Why we choose to live a low-tox lifestyle. Our clean living journey.
This post has been coming for a while, and I think it’s finally time. Living a low-tox lifestyle wasn’t on my radar until about 4 years ago. If you know anything about our family, you know that our son, Lucas, was diagnosed with a rare form of leukemia at age four. We’ve been part of the childhood cancer community for over four years. It’s a community no one ever wants to join, but unfortunately, hundreds of families join every year.
Living a low-tox lifestyle was not something that happened coincidentally. I started questioning the narrative more when Lucas was around 3 years old. Well-child checks became a stressful experience, I felt judged if my kids fell behind the poke schedule, and the attention surrounding childhood poke schedules in the news seemed off to me.
In this post, I’ll talk a bit about Lucas’ diagnosis and the events that happened leading up to that day that made me start looking into making changes to embrace a low-tox lifestyle.
Writing this post was difficult for me. Talking about Lucas’ diagnosis is still emotionally draining. Still, I want to share why we choose to live a low-tox lifestyle and encourage other moms who are questioning things to start researching alternatives. It can be overwhelming to know where to start, and I want to help!
If you want to read my other posts about our low-tox lifestyle, start here:
Easy Homemade Laundry Detergent
If you’re a cancer mom reading this, please brace yourself. I know that reading other moms’ stories, especially about diagnosis, can be hard to handle. I still struggle to hear about other families’ cancer journeys. In this post, I’ll touch on:
- Luke’s symptoms
- Getting diagnosed with leukemia
- Why I felt drawn to the low tox lifestyle
- Why it’s so essential to make changes and start living a low-tox lifestyle
- How do I begin?-simple swaps you can make TODAY!
Luke’s symptoms
Lucas had been sick for over a month before anyone would truly take us seriously. We had scheduled to have his tonsils and adenoids removed because he struggled with sleep apnea and a few other things. After an assessment, his pediatrician thought having this procedure would help with his breathing and asthma.
The morning before he was scheduled to have the surgery, he had a low-grade fever, so I called the pre-op line to ask what to do, and they immediately canceled his procedure. They told me to reschedule for a month after his fevers subsided.
That never happened.
He would go on to have fevers on and off for four weeks after that call.
We took him to his pediatrician because he was so weak he could barely walk, and she called me dramatic for wanting a blood test to see if anything more serious was happening.
We took him to 2 more urgent care locations to be told it was just a virus called Toxic Synovitis. The way they explained it was that a virus was attacking his joints, making him weak. It could last up to a month, and we needed to keep him on Tylenol around the clock.
3 weeks later, on Thanksgiving night, we had a few family members over. Lucas had barely eaten more than a few bites of food here and there for about a week at this point. I started getting really uneasy that he wasn’t eating, mainly because he loved Thanksgiving food.
My mom noticed purple dots on his body that we now know were petechia. She was concerned with how many symptoms he had and encouraged us to call another after-hours provider to be seen as soon as possible.
We took him to a third urgent care later that same night they were instantly worried that something more serious was happening. They ran a blood test and pulled me out of the room where Lucas couldn’t hear what was said. The provider told me they would be transferring us to the children’s hospital for further testing, but they were almost certain that he had leukemia.
Receiving the official leukemia diagnosis
After being transferred to the children’s hospital 90 minutes away, they ran further tests and confirmed that Lucas had leukemia. He needed to start treatment immediately and would have a port placed in his chest the following day to make chemo treatments easier.
He was officially diagnosed 3 days after admission with a rare form of leukemia called Philadelphia Chromosome Positive Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. This type of leukemia is more complex to treat than others, and the treatment protocol was over 2 years filled with over a dozen different chemo drugs and countless procedures.
He spent almost two weeks in the hospital after diagnosis, waiting for his blood levels to stabilize enough to be considered safe to go home. At that time, that was the longest any of our kids had been separated from each other, and Drew and I had never experienced anything like that before. To say it was hard doesn’t even begin to express what we felt.
If it did anything, it opened our eyes and helped us to see what matters most. We instantly started looking at our lifestyle, wondering what we could have done differently to avoid this.
Being told there were no environmental factors that could have caused his cancer, and with no history of cancer in our family, we knew we needed to start looking more closely at our lifestyle. I wasn’t willing to accept that my son’s cancer diagnosis was just ‘bad luck.’
Lucas right after his bone marrow transplant in 2021.
