Increased EDTA and B12

I got a report yesterday and today that Jonathan was tired in the morning. More than last week. We have been putting the kids to be at about the same time every day, so the only thing I can think that might be affecting his energy is detox.

I increased his methyl B12 shots last Wednesday from every 3 days to every other day. I also increased the dosage of EDTA suppositories from 1 a week to 1 every other day. He has reacted well to the increase of the chelation dosage. But I do believe it is starting to wear on him.

He had a good day today. His language kept amazing us. He is speaking out his mind as often as he can. This morning, he told his grandmother: "Abuita, my underwear is too tight. I don't like it". He had never complaint about his underwear or clothes or anything. So this is great. Then, this afternoon, after we were leaving the Dr's office, he was directing me were to go with the GPS (he was holding it in his hand). I told him I had to go straight, and he looked straight ahead and said: "mommy, you can't go straight. you're going to hit the trees". And he was right. I meant that I had to turn left and then go straight. But he is paying really close attention to everything we say now and translating it to actions and consequences. That is wonderful.

Yesterday he ate 3 carrots. I am so very happy and proud of him. He was so proud of him too. I kept telling him that he was going to grow big and strong and he is so excited he ate his vegetable soup today saying that he is going to grow big and strong. I am going to start adding one different type of vegetable a day (starting with the orange looking ones). It is the only possible way I can try the new diet (Forever Healthy Diet). He always eats the same thing, so rotating every 5 days seems impossible right now.

Week 2 After HBOT

It has been a few days since I last updated the blog. We have been busy running around. We had a long weekend (Memorial Day holiday) and we visited several friends and family and ran lots of errands. Jonathan did absolutely great the entire weekend.

Improvements Observed in the Past Week:

• Everything from last week holds:
• Better eye contact
• More curiosity
  
• More energy
• More empathy
  
• Better motor skills (both fine and gross)
• More conversational language
• Improved Social Skills
• Sensory
• Pretend Play
• The biggest area of improvement this week was social. He attends different schools and all his teachers sent notes indicating that Jonathan was playing more, initiating more play.
  

Areas for Improvement:

• Social Interaction with the other kids his age: Jonathan chooses who he wants to play with. He has 1 friend at each school and from the kids in our circle of friends, he only gets along with one. The trends tends to be either kids that share some of his interests or older kids.
  
• Speech and pragmatics: He needs a lot of work in this area.
  • Jargon language: when he gets excited, he tents to use jargon to express what is in his head and emotions.
    
• Humming: much better this week but still there
• Obsessions: Playing with electronic toys (PCs or GPS) is still more interesting than regular toys.

Pictures:

On Friday, we went to a restaurant that we normally go to every week, and for the first time in a long time, Jonathan decided to join the other kids and play at the playground. The next 3 pictures were taken at the same place. He is tolerating and regulating quite well lots of sensory input.

On Sunday, we went to a BBQ and a few kids showed up. The house had a small pool and it was not ready for the kids to jump in. So they all sat by the edge of the pool and played with water. Jonathan for some reason connects very well with Alex (the kid to the right - he is 7). He likes to play with Alex and imitates him. The next 3 pictures show how much attention Jonathan was paying to Alex to try to keep up with him and learned from him by observing and imitating.

Jonathan drew a picture of Mommy out of the blue and was very proud of my portrait.


The kids liked the pool at our friends house so much, that we took them to the pool at our fitness center today and the had a blast!

We had a very nice long weekend.

Language Keeps Holding

It is nice when we can go on for 1 week with no regression on the items that he has improved on. So far, he is still quite talkative and he is really interested in playing with Vanessa all the time. He is interested in other things, like playing with our dog (Kaiser). Today he kept talking to Kaiser as if Kaiser could answer him "what are you doing Kaiser? Are you hungry? Mommy, Kaiser is hungry". He had never cared so much about Kaiser's well-being.



I know that this honeymood will end soon since I am going to change his biomedical protocol again, but I am enjoying seeing him so happy. The ABA therapist sent a note home saying the his social interactions continue to show, and his language too. He is having a bit of trouble focusing at times (sensory imbalance) and answering questions that he does not know the answer to or understand. He still doesn't understand that when he doesn't understand a question, he needs to ask more questions or just say "I don't know".

