Health in layers – like an onion

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Back in March 2014, my dad, who had dealt with his Parkinson’s diagnosis for nearly 13 years was nearing the end of his rope. He had chronic back problems, with scoliosis and a 55-degree tilt causing him to shy away from even his most beloved activities because of the constant, excruciating pain.

As we documented this summer, dad found some relief in his work with Dr. DeMartino. As important as the relief was, the feeling of hope in knowing there was something my dad could actively be doing to improve his quality of life was and remains equally as valuable (something he heard nothing about from his doctors at Kaiser).

Earlier today, he received the results of his second set of blood work from Dr. DeMartino, who did a draw at the beginning of my dad’s process back in May. The marker that showed up differently this time indicated an infection in my dad’s kidney. The fascinating thing about that information was that it didn’t show up a few months ago, and nothing in my dad’s recent history would suggest him getting an infection between May and now. However, he did have kidney stones back in the mid-90’s and had a very powerful and disruptive sonic blast treatment that broke up the stones (and almost certainly damaged his kidney, too). Dr. DeMartino suggested that some of my dad’s back pain and the scoliosis itself could well be tied to this infection. The fact that this infection wasn’t even on the map previously due to all the other things my dad was dealing with (pancreas in crisis, mercury levels off the chart, etc.) suddenly made sense. The body can only deal with so many fires at once. The idea that we have layers of health, source or core problems that manifest in other ways than are directly evident is fascinating.

“It’s like an onion,” Dr. DeMartino said, with a smile. “Like Shrek.”

 This immediately gave Dr. DeMartino a new course to work with for my dad and my dad some interesting food for thought. He’d known about his low white blood cell count for some time (indicative of an infection), but hadn’t received any assistance on where it might be. It’s clear my dad has peeled back some layers of disease from himself already, literally in the extra weight as well as the heavy metal toxicity buildup internally. The idea that he could peel back another and, perhaps another yet, to get closer to the core health of his being is fascinating and quite hopeful.