Amanda's Blog

This post has been a year in the making…you may laugh because I haven’t actually posted anything in over a year, but anyhow, I really have been contemplating this post since last August:)  You see, it was last August that my (actually our family’s) journey with Essential Oils began.

I have two children with asthma.  My 2nd and 3rd child have had struggled with asthma since they were infants.  Now, there asthma was not “diagnosed” until they were a little older, and we actually never went through rigorous testing to call it asthma; it just became apparent from symptoms, treatment, and frequency of attacks that we called it asthma.  (That is such an ugly word to anyone who struggles with the dreaded disease!)  Well, my 3rd child was much more severe than my 2nd, and when he was around the age of 15 months, he would go from sniffles to retracting in 18 hours!  We began Pulmicort on him twice a day (a pretty hefty dose of 0.5 mL each time) and this kept his asthma manageable, and I was thankful!  However, one of the side effects of Pulmicort, which is a low dose steroid delivered to the lungs via nebulizer, is that it can stunt the growth of the child.  Within about 6 months, I did notice that this was happening…and I HATED it!  Don’t get me wrong…I was THANKFUL the medicine had controlled his asthma; I just hated what I knew and saw it was doing to his body.  I hated that I was putting something into my child’s body that was causing him to not grow like he should!  I hated that I was putting something into my child’s body that was not natural.  I hated giving him medicine EVERYDAY!!  I just wished his body would be whole without added medicine!  (I should also mention that he had been on a gluten free diet most all of his life and had also gone soy free at one year, and he also saw the chiropractor regularly from birth.)  I wanted him off the medicine so bad, but felt stuck!  I knew he had to have the medicine to breath, and I knew he had to breath to live.  I also felt that taking a low dose steroid everyday was better than a high dose steroid at his monthly attacks like he had done for 3 months prior to starting the Pulmicort.  I was TORN!!!

Well, fast forward 21 months to August of last year….

I had tried without success to get him off of the Pulmicort for several months.  I would take him down to once a day and a few times even get him completely off of it.  But, low and behold,  within two weeks, the ugly asthma would rear it’s head and then we would be on not only Pulmicort, but Albuterol also, and even have the fear of needing an oral steroid to rescue him from an attack.  It was so discouraging.  I got to brainstorming and had remembered an Essential Oils sample that a lady who sells Young Living had given me to try with my husband’s headaches.  I got to thinking that maybe, just maybe there was something out there for asthma, too.  I went to scurrying the internet, and found a blog about asthma and Essential Oils.  (I tried to link the blog, but it is no longer available.)  In the blog it talked about using Breathe Again to treat asthma.  I was skeptical, but hopeful at the same time.  It seemed too good to be true in my mind that I could get my son off of his daily nebulizer with a simple Essential Oil blend.  I didn’t know anyone personally at the time that had ever used Essential Oils, so I felt a little weird to even consider that it could help him.  Well, I took the plunge (and I say plunge because therapeutic grade oils aren’t cheap!) and bought a starter set with Young Living and a bottle Breathe Again.

Here’s where it gets really amazing!!!

I got the oils in on a Saturday (August 18th to be exact…I can remember the date because it was that big of a deal to me) and decided that it was all or nothing!  My son was in the middle of a cold when they arrived, and I was nervous to drop the Pulmicort cold turkey since he was already coughing a little, but I listened to my heart (not something I do very often) and took the plunge.  On that Saturday, I stopped doing breathing treatments. I began rubbing Breathe Again on his back and chest every morning and every night.  That’s it!  I didn’t really think it would work…. BUT IT DID WORK!!!!  To make a long story short (ha!  You all are probably thinking it’s too late, the story is already long:) we have been a full year with only one flare up this winter with a  nasty chest cold that required any treatments at all, and then I only used about 3 Pulmicort and 5 Albuterol treatments!  I cannot even put into words how amazing that is for my son.  He was chained to a nebulizer from the time he was 4 months old between Albuterol and Pulmicort to treat his asthma, and now he has gone a whole year with hardly any!  I am also happy to say that after being off of treatments for the past year, it seems that he is catching up some in his growth.  (He sure is eating us out of house and home…so he better be growing:)!

I tell this story mainly to help others who may be out there looking for another solution besides medicine.  I am not against medicine, but I do believe that if there is a natural way to treat or heal, then that is the better option for our bodies.

This is not my only amazing story with Essential Oils, but the one I am sharing with you today.  So, it is also because of this amazing, life-changing story that I have decided to start selling Young Living Essential Oils and helping others have healthier lives, too!  I am thankful to God for these oils and want others to experience the amazing ways the oils can help them as well.

If you would like to know more or have specific questions, please feel free to talk to me or email me at youngliving@amandaketchum.com.  Also, if you are interested in signing up with Young Living, I would love to have you on my team!  My member ID is 1497647.  Just put that number in the “Sponsor ID” and “Enroller ID” spots.  I am glad to answer any questions that you may have about Young Living or Essential Oils.  (If I know the answer, of course!  If I don’t, maybe I can find it on the internet:))

You may wonder about my 2nd child and her asthma.  That will be another post, another day, but I will suffice it now to say that when we travel we almost leave the nebulizer at home:)  I have to say almost, because I am too superstitious to actually leave it.  I just know that the first time I travel without it, I will need it and not have it!  Maybe someday…