Overcoming Again: The Next Step

On April 11th, I was asked by Mia's doctors at Tufts to share her story at a presentation they were giving to 50 international doctors (dentists, TMJ docs, orthopedists, rheumatologists, cranial facial pain management docs) on a case study - our daughter. It was an incredible experience - one that this mother will never forget.  To come SO FAR - all the STRUGGLES, all the TEARS, all the PERSEVERANCE, TRUSTING GOD the whole way - and then to finally see results AND AVOID A PROCEDURE! It was amazing. 

Her doctors presented first and then asked me to present and share with share what Mia went through from the very beginning, focusing on how we avoided a steroid injection to Mia's jaw. Basically, I put the past seven years (all the flares and all the steroid injections) into a 10 minute Powerpoint presentation and talked about how we used doTERRA's essential oils to help improve Mia's jaw. Many of you remember she dislocated her jaw twice last September because of the arthritis. Now, she can open her mouth wide, without any pain. It was a great story to be able to share with all of those doctors. 

At the end of our presentation, Mia's doctors asked her to dance to show the other doctors how great her joints are now. The doctors stood up at the end and clapped for Mia. Such a great moment for HER! For our family, this was another miracle - an opportunity provided to us by God. We are so thankful and will never forget it!!

Today, we met with Mia's rheumatologist. When she walked into the room, Mia asked her if she could show her one of her dance routines. When she was done, the doctor was so impressed that she jokingly said to us, "Well, I think her exam is over!!" 

After reviewing Mia's current medication, methotrexate, we shared with her about using the essential oils to reduce the inflammation and help heal her jaw. The rheum was very impressed and was happy that the oils were helping Mia's body. 

After doing routine physical exam on Mia's joints, she told us the good news: Mia is in remission and we can start weaning her OFF methotrexate! We are soooooo happy! Mia has been on MTX for the past 15 months. Currently, she is not on any NSAIDs anymore (we stopped those last July) and we were able to get her off Zofran by using doTERRA's peppermint and lavender before her shot. The nights I have forgotten to use the oils, she has gotten sick and thrown up. Now, we never forget the oils on shot night. They help her in so many ways!

Technically, Mia has already started to wean off of methotrexate. Since November 2012, she has been on a weekly dose of .4ml (10mg). Mia has gone through a growth spurt since then and should be on an increased dosage because of her height and weight, but we never had to increase her medication - we never needed to. Now, we will start to wean her by decreasing her medication to .3ml (7.5mg) each week. We meet with the rheum three months from now, and if everything looks good, we will decrease her med to .2ml (5mg) and so on and so forth. We are heading towards the goal of getting our daughter off all medication. It is an awesome feeling! 

The rheum also decreased the frequency of Mia's visits to check for uveitis. While Mia is ANA+, she has never gotten uveitis in her eyes (thank you, God!). We have taken her to get checked every three month since she was diagnosed at 22 months old. Now that she is 8 years old, her risk has greatly decreased to get uveitis. So, her check-ups have gone from every three months to ever six months. 

We are overcoming again! The road has not been an easy one, but little by little and step-by-step we have made it this far and are thankful to God for guiding and directing our steps along the way. We are so grateful to Him for what He has done for Mia and for providing us with the "tools" to help control the inflammation in her body!

"You changed my mourning into DANCING. You took off my funeral clothes and dressed me up in joy so that my WHOLE BEING might sing praises to you and never stop. Lord, my God, I will give thanks to you forever." - Psalm 30:11-12

For more information about these essential oils by doTERRA, or to hear more amazing testimonies of how the oils are helping others, please visit my Facebook page: Living Healthy with Essential Oils by Dana Del Turco #566586 or you can email me at livinghealthydelturco@gmail.com.

Miracles DO Happen!

Yesterday, Mia and I went to Boston for another appointment at Tufts Craniofacial Pain Center to see the TMJ Arthritis doctor. What we thought was going to be a regular check-up, turned out to be a huge victory for our family!

Backing up a bit...last July, Mia's rheumatologist noticed her jaw had gotten worse and arthritis had set in. We were devastated. Her doctor said the rest of her body looked fantastic, but she was very concerned about her jaw. So, in August she ordered an MRI to be done on her jaw and we had a panoramic ultrasound done at the pediatric dentist's office. Both the MRI and x-ray showed inflammation on both sides, the right worse than the left, and the damage the arthritis was starting to do to her jaw. This all happened the day before we left for Michigan to see my family. I remember sitting outside a store when I got the call from the rheumatologist that she would need to have another steroid injection...this time into her jaw. This would have been Mia's 8th surgery. Fear once again tried to set in, but I immediately gave it to God. Every concern, every fear, every "why?" and "How did this happen?" to God, casting all my cares on Him because He cares for us (1 Peter 5:7). 