His grandma went to pick him up at the daycare in the afternoon as she does a few times a week, and instead of finding him on the green pillow, she found him sitting at a table coloring with other kids. He has never done that in 1 year of being at that daycare. Way to go Jonathan.

When we all got home, Jonathan and Vanessa and their grandma spent over an hour playing (in the house, in the backyard on the playground, etc). It is great to see them play so much. Vanessa is right now Jonathan's best therapist. She is so unpredictable, that it is great for him.

A Day Full of Biomedical Information

I would like to start today's blog with a comment from Jonathan's school teacher that was written yesterday. It didn't make it home until today. The note speaks for itself.

"Jonathan impressed us on the playground by initiating conversations with his classmates! He joined right in and was playing. [Teacher 2] and I kept saying "is that Jonathan?!". He also responded to most questions during circle time independently. "Excuse me _____" "my turn". Great talking Jonathan :)" [Teacher 1]

DAN! Doctor's Visit

We had our semi-annual doctor's visit. I communicate with Jonathan's doctor via email constantly, but we to see him 3 times a year to draw blood. Today the Dr. got 9 tubes (small size) full of blood for his CBC panel (to make sure his liver is taking all the detox), essential elements (minerals in the blood), his glutathione/sulfur level in the blood and another viral panel to see if his titers are under control after 1 year of Valtrex.

Jonathan did really well. He was bored, but coped the entire hour. When time came to draw the blood, he was very brave. I am very proud of him. It hurt him and he cried almost silently, but as long as I was holding his hand and kissing his forehead, he was strong. We will know the results in 3 weeks.

The Dr. told me that there really wasn't anything new in this year's DAN! conference. Although he does not follow the Yasko protocol, he is very open-minded. He knows that I am 100% Yasko at this point, but I need the blood work and the Rx (Methyl B12, Valtrex and Dyflucan). The relationship that I have built is very important. And he was very impressed when he saw Jonathan yesterday. He is another child compared to how he was 2.5 years ago when we first saw him. The Dr. is very optimistic towards Jonathan's recovery. But that doesn't give me the confidence to stay put. I need to keep looking for that silver bullet.

Monthly Biomed Parent's Group

I joined a parent's support group in my area a few months ago organized by very intelligent and well-versed parents that have been doing heavy-duty biomedicine for longer than me. I believe they started meeting just a handful of them over a year or more ago, and their dinner meetings have turned into a huge parent's gathering now. I am not sure if they realize how wonderful and inspiring they are. There are 3 moms and 1 dad in particular that are always on top of what is going on. I look up to them. They are all very open to helping, very humble and very empathetic. I honestly can say that knowing them has made a huge impact in my life and towards Jonathan's recovery. I would not have switched over to Yasko 100% and done HBOT and now RDI if I had not met them.

We meet once a month and the coordinator keeps us in shape. We don't have a doctor to guide us. Just us, our experiences, anecdotes, limited knowledge of the biochemistry of the human body through Yasko's protocol and intuition. And every month I learn a great deal and I feel extremely motivated to keep going. It has definitely been very positive for me to be able to meet with other parents doing what I do, feeling what I feel and exchange information and help each other. The focus is getting our kids better and everyone comes in good spirits and ready to listen and help.

Today was very good because I learned about 3 very exciting things:

1. Forever Healthy Diet: a diet that rotates food every 5 days (food groups cannot be repeated for 5 days). It has reported very good results with many kids. It is supposed to provide the correct amount of nutrients and intestinal culture the body needs to function properly.
   
   
2. Yasko RNA Metals Program: I have always been intimidated by it. But tonight I feel that this is going to be my next biomedical step. I am going to put a program together, ask our doctor for enough UTM kits so I can collect weekly urine samples and start as soon as school is over.
   
   
3. Brain Mapping: this therapy has been used by many folks with developmental delays successfully. This particular organization (Crossroad Institute) focuses on several functions of the brain and targets more areas than the conventional brain mapping therapy. Something very interesting to consider.
   

Very informative day.

First Haircut with Magnetic Clipper

Something incredible happened this morning while I was driving the kids to school. First of all, Jonathan's anxieties have made a turn. He is really controlling his emotions. When we got in the car this morning to go to the daycare, Vanessa asked me to turn the DVD player on. I told her that I would do that as soon as I buckled Jonathan up. Jonathan heard me say that and immediately sat in his chair. That was interesting.

