We Survived Childhood Leukemia, But What Came Next Was No Picnic!
My name is Ange. I care for my daughter who had childhood Leukemia when she was 3. I was a single Mum and now a Homeschooling Nana to my 4 beautiful grandkids. Welcome to Wise Owls Loft. My goal here is to help people who are struggling through the whole childhood Leukemia package from diagnosis, the treatment, the long term side effects and right out the other side to the healing process and beyond. There is life after childhood Leukemia and I can help you know what to look for in the journey and help you with resources, my knowledge and how to go about healing. You’ve got this!
One thing to know about me is that I do like to think outside the box a little. Some may say I’m a bit “out there” and lean toward alternative solutions in preference to mainstream, but I’m familiar with both, being a Bachelor of Health Science, studying a Bachelor degree in Naturopathy, and also how to bring healing methods into your life, and I’m also a good person and that is what counts in my books. So if you like some of what you read, but not all of what you read, feel free to gloss over anything that doesn’t resonate with you. Nevertheless, there should be something here for everyone, even if your issue isn’t specifically childhood Leukemia, but some other struggle you have been facing. I feel it’s important to look at several viewpoints instead of limiting yourself to just one school of knowledge.
Childhood Leukemia! That Is Where It All Started!
My story begins with having had a child who developed Leukemia at a very young age, who survived, and yet has not had the best quality of life since, due to the trauma and brain damage caused by her treatment. We are healing now, and by that I mean the both of us, because what affected her, also affected me. Not necessarily in the same way, but it impacted me nonetheless from the perspective of a single mother, and that of an unpaid Carer, dealing with all of the after effects and all the other hats that I’ve had to wear in her life.
I will shed more light on the ins and outs of how our life unfolded and the long term effects of my daughter’s Leukemia HERE! For now, and as a result of what happened to us, you can learn from us and prepare, prevent or take precautions against what might happen to you. Regardless of whether you have or have had Leukemia or not, it doesn’t matter, only that if you are unwell in any way, shape or form, mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually, you can use this information.
Why Listen to Me? We Learned A Thing Or Two Along The Way!
Can my story help you? I’m just like you, an ordinary person. I was a young wife and mother, going through life the way most people do, never expecting things to suddenly turn pear shaped in the blink of an eye. I finished high school, went to work, got married and started my family, as most people imagine their life would unfold, and began the journey of meandering through the various milestones in life. My beautiful baby girl was born, perfectly normal, and was often described as a little angel when people met her.
Nothing could have prepared me for what was to come (I didn’t have anyone like me helping me) and how life would change, and there was little to zero help for me in understanding what had happened to my daughter. In those days, there was no internet, I had no idea what help there was available to me as we faced life from that moment on.
In that instant, although I did not associate myself with that role at the time, I became an unpaid Carer, or caregiver for those people who relate to that word, and have been for the past 30 years, scrabbling around trying to find ways to help my daughter and improve our lives in any way I could. I learned some things over the years and am now trying to help other people avoid what happened to us. Or if avoidance is not possible, to work through it and to heal from it.
This is what Wise Owls Loft is in essence, a combination of our journey, and a passing on of knowledge gained through our experience, and a rundown of our lives and the choices we made over the years. We did learn a thing or two and what we learned is that there are things you can do to improve your quality of life, things you can change, resources you can access and that you have choices in what your life looks like.
I Went On A Quest For Knowledge
I wanted to understand what happened and so my quest for knowledge led me in the direction of discovering how environmental contributors, toxic lifestyles and healthier diets, to name just a few, all play a role in the status of a person’s health and well-being. With a view to later doing a Masters degree in Dietetics and Nutrition (because I believe food is medicine and at the root of good health), I first completed a Bachelor of Health Science degree. Sadly, due to the expectations of the Masters degree, I was unable to go ahead with it because of my Carer responsibilities. The Health Science degree taught me so much about how the body works even down to the cellular level and how to maintain healthy functioning, but I felt there was more to health than what my degree taught me. It was based around modern medicine and while it was very thorough and enlightening from that modern medicine perspective, I felt that made it quite stifled and limited, so I wanted to look to natural alternatives and holistic wellness as well. I built on to my health knowledge by beginning a Bachelor of Health Science in Naturopathy Degree, but it was left incomplete when my caregiver responsibilities increased further.
