An inspirational healing journey
by Sarah Govind
This story takes us on a journey back to September 2019 when Neha Paul was going through a difficult period in her life, caught in the struggles of looking after a child with severe eczema. Her son was covered from head to toe with large hot red patches across the front of his body. The redness extended across his face and scalp and the back of his neck was oozing and crusty.
She was in need of help and relief but wherever she turned was getting nowhere. She was surrounded by people giving opinions on how she should fix her son’s skin. They had little if any understanding of her family life or what it feels like to be a mother of a child with eczema.
She had visited doctors and had at first taken their advice and applied topical steroids. When the cream did not have the desired effect, the conversation turned to progressing onto oral steroids. This reaction baffled her and she stopped right there in her tracks.
“When they start suggesting that ‘this is not how it should be, the skin should be clear and so you should take more steroids’, that didn’t make sense to me. I have to stop right here and I need to understand what’s going on because I can’t just blindly follow what they are saying”.
The doctors she had seen could not explain why her son’s skin was covered with eczema or where it had come from. They could not supply her with the answers to her questions and answers were
what she needed more than anything else! She was not going in the direction she had hoped to and her son’s eczema was getting worse and worse.
Continuing down the steroid path was not an option for Neha. She asked herself where she could find guidance on what to do.
“I was getting nowhere with my son’s eczema. I didn’t know what to do or where to start from.”
It was around this time that a friend of hers pointed her in the direction of the Eczema Expert Facebook group and suggested that she join and take a look around. Neha did as her friend suggested and was pleased with what she found. It was refreshing to read so much information on natural healing. Now she could actually make an informed choice on what direction she should take in order to heal her son’s skin.
“Instinctively, when I read so many different topics, I was like no, I really need it, I really need the membership to make myself feel better!”
Rebecca Bonneteau’s approach felt like a good fit for her. Her gut feeling was that she should go for it and In October 2019, she became a Caterpillar member.
Almost immediately after she had joined, she was added to a private Facebook community group where she could ask questions and receive moral support and practical advice from other members.
“I could ask so many questions in the group and there were people replying back. For example I remember when I just started and my son’s skin started weeping all of a sudden. I posted in the group and so many people replied. That was really helpful from the beginning of the journey.”
There were many other features of Caterpillar membership there for Neha to explore and she dived in and made the most of these. But if you had seen her at this point, you would have been confronted with a huge mix of emotions. She listened to other people’s conversations in Group Support Calls but was reduced to tears when she heard them talking about their experiences. Feelings of frustration were never far away and a host of questions were whirring around in her mind. She found the group calls to be particularly beneficial as an outlet for these questions and as a way to get those much needed answers.
“I remember I used to ask so many questions and not just about his eczema, but in general. You could ask an array of questions to Rebecca. The way she used to answer them made total sense.”
The calls were a great mixture of support, answers and other people’s experiences. Sometimes she would ask questions specific to what was on top of her head at the time, such as, ‘How can I make him feel better when he is going through an itchy phase’. But it was also helpful to listen to the questions that other people were posing.
“Obviously we are all in the same boat. So either you have experience or you are listening to the group calls and you get experience. They are amazing calls.”
Neha rode the waves of healing crises, dealing with her son’s red and angry skin and the pimples that had appeared on his body. She continued to show up and take part in the membership calls, and as she did, small changes began to occur with time, investment and patience. She made
changes to his diet, increased his fruit intake and used herbs to manage the eczema. After about five months, she began to see an improvement in the itching.
As the year went on, the healing of his skin became more noticeable. By the end of 2020, the bumps had gone down and his skin had cleared quite dramatically. Neha was coming out of the other side!
As her son’s eczema began to get better she also found that her own life began to change. The information she gained from the group support calls helped her to make a difference to her own health.
“I used to listen to those calls and I felt those educated me so much in my journey and I felt that’s where the transition started happening to eat better, like including fruit in my own diet. My health has changed. I have started taking the same homeopathic remedies that I’ve been giving to my son and I am seeing the difference in my health”.
There was an 180 degree change in her mindset too. Gone was the frustrated Neha of old. The one on one calls she had with Rebecca really proved to be a game changer in helping her to improve her situation emotionally.
“When I used to talk to Rebecca in one on one calls, I used to talk to her about everything. She was not just my coach but she was my friend and she was all ears, giving me opinions on how I can make it better for myself.”
It was not just Neha who had benefitted from Caterpillar membership. Perhaps the biggest achievement was the huge shift that occurred in her husband’s opinions. At the beginning of their eczema journey, he would approach their situation from a place of logic, enquiring what the benefits were to a particular course of action and if there was any proof that it would work.
Neha often asked on calls what she could do about their son’s constant scratching and her husband would ask again and again if she could repeat the question to Rebecca. The change came about when he listened in to what was being said.
“After listening to her, his mindset has changed and he doesn’t question things and he tells me,‘let’s do this right now’. Now we’re tackling his allergies because his eczema is almost gone. He says, ‘let’s go test and what’s Rebecca saying?’. It comes from him rather than coming from me and that’s a huge shift.”
Now that Neha has taken control of her son’s eczema, she is keen to help others by telling her story. She would love it if through her words, she could help just one person to transform their situation from frustrated and tearful to calm and in control.
Here is some advice that she would like to share with you:
1. HAVE FAITH AND JOIN THE SUPPORTED MEMBERSHIP
I would say just take a leap of faith and get into the membership and see if it’s worth it for you. I think we have to have an open mind and then it will definitely turn out positive. If you can invest, then it’s the best investment you can make.
2. HEALING WILL HAPPEN IN TIME
I remember when I joined the group; there were so many people who were talking about the last step which was itching. I used to listen to these people and I couldn't imagine reaching this
point where I am sitting here talking about my experience. I was so frustrated and so full of everything. It will happen but it will take time. Honestly in the whole process, I cannot thank Rebecca enough. I honestly didn’t imagine sitting here and telling other people about it.
3. REMAIN HOPEFUL
At that point in time you need that ray of hope that you can hang onto. Please, please stick with that ray of hope because it can definitely turn out to be very positive.
4. ECZEMA CAN HAPPEN TO ANYONE, INCLUDING SOUTH ASIANS AND INDIANS
Coming from India where the lifestyle is different and everything is different, we don’t think that eczema is for Indians because we have never seen it. To be honest. I didn’t even know about it before it happened to my son. When I was in India (a decade ago), I had no idea that there was something like eczema that can happen to anyone. I personally wanted to say this so that South Asians could come on board and think why this is happening.
When I started talking to Rebecca, I used to think in my head, oh why has this happened but when I got to the root cause, it’s like obviously it’s my health. Unless we break that barrier in our mind that this is not an Indian or South Asian issue, we won’t be able to appreciate what Rebecca is saying. So I really feel that it’s important to have an open mindset.
Do you feel inspired by Neha’s story to take control of your child’s (or indeed your own) eczema? Are you in need of some help and guidance?
Take a look at the membership options we have available on our website: www.eczemaexpert.co.uk.
Sign up for free membership here and see if what we do is a good fit for you: https://p.bttr.to/3mMhPDY
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