Patient Testimonials
One late night in January of 2006, I emailed a desperate note to a naturopathic physician, who I had found online while searching for alternative medicine for my son Ryan. As luck or fate would have it, Dr. Eli Camp emailed me back the very next day. Our journey together began that day, and probably will continue throughout our lives because Dr. Camp is a healer, a genuine healer that puts her entire self into your shoes, your life, and does not settle for anything less than your being cured. This is our story…
My first son Ryan was a feisty baby who didn’t like to make eye contact or sleep, loved to bang his body around and eat endlessly. He rarely liked to be held, cuddled or consoled and he could stretch out straight and strong, and stand with support, after only 4 weeks. He sat up on his own at 4 months, walked at 8 months and literally ran at 9 months. Along with his seemingly mature physical ability, came no consistent sleep and an energy level that far surpassed mine or his father’s. Eczema first appeared when he was only 3 months old.
Ryan was always tall and strong for his age, and aggressive in his play. At 2 Ryan learned his alphabet and his numbers, yet he had only 4 words – one being ‘no!’ When his pediatrician asked him to say his alphabet at his two year old check up – he said it backwards! He could write both uppercase and lowercase letters at 2 1/2 years, and in fact that’s about all he drew – letter after letter, same pattern, same style. His speech finally arrived in phrases around his 39th month and his sentences finally came by the time he was 4. Autism or autistic spectrum were words that floated around often. His eczema was held at bay using many ointments and medications.
By 3 ½ years old Ryan still was not sleeping through the night. His social awkwardness, no regard or understanding of social rules or norms, lack of speech, hyperactivity and aggression was disrupting his school, as well as other social, even family occasions. Joining play groups, co-existing without incident in any group any where, and gathering with family and his cousins was one anxious experience after another. Everyone had their opinion of Ryan, and it usually was surmised as his being spoiled, crazy, undisciplined, and even just a bad seed that his parents didn’t recognize as such. No one ever realized I stayed up nights researching, reading and asking questions of everyone supposedly educated enough to help me. No one ever considered that this was beyond anyone’s control and that despite Ryan’s seemingly nonchalant reaction to things, that he too was troubled by his own behaviors. Some helped was offered finally when his school district coded him a Developmental Delay and gave him time with an OT and Speech Therapist each day. They also labeled him with Sensory Integration Dysfunction [which explained the mysteries such as at 3 when he screamed in pain as his hands were put in shaving cream]. His OT used the The Wilbarger Deep Pressure and Proprioceptive Technique for almost 2 years which helped Ryan tremendously as ‘touch’ played less and less a role in his life. He would finally go to others, and hug and show affection without hurting others or running the other way.
While the help from school was wonderful, sleep had still not come to our house, and Ryan’s behaviors grew more into a problem as even the most typical school rules, were difficult for him to follow. Sitting in circle time should have been easier, but it was not. Joining his cousins playing should have been easier, but it wasn’t, and other’s patience with him grew even more diminished because he “should have grown out of this by now!” My anxiety grew to new limits as taking Ryan any where often resulted in adults rolling their eyes and whispering, and kids running away from him,
We moved on to other specialists and when Ryan was 4 he tested positive for dust mites and pollens. His allergist told me he also had cough variant asthma and acid reflux as well and sent us home with bags of inhalers, oral meds and topical meds – all that were supposed to contribute to his sleeping, reducing eczema and overall helping him cope with his body inside and out. Right up until this time, I had insisted to many of his doctors that certain foods played a role in Ryan’s skin and behavior, but since he tested negative for foods through IgE testing, his allergists, dermatologists and pediatrician dismissed my accounts and wrote me even more prescriptions. Making a long story short, from ages 1-6, Ryan had been prescribed tens and tens of drugs and had been also taking many over the counter drugs for his allergies, eczema and/or asthma. While I hated every one of those drugs and all their side effects, I didn’t know what else to do to clear up his skin, stop his constant cough, and allow him much needed sleep at night.
In December of 2005 all Ryan’s prescriptions stopped working. Plenty had stopped working earlier, but by swapping products and using intermittently, we were able to manage Ryan’s symptoms well enough. But suddenly the eczema came to his face for the first time since under 12 months old. Then it moved all over his body taking on a life of its own. Medications did nothing. His doctors wanted to make the prescriptions stronger, and add more to his already crazy regimen. Ryan did not react to meds in a typical way, if at all. His skin had lost its pigment in places where eczema was the worst, his skin turned leathery, scaly, dry, tight and cracked, and his sensitivities to chemicals and his environment was worsening. One month later, after a trip up north in the winter, we swam in an indoor heated pool and when he got out, Ryan was covered in raised red rashes and flared eczema. He could not stop itching. He could not sleep. His doctors threw their hands up and suggested at this point, it was stress making him so sick. No one wanted to tackle Ryan’s case. And thus, our current 2 year journey of painful skin, incessant itch, sleeplessness and sensory overload began anew.
Ryan has been on so many meds [up to 6 oral and topical at any given time], and to get us where? To a time where he can’t enjoy the beach. his pool or sweating without crying? A time when going to bed made him so anxious – he called it his bad half of the day, because he knew he would itch and writhe for hours on end? A time when taking a bath would result in screaming from the burn on his skin. With so many variables - sensory, sleep, food and environmental allergies, it was my greatest hope that a doctor think outside the box and not send me away telling me he has severe ‘atopic dermatitis’ and only an armful of meds can help alleviate the pain. Ryan’s issues were simply more complex than that diagnosis yet no one could see him as I did. I was looking for someone to see all of Ryan, take his whole history into consideration and move forward with tests/diagnoses to find the true cause for such discomfort in my beautiful son. Most of all, to find someone that wouldn’t dismiss him as a bad boy or me as a bad mother.
That was the month we sought help from a Naturopathic doctor. Dr. Camp was the first doctor who listened to my every word. She understood that his whole history, every little thing mattered in getting to this place we now found ourselves in. Immediately she suspected foods played a huge role, and when we took dairy, eggs and peanuts from his diet, Ryan was sleeping through the night within three days for the first time in his life. In our 22 months of Naturopathic care, we have seen many ups and downs, but in my heart, I know that this was indeed the right path, and that we are forever indebted to Dr. Camp for her love, knowledge and persistence.
Just in the last two months, Ryan has been able to swim in our pool again, he sleeps most nights, and is excelling in school and athletics. No more do I wait for that call from his teacher, the behavior specialist of the principal, and he beams with pride to tell me his day was fantabulous! His eyes are the kind of bright that is new to us…his skin is healing and we can’t get enough of his cuddles and love….he is less sensitive to his environment and smiles in a way that sends you to the moon and back. Ryan is in the best place he has been due to Dr. Camp, and while our journey continues, I cannot tell you the relief and hope she has brought to my family.
The Sherman Family
New Hampshire