I turned Vanessa and Jonathan's DVD players on and sat down. She likes one of the commercials in the movie that was on. Jonathan had the remote control and asked Vanessa if she wanted him to press the menu button. Since Vanessa did not respond, he pressed it. Not very logical, but he interpreted the silence as an "ok". Well, Vanessa wanted to watch the Barbie commercial and started crying. Jonathan said "oh no Vanessa, I am sorry. Please don't cry Vanessa". His voice sounded so genuinely concerned, and he immediately pressed stop. I told him to press stop twice and then the play button. He did it a couple of times but he could still not get the Barbie commercial back. So when we arrived to the daycare, he said to Vanessa: "I'm sorry Vanessa, I cannot fix it". Talk about a WOW. I felt like crying at that moment. This is how my wonderful morning started.

When I arrived home after work, Jonathan and Vanessa were playing. His grandmother told me that a friend came over and the 3 of them went bike riding (with supervision). They came home and played in the playground and then downstairs. The friend left and Jonathan and Vanessa kept playing. They were pretending that he was a cow and a horse and Vanessa was feeding him.

First haircut with magnetic clipper and trimmer

Since Jonathan was a baby, he was unable to tolerate getting a haircut with the clippers and trimmers. We have tried every cartoon cuts in the area. The best we have been able to do is cutting with scissors. So we usually let his hair grow out of control because the trip to the hair cuttery place is always a nightmare. But today was different. We went to the mall to get Jonathan a haircut. His hair was totally out of control. I told him this morning that we would go get his hair cut and he remembered. He sat down and understood everything the woman told him. Responded to everything she asked him. He thought that the water spray was pretty funny. Only 6 months ago, spraying the water in his head triggered terrible screams. Today he laughed. Then she started cutting with scissors and he was fine. When the clipper came, I did not make a big deal. The woman had Jonathan touch it and he liked it. He let her cut the back hair with the clipper. He moved a bit, but kept telling me that it was funny and tickled. Then the trimmer came. He had never EVER allowed the trimmer. I was so excited, I forgot to take a picture. But today, he let the woman finish the haircut with the trimmer. I feel that between Yasko and the HBOT, his nervous system is starting to balance out.

After that, we went to Cheesecake for dinner and the entire time, Jonathan and Vanessa played with each other, throwing a stuffed animal to each other. Jonathan was curious about everything. He decided to try the salt out. He was going to try the pepper, but we told him that that was only to be sprinkled on food. He did not ask us for our phones, he did not suck his thumb. His interest the entire time was to play with Vanessa.






Although he has been interested in watching the GPS when we are in the car, he is not interested in playing with it himself outside the car. No electronic toys in the past 3 days. All he wants to do is play. :) Very exciting.

Week 1 After HBOT

The owner of the HBOT unit that we used for the HBOT sessions told me to monitor Jonathan closely during the first 6 weeks after the 40th dive. That is when we would see the most profound changes. So I will write every Monday evening for the next 6 weeks to summarize the improvements and possible regressions.

Today, Jonathan's OT put 3 drawings in front of him and asked him to draw them the best he could. These are his drawing. The therapist could not believe the precision with which he had drawn these animals, keeping the dimensions into perspective. He had never been able to do this before. If you didn't guess, starting from the left, he drew a fish, on the top right he drew a turtle and on the bottom right a butterfly.

He had another fun and connected day.

Improvements Observed in the Past Week:

• Better eye contact: his eye sight doesn't seem lost anymore
• More curiosity: he is asking lots of questions, his senses seem more balanced allowing him to take in more input than in the past.
• More energy: he hardly seems tired lately. He is keeping up with Vanessa's pace. In the past, they would play for 30 minutes or less and he would go to the sofa and rest. He now won't stop playing unless we bathe him or take him to bed.
• More empathy: if he hurts us, and we complain, he immediately reacts, apologies, asks if we are okay.
• Better motor skills (both fine and gross): his fine motor skills have made a dramatic turn. He is now better than ever at writing or drawing. He can also undress himself and dress backup (still a bit clumsy, but he does it)
• More conversational language: his language has really improved in the past month. But this week is shaping up. He is able to put together sentences with pronouns and proper tense. He is also able to understand better.
• Improved Social Skills: this is an area we need a lot of work in, but this week his social skills were better.
• Sensory: he is able to tolerate Vanessa's touches, hugs and rough play.
• Pretend Play: this week his imagination has really taken off. With Vanessa, they are making things up all the time, and he is really loving it. The past few days, neither has been interested in watching TV. The prefer to play with each other.
  

