Closing a Chapter

I haven’t posted an update on my son; Gabe’s, health in awhile. I’ve been working plus here in Minnesota we’ve had the snow-pocalypse with many, many snow days!
He has been doing really well. Awesome. He was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis a couple months ago. He was feeling nauseous whenever he got hungry, tried to eat more than a few bites, just in general. We had an endoscopy and a lot of testing done (buh-bye tax return!). It’s basically an auto-immune, allergic reaction that occurs in the esophagus. Like he could be reacting to pet dander in the air and it affects his esophagus. Weird, right? My husband, his mom and his brother all have it, though.
We’ve been treating his skin with light therapy though and I believe it is improving his general health. By light therapy I mean tanning. It’s controversial though, so I like to refer to it as “light therapy” 😉 We bought special bulbs that have UVA, UVB and red light for a super healing therapy. We do a few minutes a day. His skin is almost entirely clear. It’s amazing, it really is. He is sleeping at the night and getting up all on his own in the morning. I never thought I’d see the day.
His E.O. (eosinophilic esophagitis) symptoms have gotten way better since we’ve started the light therapy. There’s currently some great theories about the light interacting with mitochondria and energizing at the cellular level- real interesting stuff. What I do know for sure is that tanning beds are a great way to maximize your vitamin D levels. Having high vitamin D naturally modulates the immune system. It calms inflammation and promotes healing.

And the results on his worst area- his hands.  After just a month or so of light treatment. He’s doing wonderful, and I am so thankful. I was sharing all this on my steroid withdrawal group on facebook. Well, it’s not “my” group but was very active on there for two years so I was pretty involved. The responses were pretty mixed. That’s fine, whatever. You don’t have to agree with me. But another person was posting a lot about his wife’s success with tanning and…how to even put this…? A few people in the group lashed out at him with unbelievable vitriol. This guy was just trying to help. He wasn’t trying to sell anything. But the response was just so ugly. So disheartening. I ended up leaving the group that I had poured so much of my heart in for the past two years.

Maybe it was just time to go. After going through something so traumatic as we went through, seeing the photos people post in there (of raw, oozing skin) just brings back all those feelings. The dread, the fear, the desperation. I know a lot of people have to distance themselves after they have healed because of issues with P.T.S.D. I’d have rather left on good terms, though.
You just see this ugliness wherever you look. Especially online, when people feel especially emboldened to be nasty and hateful. It is getting increasingly hard to avoid the growing hostility in our culture.
“But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good,treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God–having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people.” 2 Timothy 3:1-5
You don’t have to go very far to see this playing out.
I think the last sentence should come as a huge relief to believers. We are supposed to shine our lights, yes. But we are not called to put up with abuse. We can and should remove ourselves from toxic situations and people.
Just within the past few weeks I realized I had stopped getting new podcasts from my favorite preacher- Pastor James Macdonald. There had been some kind of scandal that played out that brought an end to his radio broadcasts. I’ve been listening to him preach, and benefiting from his ministry, since 2007. I just didn’t believe it. I did a little digging and it sounded like some disgruntled former employees were just hell-bent on stirring up dissension. They didn’t like how things were done so they didn’t just leave- they are trying to destroy him and his ministry. It’s sad, it’s unjust. Please pray that he is vindicated and restored.
There is so much negativity and darkness permeating our world. You can not exist without wadding through the “mud” and being affected by it all. I just pray that Christ would strengthen our hearts to shine brighter. To be kinder. To overcome the darkness with good.

Social Media O.D.

I sat shaking while drinking my coffee this morning.

I had left a comment on my local news station about a local story.  I was just trying to offer an alternative view.  It inspired a dirge of negativity and name calling.  Wow.  Not a good wow.  Just a wow. 

The internet provides a medium for people to make quick judgements and be downright nasty with a level of anonymity not previously afforded.  My husband compares it to people driving in their cars.  You probably wouldn’t cut someone off (budge in line) at your local grocery store.  But people feel empowered in their cars to act brazenly in ways they wouldn’t in a face to face setting.

There is a name for this phenomenon- trolls.  People who are bored and nasty just for the sake of being nasty.

I also think in this age of instant news and all the negativity it inspires that kind of behavior.  People are so angry.  It’s why I basically stopped following most of the news and politics.  It gave me a ball in the pit of my stomach and filled me with anger.  It just wasn’t healthy.  It was fostering an “us verses them” mentality that isn’t conducive to being a Christian and loving your neighbor.

Another problem I run into is that people use social media to market and sell.  Now, nothing wrong with that, in a sense.  But it means that a lot of the hype you see just isn’t real.  “I AM SO HAPPY AND FULLFILLED SELLING LEGGINGS TO MY FRIENDS!  ERMAGOSH!  HERE’S ME ON A YACHT IN FRANCE!”  or “GUYS!  I AM SO THRILLED THIS CREAM SIMULTANEOUSLY FILLED MY BANK ACCOUNT, RID ME OF CELLULITE, AND I LOST 20 POUNDS!!!  I CAN’T STOP GRINNING, GUYS!”

It’s only a slight exaggeration.

I recently befriended another young mom at a park.  We connected on facebook and she was instantly trying to sell me stuff.  I eventually just stopped talking to her because it was awkward.  I wanted to be her friend, not her next costumer.

I have to confess in over-using social media.  Ok, just facebook.  I’m not cool enough for Instagram and I’m obviously too wordy for twitter.  My excuse is that I’ve been mostly housebound for months with my very sick child.  That and my closest friend, who literally used to live down the street, has moved a 90 minute drive away.

I think a lot of use (er…miss-use) social media to fill in the gaps in our lives.  We get lonely, or sad, or anxious….and those feelings suck so we block it out by scrolling away on our social feed.  The problem is- there is a lot of nastiness out there.  Trolls gonna troll.  People are trying to sell you stuff.  The whole thing rings hollow and leaves you feeling empty.

So what to do?  In my typical extreme fashion, I’ve seriously contemplated deleting my 9 year old Facebook account.  But it is how I stay in touch with my siblings, who I rarely see in person.  It’s how my sweet Grandma gets to see my kids and our shenanigans every day.

I need to find some kind of balance.  I’m guessing I’m not alone in this.  I need to figure out a way to get the good out of my social media usage (and there is good to be had) while skimming over and minimizing the bad.

Social media is a tool.  The problem comes when we try to make it more than that.

I’m going to consciously limit my time indulging in social media.  I’m going to listen to the radio more.  I’m going to set some goals (even within the walls of my home, where I’m currently spending most of my time).  I’m going to do things that feed my soul so I’m not looking to social media to meet a need that it just can’t.