Ok, this is a YUUUUGE non-scale victory for both of us. I will try to keep it short, but for you to completely understand the enormity, I do want to elaborate a bit.
Several years ago, while still eating carbs and seed oils, my husband developed what the doctors could only diagnose as some kind of psoriasis. Sometimes it was on the trunk of his body, but mostly the worst place was his hands. It literally became debilitating. And excruciatingly painful. He gave his guitar to our granddaughter because he could no longer play. He would ask me to button his shirts for him because of the pain and swelling in his fingers. He had to stop working in his woodworking shop building things and fixing up our house which we had just moved into because he couldn’t grip a hammer, a drill, or any other kind of tool. He couldn’t even drive because it was too painful to touch the steering wheel. And when the worst outbreaks happened, he would wear white cotton gloves to church to hide the oozing cracks and protect his hands from the “vice grip” hand shakers (I confess, those even hurt MY hands!). One little lady who was would always go around before service to shake everybody’s hands, spotted the gloves one time and said, “Oh, I see you’re one of THOSE people, so I won’t shake your hand.” I think she deduced that he was a “germaphobe” like Adrian Monk and was afraid of germs. But he was grateful for the pass.
The “before” pictures were taken in 2009 on the day we celebrated our granddaughter’s 5th birthday with a roller skating party. It was one of the outbreaks that was all over his torso in the form of a raised, blister-like rash, AND the hands shown below. He was in such pain that day that afterwards I took him to Urgent Care and they gave him some prescription strength cream and I think some steroids. Which, of course, always made his skin even THINNER and more prone to cracking. That was their “treatment” for years and years. And it continued to get worse.
UNTIL KETO.
When we started on the low-carb way of eating in March, 2018, even though our weight was changing, lots more IMPORTANT things were also changing. This was caused by both carbs AND my cooking with “healthy” seed oils like canola, corn oil, vegetable oil, Crisco, and margarine. It literally causes wall to wall inflammation in all areas of your innards. It was really hard to change my mindset to using only natural ingredients in which to cook, like coconut, avocado, and olive oils, butter, and even bacon grease and LARD! GASP!
His hands began to gradually improve, but what takes YEARS to mess up, can take YEARS to fix. The last three (“after”) pictures were just taken yesterday, September 12, 2021. And I can vouch for the fact that his hands feel baby soft (that will probably embarrass him!). He got his guitar back from our granddaughter who was only too thrilled that he could actually play it again! He has been building beautiful things for our house. He buttons his own buttons, and LOVES to drive Watson around on adventures. I think he still has some of those leftover white cotton gloves. Somewhere. But he hasn’t had to wear them in a long, long time.
One more thing, and we MUST not forget this one. Even though Keto was the physical and practical thing we did to fix our messed-up health, we were definitely led to it by God. We know it. We simply obeyed His leading. And at one point during that journey, I anointed his hands with oil and prayed that God would “complete the work he had begun” in my husband by totally and completely healing his hands. AND GOD DESERVES 100% OF ALL THE GLORY for this. You may or may not believe in such a thing as healings from God, but we have lived through too many of them NOT to. We know that when it happens we must give Him the glory, no matter how He chose to do it!
BEFORE:
AFTER:
#lowcarbjc