Hello all,

Thanks Nicole for your prompt reply. My son's situation, however, prompted his naturopath (who is also a GI) to begin a course of Prednisone.

Here are some more questions:

1. The number of shakes that he took was five a day for the first two weeks of the diet. He gained weight (2 pounds). The blood, however, remained the same. Then, he started resenting shakes so much so that at the end of 4 and a half weeks, he could not physically take more than one or two shakes a day (he is 17 years old) Since the 5 weeks of AbsorbPlus have ended up in his taking Prednisone, does that mean that this time on the diet was a waste?


2. Does this mean that this diet is not likely to work for my son in the future? Or do we need to do something differently to make it work?


3. Now that he is taking prednisone, is there still a purpose in a gradual food reintroduction, or is it more important at this point to get him the required nutrition from food? (His weight has consistently decreased from 87 pounds to 84.2 pounds over the last 2 weeks)

Thanks,
Khushroo

Hi, Khushroo.

1. Jini tells us that when she followed the elemental diet the first time, following intestinal hemorrhaging, that she continued to have some mild bleeding. This was the situation the entire time she remained on the elemental diet and it resolved when she was back on solid food.

I think the keystone question is why your son resented the shakes. He may not even have a conscious answer for this or may hold back from expressing it, but the answer is inside of him.

As someone whose been sick myself and talked with a lot of people struggling with illness, a few possibilities come to mind, but these are generalities......the specific answer needs to come from him. That said, he might feel anger and grief at his body betraying him, same emotions at not being able to live life like most of his peers do, same emotions at feeling trapped in an awful health situation; if a person feels like their choices are being made for them they might feel anger at the very people trying to help them and guilt for that because they recognize the good intentions of those same people. To share a personal experience, being ill for me provided a wonderfully convenient way to get out of doing things that I didn't want to do, resented doing, but felt guilty for not doing. I could just say, "You know what, with my health situation, I just don't want to take a chance and push myself on that," and everyone around me would accept it without argument. So one of the things I had to do to get better was to start to (and continue to) learn to say, "No" on my own behalf; that's just one of the things I needed to resolve. Those are just a few out of many possibilities. My point is, whatever is bothering HIM....all of the above plus some other stuff, none of the above but something else.....whatever.....resolving that is a vital part of him recovering.

If he's open to it, let him read the two chapters in LTYG about mind/body therapies and see if any of them appeal to him. If any of them do, go with that one. Addressing the physical is vital, but it goes hand in hand with addressing that more nebulous side of ourselves.

That said, to me, things we do to help ourselves are never a waste. But the answer to that question for you will depend on your perspective.

2. In my mind, the answer to number two hinges again on why he resented the diet this time around. The answer to that will give you the answers to your other two questions.

3. In the long run, I think the best course of action is to ask your son which of those two options is best in his mind and then go with that. That said, I recognize that that's a very low weight for a 17-year-old, even for someone who might be short in physical stature. And I recognize, at least to some extent, how difficult what I'm saying is because I'm a parent, too, and I can imagine very vividly how high the stakes would feel to me. But from a patient's perspective, I also know that your most powerful ally is that patient's own desire to and innate ability to heal. You can fan that flame by showing this ally respect and listening to it at every opportunity.

As always, this is my opinion. You and your son are the ones in your own particular situation and if what I say doesn't "ring true" to you, please follow your own intuition about what's right rather than mine.

My thoughts and empathy go out to you both.

Nicole