In mid-September, while eating a tuna fish sandwich for lunch, her jaw dislocated - not just once, but twice. She was in an excruciating amount of pain as her jaw locked and she could not open it. Immediately, she and I prayed together, casting our cares on Him. 

We scheduled an appointment to meet with the TMJ arthritis doctor. At the first appointment, they measured her jaw to see how wide she could open it and she was at 27mm, which is not very wide. So, they made a mouthguard for her to wear at night and one for during the day. 

Around the same time, we started using natural medicine - doTERRA's essential oils - on her jaw every night before bed. I applied doTERRA's Deep Blue, Wintergreen and Frankincense to her jaw joints on both sides and then applied it under her jawline. The doctors made a note that I was also using natural medicine and wrote down the names of the essential oils I had started using on Mia's jaw.

Mia's procedure to have her jaw injected was scheduled for October and I canceled the procedure. I didn't feel like we were supposed to do it. Not this time. I felt like we were supposed to do things differently this time around and give natural medicine a chance, which is the opposite of what we have EVER done. We have ALWAYS done steroid injections when there was a flare in her joints.

For two months, we continued to apply what I now call "Mia's Arthritis Blend" to her jaw every night before bed. By December, the doctors noticed the improvement in her jaw. They measured her jaw again and she was at 31mm wide. And, Mia's pain was less and less. You could barely hear the "popping" in her jaw anymore and it didn't bother her to open her mouth...wide! 

In February, we went to see the pediatric dentist for a routine teeth cleaning and he did another panoramic x-ray of Mia's jaw. He came back into the room and said to me, "What did you do? What did you use on her jaw? Because I saw the inflammation and the damage from the arthritis in her x-ray last August and if you came in here today and told me this child has arthritis in her jaw, I would have to tell you, 'There is absolutely no way.' There is no arthritis in her jaw!"

Which brings me to yesterday's appointment with the TMJ arthritis doctor. They measured her jaw and she can now open her jaw to 40mm with no problem at all! There is no pain and no popping! Her jaw is healed!! 

And then, the doctors tell me the BIG news: this Friday, April 11th, they are doing a presentation at Tufts called "Management of TMD and JRA Pediatric Population: A Case Study on Mia Del Turco" and 50 doctors are flying in from the Middle East, China, Europe and South America for the presentation. Mia's doctors are going to be showing all the pictures they have documented along the way on her jaw and tell them how we have been using doTERRA's essential oils for pain management and healing for Mia's jaw!! They even asked me to email them all of her flare pictures in her other joints to show to the doctors during the presentation and they asked to do a very impromptu video of me telling our story so they can show it to the doctors who will be there: 

They are going to send me a copy of the presentation when it is over for our own records. We are SO EXCITED!!! And then, the appointment got even better: the doctors told us they are going to start weaning her off the mouthguards because she doesn't need them anymore. 

As we were getting ready to leave, one of the doctors pulled me aside and said, "Mrs. Del Turco, I want to let you know the child psychologist came to our last meeting and commented that she sees so many children diagnosed with diseases who are emotionally damaged because of what they are going through. The psychologist told us, 'Not this child. It speaks volumes of the parents that they did not allow their child to become scarred and emotionally destroyed because of a diagnosis.'" This blessed me so much! I told the doctor, "Because of our faith in God, Mia is the way she is today." And then, I had the opportunity to share with her our testimony and video from this past weekend at New England Women's Convention, of how the doctors said Mia would not be able to dance and she danced. After sharing this with her, she started to cry and thanked me for sharing this with her. 

Mia's life is a testimony of what God can do! The last seven years have not been easy and we have had many disappointments and challenges along the way, but we always trusted God, even during the storms when we didn't understand and when what we were seeing in the natural with her joints was very scary. But, out of difficulties, miracles DO happen! Our family is living proof of this!! 

"But I thank God, who always leads us in VICTORY because of Christ. Wherever we go, GOD USES US to make clear what it means to know Christ. It’s like a fragrance that fills the air." 
2 Corinthians 2:14 

For more information about these essential oils by doTERRA, or to hear more amazing testimonies of how the oils are helping others, please visit my Facebook page: Living Healthy with Essential Oils by Dana Del Turco #566586 or you can email me at livinghealthydelturco@gmail.com.