Our Functional Medicine Story

We are a family of four, the Blymillers. We are also a special needs family. Navigating this life as a special needs parent can be isolating. We’ve found that there’s no such thing as a “one size fits all” approach with anything we do in this journey.

We started out on this path with a whole lot of denial, betrayal, and guilt. Mainstream medicine & practitioners seemed like they had failed us… and they had. It was the only option we were aware of at the time. We did the best with what we knew.

After countless hours of research on PubMed and connecting with other parents we decided to turn to a diet change. We had nothing to else to lose, we had lost our typically developing son to “severe regression”. A gluten free, dairy free, soy free, casein and dye free diet was attempted for just 1 week. In this seven day time period our little boy had regained eye contact and resumed responding to his name. Both things he had lost.

Just one week with this non-traditional approach and we knew we were on the right trajectory. Over the years we were lead to doctors, therapists, and specialists who all have had an impact on our sons healing and growth. Sadly, the majority of them are unable to take insurance. Medical insurance dictates so much of what our practitioners can do in their work which in turn completely limits the way they can practice and help their patients. As you can imagine, the fees we have had to pay specialists who cannot accept insurance are very high. Functional Medicine has been our North Star because it seeks to understand the root cause of symptoms and doesn’t attempt to just mask it with medication. Functional Medicine and Dr. Nikogosian have been heaven sent to us. 

Along the way we’ve connected with countless parents who have found their magic “cure”. Ohhhh emmm geee I cannot tell you how many parents have reached out to us asking if we’ve tried “this diet” or “that supplement”. I honestly wish we could tell you that we’ve found that special something that cures all regression… however we’re just like you. We’re here, on this journey, taking one step at a time and doing the next best thing for our son.

If there was ONE piece of advice I could give any parent who’s child is newly diagnosed with a special need it would be this: You were hand picked by your child for a reason. YOU have everything you need with in your own self to help your child. Get still, get quiet, turn to your higher power & trust that you are exactly where you’re supposed to be. Right here, right now, amidst so much heart ache and pain, you are exactly where you’re supposed to be.

Trust us when we say that the more we learn to trust ourselves and our parent intuition in this process the more our child thrives. There’s no way our children can grow and develop with their unique special needs unless we first attend to OUR OWN special needs. Self care is the common denominator in all of this.

We’ve learned that self care, education, connection & finding the joy amidst the hard times is what propels our family forward. We want to help you do the same. Follow us in our journey, let’s grow together.