The Leprosy of Our Day

There are no words can adequately describe the horrors that we have experienced over the past year. A little over a year ago Spencer was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. His diagnosis was followed by non-stop visits to the doctor/and or hospital for most of our family. Sicknesses including several attacks of acute pancreatitis, development of asthma, Bell's Palsy, headaches, brain fog, chronic rhinosinusitis and chronic coughs.

In November 2012 we moved to a new house that we thought was our dream house out in the country. After experiencing so much sickness and the house testing positive for toxic molds we fled for our lives moving back into our old house 2 weeks before our newborn baby was born.

For the most part we have been avoiding the doctors office/hospital, but my husband continues to have recurring bouts of pancreatitis. He just had his 7th attack. If we do not get this situation fixed he may develop chronic pancreatitis, diabetes or cancer. He also remains at a high risk for premature death. Before moving into this house my husband was in good health and had never had a hospital stay in his life. In an effort to get to the root of his condition we spent $700 out-of-pocket to have his urine tested at a specialty lab. He tested positive for tricothecenes (one of the most toxic substances in existence) in his body.

Since we are finding NO answers in our medical community within a 100 mile radius we have been forced to find our own answers and diagnose ourselves. We have also had to search out doctors that deal specifically in environmental medicine. We have found a lot of answers from Dr. Rae (author of "Surviving Toxic Black Mold Syndrome) and Dr. Richie Shoemaker (survivingmold.com). I have also had several conversations with Dr. Thrasher, one of the leading toxicologists in the United States. One of the greatest blessings I have gained through all of this is my friendship with Andre Fabre, a mother of 9 who had experienced a nightmare experience with exposure to toxic mold. Her website can be found at momsaware.org and is full of so much helpful information.

Toxic mold exposure has truly become the "leprosy" of our time. Just like lepers were cast out of society and left to bear such a great sickness with so much ridicule. History has repeated itself. Toxic mold syndrome leaves its victim sick in ways that leave one questioning their own sanity as it spreads through their body spreading poison and totally unpredictable symptoms. When the sufferer finally identifies the root of the problem they are ridiculed and made to feel "crazy", especially by those in the medical community who remain close minded and continue to produce "sick" patients.

In addition to the emotional trauma that this lack of support and backbiting produces one must cope with the mounting medical bills and lack of ability to pay them due to time off work and then there is the constant search for answers.

So Much Hope--GAPS Diet Discovery

After weeks of searching for the diet that will help our family to heal I have decided on the GAPS diet (see GAPS.me). This will be a 2+ yr. commitment for our family, but I strongly believe it will be so worth it.

After racking my brain of how to implement this diet, I have finally come to the conclusion that it will be best to work it backwards. There are 6 stages of the diet that you are recommended to go through before starting on the full GAPS diet, but having 8 people to have to implement this diet with it just seemed so overwhelming so I have come up with my own personal approach of how this will work for our family. I will be converting our diet over to the full GAPS diet (with the exception of the things such as fresh fruit that will continue to feed our mold problem), while taking each individual family member as time and circumstances allow, and go through the individual stages. The stages of this diet remind me of the game "Phase 10" where you can't move on to the next phase until you have completed each phase. We will be playing "Phase 7"!

After reading through all of the science about this diet, reading others testimonials, and my own experience with nutrition, I am so hopeful that this diet will create great healing for our family. In addition to being a great basis for the mold killing diet, I hope to see great improvements in all of us. 

2013 Christmas Letter

I know it is kind of strange getting a Christmas letter in mid-January, but I do have a good excuse. I had this letter all typed up and was planning on sending it as a New Year's letter the week of Christmas, but Larry ended up in the hospital with his 6^th pancreatic attack. After a week's hospital stay they were finally able to perform surgery and remove his gall bladder. He has been home a little over a week and is still pretty frail, but seems to be doing a lot better as far as digestion goes. We are hopeful that there will be no more pancreatic attacks as they can be deadly and we are both getting really sick of spending so much time at the hospital. We are so grateful for everyone's prayers, love and support. Anyway, on with our letter...

December 2013

Dear Friends and Family:

Greetings from Malad, ID!!! We hope this letter finds all of you happy and well.