Areas for Improvement:

• Social Interaction with the other kids his age: He needs a lot of work in this area.
• Speech and pragmatics: He needs a lot of work in this area.
• Jargon language: when he gets excited, he tents to use jargon to express what is in his head and emotions.
  
• Humming: although this is getting better, he still hums and that takes him to his la-la land.

Pictures:

Playing in our backyard -
Vanessa was pushing Jonathan and then Jonathan would push Vanessa

Vanessa loves his brother. So she hugged him and that turned into a play

Vanessa and Jonathan playing inside the rubber house. Jonathan initiated this.

Vanessa was pretending to read Jonathan a story and he was listening.

They were pretending that it was raining and they were holding an umbrella.

We had many situations like today's where they both played and would allow me to take pictures. He was very happy today

Very Connected Despite the Obsessions

Despite his obsession to play with the new GPS (yes, we did buy a portable GPS), Jonathan is very connected. Also, today he showed a great deal of empathy. He hit both Vanessa and me by accident, and he immediately apologized with a look in his eyes that showed how worried he was that he hurt us, following by an "are you okay?" question.

This morning he obsessed with the GPS. After an hour, I had a nervous breakdown (I have not started RDI, so this is still hard for me) and I told him that he had to stop playing with the GPS. He cried for about 2 minutes, sat with Daddy and a few later started drawing. He did not forget the GPS, but he was complying with my demand.

We went to have breakfast and I brought two books that contain stickers and the shapes where they belong and Jonathan really liked it. We played together for about 30 minutes until the food arrived. It was great because I had tried in numerous occasions to get him interested in drawing or doing stuff with me at restaurants, and he always got bored quickly and asked for my phone. He used both his imagination and visual motor skills to place the stickers in the correct place and had a blast with it.

In the afternoon he obsessed a bit with the GPS again, but I gave him a timeline and that helped. He transitioned easily once the 30 minutes were up. We took the kids to a local park/farm. It was too late to see the farm animals, but they enjoyed being out. They watched horses and played at a playground. Jonathan even got interested in what a little girl was doing and stared to imitate and then played. Very nice.





When we got home, we told Jonathan that there was no more GPS for today. It must have registered quite well because he didn't ask for it at all. The kids played among themselves the rest of the evening.

The following setting was very spontaneous. I don't know who decided to play like this (possibly Vanessa), but they really enjoyed passing the ball to each other. It was great to watch how Jonathan was paying close attention, looked at Vanessa right into her eyes to read her cues, had very good reflexes to catch the ball, and simply looked happy.

Very connected all day. Lots of questions. Communicated needs and wants very well. He spoke in his jargon type language once in a while, but I would say "use your words" and he would translate what he said to English.

Obssession with the GPS

This morning we attended an event organized by Autism Society of America (ASA) Chapter. They organized a movie event at a large AMC movie theater to see Shrek the Third. The event took place at 9:30am. When we arrived, I could not believe how many families actually showed up. It was packed. A girl with Autism talked about her life and experiences for about 5 minutes. It was very inspiring to see such happy girl talk about how she has autism and the things that she has accomplished.

Jonathan and Vanessa enjoyed the movie. After the movie, we went to eat and then home. Jonathan has been obsessed with our minivan's GPS for about 3 weeks. When we arrived at home, he was very excited to see my new hybrid car, but soon realized that it had no GPS and the entire day revolved around him wanting to buy a GPS and how sad the car was because it did not have a GPS. He drew a couple of pictures where he clearly demonstrates what a terrific memory he has.

He drew and wrote everything on this page.

The triangle inside the circle represents the car (as it was in the GPS) and the places the car went. Moby Dick is the Persian restaurant that he likes. All the writing was done by him.

Jonathan did a lot of pretend play with Vanessa where he was the leader. But whenever Vanessa changed the idea, he did not get upset - which is a big step because he always gets mad. They had some issues in the morning sharing the coloring paper, but as the day went by, they got along better.

Biomedical:

Besides his regular dose of supplements, I gave him an EDTA suppository.

