The Flog – The Fabry Log

Here’s an update on the Fabrys—sort of what I read on the air on Friday's Chris Fabry Live.

Yesterday, Kevin Leman was here for the program, and in the breaks he was asking about the children that he passed when he walked through our rental house here at the Cactus Compound and Detox Center. “So, what’s the prognosis?”

I have to think quickly because I don’t want to burden people with too much information. I had to think through the best way to describe it. “A year ago, those kids you passed, who all loved to read, couldn’t. Reagan’s head was spinning with vertigo. Kaitlyn, who was reading books almost as heavy as she was, had an eye problem where she got headaches looking at the pages. Colin and Brandon couldn’t focus.” That was a microcosm of the mess.

Now they’re all reading in long stretches during the day and before bed at night.

We have a teacher who, this week, began coming to our home to teach them three hours each day. Because of the chemical sensitivity they can’t go to school. They can, they just come home with headaches and stomach aches and... those of you who know about chemical sensitivity know what I’m talking about and those who don’t are saying, that can’t be true. But that’s okay.

So the kids are doing better. We’re not out of the woods by a long shot, but we’re progressing.

More good news. I think. I stepped on the bathroom scale today. I have told you before that I gave up my soda a year ago in October. I loved Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Coke. I haven’t had a soft drink in more than a year. At my top weight, or what I think was my top weight, I got the nerve to go downstairs in our old house and weigh myself. And as I watched the numbers whiz by, spinning like the Tilt-A-Whirl at the carnival, I thought, “I need to do something about this.”

But I didn’t. I stayed at that basic weight for a while.

Then the mold thing happened and we moved out. There was so much stress in our lives that I lost some weight. And I cut out the soft drinks and that helped. I’m just drinking water now and I feel a lot better. And the new diet Andrea has us all on has really done its job. I stepped on the scales today and I am 45 pounds lighter than about a year ago. And that is my weight loss plan. If you want to lose 45 pounds, get mold, lose your house, your pets, move to the desert, and eat gluten-free food. It’s really easy.

Maybe the weight loss is not good. I guess we’ll know that down the road, too.

Now if I were to take a picture of me today and post it on the blog, you would say, “Wow, you lost 45 pounds?! You must have been a real porker a year ago.” The truth is, I hide it well. And I hearken back to my mother telling me when I was young, “Chris, you’re not fat, you’re just big-boned.” Right. The fact that I ate Little Debbie cakes for breakfast had NOTHING to do with it.

That’s the update from the desert. I hope your weekend goes well.

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