After years of unhelpful doctors giving referrals to unhelpful specialists, I was, back then, positively stoked to land in the office of a ‘holistic’ MAPS (Medical Academy of Pediatrics Special Needs) doctor.
Ours was an MD/PhD who ran endless tests culminating into several hours worth of appointments each year for analysis. After four years, it felt like I was just another practice run for the interpretation of blood, urine, stool, and hair tests at the expense my dollars and emotions. Leaving upteenth vials of blood at a lab a few times a year became traumatic, and in my opinion, negatively affected healing, if there was any to be had in the first place.
Initially, we learned a lot from those tests: inflammation, food and environmental allergies, oxalate issues, yeast problems, metal toxicity, gut dysbiosis, thyroid problems, vitamin deficiencies, etc., and we got some diagnosis such as: PANS, Auto-immune encephalitis, IBS, Crohns, celiac, leaky gut, MTHFR gene deletion, and of course, we already knew about ‘autism’. We even had some improvement after removing food allergens and adding desperately needed supplementation. I think most people show signs of improvement with obvious measures like these.
But we NEVER had cure.
None of the symptoms were reversed. Those that were alleviated, returned.
Our prognosis was a lifetime of taking $700 worth of supplements each month, routine blood testing, endless allergy shots, and constant expensive office visits; all with no cure.
Years of this left me burned out and frustrated as symptoms spiraled and the health decline became unbearable. We were home bound, then bed bound with no vapor of normalcy whatsoever. We lived from fire alarm to fire alarm trying to keep everyone comfortable until I reached the bottom which is actually a huge success story detailed in other posts.
But what was the MAPS missing?
First, ‘holistic MD/PhD’ is an oxymoron. Sure, he did prescribe(minimal) herbs; but he was not schooled in them nor did he have a quality line on hand. We made massive diet changes, which we still adhere to today, and he did prescribe supps instead of synthetic drugs; but only in a palliative way, not with the vision of healing the immune system thereby freeing it of the inflammation underlying the issues and diagnosis. Second, MD/PhD equals allopathic no matter how you slice it. There was no point in discussing other modalities of healing, such as homeopathy, with him; he wouldn’t have it. Third, he was not Lyme literate or knowledgeable about parasites or proper testing of them, if that is even possible in a lab; and finally, and most detrimentally, there was no detox of pathogens or toxins in his protocol, which is what we needed the most.
Faithfully, we were breaking the bank taking scores of supplements each day, but they were piling into clogged, sluggish at best, methylation systems with no plan designed to open them up! The supps were just stacking up, adding to the toxins already there. By the time I switched doctors, we could barely walk or get out of bed, eczema was raging from head to toe like a bloody fire, and the inflamed misery was over the top for our entire family.
Bottom line, after receiving our initial testing results and diagnosis, MAPS was nothing more than another money flushing, time sucking spot on the road for us; a tourist trap I visited far too long. The worst part was truly believing that during our four year relationship, he cared about us. But, after we finally achieved such dramatic, life altering improvement with another doctor, I called our MAPS to see if he was interested in learning how we had made such a 180? Wouldn’t he want an update? Or to know for his other critically ill patients? The response was, “Nope.” He couldn’t have cared less! I was stunned and stabbed square in the heart. Four years of our lives, our savings, our mental and emotional investment, our hope, our health even – truly meant nothing to him, a doctor. Is allopathic healing an oxymoron too or is it just allopathic compassion that doesn’t exist?
I certainly hope your experience with a MAPS is much better. No two MAPS are alike, right? Maybe. But from medical social groups I see the same medical minutiae ad nauseum of blood, organs, systems, reactions, various testing, micro-organisms, etc. and I, too, could define, describe, experiment, promote, tin-can, and echo with the best of them, but now, post healing via detox, it all seems like not seeing the forest through the trees.
What really turned everything around for us was Biofeedback, Herbal, Homeopathics, Diet, and Massage. I went back to school to focus on becoming a clinical homeopath and a Certified Biofeedback Specialist. This streamlined all of our care. We used a ton less supplements as well. Let me know if I can help you get on track for wellness at New Leaf Holistic.
The Detox Depot 