Yasko's Nutrigenomics: she has a supplemental test that only tests the genes that were not included in her original SNPs test: http://www.holisticheal.com/store/product.php?productid=671&cat=124&page=1

Summer Camp Evalulation

I enrolled Jonathan in a Summer Camp in a Christian Church that I was told was one of the best camps for children with Special Needs. We do not belong to this particular church, but given the references, I called a month ago and enrolled Jonathan. As part of the enrollment, they had to evaluate Jonathan to assess his severity and let me know if he qualified for the camp. We scheduled the evening of May 18th for such evaluation.

When we arrived at the church, we were pretty impressed with the size of the church and the organization of the daycare facility. They explained that they have a program where parents can drop off their kids with Special Needs and their siblings twice a month from 6:30pm until 10pm. They wanted us to drop Jonathan off that night to evaluation how he would do in a group of other children and with the different activities. We decided to drop Vanessa off as well since she asked to stay.

Jonathan cried quite a bit at first. Vanessa walked right into the room and said bye to me. When we came back to pick them up, the told us that Jonathan stopped crying a few minutes later and that he had a very good time. They told us that he would do great at camp and that we are all set. That really made me happy. They are going to expose him to many environments and situations (not just inside classrooms and playgrounds, but parks, pools, zoo, etc.) and that is exactly what he needs and I cannot do. This camp will last 5 weeks.

One thing that I wanted to include in today's blog is pictures of Jonathan's paintings. The public school psychologist had evaluated Jonathan on a test that assesses Visual Motor a month ago and had given him the lowest possible score because he did not do what she asked him. She asked him to draw the body parts of a person (and when they do that, the expect the kids to draw a self-portrait). And Jonathan drew an oval with eyes and nose and mouth representing a head. He was asked to draw body parts, and he decided in him mind to draw a head. When I argued that that did not capture Jonathan's capabilities (because drawing represents a way for kids to express themselves and they were telling me Jonathan did not have that skill), they re-did the test and introduced different questions and he scored in the superior range. Although I feel very proud of him for doing that, the tests were based on shapes and that is something he knows since he is 18 months. It did not represent his ability to express his feelings in drawings or what he had in his mind. When we picked him up at the church, they gave me his paintings and I want to post 2 of them because it makes me feel comfortable that he "can" represent his feelings through drawings. There is one that I cannot find where he drew himself with a sad face. When I asked him what that was, he told me that it was him sad because he was sad when Mommy left.

Jonathan and Vanessa - by Jonathan

Jonathan going home with a happy face - by Jonathan

Again, this shows that Jonathan is capable of drawing his feelings and what is in his mind. I am not sure why he did not draw Vanessa's arms, but he clearly represented that Vanessa is a girl. She never wears skirts, yet he knew that she is a girl and girls wear dresses.

Here are the kids playing in a feria outside the church. I was shocked that Jonathan really enjoyed it and had no sensory issues.



Biomedical:

In addition to the regular dose of supplements, today I put 2 squirts of MB12 in his nose and I put the B-12 patch in his back.

School's Diagnosis Changed from DD to Autism

We had the eligibility meeting today. The school teachers and psychologists have been testing Jonathan for the past 3 months and today we discussed the test results and eligibility determination.

Given the test results, and the medical diagnosis, the committee found Jonathan to fall under the criteria of Autism. All 5 areas of concerns that would qualify a child to receive this label were met by Jonathan:

• Deficit in verbal and non-verbal communication
• Significant Deficit in social interaction
• Emotional disability can be ruled out as primary cause
• Deficit in adaptive, communication and social interaction
• Student requires specialized instruction/support that cannot reasonably be provided through regular education

We are relieved that he was found eligible to receive special education services because although he is high functioning, he still requires a lot of intervention to help him catch up.

These are the tests conducted and the results:

* IQ: Overall 100 (average 90-110)

• Non-Verbal: 115 (superior)
• Verbal: 85 (below average)

• Due to his language constraints, Jonathan showed a significant gap between verbal and non-verbal abilities. In the non-verbal abilities, his areas of strength were visual spacial and fluid reasoning. His brain functions better with pictures than words.

* Visual Motor Integration: score 120 - 91 percentile (superior)

• This test shows his ability to put words and images in paper. This is another one of his areas of strengths as well. He can clearly draw shapes and figures and represent in paper the function that he is asked to represent.

