My son's journey from epilepsy...

[Guest guest]

Devin, our son, got sick — really sick. He was only 8 years old. I had

commented

to my husband that we needed to stop letting him eat junk food and sugar. I

didn’t want him to follow down the same path of poor health from bad dietary

habits. For example, I had noticed he had the same bumps on his arms I used to

have, the ones which disappeared during my non-intentional fast. I was worried

he inherited a genetic curse from me.

The Symptoms

I got a call from the daycare that something was wrong with Devin. They

couldn’t

figure out what was going on. Apparently, he was a little limp and he was saying

things that didn’t make sense, so I had them put him on the phone. I asked him

what the matter was, and he answered me in gibberish, like he was drunk. The

daycare worker told me they were taking him to the hospital.

I was with a client at the time, said I had to leave, and drove as fast as I

could to be there. On the way, I called my husband to have him go to the

hospital; he was closer than I was. Greg got there just as Devin arrived, and

when Greg pulled him out of the van, he was stiff and staring into space. This

was a complete shock: just hours ago we had a totally functioning, normal child

and now, dramatically, everything had changed.

By the time I got to the ER, Devin was on a bed with everyone standing around

him, crying. He was still not making sense and was staring into space, his hands

formed into fists and his body rigid. I thought to myself, “, with

everything YOU’VE read, what you can do?†And it came to me: the bottom line

with any illness is dehydration of the body, so I thought to start with water. I

went and asked one of the nurses for a little cup so I could give him some, and

she said, “No.†They said he didn’t need it because he would throw it up.

I felt

the anger rise up in me; I hadn’t asked them if I could give him chocolate

malt

from Dairy Queen or anything—just water! When they saw me getting angrier by

the

moment, they finally relented and gave me a cup.

I filled it with maybe a scant ounce of water—after all, he wasn’t

functioning

and it wasn’t as though he could have gulped it down. Gently, I coaxed him to

drink these couple of sips. With just that little bit of water, he said a word,

a normal word that wasn’t jumbled up!

I helped him with two more ounces of water, reassuring him, “Devin, I’m

going to

help you. Have just a little more water.†Even that small amount of water so

revived that he took the cup from me, crushed it up, and said a couple more

words. I remember thinking, “Oh God, it’s working! This is unbelievable!â€

(Note:

Everybody, remember to feed your body water!)

Next, they prepped him for a CT scan. My husband carried him to the X-ray room

and Devin did throw up all over the place. After that, he was brought back to

the ER where they finally put him on an IV of saline solution: water and salt.

I’ll tell you right now: the moment that went into his veins, he uttered the

first normal sentence he’d said since this whole episode began. That’s the

power

of water.

Following Conventional Medicine

Within a few weeks, the diagnosis was in: epilepsy. My husband and I began to

discuss treatment options for him. We were of differing opinions. My husband

wanted to follow conventional medicine practices; I was convinced nutrition and

holistic healing techniques were the best option. I wasn’t talking about

putting

my little boy on a fast, but there were lots of kid-friendly ways that I could

treat him “my way.†What I did on the fast could also be obtained by eating

a

mucous-free diet, but it did require an extended commitment to the program.

I just knew if I put Devin on a healthy diet, everything could start changing.

My husband agreed to it, with the following caveat: “We’ll follow it your

way

UNLESS and UNTIL he has one more seizure — then he goes on the meds.†I

agreed

to this, confident if I put him on a ketogenic diet, and a protocol of no sugar

and lots of water, it would work.

The ketogenic diet was developed at s Hopkins University for use in treating

epilepsy in children. It is the Atkins Diet “Plus.†It has extremely low

carbs -

no sugar at all, nothing in the way of fruit or juices—what everyone loves.

They

even want the kids to drink cream on that diet.

I didn’t go to that extreme, but it was pretty much meat, vegetables, and more

meat. Milk was okay if it contained the higher percentage of milk fat. At that

time I had already introduced the raw milk, which was even better for him. We

stayed on that protocol and it was working great for his health. But I’ll tell

you, it was a hair-pulling experience. I even offered Devin the deal that if

anyone gave him anything sugary or any candy, I would buy it from him. This was

a moneymaking deal for him!

We had really good results for about three weeks with the ketogenic diet, but

you don’t always have total control over what other people will feed your kid.

People put sugar in many foods that you wouldn’t call particularly

“sweets,†and

they think to themselves, “Oh, this isn’t going to hurt him,†but of

course, it

does. He had another seizure, and I abided by my word: he went on anti-seizure

drugs. I was ready to tear my hair out with frustration. It felt like the whole

world was against my efforts. I was hitting my limits and then some!

