ELAINE'S HEALTH

[Guest guest]

Dear Listmates:

I had the unbelievable honor to meet Elaine briefly this past spring. I was

able to tell her my story briefly and we exchanged a hug. Her parting words

of wisdom to me were " No matter what - always take care of your beautiful

son. "

The SCD Diet and Elaine Gottschall have made an enormous improvement in the

lives of myself and my 4yo autistic son. Between the two of us we have been

on the SCD diet for over 18 months and in that time my son and I have

completely stopped taking 27 different medications both Rx and OTC and our

health has improved steadily.

When I was in some dark hours of doubt at the beginning of the diet, Elaine

found out and sent me a personal email of encouragement. She detailed her

life with a husband and daughters (one of whom was deathly ill) and her

trying to attend grad school full time and cook SCD and help others. I have

read those kind words of encouragement over and over again. I feel that if

she had the strength to go thru all that (albeit her husband was helpful and

supportive - mine is not) then I must stop my sniveling and get down to SCD

work.

I have deep and grateful feelings for a woman who I don't know personally

and only met and emailed briefly. But she touched my family's life in a

profound way. I will never forget her. I can only imaging how many other

people there are on earth who have shared similar experiences of Elaine. My

heart breaks for future people learing about SCD who will not have the luck

of learning about it from Elaine herself.

My only advice to newbies trying SCD is - read the book and do what Elaine

says in the book. This works if you work it.

Sadly,

Regina Cioffi

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Message: 5

Date: Sat, 27 Aug 2005 07:27:13 -0700 (PDT)

Subject: ELAINE'S HEALTH (IMPORTANT!)

Information on: http://www.scdrecipe.com/j_elaine_health.html by Raman

Prasad

The first time I met Elaine Gottschall was at a Long Island brunch. She had

been visiting the NYC metro area and staying with Turet. Despite

recently being awarded a 3rd degree black belt, looked tired. When

asked why, she said she could barely keep up with Elaine during a day of

walking through Manhattan.

During the last two years, having assisted Elaine in running her booth at

several conferences, I've been continuously amazed at how a woman in her

mid-80s could keep up such a schedule, her mind always sharp whether she

debated doctors over a beer, soothingly explained the diet to worried

parents, or continuously accepted thanks and hugs from people whom she had

helped.

ly, I owe her my life. (There are few people you have the privilege to

meet--who do things simply because they are correct, regardless of the

personal consequences.) Recently, severe cancer has taken much of Elaine's

physical strength^1 . Her mind and wit have not faded but for the last

several weeks she has been in the palliative care^2 section of a comfortable

Canadian hospital.

This past weekend I went to Ontario in order to visit her. It was

nice/inspiring to see others who have benefited from the SCD preparing

soup^3 to bring to Elaine at the hospital. Elaine was quite sharp during

much of my time there--but the pain is quite high so there are good days and

bad days, good hours and bad hours. Over-riding the pain in her body has

been her concern for others, from planning how people can carry on her

work/research to using her contacts to locate a doctor for a friend's sick

family member. Late this week she decided to stop much of her pain

medication--a difficult decision.

If you would like to provide her some comfort during this time, please mail

your best wishes to:

Elaine Gottschall

c/o Northumberland Hills Hospital

1000 DePalma Drive

Cobourg, ON

K9A 5W6

Canada

[.60 cent stamp from USA]

Respectfully,

Raman Prasad

^1 Only a few months ago she was quite energetic--escorting her young

grand-daughter on a trans-Atlantic flight to Paris.

^2 Similar to hospice in the US

^3 I was quite fortunate to meet Taera and during this visit. Taera

has been passing on her SCD knowledge via cooking classes while has

been instrumental in introducing the SCD via Ste. Anne's spa

http://www.haldimandhills.com/breaking_the_vicious_cycle.html>