Day 8 P.M. - Low Key Sunday

Sunday was one of our most quiet days here yet.  Only a lymphatic treatment to attend at noon and then a lecture with Gary in the evening.  It was just as well as Tammy was feeling a bit down today with some headaches and heavy legs that made walking difficult.

Tammy's overall condition here has not changed much from when we arrived, which is neither surprising, nor disappointing.  We seem to have slowed down the progression of symptoms that she experienced over the course of this past summer as she has been basically about the same level of functioning now for a couple of weeks since we slowed the detox efforts.  Tammy's doing a detox here throughout the first 10 day program, however, we now have the benefit of the process being managed by LVS, as well as use of supplementation (including much more protein in the form of daily shakes).

There are days where she's a bit more energetic, and other days when she's less energetic, but overall, she's leveled out for now and that's a positive step!  We know that in the process ahead of us, she can expect to have more down days as we continue to manage a detox protocol over the next 6 to 24 months, but it should be more controlled than what we've done on our own this summer : )  We also know that the path ahead is full of promise for better days eventually!

The lymphatic massage treatment was given today by Robyn.  This treatment is based on work done by a Dr. Vodder and involves moving lymphatic fluid throughout the body by very gently massaging the lymph vessels.














The lymphatic system is one of the major waste elimination systems in the body but, unlike the circulatory system, it has no pump.  Exercise and breathing are what help lymph move around in the body, but a sedentary lifestyle means the lymphatic system can get clogged.   This treatment is intended to give the lymphatic system a bit o' help, at least with the vessels located near the surface of the skin.  Tammy's mobility and ability to exercise have been seriously limited for many months now, so we were happy enough to include this treatment in our program!

The treatments lasted about an hour in total with Robyn eventually massaging just about the entire body surface.  Interestingly, she began the massage by rubbing a number of essential oils into the soles of Tammy's feet, then later also rubbed some of these oils along her spine and over her liver (Robyn thought the skin there looked a bit yellow...)  The oils included helichrysum, peppermint, basil, oregano, rosemary, juniper, wintergreen, marjoram and cypress; with that mix of oils, I kept watch over the first part of the process to make sure she wasn't going to try to slip Tammy into some kind of giant oven!



The evening's lecture - the last one of the program - was titled Meal Planning Part 2 and Gary shared some dietary 'best practices', per research and LVS' experience over the years.  He emphasized that breakfast should be our biggest meal of the day and supper should be our lightest.  He also discussed the relative needs for protein, fat and carbohydrate as well as discussing dietary sources of vitamins and minerals and supplementation, where necessary.  As usual with Gary, there were tons of super-interesting and dramatic stories of successes and even failures that helped illustrate the points he was making and also helped explain how LVS has come to their current dietary approach, which has evolved over the years.

After the lecture, Gary stayed behind with Tammy and I to discuss her condition and care.  He's not our naturopath here, of course, but as the head of LVS he does consult with other naturopaths with most of their clients, where they feel it's helpful.  Gary's going to try to arrange for Tammy to see a biological dentist in Brisbane this week to give an opinion on what impact Tammy's 'crossbite' may have on her health.  He also brought out another 'tool' to help Tammy's bowels move regularly (colonics and special capsules they use here haven't done the trick as yet...).  This 'big gun' is a sachet of herbs/fibre/bacteria (?) packaged for Nutrition Diagnostics that he mixed in water and had Tammy drink... results TBD!

Gary is also going to sit in on our consult with Toby Monday at noon, so we'll be able to further discuss treatment options for the next program at that time.  Tammy is not going to be doing the detox during the next program - she's pretty jazzed about getting to eat the rest of our time here!