I went to visit a friend in Chicago for a little break and to get some

perspective. On my trip, I was listening to Wayne Dyer tapes. Dyer is a

motivational speaker who is absolutely wonderful. He was talking about the

experience of receiving healing from a kahuna practitioner. Dyer explains that

until you’ve had “conscious contact†with this type of healing, you cannot

know

it. It’s just like you can’t read about swimming and then know how to swim:

you’ve got to get into the water and DO it. (And for all of you reading this,

it’s the same thing: you can’t just follow what I’m saying without trying

it for

yourself and actually experiencing the type of healing I’m describing.)

So, Devin was on Depakote. He wasn’t having any more seizures, but then we

didn’t have our same kid, either! He would become incredibly tired and had no

energy at all. He seemed like a zombie. It was the saddest thing.

It was at this point a client of mine recommended a movie she had seen on the

Lifetime channel, “First, Do No Harm,†starring Meryl Streep. In the movie,

her

son had epilepsy. She kept searching for a way to heal her son from the serious

seizures, and she was heading right for the poor house, going the traditional

medical route. Willing to explore all healing options she came across the same

ketogenic diet that I had tried on my son! It even shows Meryl Streep’s

character taking her son to s Hopkins, going through hell and high water,

jumping through hoops to get him there because other medical professionals were

telling her there was no scientific proof that it would work (just like had

happened with me).

After I saw that film, I asked Devin’s doctor about this diet, and she sniffed

at me, “if he eats just one M & M on that diet, it will negate all the rest of

the

results and it will be ruined.†I persisted, “What’s your point?

Wouldn’t you

try everything, if it were your kid?†I was convinced parasites were part of

the

problem. She told me there were only about five parasites that would be able to

make it all the way up to the brain. That was five more than I wanted in

Devin’s

system.

I couldn’t find support anywhere for my ideas. I gave up using my techniques

on

him and tried to be as supportive as I could. The stress was making me more ill

than my original sickness had made me!

Eventually, I let them go ahead with the traditional medical tests EEG and MRI.

The EEG was pretty painless, but to do the MRI, they had to inject dye into his

veins. The first time, the nurse missed his vein. When she tried to do it the

second time, my little child turned into something akin to the Incredible Hulk;

they could hardly hold him down, he was so mad. You can’t blame him, it hurts.

So that’s when I told them, “This is enough. If you can’t do the MRI

without

dye, then you’re not going to do it.†It was heartbreaking to see him in

such

agony.

Changing to Holistic Healing

By March of 2005, I closed down my shop. The plan was to be home looking after

Devin and helping my husband run his construction business. Devin was supposed

to be on Depakote full time, but he was inconsistent. He’d take it one day and

not take it the next. My child, once active and vibrant, was now lifeless and

lethargic from the Depakote. I kept silent, but continued personal research into

healing epilepsy naturally so that, if anything did happen, I could be helpful.

Greg finally said, “You know what? Why don’t we just try going without the

drug

and doing it your way, and see what happens.†Seeing our child, who had always

been so full of life, become a walking zombie was something we just couldn’t

stand. I was thrilled with the change, and now that I was home full-time, I was

able to monitor his diet better and give Devin better foods. Everything I tried

would help a little, but it was after liver flushes and focusing on cleansing

the colon and the kidneys that the seizures reduced in frequency. The seizures

were happening about once every three weeks. He’d either have a seizure or a

headache. At the beginning of my treating him, I just couldn’t seem to get

past

that. Eventually, I found out certain parasites will re-hatch every three weeks

which was why these seizures kept coming like clockwork. That’s when I started

to follow the parasite protocol of Dr. Hulda .

But I did get one scare! Right in the middle of this process, Devin, now 9, had

the biggest seizure I had ever seen. We were in the car on the interstate, and I

realized that he was having a seizure. Here I was, on the highway, and he was

leaning, about to topple over onto me, with his face turning blue! I just headed

for the hospital; I didn’t know what else to do, at that moment.

Now, looking back on it, I understand that when he was leaning toward me his

tongue was dropping back, suffocating him. At the time I instinctually pushed

him forward; once I did that, he started breathing easily again and coming

around. We went back home instead of the hospital. He got out of the car — it

was like looking at a drunken person — but he went to bed and he was fine.

Still, I knew he’d had a grand mal seizure. It scared the daylights out of me.

I started to second-guess whether I was hurting him with my methods, but

everything I did spread all his symptoms farther apart. With all that I know

now, I can surmise was that his body was trying to kill off some of the big

parasites.

