Pass the Arsenic!
Pass the Arsenic! - Originally Posted November 30, 2018
It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver. Mahatma Gandhi
In my last blog, I shared my struggle with my health and vitality – or lack thereof – over the summer. I’m so happy to say I continue to feel back to my usual healthy self! I don’t take that for granted and am thankful every day. I also have renewed empathy for those who struggle daily with pain and chronic illness. Good health, or lack of it, is part of our life journey and the struggles we sometimes face. I want to share another real life struggle…how I was unknowingly poisoning my daughter! Yup, you read that right. I have to laugh about it or I’d cry! Gosh Mom guilt is something, huh?
We’re (parents) always bluffing, pretending we know best, when most of the time we’re just praying we won’t screw up too badly. Jodi Picoult
Most of you; friends, family, or blog followers (who are now friends by this connection!) know that I have an adult daughter with Autism who lives with my husband and I at age 29. My sweet daughter is a bright ray of sunshine and full of so much joy for life, even more so now! I take my responsibility as her advocate seriously. This crazy, ‘House-like” episode all started with her losing weight…she was down to 94 pounds, which even for her short stature was just too thin. I didn’t want to make her weight a ‘thing’ so I was being mindful to provided calorie dense foods she liked, but no luck. In September she came down with a virus which really wiped her out; doubly her doctor said because she was so thin. It was really scary! She has a wonderful doctor, whom we are thankful for, and his plan for her was that she drink a healthy smoothie each day, with a protein powder. Actually he wanted me to buy Ensure for her, but I didn’t want to because I know its got a lot of chemicals in it, so the afternoon smoothie was the solution. I actually had a protein powder in the cupboard that was tasty, and not being a follower of the protein powder mindset, was pretty much full. So off we went on this journey of weight gain.
A goal without a plan is just a wish. Antoine de Saint-Exupery
Mind you, I do not need to put on weight, and neither does her Dad, so we would blend them up for her , but not for us. Fast forward 3 weeks and BAM! She is struck with 5 days of agonizing burning tingling pain in her hands and feet and stomach pain. This is my offspring with high pain tolerance and the only one who never complains. The pain medication was giving no relief and we were up pretty much all night on these days. In those middle of the night hours we spent a lot of time reminiscing, ‘thinking happy thoughts’, to try to take her mind off the pain. I have never felt so helpless. One night around 3 am she said to me “Mom, I don’t want to die”. I assured he she was not dying, even if she felt like it. I didn’t tell here how worried I was as well, her doctor couldn’t figure out what it was and how did I know she wasn’t actually going to die? It was intense. After 5 days the pain stopped, just like that, all pain gone, feeling 100%. It was hard during those five days to get her to eat or drink much so no smoothies for weight gain…you see where this is going don’t you?
Forgive yourself for not having foresight to know what now seems so obvious in hindsight. Judy Belmont
Her doctor ran every test he could think of, even things we didn’t think were possible, such as Lyme disease. All her lab work kept coming back showing no problems. Looking at her tests she was a very healthy person, and yet the pain was horrible. After those five days we, again,started with the afternoon smoothie routine. About three weeks later, double BAM!, she is struck with horrible pain again, this time it lasted 7 days. The thing that was different this time around was that on day one or two I made her a couple smoothies because I was so worried about her not being able to eat and losing ‘all her weight’. Trying new pain medications didn’t help, no relief, nothing was helping. Her younger brother came to watch a movie with her to keep her mind off the pain as much as possible. Her friend came and gave her a manicure to help busy her mind. Many friends and family texted to check in on her, mailed cards, dropped off cards and treats. Again we visited our ‘happy thoughts’ in the wee hours of the night. Many sleepless nights. Her older brother came for a weekend, he googled and googled hoping to find something the doctor hadn’t considered that would fit what she was going through. Again, just like that, after seven days the pain was gone. The human body is an amazing machine, it can clean out a lot of bad things we put in it pretty well if we let it.
Alone, we can do so little; together we can do so much. Helen Keller
We got a referral from her doctor to a neurologist at that point, hoping for the best and dreading what might be the culprit, we really wanted to avoid another bout of pain if we could and we wanted answers. One night at about 8 o’clock her doctor called, it was late for a doctor to be calling, I was surprised to be hearing from him. One of the last tests in the new round of tests showed high levels of arsenic. We were all stunned. We are on city water, we don’t buy food or juices or supplements on the internet. Over a series of conversations and questions with him and poison control they seem sure we have found the culprit. You probably guessed it, because hindsight and laying it all out chronologically really helps, but it wasn’t so easy when we were in the trenches. It seems it have been the protein powder. We just did a follow up arsenic test, after just over two weeks without the protein powder and have our fingers crossed we have found the problem – because this would be easy to fix.
The best solutions are often simple, yet unexpected. Julian Casablancas
Surprisingly I’ve not had luck getting any kind of reaction from the market where I bought the protein powder. The powder is still on the shelf for sale. Its been reported to the FDA. I’ll continue to pursue getting the powder off the shelves, so nobody else experiences what we did. Once we have this last lab test back and the neurologist visit over I’ll be making more calls and visits. I had not thought about the fact that protein powders sold in our stores are not regulated by the FDA. I found that Consumer Report did an article on protein powders and many of them have lead an arsenic, some at unsafe levels and apparently the plant based ones are the highest for those contaminants – of course thats what we were using, plant based protein powder. I’ve never been a believer in the need for protein powder anyway, but now I will never touch it again! What a nightmare. Every day my daughter says how thankful she is to feel well. And, I am reminded, again, not to take our health for granted.
Perserverence is gailing 19 times and succeeding the 20th. Julie Andrews
I have a friend who often says “taking care of the human body is a lot more work than people realize”, and I’ve always agreed, but boy does that thought keep running through my head. Its a big job, this being human, keeping care of the vessel we have been blessed with on our journey here on earth. Our village is sure a gift too, we were so lucky to have so many concerned family and friends step up and be there for Lina, It helped me too. How amazing humans can be when one of us is down!
I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. Augusten Burroughs
Light, love, and laughter,
Shannon
PS – Watch out for my next post coming soon, no more illness talk, I promise, but some exciting new things on the horizon! I can’t wait to share with you!
