RESPIRATORY
Suction machine: for nasal and oral removal of secretions.
In/Ex Suffalator: for simulating a cough, that her muscles are to weak to do by themselves.
Bi-Pap: for giving lung expansion so that she can take big enough breaths and really rest at the same time.
C.P.T.: Chest Physical Therapy, performed with an electronic percussor to loosen phlegm that might have settled in the lungs.
 
THERAPIES
Physical Therapy: Daily Range of Motion and massage to prevent contractures and keeping the muscles pliable. 
Speech therapy: Facial massage to keep the muscles supple and to stimulate to talk.
 
NUTRITION
One day after Gilly’s first birthday Rex and I decided to put Gilly on a raw vegan diet, and it is one of the best decisions we ever made for her. The saying “You are what you eat” never held so much truth for me as it does now. Gilly has been on this diet for 8 months now and is doing extremely well with it. Her respiratory system has improved dramatically and after 4 months her chest muscles began to work. Her breathing is totally normal now while she used to breath with her diaphragm as long as I can remember. After only a week all her yeast cleared up and hasn’t come back since! This is a great step, especially when about all the children with SMA seem to be suffering from yeast. Also, Gilly doesn’t have any allergies, indoors or outdoors. However, the raw vegan diet is not just for people affected with SMA or various other illnesses. It is a way of living for everybody who wants to improve their health (see Genesis 1:29-30).

      The purpose of nutrition is to regenerate the cells and tissues in the body, and a raw vegan diet will do just that. Raw fruits and vegetables, nuts and seeds contain enzymes that a human body needs to function and regenerate cells and tissues. Enzymes are the life principle in every living organism, thus also in produce. When the produce is cooked, the enzymes are destroyed and the food has lost its nutritional value. Dead, cooked food cannot do the work of live food and instead building the body up, it is breaking the body down, slowly but surely.

      One of the important ways to take in raw fruits and vegetables is by juicing them. Juicing removes the fibers and therefore are very quickly digested and assimilated without much effort and exertion on part of the digestive system. Within the fibers are the enzymes, which are laid bare and end up in the juice and in turn nourish the cells of our body.
Even though the fibers have little nutritional value, the body still needs them because they do act as an intestinal broom. That is the reason that we do need whole raw food in addition to juices.

      Vegetables juices are the builders and regenerators of the body and fruit juices, when ripe, are the cleansers of the body. It amazes me time and time again that all the different fruits and vegetables are good for something else in the body. Celery is very good for the nervous system, lettuce nourishes the nervous and muscular structures of the body while spinach nourishes the entire digestive system. Apples stimulate the lower intestines and their juice is very helpful in the case of fever or inflammation, grapes stimulate the secretion of digestive juices and pears have a strong diuretic action and are valuable general cleaners of the body. Like Hippocrates said: ”Let your food be your medicine and your medicine your food”.

      The three food classes: vegetables, fruits and fatty foods are all equally important. For Gilly I make sure that the ratio is 40% vegetables, 20% fruits and 40% fats. Fats play a very important role in the human body and especially children need more fat in their diet than adults do. I know that we are all afraid of the fatty acid metabolism disorder but I have found no problem with Gilly at all. I do recommend to take it easy with fat however and to slowly build up the dosage. Good sources of fat are the avocado, olive oil and coconut oil. I always blend a little avocado in the blender along with juices to give Gilly the fibers that her body needs and that way she gets a nice satisfactory feeling. Coconut oil is easy to digest and very good for people who have trouble digesting fats. Furthermore, it contains anti-microbial, anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. A very good source to fight the yeast problems that so many of our children display.

PROTEINS
Proteins are made up of amino acids and every living organism is made up out of protein. Gilly gets her protein from the raw produce. There are different proteins in different produce and therefore the amino acids are also different. That is why it is important to use a wide variety of fruits and vegetables. That way we can make sure that the body doesn’t get deficient in certain vitamins and minerals.  Whole, complete proteins are found in animal sources, and the human body isn’t able to digest this easily. Peas are legumes and they don’t contain complete proteins. Only when they are fresh and raw the human body is able to handle them.

COLON
Throughout all of this it is of the utmost importance to keep the colon as clean as possible. There is the saying: “illness starts in the colon”, and indeed it does. I have found this to be true with Gilly and at three weeks old she ended up in the emergency room of our local hospital with a severe bout of constipation. If the colon is not kept clean, nutritional elements present in the food can not be assimilated by the body. In fact, the food rots and the body becomes toxic and displays itself as disease.

      Because Gilly is still so young I can clean her colon by means of a bag-enema. I fill the bag with warm, distilled water and wash her colon and the crust that has accumulated on the walls of the colon. Every time I add a little more water until the enema runs clear.
I must warn here against the use of laxatives, however helpful they may seem at the time. Laxatives interfere with the peristaltic motion of the colon and one becomes dependent upon them to have a bowel movement. The reason that a laxative causes a bowel movement is because they contain irritants and the colon wants these out.

      Nature works in a wonderful exact way, when you just take the time to look at it. God has created everything perfect, it is man who messed up in the thought to make it better My dear friend, Kathie, took the time and the patience to make me see this and she is an invaluable source for the road that Gilly is on now I thank God that He has opened up my eyes and heart to know that it is all true. For further reading I highly recommend the books written by Dr. Norman Walker and David Wolfe. They are very helpful in my understanding of living, raw food.