Once we did the parasite treatment, things really started to improve. Prior to

that, we made sure the colon was working (since pooping is very important), and

we did a liver flush—made kid-friendly, of course. I put the olive oil and

Epsom

salts that he needed for the flush into capsules. He was so good to cooperate

with me; especially after having been on those drugs which he hated so. We were

a sight to see, both of us in bed with castor oil packs on our liver and heating

pads. That night I made lemonade popsicles from lemon, stevia (a natural

sweetener) and water—he loved those. He got that instead of dinner on the

night

of the flush (plus his last meal for lunch was always his choice of where to

go). Sure enough, he had liver stones coming out until four o’clock the next

day. It was unbelievable. A nine-year-old kid!

Devin had done many of my treatments: colon and liver flush, lemon water for the

kidneys, tinctures, and capsules. After the parasite elimination, he went five

or six months between seizures, but he was still having occasional headaches; I

just couldn’t get him to the finish line (like I couldn’t get rid of that

small

bit of residual numbness with myself at one time).

The Final Step

His last seizure was that following autumn, August of 2005. He had a seizure the

first day of fifth grade and missed his first day of school. I had recently read

Sam Biser’s book, Resurrection, and the first chapter of that book summarized

all my thoughts: using a wider selection of vegetables, adding in more meat, and

drinking raw milk. Then it hit me: Sam talks of the “blessings of the

barnyardâ€

and the power of protein. When I first had Devin on the ketogenic diet, his body

responded really well. Devin’s colon worked great and his energy level was

great. He is also a carb junkie — he loves sugar, pasta, breads and all that,

as

do most Americans — and I realized he hadn’t been getting much protein

recently.

Bisers’ protein shake recipe offers a really high source of protein—raw milk

and

organic farm-fresh eggs. I thought, “I’ve been doing a shake with Devin that

did

use raw milk. I used it with the Cookies and Cream flavor of Spiru-Tein (a soy

protein powder) that he liked. I think I’ll throw in some raw eggs.â€

So I made one up, blended it a bit, took a drink of it myself to make sure no

one was going to keel over from it, and gave it to him! He drank it and from

that day on, he did not have seizures. I even got away with the raw egg bit for

a while, until he caught on to what I was doing.

Other Master Herbalist say, when the body seizes it is searching for missing

nutrients. In Devin’s case, it definitely was the protein from the raw egg and

whatever else those shakes had to offer him. This was the final addition that

Devin’s nutrition needed in order to clear up his symptoms once and for all.

Thank you, Sam Biser, for showing me how to take him to the finish line!

Devin was well again. We were good about it at the start: a shake every day.

Then symptoms were gone and it was so easy to forget about it. The frequency

dropped to every other day, then once a week, until they slipped out of the

routine entirely. Eventually poor eating habits caught up with him again, and

in January 2009 Devin had another seizure. I felt terrible that I let him get

ill again. But, picking back up with the nutritional foods again did the trick

and we are better disciplined now. He’s well again. That was just a reminder.

Any of us can slip off the path, even me, who knows it and lives it, but it is

just a slip. Returning to the foods and holistic practices that keep us healthy

is easy to do.

You can read more about my journey from MS at www.ginascorner.com

Make it a Great Day!

Kopera M.H.

[Guest guest]

Sorry, doesn't make sense! The chapter I shared is into my story Cure Yourself

Naturally which is about myself getting to the point of healing myself after 4

years, then came the journey about my son.

Devin is my son, and Greg is my husband.

Make it a Great Day!

Kopera

________________________________

From: Kopera <ginakopera1@...>

Sent: Mon, January 31, 2011 11:26:06 PM

Subject: [ ] My son's journey from epilepsy...

Devin, our son, got sick — really sick. He was only 8 years old. I had

commented

to my husband that we needed to stop letting him eat junk food and sugar. I

didn’t want him to follow down the same path of poor health from bad dietary

habits. For example, I had noticed he had the same bumps on his arms I used to

have, the ones which disappeared during my non-intentional fast. I was worried

he inherited a genetic curse from me.

The Symptoms

I got a call from the daycare that something was wrong with Devin. They

couldn’t

figure out what was going on. Apparently, he was a little limp and he was saying

things that didn’t make sense, so I had them put him on the phone. I asked him

what the matter was, and he answered me in gibberish, like he was drunk. The

daycare worker told me they were taking him to the hospital.

I was with a client at the time, said I had to leave, and drove as fast as I

could to be there. On the way, I called my husband to have him go to the

hospital; he was closer than I was. Greg got there just as Devin arrived, and

when Greg pulled him out of the van, he was stiff and staring into space. This

was a complete shock: just hours ago we had a totally functioning, normal child

and now, dramatically, everything had changed.

By the time I got to the ER, Devin was on a bed with everyone standing around

him, crying. He was still not making sense and was staring into space, his hands

formed into fists and his body rigid. I thought to myself, “, with

everything YOU’VE read, what you can do?†And it came to me: the bottom line

with any illness is dehydration of the body, so I thought to start with water. I

went and asked one of the nurses for a little cup so I could give him some, and

she said, “No.†They said he didn’t need it because he would throw it up.

