Holly has 3 herniated discs. L3 (2mm) L4 (3.5 mm) and L5/S1 (5mm) and L5/S1 are sitting on the nerve root. According to the MRI, L1 is bulging and L2 is protruding. The surgeons have said that it isn’t “that bad” and that at her age, with enough rest and therapies, the disc will shrink back and could potentially go back to normal. They could also bother her for the rest of her life- depending on how her body heals. But, while surgery could offer immediate relief, it is not a responsible choice. Since no surgeon wants to operate on a 16-year-old athlete if not 100% necessary, pain management is our only option.
We started with pain management 3 months ago. She did six weeks of physical therapy 3x a week and had her first spinal injection. At the time, she only had 1 herniated disc on L5/S1… On October 19th, she was set to volunteer at my school. Hair, make-up, cheer outfit on… bent over to pull on her shoe and heard/felt a “RIPPPP” in her back. That’s when life for us changed for us. That was the week she spent 6 days in the hospital on a ton of IV medicines to try to control the pain. She got a 2nd spinal injection and that’s what we believe has really screwed her up, too. She woke up in a pool of blood from the OR and ever since that injection, her sciatic nerve has been pissed off. Bad. Disabling. Nonetheless, it is where we are.
I only tell you that so that you can know kind-of a little of the backstory concerning frog pee. We have done everything- everything- with fidelity-that we’ve been told. We have had the best surgeons look at her and our pain management doctor and physical therapy doctor have just been amazing. I’d be happy to share their contact numbers with anyone if you need it. But, we’ve learned some pretty interesting things and I’m going to share them with you.
Let’s start with frog pee. The amount of pain Holly has been nothing short of the gnashing of teeth described in Revelation concerning Hell. There were two episodes in the hospital and two the week before last. There have been other episodes of pain, but nothing like the ones that only IV medicines would help. Crying. Out of body experiences. Drama? You bet. But not the typical, attention-seeking drama- this was real. And heartbreaking. And scary. After the last episode (which landed her in the hospital for the night), and then the doctors at Scottish Rite recommending inpatient services and then the inpatient being 3 months out, I went into freak-out mode.
Jason knows a guy who can perform ceremonies where they burn African Frog Pee into your skin. You can only get these from the jungles of Africa. They have tried to bring the frogs to America, but it doesn’t work. Something about the African ecosystem makes these frog’s pee do its thing. It apparently makes you swell up like crazy, meet God and then puke up all impurities in your body leaving you healed. There are other ceremonies that involve putting acid under your tongue. I had actually spoken to his wife about scheduling him to come out. Of course, there are medical marijuana options, too. I have true, fully loaded gummies straight from Colorado that someone brought to me in my closet. But, Holly is the kid who always gets drug tested, so I’m hesitant to do that. We did agree to the CBD oil massage and even purchased some from the herbalist.
Y’all. We’ve been desperate. I mean, yes, we believe in God. In fact, on the way to Scottish Rite, we stopped by the church to pray with our youth pastor before we went. We truly believe that God will heal Holly and that he has given the doctors wisdom. We also believe that he has created lots of things on Earth to help us help ourselves. So, yes. We of course began at the top. Our friends, family, and strangers have been interceding on our behalf as well. So, I do believe that prayer is effective. Scripture also is good. My friend, MaryAnn, sent me a ton of scripture cards that are easy to flip through- like index cards- with verses that are helpful. Another friend, Cindy, brought a devotional that I haven’t had much time to go through, but also a one page print out of lots of scripture that helps from going into that rabbit hole. So, yes. Start there. Bathe yourself in scripture and prayer. I’ll post more about this later.
Back to frog pee. No, we didn’t go there, but we were close. When I finally decided that I was the BOSS, I really took matters into my own hands. Here are some things that really do help:
Heat packs- not just the rice bags you put in the microwave. But, my friend, Georgia, makes a special type of heat pack with a special bean or rice or legume or something (she says it’s a secret) and adds some type of essential oil. It doesn’t smell, so I really don’t even know what she puts in them. But, they are nice and stay warm for a long time. She makes them and gifted them to us- so I don’t know how much they would be, but if you’re interested, I can ask her.
Cryotherapy is amazing. There is a place in Burleson C3 that does it and they have a NormaTec machine that uses air to compress and decompress the joints. So, you call this a “Freeze and Squeeze” treatment. We did the student package and ended up changing over into the month membership. You can do this therapy every single day. It cost $225/ month. Just a cryosession is $20.
Acupuncture- Gosh, y’all… you can sure get into a situation in acupuncture. The first place we went, it was $290 for the first initial evaluation. I had to think about that. I went to this other place, but there were homeless people all around and when the lady’s shopping cart fell over into the parking place I was about to pull into, I decided that wasn’t the place for us. There is a doctor, though, in Burleson. He is a board-certified chiropractor and acupuncturist. He’s not Chinese, but he’s super friendly and made Holly feel comfortable. His sessions are $65 and we did 2 last week and then once a week from here on out. He also has natural pain medicines.
Corydalis is an herbal supplement that acts like Hydrocodone. I took it to see what it was like and I just got silly. Holly took it instead of the Hydrocodone and said it worked great. I don’t know. I just know what she hasn’t taken opioids since. The acupuncturist sells them OTC in Burleson for $20 a bottle. Aleve is the generic of Naproxen and is a 12 hour release- take that instead of ibuprofen- it’s easier on your liver and lasts longer. Aspercreme with Lidocaine is the way to go for topical treatment and pain relief in specific muscle pain. Tumeric is also doctor approved- but, get the kind with black pepper in it because it aids in absorption.
