over and over again during worship I would hear "you've been healed" and "by HIS stripes you've been healed."1 Peter 2:24
"He himself bore our sins" in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; "by his wounds you have been healed."
If that wasn't enough of a push, the director of the School of Supernatural Ministry got up and spoke about how 4 people were prayed for at their weekly meeting to be healed from back pain and guess what, 4 people received healing that night! Ok ok...still struggling with the faith to believe I've been healed too. A pastor gets up to speak and asks for people who need healing for backs, hearts, headaches and depression to stand if they want to receive prayer. I felt discouraged because food allergies wasn't listed but chose to stand anyways and claim that healing in my life.
John 5:1-9(NIV)5 Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. 2 Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. 3 Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. 5 One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. 6 When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him,“Do you want to get well?”
7 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”
8 Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” 9 At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.
The day on which this took place was a Sabbath,
Feeling encouraged and blessed, I missed the entire sermon because I had a hungry baby. I'm sure it was great but I was in the preschool room with my two toddlers and nursing infant. I like to nurse in the back of that room in hopes my two clingers will participate with the kids. They didn't....but...guess what the kids were talking about! Jesus healing people and then they played a version of duck, duck, grey duck called "Sick, sick, healed." Alright God, you've got my full attention now! We returned to service just as it was ending and they offered prayer up front and specifically mentioned healing again. I went up and had one of the pastors pray over me, not for healing because I know I had already been given that but for the faith to believe it and stop listening to all of the lies. She told me how she had previously had allergies and it wasn't until she had prayed for healing that hers were gone and she hasn't dealt with them since (There's power in someone who's received healing praying for someone who needs healing for the same thing.) Feeling encouraged I knew I needed to step out in faith and believe that God had truly healed me. My husband's jaw about dropped to the floor when I told him let's go eat at Pizza Ranch after service. We did and being a Christian company they have worship music playing in the building. Right before I took my first bite I could hear the music clearly. I still can't remember the song in particular but the phrase was about death being overcome. Praying through the entire meal as I continued to hear lies about cross contamination and getting sick and struggled with thoughts of fear that I'll be paying for this later, I survived the battle. Guess what? Five to six slices of pizza, three bread sticks and one slice of dessert pizza later and this girl has NO SYMPTOMS! How awesome is our God? A few days later I looked at ingredients on Pizza Ranch's website and while I consumed a ton of gluten and dairy, I didn't consume any eggs. Tuesday morning this week, I was making breakfast for the kids and about to make my own breakfast. I went to grab my vegan egg powder to make a scramble and stopped and thought, why? Don't I believe in this healing? I put them back on the shelf and again battling thoughts of fear and anxiety from the enemy over trying eggs, I put on the worship music and did it! Guess what? NO SYMPTOMS! Normally I would have seen an almost immediate reaction with eggs.
Praise to God who is worthy of it all! He's healed my body and he's cleansed my soul! This is one thing I cannot keep quiet or still about! I've been crying on and off for days over God's goodness. I now have a little taste of what heaven's going to be like...
Revelation 4:11(NIV)
11 “You are worthy, our Lord and God,
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
to receive glory and honor and power,
for you created all things,
and by your will they were created
and have their being.”
Please continue to join us in prayer for our family. I still have two sisters and a mom with food allergies. My daughter's tests have come back negative (praise the Lord) but we are still working through one more test with her in the next month.
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| Because this is a classic photo pose for me and my sisters, but now my food option can include whatever I want! |