I felt

the anger rise up in me; I hadn’t asked them if I could give him chocolate

malt

from Dairy Queen or anything—just water! When they saw me getting angrier by

the

moment, they finally relented and gave me a cup.

I filled it with maybe a scant ounce of water—after all, he wasn’t

functioning

and it wasn’t as though he could have gulped it down. Gently, I coaxed him to

drink these couple of sips. With just that little bit of water, he said a word,

a normal word that wasn’t jumbled up!

I helped him with two more ounces of water, reassuring him, “Devin, I’m

going to

help you. Have just a little more water.†Even that small amount of water so

revived that he took the cup from me, crushed it up, and said a couple more

words. I remember thinking, “Oh God, it’s working! This is unbelievable!â€

(Note:

Everybody, remember to feed your body water!)

Next, they prepped him for a CT scan. My husband carried him to the X-ray room

and Devin did throw up all over the place. After that, he was brought back to

the ER where they finally put him on an IV of saline solution: water and salt.

I’ll tell you right now: the moment that went into his veins, he uttered the

first normal sentence he’d said since this whole episode began. That’s the

power

of water.

Following Conventional Medicine

Within a few weeks, the diagnosis was in: epilepsy. My husband and I began to

discuss treatment options for him. We were of differing opinions. My husband

wanted to follow conventional medicine practices; I was convinced nutrition and

holistic healing techniques were the best option. I wasn’t talking about

putting

my little boy on a fast, but there were lots of kid-friendly ways that I could

treat him “my way.†What I did on the fast could also be obtained by eating

a

mucous-free diet, but it did require an extended commitment to the program.

I just knew if I put Devin on a healthy diet, everything could start changing.

My husband agreed to it, with the following caveat: “We’ll follow it your

way

UNLESS and UNTIL he has one more seizure — then he goes on the meds.†I

agreed

to this, confident if I put him on a ketogenic diet, and a protocol of no sugar

and lots of water, it would work.

The ketogenic diet was developed at s Hopkins University for use in treating

epilepsy in children. It is the Atkins Diet “Plus.†It has extremely low

carbs -

no sugar at all, nothing in the way of fruit or juices—what everyone loves.

They

even want the kids to drink cream on that diet.

I didn’t go to that extreme, but it was pretty much meat, vegetables, and more

meat. Milk was okay if it contained the higher percentage of milk fat. At that

time I had already introduced the raw milk, which was even better for him. We

stayed on that protocol and it was working great for his health. But I’ll tell

you, it was a hair-pulling experience. I even offered Devin the deal that if

anyone gave him anything sugary or any candy, I would buy it from him. This was

a moneymaking deal for him!

We had really good results for about three weeks with the ketogenic diet, but

you don’t always have total control over what other people will feed your kid.

People put sugar in many foods that you wouldn’t call particularly

“sweets,†and

they think to themselves, “Oh, this isn’t going to hurt him,†but of

course, it

does. He had another seizure, and I abided by my word: he went on anti-seizure

drugs. I was ready to tear my hair out with frustration. It felt like the whole

world was against my efforts. I was hitting my limits and then some!

I went to visit a friend in Chicago for a little break and to get some

perspective. On my trip, I was listening to Wayne Dyer tapes. Dyer is a

motivational speaker who is absolutely wonderful. He was talking about the

experience of receiving healing from a kahuna practitioner. Dyer explains that

until you’ve had “conscious contact†with this type of healing, you cannot

know

it. It’s just like you can’t read about swimming and then know how to swim:

you’ve got to get into the water and DO it. (And for all of you reading this,

it’s the same thing: you can’t just follow what I’m saying without trying

it for

yourself and actually experiencing the type of healing I’m describing.)

So, Devin was on Depakote. He wasn’t having any more seizures, but then we

didn’t have our same kid, either! He would become incredibly tired and had no

energy at all. He seemed like a zombie. It was the saddest thing.

It was at this point a client of mine recommended a movie she had seen on the

Lifetime channel, “First, Do No Harm,†starring Meryl Streep. In the movie,

her

son had epilepsy. She kept searching for a way to heal her son from the serious

seizures, and she was heading right for the poor house, going the traditional

medical route. Willing to explore all healing options she came across the same

ketogenic diet that I had tried on my son! It even shows Meryl Streep’s

character taking her son to s Hopkins, going through hell and high water,

jumping through hoops to get him there because other medical professionals were

telling her there was no scientific proof that it would work (just like had

happened with me).

After I saw that film, I asked Devin’s doctor about this diet, and she sniffed

at me, “if he eats just one M & M on that diet, it will negate all the rest of

the

results and it will be ruined.†I persisted, “What’s your point?

