Chapter 3: Jason’s Triumphs and Struggles

Welcome to Chapter 3 of the Blog Series Journeys to Health!

This week on Journeys to Health, we discuss Jason’s triumphs and struggles. No two days are likely to be the same while you’re on your journey.
There will be ups and downs along the way, but you will always be supported through those triumphs and struggles. As a holistic practitioner,
Nancy not only strives to get you on the right path, but also help build your confidence to learn as much as you can to help maintain your course
to health. If you veer off course and can’t figure it out on your own, she is always there to help guide you back to optimal health.

Nancy: I believe I was pretty clear with you in the beginning that this was not going to be an overnight fix for you. Organs and tissue had to
heal and your body had to regenerate. You really hung in there though and I was very proud of you. How long do you think it took, once we
started the program, for all the original issues to feel more manageable – that there was a resolution coming?

Jason: I think I went through cycles. I initially hit this high that you were going to help me and have a solution to the problem. Then I started
the journey of treating this from a natural perspective and it was a natural tendency to want that instant gratification. I think rapid symptom
solution is possible in terms of solving the symptoms from a western medicine perspective, but I don’t think you ever actually get to the root of
the problem with quick fixes. You advised me repeatedly that this would be a journey to go through. I think it was several months before
we started to see things take effect – I think over all probably a year and a half. I finally got to the point where I was very confident I was
getting better even though I couldn’t see inside my body, but I am very confident that it is.

Christie: I think what he’s trying to say is that, there’s highs and lows in a journey. You receive a level of success and then you have a bad day
and think ‘ oh my god, I thought I was all better.’ Not being used to a more natural approach or different thinking, those lows were like, ‘Is this
working Am  I going to be ok?’ But I’ve never seen anybody more committed in my life than this guy. I think he’s more committed than I
am, and I grew up in the natural and holistic community.

Nancy: Yeah, when you think of a 10 year old with reflux . . . something is not right there. And to be 31 when you started the program,
waiting 1.5-2 years for results versus 20 something years of dysfunction?  What people don’t realize is with that level of dysfunction and
tissue that was destroyed, it takes time for the body to renew itself. Your body had to initially stop that process of destruction and find
the strength to start to heal. When you think about it from that perspective, 1.5 years to resolve, that’s fantastic! And you’re absolutely
right Jason, to most Americans, we’re so used to taking things and suppressing a bunch of symptoms. When you’re as far down the road
as you were with illness, you must work and be patient to really come back to a place where you’re whole again.

Jason: I think it’s also important to note the side effects of the drugs I had been on for so long. With the use of drugs, it’s not the side
effects that are the real issue, it’s the unseen damage. I don’t believe your body is meant to process synthetic drugs on a long-term basis.
You may be fixing a symptom or exacerbating the root of the problem, or even creating other problems – you just don’t really know.
Taking a more holistic approach is a bit more challenging, but I know the outcome is going to benefit me in the long term versus that quick fix.