As we reflect back on the past year we feel gratitude in our hearts. We are especially grateful for the Lord's watchful eye over our lives and the knowledge of the restored gospel and the peace it brings especially during turbulent times. Everyone goes through a “refiner's fire” at some point in their life and this has been one of those year's for our family. We have had many angels come to our rescue this past year and we are so grateful for each one.

Larry and I started off the year by spending 3 days touring the Tarter Farm & Ranch Equipment facilities in Dunville, KY. It was very inspiring to see firsthand a family owned business that is living the American dream since 1945. Not only are they founded on the solid values of integrity, honesty, and quality, they are unlike many other manufacturers in the industry as they maintain control of all phases of manufacturing, from raw material purchase to final delivery.

Between four hospital stays for pancreatic and shoulder and knee surgery, Larry significantly expanded our grain business this year. He was approached by a broker from back East about shipping and grinding potatoes at our facilities. With the help of some ingenious friends and family, we now have a process in place for grinding potatoes and shipping them out on rail or truck. These potatoes are used to make dog food. He is also serving as the 11 yr. old Scout leader and enjoyed helping coach Enoch's football team.

I have spent a large part of my year packing and unpacking, becoming an expert on sicknesses and diseases that I knew little or nothing about, and caring for our new baby. I relinquished most of my bookkeeping duties at the store last summer so that I could focus my time at home.

Dallin, 15, is now driving and spends a lot of time “chatting” with girls. A goal that he set several years ago was to be a 4-time state champion when he got to high school. He worked very hard to be in the championship round at state this year. Six minutes of “mental weakness” was all it took to have this dream shattered. He was favored to win, as he had won the last 4 matches against his opponent, but he went in unprepared and came out in 2^nd place. It was a crushing blow, but today he will tell you that he is grateful that he lost because he learned a lot more from it than he would have if he had won. His new goal is to be a 3-time state champion.

Spencer, 14, is also a high school wrestler and just took 5^th out of 15 teams at the Malad tournament. Last Feb. Spencer was rushed to Primary Children's by ambulance where he was diagnosed with Type I diabetes. This has been a significant life altering diagnosis for Spencer. We are so proud of him for the courage he has shown in facing this horrible disease and the responsibility he has shown in managing it. Dallin and Spencer also went on trek this year and performed at our local theater in the musical “Everafter”.

Enoch, 12, was ordained a deacon in April. He is the “work-horse” of the family and puts in 110% of whatever he sets out to do whether it be school, football, baseball, piano, or helping Larry at the store. He has been a lifesaver to Larry at the store this year while Larry has been down because of his surgeries and the other boys have been busy wrestling. His baseball team the “Malad Outlaws” played very well in all of their tournaments and Enoch ended his personal season with 10 home runs. Enoch played running back and safety for the “Seahawkes” traveling football team. They played very well also and ended their season at the playoffs in the Holt Arena taking 2^nd place in the region.

In March Larry & I flew back to Baltimore, MD with Ben, Bekah, & Rachel for their 3 year A-T evaluation at John's Hopkin's Hospital. Our suspicions that Ben & Bekah are doing exceptionally well with their disease was confirmed. Unfortunately, our suspicions that Rachel has A-T was also confirmed.

We counted our blessings last month when the twins turned 10 as they are still walking and walking quite well. A-T children are usually in wheelchairs by age 10. They are now in the 4^th grade and have wonderful aides that help them excel in school.

Rachel, 3, a.k.a. “Ray-Ray” and “Minnie” is such a tease and loves to perform and have FUN! While at a recent wrestling tournament she followed the cheerleaders around thinking she was one of them and performing the cheers with them. A man in the bleachers thought she was so CUTE and gave her $1 to go and buy a treat.

Nathanael Joseph joined our family on July 19^th. He is very much a people person and has warmed his way into all of our hearts. We had the opportunity to share his blessing day with his cousin, Joseph, who reported on his mission to Canada.

We hope that each of you find peace and hope in your lives this year by turning to the Savior. We are so grateful for him and celebrate his birth with much JOY! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!

All Our Love,

Larry, Jill, Dallin, Spencer, Enoch, Ben, Bekah, Rachel, and baby Nathan