Wouldn’t you

try everything, if it were your kid?†I was convinced parasites were part of

the

problem. She told me there were only about five parasites that would be able to

make it all the way up to the brain. That was five more than I wanted in

Devin’s

system.

I couldn’t find support anywhere for my ideas. I gave up using my techniques

on

him and tried to be as supportive as I could. The stress was making me more ill

than my original sickness had made me!

Eventually, I let them go ahead with the traditional medical tests EEG and MRI.

The EEG was pretty painless, but to do the MRI, they had to inject dye into his

veins. The first time, the nurse missed his vein. When she tried to do it the

second time, my little child turned into something akin to the Incredible Hulk;

they could hardly hold him down, he was so mad. You can’t blame him, it hurts.

So that’s when I told them, “This is enough. If you can’t do the MRI

without

dye, then you’re not going to do it.†It was heartbreaking to see him in

such

agony.

Changing to Holistic Healing

By March of 2005, I closed down my shop. The plan was to be home looking after

Devin and helping my husband run his construction business. Devin was supposed

to be on Depakote full time, but he was inconsistent. He’d take it one day and

not take it the next. My child, once active and vibrant, was now lifeless and

lethargic from the Depakote. I kept silent, but continued personal research into

healing epilepsy naturally so that, if anything did happen, I could be helpful.

Greg finally said, “You know what? Why don’t we just try going without the

drug

and doing it your way, and see what happens.†Seeing our child, who had always

been so full of life, become a walking zombie was something we just couldn’t

stand. I was thrilled with the change, and now that I was home full-time, I was

able to monitor his diet better and give Devin better foods. Everything I tried

would help a little, but it was after liver flushes and focusing on cleansing

the colon and the kidneys that the seizures reduced in frequency. The seizures

were happening about once every three weeks. He’d either have a seizure or a

headache. At the beginning of my treating him, I just couldn’t seem to get

past

that. Eventually, I found out certain parasites will re-hatch every three weeks

which was why these seizures kept coming like clockwork. That’s when I started

to follow the parasite protocol of Dr. Hulda .

But I did get one scare! Right in the middle of this process, Devin, now 9, had

the biggest seizure I had ever seen. We were in the car on the interstate, and I

realized that he was having a seizure. Here I was, on the highway, and he was

leaning, about to topple over onto me, with his face turning blue! I just headed

for the hospital; I didn’t know what else to do, at that moment.

Now, looking back on it, I understand that when he was leaning toward me his

tongue was dropping back, suffocating him. At the time I instinctually pushed

him forward; once I did that, he started breathing easily again and coming

around. We went back home instead of the hospital. He got out of the car — it

was like looking at a drunken person — but he went to bed and he was fine.

Still, I knew he’d had a grand mal seizure. It scared the daylights out of me.

I started to second-guess whether I was hurting him with my methods, but

everything I did spread all his symptoms farther apart. With all that I know

now, I can surmise was that his body was trying to kill off some of the big

parasites.

Once we did the parasite treatment, things really started to improve. Prior to

that, we made sure the colon was working (since pooping is very important), and

we did a liver flush—made kid-friendly, of course. I put the olive oil and

Epsom

salts that he needed for the flush into capsules. He was so good to cooperate

with me; especially after having been on those drugs which he hated so. We were

a sight to see, both of us in bed with castor oil packs on our liver and heating

pads. That night I made lemonade popsicles from lemon, stevia (a natural

sweetener) and water—he loved those. He got that instead of dinner on the

night

of the flush (plus his last meal for lunch was always his choice of where to

go). Sure enough, he had liver stones coming out until four o’clock the next

day. It was unbelievable. A nine-year-old kid!

Devin had done many of my treatments: colon and liver flush, lemon water for the

kidneys, tinctures, and capsules. After the parasite elimination, he went five

or six months between seizures, but he was still having occasional headaches; I

just couldn’t get him to the finish line (like I couldn’t get rid of that

small

bit of residual numbness with myself at one time).

The Final Step

His last seizure was that following autumn, August of 2005. He had a seizure the

first day of fifth grade and missed his first day of school. I had recently read

Sam Biser’s book, Resurrection, and the first chapter of that book summarized

all my thoughts: using a wider selection of vegetables, adding in more meat, and

drinking raw milk. Then it hit me: Sam talks of the “blessings of the

barnyardâ€

and the power of protein. When I first had Devin on the ketogenic diet, his body

responded really well. Devin’s colon worked great and his energy level was

great. He is also a carb junkie — he loves sugar, pasta, breads and all that,

as

do most Americans — and I realized he hadn’t been getting much protein

recently.