The herbal medicine component of my Naturopathy degree opened my mind to the use of herbal remedies, flower essences, and by default, essential oils, which weren’t covered at the stage I completed, but came into my life later. The idea of a holistic approach to health taught me how illness can be created in our bodies through stress and trauma. This was most important to me as an enormous impact of my daughter’s Leukemia was caused by the emotional aspect of her illness.
With this in mind, I explored emotional and energy healing, such as doing Reiki, Raindrop Technique, and Vitaflex practitioner courses. I have also found massage and psychosomatic therapy, among other modalities, to be of great value, and even crystal work and sound therapy gets a look in. I only just completed a practitioner course in balancing the chakras and the use of other resources to accomplish the task and will be doing sessions in person once I get up and running and offering some education on this modality. My daughter has found immense success in psychotherapy and neurofeedback brain training as well, among other natural substances in addition.
What I found, I’d like to share with you here at Wise Owls Loft. Areas to be covered to support you in health and wellness, and even abundance with much more to be added, will look like this to begin with:
1. Preventing people from getting sick in the first place
2. Finding ways to support emotional health and recovery
3. Teaching people about the risks of toxic chemicals and harmful ingredients in your home and how you can reduce exposure and find alternatives to them
4. Looking at natural courses of action, remedies, diet, supplementation and more
5. Understanding the need to detox and ways to go about it
6. The kinds of resources that are available to all of us
7. Different kinds of healing modalities
8. Nature at it’s best
9. Finding balance in your body
10. What dangers you face daily
11. How stress can cause illness
12. Oral health
13. Traditional remedies
14. Essential Oils and what they are used for
15. The importance of practicing Self Care
16. Ideas for self-therapy using resources you can find for free or to purchase
17. Breaking free of the system
18. Homeschooling ideas, resources, units, lesson ideas, educational tools
19. Training, courses, challenges, tutorials, videos, checklists, etc.
20. Financial education and entrepreneurship information and ideas to support your financial status and give you options.
Plus so much more, my brain can’t keep up with all of the content ideas I have planned to provide for you.
BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! WE HOMESCHOOL NOW AND HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY IN THIS DEPARTMENT TOO!
In light of the events of 2020 and beyond, I began to awaken to other aspects of how the world has been operating and how much has been hidden from the general populace. I learned how there are systems in place that are not conducive to living a happy and well life, and would rather see people sick forever because there is no money in keeping people healthy (not true as such but I can get into that at a later time). Based on what we were seeing in the education system and what they were teaching and what they weren’t, and also how they handled the whole coronavirus shenanigans, we decided that we would be better served, and so would the kids, if we homeschooled them. So now, one of my new responsibilities as a grandparent and parent Carer is to help with their education and I just love finding and creating educational resources for them. It adds a whole new dimension to our lives and the kids have a say in what they want to learn, not what they are told to. The possibilities are endless, we are not bound by school hours and we get to go to lots of places and call it education even though we are having fun. It will be fantastic to be able to share our adventures and our resources.
TO INFINTY AND BEYOND!
Let’s see what the future holds for you and if I can show you even the smallest thing to change something in your life and make it better, I hope that you will take it upon yourself to make that change, do something about it, learn from it and go forth with better health in mind, body and soul. Remember, nothing changes if you don’t. If you like what you learn, then you can always share it too, and naturally grow in health and financial abundance along the way? Ways to do this will be touched upon throughout this website as well because let’s face it, with wellness comes abundance in health and when we are well, we are more creative, motivated, and geared towards success in wealth too. Health also gives us a reason to want to increase our income to incorporate some of our healthy choices into our lives, and a reason to live instead of exist. How many of you are merely existing and not truly living your life? What would you change if you could?
We are ever growing and changing as people and as a family, we have a desire to be lifelong learners and I have certainly filled that goal through my years of living this life. I hope you will see the value in this too.
Let’s kick Childhood Leukemia and it’s short and long term impacts in the butt and move on with our lives.
Thank you for reading and I look forward to your feedback and interactions on this site. If you ever need a hand or have ay questions, feel free to leave a comment below and I will be more than happy to help you out.
Yours in Health, Wellness and Abundance
Ange