(HBOT 149) - 4 Years Ago Today

4 years ago today, Jonathan was diagnosed with Autism. It was a Friday, 11am. I remember it as if it was yesterday. After spending a week long vacation with our best friends and their kids, we noticed something was very very wrong and different with Jonathan. We spoke with his pediatrician a week after we returned from vacation. Finally, after a year of being told that “boys are always delayed and he will come out of his “universal stage””, he referred us to a pediatric neurologist who, on September 24th 2004, gave us the devastating news. “Your son has autism. A life-long disability. He will need to be institutionalized”. Our lives changed that day!

4 years later, looking back, it is amazing everything that has happened and how different things are today. It has been a true marathon and we have not reached the end-line, but I feel we are getting closer and life has a brighter future.

Today we went to see Jonathan's DAN! Dr. When we arrived, Jonathan asked me in front of the Dr. if he was going to get blood today. And I asked the Dr. He said no because we had done that before, so Jonathan looked at me and smiled. He was not anxious though, nor was he hyper or bouncy. The Dr. asked him how he was and started asking some questions about school, what he did during school, what he likes to do, how many friends he has, etc. They had a nice conversation. Jonathan was engaged and responded well. Good eye contact. Did not get up in the middle of the conversation and left the Dr. talking or avoided talking to the Dr. altogether like he has done in the past. He had to think hard on a couple of questions, but answered them and kept listening and answering. I knew the Dr. was trying to assess where he is, and I felt so proud of my baby. A dream come true. The Dr. turned to me and said "amazing, simply amazing. I can't believe I am having a conversation with the same kid that 4 years ago was diagnosed with autism. I am very proud of him and I am very proud of you. You did it".

We spoke about my concerns: (1) language; (2) attention; (3) gut issues; (4) humming.

• For language, I told him that I felt like Jonathan was learning a foreign language. He inverts some words and has trouble sometimes putting the sentences together. Also understanding some language, primarily spoken. And the Dr. said that he indeed is learning a new language. Since he missed that growing up, now he is learning. But he will eventually catch up since he can communicate simple and some slightly complex thoughts. He recommended that I increase the speech therapy. He also agreed to continue with the Listening Program. We are starting the home program in 2 weeks.
  
• For attention, this is a major concern for me, since he misses out on instructions. He is easily distracted. I told him that I didn't want Ritalin. Jonathan got to where he is without Ritalin, and I am sure not going to give it to him now. He concurred. We need to continue to fix his biomedical problems so that his body can relax and pay more attention.
  
• For Gut issues, he got the CDSA results and his gut has high yeast. I knew it. He gave me diflucan again. His liver enzymes are back to normal, so it is safe to start it up again, and also told me to start him back on IgG2000. I also need to change probiotics. I give him VSL #3 which is very strong.
  
• For humming, he didn't have much input. It is the only stim that Jonathan still has and because the EEG showed tons of activity in his brain that he is not filtering (for whatever physical or environmental reason), this seems to be his way to control it.

I told him that I want to do Yasko's Advanced Language Program with stem cells and although he has not tried it, he told me that he would be very interested in my feedback. It may help with more than just language from what I read.

Another thing he noticed is that Jonathan's voice intonation is not robotic anymore. That was one of the first things he noticed. His voice is not flat anymore. His tone varies appropriately. He asked me what I thought contributed to that dramatic change and I told him that I thought it was the Listening Program (based on the Tomatis' protocol). Because we have done over 140 HBOT dives and the tone never improved. But in a matter of a month after a 10-day session of the Listening Therapy, Jonathan's voice has pretty good intonation.

******************Unofficial Diagnosis Change******************

Even though this Dr. told me back in April that Jonathan had a future and that he would change the diagnosis to Aspergers, yesterday he told me that he would even drop that diagnosis altogether. My heart sank in a good way. "I did it". The Dr. told me that he completely disagrees with Children's Hospital's diagnosis and that I should look into getting a second opinion. “This child does not have autism anymore. Not even aspergers”. I told him that I will leave the Dx as is for now so he can get the speech support he still needs. But I will get a second opinion soon.

So in a matter of 4 months, he went from aspergers to no autism. And although this is not the "official" diagnosis, it made me feel very optimistic. It only matters because it is today, exactly 4 years later, that I get a “Dr.’s” opinion again. And this time, the news is very positive and optimistic.

In my eyes, we are starting a new phase. He may not have autism anymore, but he is still somewhere in the spectrum. His autism has moved within the spectrum into some type of ADD/Language Disorder. But I am optimistic that this is the tail-end and we will be able to help him control ADD type behaviors and improve his language so he can be successful in life. Thankfully, Yasko treats most learning disabilities the same way. So I am going back to Yasko. She has new research, new mutations, and new protocols and as soon as I recover from the 40 days of HBOT (sleep deprivation), I am going to start the new ALP protocol.

We will continue to see this DAN! Dr. until I can take him off all supplements. So we still have some more months to go.

A note to my husband: no, we are not stopping the interventions because the Dr. said that we did it. We need to fix the language and attention problems before we count victory.

Thank you for reading and for being a part of this recovery journal. This journey, although hard and overwhelming, has been very educational and very enriching.