Bisers’ protein shake recipe offers a really high source of protein—raw milk

and

organic farm-fresh eggs. I thought, “I’ve been doing a shake with Devin that

did

use raw milk. I used it with the Cookies and Cream flavor of Spiru-Tein (a soy

protein powder) that he liked. I think I’ll throw in some raw eggs.â€

So I made one up, blended it a bit, took a drink of it myself to make sure no

one was going to keel over from it, and gave it to him! He drank it and from

that day on, he did not have seizures. I even got away with the raw egg bit for

a while, until he caught on to what I was doing.

Other Master Herbalist say, when the body seizes it is searching for missing

nutrients. In Devin’s case, it definitely was the protein from the raw egg and

whatever else those shakes had to offer him. This was the final addition that

Devin’s nutrition needed in order to clear up his symptoms once and for all.

Thank you, Sam Biser, for showing me how to take him to the finish line!

Devin was well again. We were good about it at the start: a shake every day.

Then symptoms were gone and it was so easy to forget about it. The frequency

dropped to every other day, then once a week, until they slipped out of the

routine entirely. Eventually poor eating habits caught up with him again, and

in January 2009 Devin had another seizure. I felt terrible that I let him get

ill again. But, picking back up with the nutritional foods again did the trick

and we are better disciplined now. He’s well again. That was just a reminder.

Any of us can slip off the path, even me, who knows it and lives it, but it is

just a slip. Returning to the foods and holistic practices that keep us healthy

is easy to do.

You can read more about my journey from MS at www.ginascorner.com

Make it a Great Day!

Kopera M.H.

[Guest guest]

HI :

Would mind telling me what is in the Sam Biser shakes and how often to drink

them?

thanks for sharing your story

linda E

________________________________

From: Kopera <ginakopera1@...>

Sent: Mon, January 31, 2011 9:26:06 PM

Subject: [ ] My son's journey from epilepsy...

Devin, our son, got sick — really sick. He was only 8 years old. I had

commented

to my husband that we needed to stop letting him eat junk food and sugar. I

didn’t want him to follow down the same path of poor health from bad dietary

habits. For example, I had noticed he had the same bumps on his arms I used to

have, the ones which disappeared during my non-intentional fast. I was worried

he inherited a genetic curse from me.

The Symptoms

I got a call from the daycare that something was wrong with Devin. They

couldn’t

figure out what was going on. Apparently, he was a little limp and he was saying

things that didn’t make sense, so I had them put him on the phone. I asked him

what the matter was, and he answered me in gibberish, like he was drunk. The

daycare worker told me they were taking him to the hospital.

I was with a client at the time, said I had to leave, and drove as fast as I

could to be there. On the way, I called my husband to have him go to the

hospital; he was closer than I was. Greg got there just as Devin arrived, and

when Greg pulled him out of the van, he was stiff and staring into space. This

was a complete shock: just hours ago we had a totally functioning, normal child

and now, dramatically, everything had changed.

By the time I got to the ER, Devin was on a bed with everyone standing around

him, crying. He was still not making sense and was staring into space, his hands

formed into fists and his body rigid. I thought to myself, “, with

everything YOU’VE read, what you can do?†And it came to me: the bottom line

with any illness is dehydration of the body, so I thought to start with water. I

went and asked one of the nurses for a little cup so I could give him some, and

she said, “No.†They said he didn’t need it because he would throw it up.

I felt

the anger rise up in me; I hadn’t asked them if I could give him chocolate

malt

from Dairy Queen or anything—just water! When they saw me getting angrier by

the

moment, they finally relented and gave me a cup.

I filled it with maybe a scant ounce of water—after all, he wasn’t

functioning

and it wasn’t as though he could have gulped it down. Gently, I coaxed him to

drink these couple of sips. With just that little bit of water, he said a word,

a normal word that wasn’t jumbled up!

I helped him with two more ounces of water, reassuring him, “Devin, I’m

going to

help you. Have just a little more water.†Even that small amount of water so

revived that he took the cup from me, crushed it up, and said a couple more

words. I remember thinking, “Oh God, it’s working! This is unbelievable!â€

(Note:

Everybody, remember to feed your body water!)

Next, they prepped him for a CT scan. My husband carried him to the X-ray room

and Devin did throw up all over the place. After that, he was brought back to

the ER where they finally put him on an IV of saline solution: water and salt.

I’ll tell you right now: the moment that went into his veins, he uttered the

first normal sentence he’d said since this whole episode began. That’s the

power

of water.

Following Conventional Medicine

Within a few weeks, the diagnosis was in: epilepsy. My husband and I began to

discuss treatment options for him. We were of differing opinions. My husband

wanted to follow conventional medicine practices; I was convinced nutrition and

holistic healing techniques were the best option. I wasn’t talking about

putting

my little boy on a fast, but there were lots of kid-friendly ways that I could

treat him “my way.†What I did on the fast could also be obtained by eating

a

mucous-free diet, but it did require an extended commitment to the program.