Yoga is encouraged as part of physical therapy. We’ll go to the first session on Saturday at Cooks. There is a doctor that leads that and adjusts the poses for each kid based on their ailment. After we are comfortable and get stronger, we can also go to other places. The Cryo place actually has beer yoga. I saw it on a sign yesterday. I may not let Holly go to that, but Jason and I are overdue for date night. 🙂
The Spa Castle in Carrolton is ah-maz-ing. You can purchase day passes for $25 on Groupon right now. Print the passes and put them in your stockings. They are good through March. There are 9 or so saunas. We love the Himilayan Salt Room. The entire room is made of salt. We start there and stretch. Then, we find the most help with the charcoal sauna and the 24 karat gold room. The color therapy sauna and the ice room are pretty awesome, too. Then, you put on your swimsuit and go outside. There are hot tubs with all different sorts of jets in all different places. It’s hard to explain, but there are over a dozen hot tubs and the two big pools have 10 or so different types of stations. So, you just kind of rotate through them and get massages from all angles. There are also napping rooms. We utilized that after we had a yummy lunch at the Korean restaurant. Now, I will warn you: In the locker rooms, you have the option to bathe nude. There are 10 different tubs in each gender-specific locker room. You choose. We took full advantage of the spa. 🙂 When in Rome?
The foot detox is interesting. My mom purchased a machine. We’ve all detoxed. Meh. It looks interesting and all of us had different results. If you go to Island Massage in Burleson, you can get one for $40. Like I said, Meh. It seems a little hoaxy to me, but I firmly believe that if it works for you and you like it, do it! Or, order yourself one on Amazon- they are about $100. Tell Santa you want an Ionic Foot Detox machine!
Epsom salt baths are okay. If you have really sore muscles, though, try the muscle soak from Island Massage. It’s about $16 for a bag of bath salts. They aren’t crystally like most-it is more powdery. It’s a mix of Epsom salt, dead sea salt, evaporated sea salt, mineral salt, and “pure” essential oils. It feels so good! The smell permeates the entire room… so nice!
Bentonite Clay- an Indian clay- is awesome on rashes and poison ivy. I had forgotten about that, but my friend reminded me of it. I bought mine on Amazon for about $9. You mix it with Apple-Cider Vinegar and apply. You then let it do its thing and then wash it off. This hs helped Holly’s rash from the steroids. But seriously, it is the only thing I have found that works to dry out poison ivy- and y’all know how I get poison ivy!
Kagen water… IDK about that. We switched over to it for Holly. You get free refills at the C3 place. Does it work? I don’t know. They say it does. People are convinced. I’m sure it doesn’t hurt.
Massages- Myofascial massage therapy helps with the knots in Holly’s back. The muscles tense up like Charlie horses around the spine. That is where the majority of the pain is. Think about having a Charlie horse in your calf…. it hurts so bad… then, put that pain all over your lower back and mix sciatica with it. Poor girl. The massages help- even though we haven’t been able to go deep tissue yet. There is a lady that will come to your house for $80. When Holly was on bed rest, we had her come here. But, the other massages have been prescribed and insurance pays for them.
Diet- no sugar and limit dairy. Drink at least 80 ounces of water. Go gluten when you can. Green leafy vegetables. The ladies at C3 have me almost convinced to buy a juicer. Apparently, celery juice is the best for anti-inflammatory healing. I don’t know about that. Sounds gross. Unless you’re talking about adding it to a bloody mary mix… but that’s not really for Holly…
Sleep and meditation. There are several apps that you can get on your phone for meditation and sleep training. Holly has gone through a few of them and can tell you more about that. I’m too tired to need help falling asleep. They call this biofeedback therapy. Cooks gave us a handout of about a dozen options that they recommend. Some are “babyish” according to Holly- but it makes me think about teaching your kids to meditate and breathe. They recommend no naps for Holly (super bummer according to her) and to get 9 hours of sleep every night. No TV or phones- the white light distracts the brain from rest.
The next part is counterintuitive. Don’t talk about the pain. Don’t ask how she’s doing or what her pain is. Sounds weird, but it reminds her of the pain. That’s been my challenge. I have had to quit asking how she’s feeling and learn to observe her behaviors to gague where she’s at. Honestly, it’s been nice. It’s not that I don’t care, it’s because I do.
Education. We have to go to a class on using the tens unit properly. We have one and we just slap it on where it hurts. Yeah, that will work. There’s actually a way to target different muscles/ muscle families. Go figure. There’s also a way to get into and out of bed. There’s a way to go upstairs and get into and out of cars. I think we should all learn this.
So, she’s still on nerve block medicine and muscle relaxers- but we are in the process of switching them for a more appropriate adolescent medicine mix. If you have a kid in pain, for the love of God, see a pediatric specialist. I made the mistake of using an adult surgeon and main management doctor. They just don’t know. And, don’t just think that medicine and rest will help.
There are lots of things that you CAN do to help that are non-surgical and helpful. Do your research. Ask questions. Try things. I have talked to lots of people that have lots of ideas: Decompression, atlas orthogonal, PX9000, tapping, psychotherapy, 360 machines, etc… Make good decisions for yourself and your family. I’ll be happy to talk to you. I’ll be happy to share. Watching someone you love suffer is the worst. And, if you decide to try the African Frog Pee ceremony, there will be no judgment here.
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