Health, Hope and Everything

Once Ryan was employed (see the previous post) and we had moved to a new home and settled in, we thought we would try for another baby one last time. A year earlier (I was 40) we had an unsuccessful pregnancy. True to form, the first time was a charm. Things seemed to be moving along as planned when we had our first midwife visit. I was only ten weeks, and feeling great and nauseous. The midwife could not pick up a heartbeat. She said not to worry, as it was early in the pregnancy. Because I was 41, we decided to receive genetic counseling, and while at that appointment an ultrasound would be conducted. I would be just over 13 weeks.

Unfortunately, I started bleeding about a week later, when I was just over 11 weeks. The midwife sent me immediately to the hospital for an ultrasound, and I learned that the baby died on the day of my first midwife appointment. My body had begun to abort the fetus. So we waited, and waited and waited. After a couple of weeks I took some medication to help the pregnancy terminate. The pregnancy terminated and Ryan called the midwife to report what he had observed. She said it sounded like all went smoothly.

We had only about a half-hour to mourn because I began to hemorrhage at about 11:30 p.m. I did not understand that I was hemorrhaging (looking back it is astonishing that neither Ryan nor I understood what was happening!), and I called and discussed the situation with the midwife four times. She said that I had not expelled all of the tissue and my body was trying to complete the job. It is impossible to explain how surreal the whole process was, and I do not think that I adequately conveyed the amount of bleeding. The amount of bleeding was unimaginable. The midwife sent me to the emergency room (ER) at 1:30 a.m. I didn’t want to wake the neighbors to watch Colson, and I didn’t want to wake Colson, so I told Ryan I felt fine and would drive myself. Talk about dumb! I made it to the ER safely, but the ER doctor was in disbelief. Apparently I could have passed out while driving due to the blood loss. I finally understood how serious it all was when I almost passed out in the triage area, but I was going to complete that blood pressure test the way they asked me to -- standing up!

The ER doctor had me immediately call Ryan to have him come to the hospital. He inserted two IVs to keep my blood pressure up until the obstetrician (OB) on call arrived. She was astonished and upset by my whole experience, and seemed a little angry (at what I am not sure). She said she might have to give me blood transfusions, and I said that I did not want someone else’s blood. Mine was just fine. She said she may not have an option. I told her to do it only if I was going to die, and she said ok. Then she said she may have to keep me a day or two, which I also did not want.

The ER doctor and the OB doctor were excellent, as were all of the nurses who assisted. I am forever grateful to them for making an unimaginable experience as good as it was.

Now for the Amazing Part

I entered the ER at 1:30 a.m. and I was heading home by 6:30 a.m. The OB estimates that I lost between two and three units of blood. I did not receive a blood transfusion, and I left the hospital well before they anticipated. I attribute this success to the food-based healing that I had been doing for the past year. The OB also said that it would take about three months for me to recover due to the amount of blood that I lost. I am unable to explain how physically terrible I felt. “Train wreck” and “run over” do not even come close. I also could not sleep.

What did I do? A day later I called Dr. Ken Morehead at Oriental Health Solutions (OHS) and explained what happened. He said that he would mix a blood building herbal formula for me to pick up, and he would also teach me how to eat to facilitate healing. He said I would be fairly recovered in 30 days instead of the 90 days that the OB projected.

I took the herbal formula and supplements that Ken gave to me, ate the iron-building foods he recommended, and rested for 30 days. Ken also told me that when a person loses a lot of blood they are unable to sleep for a couple of days, so I should not worry. Sure enough, around day four I began to sleep. I did everything the way Ken said I should. On day 31 I took a slow walk. I took that walk for three days and then rested for three days. After that I was quickly coming back to health and I have been rocketing forward ever since. My bloodwork amazed the midwives and they wanted to know how I had recovered so quickly.

My recovery is due to the healing that I was experiencing before the miscarriage and the phenomenal guidance of Ken both before and after the miscarriage. Our health really is all about the food we eat. Food is so much more powerful than the synthetic medications, vitamins or other “health aids” that are prescribed.

We have EVERYTHING!

This past 18 months has been an amazing time for my family. I lost two pregnancies, I could have lost my life, we lost our predominant source of income due to Ryan’s layoff, and we almost lost our home and possessions. We have been stretched to our thinnest, yet we feel that we have more than ever. Everything is based on health, which is more in our control than most people will ever know.

Comments

[Diane Sambrick]

Have you learned anything about clearing fungus or candida yeast from the body?

[Laura Combs]

Yes...the GAPS diet, on which our health improvements and this blog is based, is clears yeast from the body. I feel we have been quite successful.