* Sensory Profile - Occupational Therapy: High Threshold for some sensory information

• Jonathan demonstrated abnormal differences between behaviors involving the registration of sensory information, seeking sensory information and avoiding sensory information. He may avoid activities that require high threshold for noticing information, such as quiet listening or passive waiting tasks. He is not hyperactive, but requires some sensory input to organize his body so he can pay more attention. However, he is not aggressive and does not seek that type of sensory input.

* Autism Quotient (GARS): 66 percentile (90-110 are average for individuals with autism). The lower the better.

• This represents that although he still qualifies to receive an "autism" label, he is among the children that adapt to changes, that learn easier under normal educational environments and are considered higher functioning.

* Tests of Achievement

• Word Identification: equivalent to a 7.2 year old child (superior)
• Spelling: equivalent to a 7.0 year old child (superior)
• Applied Problem: equivalent to a 5.3 year old child (average)
• Academic Knowledge: equivalent to a 4.7 year old child (average)
• The teacher indicated that although Jonathan scored lower in the applied problem and academic knowledge than the other two, the primary reason is the verbal communication. She has no doubt that his knowledge is much higher. But she was not allowed to alter the questions of the standardized test and she believes that if she had asked the questions differently, he would have gotten a higher score. Again, this shows that he has a severe problem with language and pragmatics.

* Speech and Language Evaluation - (average scores are 85 - 115)

• Peabody Picture Vocabulary: score 94 – (average)
• CELF-PS (Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals - Preschool) – standard score for all the subtests is 10:
• Receptive Language: score 79 – (below average)
• Linguistic Concept: score 7 - mildly delayed
• Basic Concept: score 8 - mildly delayed
• Sentence Structure: score 3 - significantly delayed
• Expressive Language: score 79 – (below average)
• Recalling Sentences in Context: score 7 - mildly delayed
• Formulating Labels: score 7 - mildly delayed
• Word Structure: score 4 - significantly delayed

Clearly, Jonathan is a very bright young kid. His non-verbal intelligence is his asset. The areas to address are language (expressive, receptive and pragmatics), adequate sensory input to concentrate and pay more attention and social skills.

IEP meeting (Individualized Educational Program - school's contract for special ed services) will take place within 3 weeks. At that time, we will be able to negotiate with the school the type of services we would like Jonathan to receive to address the above areas of concerns (highlighted in red).

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Urine Toxic Metal Results

Results came in for the last UTM and indicated that he is dumping more mercury than ever before.

Dr. Yasko feels that Jonathan has a mutation in his methylation short-cut cycle (BHMT 1 or 4 and/or ACAT genes). BHMT enzyme is the one that breaks TMG into DMG, which is necessary for speech and language. This is Jonathan's mayor disability, aside from social interaction. If her suspicion is correct, I need to work with her to by-pass this mutation to help Jonathan convert TMG into DMG and process DMG in the body better. I will order the added SNPs test tomorrow.

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Overall, Jonathan had a pretty good day today. Very consistent from yesterday and the day before. One thing I noticed today as I put the EDTA suppository is that he has a rash in his bottom that looks like a die-off effect reaction. It could be because I increased his probiotics this week. I will monitor closely.

First Time Eating Ice Cream Out of a Sugar Cone

Jonathan continues to show improvement with this receptive and expressive language, but even more with his reasoning. When we met after school, Jonathan was very happy to see me and wanted to hold my hand. We went car shopping and he was curious to know what we were doing and why. I talked to him a lot, explained that I needed a new car to make my travel to work easier. I asked him if he was going to help me and he said yes. He is now reaching that point that NT toddlers reach where they feel excited to help.

He seemed less interested today in playing with electronic toys until very late in the evening. We spent almost 3 hours at the car place and he didn't ask us for our phones, or tried to play with anything electronic. At first he wanted to be near me. But after a bit, he was perfectly happy going with his grandpa to the playroom. No anxiety and he was calmed and kept his tone down all evening.

While we waited for the paperwork, we took the kids to the nearby shopping center to have ice cream. Jonathan has always been very picky. He never liked sugar cones, only ice cream in cups with a spoon. But Vanessa wanted a sugar cone and he imitated her. So I bought each one and to my surprise, he imitated Vanessa on how to eat the ice cream out of the sugar cone.

When we got home, Jonathan and Vanessa were inseparable. They played with a couple of toys. He directed Vanessa on what to do, they shared (and Vanessa was very excited that Jonathan shared with her) and then sat in front of his laptop to listened to a story.