I just knew if I put Devin on a healthy diet, everything could start changing.

My husband agreed to it, with the following caveat: “We’ll follow it your

way

UNLESS and UNTIL he has one more seizure — then he goes on the meds.†I

agreed

to this, confident if I put him on a ketogenic diet, and a protocol of no sugar

and lots of water, it would work.

The ketogenic diet was developed at s Hopkins University for use in treating

epilepsy in children. It is the Atkins Diet “Plus.†It has extremely low

carbs -

no sugar at all, nothing in the way of fruit or juices—what everyone loves.

They

even want the kids to drink cream on that diet.

I didn’t go to that extreme, but it was pretty much meat, vegetables, and more

meat. Milk was okay if it contained the higher percentage of milk fat. At that

time I had already introduced the raw milk, which was even better for him. We

stayed on that protocol and it was working great for his health. But I’ll tell

you, it was a hair-pulling experience. I even offered Devin the deal that if

anyone gave him anything sugary or any candy, I would buy it from him. This was

a moneymaking deal for him!

We had really good results for about three weeks with the ketogenic diet, but

you don’t always have total control over what other people will feed your kid.

People put sugar in many foods that you wouldn’t call particularly

“sweets,†and

they think to themselves, “Oh, this isn’t going to hurt him,†but of

course, it

does. He had another seizure, and I abided by my word: he went on anti-seizure

drugs. I was ready to tear my hair out with frustration. It felt like the whole

world was against my efforts. I was hitting my limits and then some!

I went to visit a friend in Chicago for a little break and to get some

perspective. On my trip, I was listening to Wayne Dyer tapes. Dyer is a

motivational speaker who is absolutely wonderful. He was talking about the

experience of receiving healing from a kahuna practitioner. Dyer explains that

until you’ve had “conscious contact†with this type of healing, you cannot

know

it. It’s just like you can’t read about swimming and then know how to swim:

you’ve got to get into the water and DO it. (And for all of you reading this,

it’s the same thing: you can’t just follow what I’m saying without trying

it for

yourself and actually experiencing the type of healing I’m describing.)

So, Devin was on Depakote. He wasn’t having any more seizures, but then we

didn’t have our same kid, either! He would become incredibly tired and had no

energy at all. He seemed like a zombie. It was the saddest thing.

It was at this point a client of mine recommended a movie she had seen on the

Lifetime channel, “First, Do No Harm,†starring Meryl Streep. In the movie,

her

son had epilepsy. She kept searching for a way to heal her son from the serious

seizures, and she was heading right for the poor house, going the traditional

medical route. Willing to explore all healing options she came across the same

ketogenic diet that I had tried on my son! It even shows Meryl Streep’s

character taking her son to s Hopkins, going through hell and high water,

jumping through hoops to get him there because other medical professionals were

telling her there was no scientific proof that it would work (just like had

happened with me).

After I saw that film, I asked Devin’s doctor about this diet, and she sniffed

at me, “if he eats just one M & M on that diet, it will negate all the rest of

the

results and it will be ruined.†I persisted, “What’s your point?

Wouldn’t you

try everything, if it were your kid?†I was convinced parasites were part of

the

problem. She told me there were only about five parasites that would be able to

make it all the way up to the brain. That was five more than I wanted in

Devin’s

system.

I couldn’t find support anywhere for my ideas. I gave up using my techniques

on

him and tried to be as supportive as I could. The stress was making me more ill

than my original sickness had made me!

Eventually, I let them go ahead with the traditional medical tests EEG and MRI.

The EEG was pretty painless, but to do the MRI, they had to inject dye into his

veins. The first time, the nurse missed his vein. When she tried to do it the

second time, my little child turned into something akin to the Incredible Hulk;

they could hardly hold him down, he was so mad. You can’t blame him, it hurts.

So that’s when I told them, “This is enough. If you can’t do the MRI

without

dye, then you’re not going to do it.†It was heartbreaking to see him in

such

agony.

Changing to Holistic Healing

By March of 2005, I closed down my shop. The plan was to be home looking after

Devin and helping my husband run his construction business. Devin was supposed

to be on Depakote full time, but he was inconsistent. He’d take it one day and

not take it the next. My child, once active and vibrant, was now lifeless and

lethargic from the Depakote. I kept silent, but continued personal research into

healing epilepsy naturally so that, if anything did happen, I could be helpful.