Why I felt drawn to the low tox lifestyle
As I mentioned, I had started questioning things before my son was diagnosed. The push for childhood pokes, the media coverage, and the division of those for and against the poke schedule all made me uneasy. In addition, I had started looking at some of the products we used in our home for personal care and cleaning and wondered if I could choose safer products.
I was always familiar with the low-tox lifestyle but didn’t even know where to begin. I started researching items individually, learning about toxic chemicals and how to avoid them in our purchases. It was overwhelming at first. I had to go slow and make one change at a time. Not to mention, the low-tox lifestyle can get really expensive and fast if you don’t take your time. We had a very tight budget, and I could only do so much.
As a mom, I always want to do what I can to keep my children safe. Living a low-tox lifestyle offers that. Is it perfect? No. Nothing is. You could live the cleanest, safest, healthiest life ever and still end up with a disease. It’s a sad truth, but it does happen. I work really hard to try to make the best decisions for my family, and that’s why we choose to live a low tox lifestyle.
Why it’s so essential to make changes and start living a low-tox lifestyle
Chronic disease is at an all-time high in our country. The National Association of Chronic Diseases estimates that nearly 6 in 10 adults suffer from a chronic condition that requires medication and other treatments. These illnesses are caused by smoking, poor nutrition, exposure to toxins, and physical inactivity. With all the advancements in medical care and technology, you’d think we’d be a healthier nation, but we’re worse off than so many other countries in the world, and it’s sad.
I don’t want my family to contribute to that statistic, so we choose to change our lifestyle to help prevent further sickness in our family. If I could go back and make changes sooner to protect Lucas from this diagnosis, I would do It in a heartbeat. We can’t change what we didn’t know, but when you know better, you do better. I can’t sit here and choose to allow further harm to fall upon my family.
We eat a clean diet about 80% of the time with treats thrown in here and there, use cleaning products that are safe and have minimal ingredients, move our bodies and get sunlight as much as possible, and let go of the things we can’t change or financially can’t prioritize at the moment. You have to have balance. If you’re living the cleanest, safest life you possibly can, but you’re too afraid to enjoy anything because of potential harm, you’re doing it wrong. Stress can be as hard on the body as the toxins you’re working so hard to avoid! Remember to strike a balance and enjoy your life.
How do I begin?-simple swaps you can make TODAY!
I’m sure you’ve thought at some point that making a lifestyle change like this would be hard. And you’re right. If that’s the mindset you have, then it’s going to be hard for you. But if you look at this as a journey with no finish line and no end date, you’ll be able to see how attainable a low-tox lifestyle can be.
So where do we begin? Easy, wherever you want to!
We love using vinegar, baking soda, and castile soap for almost all of our cleaning products. It’s amazing what you can replace with just these three items. I have replaced window cleaner, all-purpose spray, bathroom cleaner, floor cleaner, weed killer, and more with these products, and I am always finding more uses for them! I feel confident in their ability to clean our home, and I don’t have to worry about my kids using them because there aren’t any harsh chemicals that could cause harm.
Want to start with cleaning products?
Choose one item you want to swap for a cleaner product and do a little research. Perhaps looking at your laundry products is more accessible. Start with your detergent, then fabric softener and stain remover.
Or maybe you want to start with personal care products instead. Work from the head down. Research products you can purchase to replace your shampoo and conditioner. Then build from there. Maybe next is dry shampoo or hairspray. Whatever it is, take it one product at a time. That way, you can adjust your budget and research another item before purchasing.
This doesn’t have to be complicated if you don’t let it. Do what you can and allow yourself to release the rest until you’re at a point where you can handle doing more research.
Remember that you aren’t alone in this.
I share many tips and encouragement here and on Instagram to help you stay motivated and encouraged on this journey. You don’t have to figure this out alone; that’s what I’m here for!
I’m almost done with my guide about making non-toxic swaps on a budget, and I am so excited to share them with you! Those on my email list will be the first to know when it’s ready for purchase, so if you want all the details, join my email list here!
I wish there had been something like this when I started my low-tox journey. It covers everything from cleaning to personal care to low-tox kitchen swaps, plus I teach you what chemicals to look out for and more. It’s over 55 pages long and filled with information. Every product I suggest is budget-friendly, too. As a mom of six kids, I must stretch my money as far as possible.
Conclusion:
Living a low-tox lifestyle does not have to be stressful. Remember to take things slow and focus on what you can control. It’s okay to let go of the rest! I am always here to chat if you have questions or need advice. I hope this information has been helpful to you. Please remember to share this post with a friend and pin it to your favorite Pinterest board.
I am so glad you’re here!
-M
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