Something strange happened as we were taking the kids to bed. We were all walking up the stairs and Daddy was playing with Kaiser (our dog) and he started to run up the stairs, Jonathan turned, heard Kaiser coming up and started running upstairs and jumped on our bed. From there, he tried for about 5 minutes to articulate that he was scared of Kaiser. I listened, and tried to create sentences for him until he finally said that he was scared of Kaiser. I asked him if he wanted me to put him inside the cage, and he got excited and said yes. He has never showed to be scared of the dog. So I don't understand what went through his head. I will keep monitoring that.

On Monday, I posted a positive feedback in Dr. Yasko's parent's forum. I mentioned about Jonathan's Happy Mother's Day comment, and that although he is still not playing with other kids or interested in regular toys, he is a happy and engaging kid that tells me that he loves me spontaneously. She responded today and her words are my next step biomedically:

"Dear Alex,

... As you know for Jonathan we really do need to push the B12 due to the MTRR ++ and if we find we need more info as time goes on we can consider the add on SNPs for ACAT, AHCY and BHMT so that we can reach that point where he is also socializing at the level you would like to see.

With love and hope and a hug,

Dr.Amy"

This summer is going to be intense on the biomedical side of things. Dr. Yasko's support gives me a big push.

Summer is Here Finally

This Spring has been cold. Jonathan really likes playing outside and it has been hard. Today the weather was nice.

Jonathan has always had problems transitioning from seasons. When he is comfortable with short sleeve and short pants, going to winter clothes has been hard. But going from winter to summer clothes has been incredibly hard in the past. He would wear long pants and long sleeve shirts at 95 degrees. But today Daddy put on shorts pants and a t-shirt and he had no problems at all. That is very exciting. I commented on his shirt as he came down, and he looked at it and pointed out the bull on it.

His therapist commented that he was not interested in circle time today. But that he played with 2 other kids appropriately. When he got home, he went bike riding with Abuita and Vanessa to one of our neighbor's house. He had a great time playing with 2 other kids. They played with swords and chasing each other. Thank goodness for the warm weather! When they came back, Vanessa got one of her birthday toys out (a Croquet game) and Jonathan, Vanessa and Abuita played for a while. The kids had a blast.

(HBOT 41) Our Last Session

Today is our last session. I need a break. I went to pick Jonathan up at daycare and he was not in his regular corner - darn green pillow. That always makes me happy. We came home, bathed and he wanted to go to the submarine in mommy's car, but I told him we would go in the small car to save gas. He had a meltdown because he wanted the GPS. But a block later, he was not thinking about this.

HBOT Day 41

I dove in today. It was fine. Jonathan knew it was his last dive for a while. He watched the magic school bus (which he loved) calmly. When the movie was over, he said "Mommy, is Tom going to put another movie on?". I cannot express how excited I am to post these types of well structured sentences. He has never EVER been able to articulate full sentences the way he is doing it now. Tom did put another Magic School bus movie on as he knows that Jonathan enjoys them, and Jonathan was very excited. When we got out, the Tom picked him up and helped him out and Jonathan was a in very good mood and did not mind being touched.

Jonathan won't stop talking. He sometimes makes no sense, but he is talking. Whatever is in his mind, it coming out.

He has cried more than usual today, but I have a feeling it is the curcumin working its magic (detox). He spoke longer sentences today like "mommy, daddy's car is clean because we cleaned yesterday at the gas station with the blue brushes". He is still speaking like "Tarzan", but using more pronouns and adjectives making the sentences more complex.

HBOT has been an outstanding intervention for my son. Some kids have not responded. Some kids regress. But most have a positive outcome. The technician told me that the biggest set of improvement would be seen between now and 6 weeks. We are going to wait until the trailer comes back in December to do another set of 20 dives but this time at 1.75 atms.

(HBOT 40) Great Mother's Day

Today the kids and I slept in (until 8:30am). It was nice to be able to sleep in. They came to our bed between 8 and 8:30am. The 3 of us went downstairs to have breakfast. I fixed waffles for the kids and I served myself cereal. We were sitting at the table watching the Disney channel when Jonathan asked me what day it was. I told him it was sunday. He got up and went to the NAA calendar I have in my kitchen and looked up the day. He turned and told me "Look mommy! Today is Mother's Day". Then he came to me and hugged me and said "happy mother's day". That was the best Mother's Day present.