Greg finally said, “You know what? Why don’t we just try going without the

drug

and doing it your way, and see what happens.†Seeing our child, who had always

been so full of life, become a walking zombie was something we just couldn’t

stand. I was thrilled with the change, and now that I was home full-time, I was

able to monitor his diet better and give Devin better foods. Everything I tried

would help a little, but it was after liver flushes and focusing on cleansing

the colon and the kidneys that the seizures reduced in frequency. The seizures

were happening about once every three weeks. He’d either have a seizure or a

headache. At the beginning of my treating him, I just couldn’t seem to get

past

that. Eventually, I found out certain parasites will re-hatch every three weeks

which was why these seizures kept coming like clockwork. That’s when I started

to follow the parasite protocol of Dr. Hulda .

But I did get one scare! Right in the middle of this process, Devin, now 9, had

the biggest seizure I had ever seen. We were in the car on the interstate, and I

realized that he was having a seizure. Here I was, on the highway, and he was

leaning, about to topple over onto me, with his face turning blue! I just headed

for the hospital; I didn’t know what else to do, at that moment.

Now, looking back on it, I understand that when he was leaning toward me his

tongue was dropping back, suffocating him. At the time I instinctually pushed

him forward; once I did that, he started breathing easily again and coming

around. We went back home instead of the hospital. He got out of the car — it

was like looking at a drunken person — but he went to bed and he was fine.

Still, I knew he’d had a grand mal seizure. It scared the daylights out of me.

I started to second-guess whether I was hurting him with my methods, but

everything I did spread all his symptoms farther apart. With all that I know

now, I can surmise was that his body was trying to kill off some of the big

parasites.

Once we did the parasite treatment, things really started to improve. Prior to

that, we made sure the colon was working (since pooping is very important), and

we did a liver flush—made kid-friendly, of course. I put the olive oil and

Epsom

salts that he needed for the flush into capsules. He was so good to cooperate

with me; especially after having been on those drugs which he hated so. We were

a sight to see, both of us in bed with castor oil packs on our liver and heating

pads. That night I made lemonade popsicles from lemon, stevia (a natural

sweetener) and water—he loved those. He got that instead of dinner on the

night

of the flush (plus his last meal for lunch was always his choice of where to

go). Sure enough, he had liver stones coming out until four o’clock the next

day. It was unbelievable. A nine-year-old kid!

Devin had done many of my treatments: colon and liver flush, lemon water for the

kidneys, tinctures, and capsules. After the parasite elimination, he went five

or six months between seizures, but he was still having occasional headaches; I

just couldn’t get him to the finish line (like I couldn’t get rid of that

small

bit of residual numbness with myself at one time).

The Final Step

His last seizure was that following autumn, August of 2005. He had a seizure the

first day of fifth grade and missed his first day of school. I had recently read

Sam Biser’s book, Resurrection, and the first chapter of that book summarized

all my thoughts: using a wider selection of vegetables, adding in more meat, and

drinking raw milk. Then it hit me: Sam talks of the “blessings of the

barnyardâ€

and the power of protein. When I first had Devin on the ketogenic diet, his body

responded really well. Devin’s colon worked great and his energy level was

great. He is also a carb junkie — he loves sugar, pasta, breads and all that,

as

do most Americans — and I realized he hadn’t been getting much protein

recently.

Bisers’ protein shake recipe offers a really high source of protein—raw milk

and

organic farm-fresh eggs. I thought, “I’ve been doing a shake with Devin that

did

use raw milk. I used it with the Cookies and Cream flavor of Spiru-Tein (a soy

protein powder) that he liked. I think I’ll throw in some raw eggs.â€

So I made one up, blended it a bit, took a drink of it myself to make sure no

one was going to keel over from it, and gave it to him! He drank it and from

that day on, he did not have seizures. I even got away with the raw egg bit for

a while, until he caught on to what I was doing.

Other Master Herbalist say, when the body seizes it is searching for missing

nutrients. In Devin’s case, it definitely was the protein from the raw egg and

whatever else those shakes had to offer him. This was the final addition that

Devin’s nutrition needed in order to clear up his symptoms once and for all.

Thank you, Sam Biser, for showing me how to take him to the finish line!

Devin was well again. We were good about it at the start: a shake every day.

Then symptoms were gone and it was so easy to forget about it. The frequency

dropped to every other day, then once a week, until they slipped out of the

routine entirely. Eventually poor eating habits caught up with him again, and

in January 2009 Devin had another seizure. I felt terrible that I let him get

ill again. But, picking back up with the nutritional foods again did the trick

and we are better disciplined now. He’s well again. That was just a reminder.

Any of us can slip off the path, even me, who knows it and lives it, but it is

just a slip. Returning to the foods and holistic practices that keep us healthy

is easy to do.

You can read more about my journey from MS at www.ginascorner.com

Make it a Great Day!

Kopera M.H.