Most of us have a childhood memory or two of hiding under the covers from a spooky monster under our bed.
While we can confidently look back now and laugh at our imagined fear, for many children today, those fears are all too real. Their monster is called PANDAS/PANS.
Our only child was four and a half years old when something drastically changed in his body. There was a shift from a perfectly healthy and vibrant child to something that we could not initially put our finger on.
At five years old, our son was diagnosed with PANDAS, an acronym for (pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorder associated with streptococcus bacteria.) Yes, a condition most commonly associated with and triggered by strep throat was attacking the basal ganglia of his brain, causing significant brain inflammation. The number of kids struggling with PANDAS is staggering and is increasing at an alarming rate. PANDAS is not rare, but it's rarely diagnosed correctly, at least initially.
His diagnosis changed everything for us. Suddenly, our son began to exhibit odd, almost bizarre symptoms literally overnight, and our little family was challenged to its core. He went from a perfectly happy and healthy child to a child battling significant motor and vocal tics, severe separation anxiety, and a host of other debilitating symptoms we struggled to understand. Months went by as we searched for answers from our doctors and healthcare providers with little to no direction. We were helpless, and our son battled this on his own for close to a year until we could finally find out what was happening to him. To say this was frightening does not even come close to describing our feelings. Finally, after being diagnosed, we thought that was it. We thought we had it, and that would be the end of what was attacking our son. Little did we know this journey had just begun. The journey would be long, the battle would be intense, and it would even try to steal our hope and our faith.
As a licensed minister and pastor for twenty-six years, I have always walked within a deep and secure faith that God is with me and is for me. I have always tried to help provide hope to the hopeless, peace to those who are in difficult times, and some joy and laughter to those who are down and hurting. Through my years of ministry, I had no idea that I would face this crisis that would shake me and challenge my hope.
We have never been against modern medicine or doctors. We still aren't. In fact, we have met some amazing physician healers through the years that are truly gifted. We tried the conventional medical route with our son for almost two years, but it failed him. In fact, it made him much worse. However, when conventional medicine let us down, we reached out to something ancient, something even biblical, to restore our son. We tried essential oils.
I know there will be some who will find it difficult to accept our story. Those who will bring doubt and negativity to this discussion about natural healing. I get it. Human beings tend to dismiss things they cannot understand, things that might seem too simplistic. It is how we are programmed. This is certainly the case with essential oils. The fact that essential oils changed our son's life is the understatement of a lifetime. They brought him back! While we give God the praise for our son's healing, we know without a doubt that it was through these amazing tools that it was made possible. There are original Hebrew writings of the Book of Ezekiel, verse 47:12, that read in part like this, "…The substance that flows from the leaves shall be their medicine." This verse spoke to me at my lowest point. This verse became our reality.
Our son completely recovered from PANDAS, and everything changed because we stepped out of a conventional paradigm that was not working for us and embraced a natural alternative that completely restored our son to us.
For the last nine years, we have dedicated ourselves to helping others receive their breakthroughs, too. We have seen it happen over and over again, child after child. PANDAS does not have to be permanent if you give the body the resources and support it needs to heal itself. Recovery is about understanding that to beat this disorder; you must put things back in order.
We are here to help you.