HBOT Day 40

It is supposed to be our last day, but the technician insisted that we have one more day. So we are not going to argue. Jonathan and Dad did well. Vanessa, Grandpa and I went shopping. When they were done, Jonathan got in the car and would not stop talking. Granted that his conversation is regarding traffic lights and the GPS in our car, but everything he said, he involved us.

He wanted to eat Pizza, so we went to Tony's. He actually ordered his own pizza and the guy understood him perfectly. Then we went to my aunt and uncle's house. I was happily surprised that he did not care about the TV. He was very playful, especially if Vanessa was around to play with him.

Today he spoke long sentences throughout the day. I hope this sticks.

(HBOT 39) Socially Withdrawn

Today we celebrated Vanessa's birthday party. I tried to prep both Jonathan and Vanessa since Thursday that Saturday was Vanessa's birthday party. They both knew that a Princess was coming to play with balloons and paint their faces.

Jonathan woke up happy and engaged. I gave him his supplements, he ate breakfast and I sent him off with Daddy to the submarine. Vanessa, Grandpa and I went to run other errands.

HBOT Day 39

It was pretty uneventful. Daddy commented that Jonathan plays almost obsessively with him inside the chamber. He never does that to me. So it is curious.

The day developed well. When I got home, I found him playing with a laptop that his uncle gave him. A present for him. He was very excited. He came to me and told me "Look mommy, this is my computer. Not mommy's, not daddy's, not abuelito's. This is mine". He sat back at his table and played with all the options that his uncle had installed. It was great to see him that like. So happy. Although I knew we had lost him for the remainder of the day.

Vanessa's friends arrived and so did the Princess Ariel (Little Mermaid) who painted faces. The kids had a blast. Jonathan showed no interest and when I asked him to participate, he started to cry. I decided not to ruin Vanessa's party and left Jonathan be. But I was able to bring his new laptop and set it outside so he could be with us. After the Princess clown was done with the young crowd, she came to the table where Jonathan was with his laptop and started to talk to him. Jonathan asked her to build a bear with balloons. And she did. She was very nice with him.

After the majority of the kids had left, he started to play with some small cars. Daddy and Abuita helped him build a bridge. He enjoyed it. Then he went back to his new laptop.

I feel that Jonathan is not going to be a person that enjoys the crowds. And that is okay. Not everyone does. I am very happy though that he coped with the crowd. No sensory overload behaviors. And he loved the cake :)

(HBOT 38) Great Annual Physical Visit

Jonathan and Vanessa had their physical evaluation today. The Dr. said that they both looked good. She was very impressed with Jonathan. He was able to successfully complete the entire preschool screening test that totally was unable to do last year, and he overall looked very good to her. She noticed how his muscle tone is better, his motor planning, his coordination, etc. Even his speech (although he spoke little). And he has absolutely no sensory problems today. His cholesterol and CBC were excellent. She was very happy to see how healthy he looked. I have to say that I believe it is due to Yasko's supplements. Vanessa on the other hand showed a bit of anemia. The doctor believes it might be due to the amount of milk she drinks a day (about 36 oz). So she told us to restrict the milk to no more than 20 oz. And her cholesterol was 20 points higher than Jonathan's.

HBOT Day 38

Jonathan did really well today. Inside the chamber, the movie that they had on today was the magical schoolbus. Jonathan knew what it was (probably from daycare) and really enjoyed the show. He followed the plot closely and kept commenting to me what was going on. Again, he continued to be very sweet, loving, emotional.

We went to Joe's Crab today again and he didn't want to play with the other kids as usual, but h actively participated in Vanessa birthday celebration and played with a couple of toys. No phones, no electronic toys. After he finished dinner, he did join the other kids. Great to see that.

When we got home, he initiated play with Vanessa: hide and seek. It was really cute to watch them. Vanessa got tired after 4 times and started playing with her dolls. Jonathan decided to play with his wackamo toy. I joined him for a bit. Then they played with horses around the house. We took them to bed and he was in a very good mood.

Vanessa, Jonathan and Daddy at the Dr's Office

Celebrating Vanessa's birthday at Joe's Crab House

He was quite conversational today. Always about the stuff he likes and he also asked a lot of questions. The teacher sent a note saying that today for the first time, when she said "all kids with blue pants move forward", he looked at his pants, and when realized that he had blue pants, he moved forward. They have been working on this all year.