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.