After the News Things are Better

I can't believe summer is over. I noticed that I have not blogged in 3 months. Where does time go :). Jonathan started 5th grade and he likes it so far. He likes his teacher very much and he is looking forward to this year. Because he did so well on his SOLs, he was accepted in an advanced program that will pull him out twice a week. That will start in October. I don't know much else about that.

The summer went well. I think that knowing that he has a condition that explains his behavior made him give himself a break. No more "mom, there is something weird about me" or "my mind is crazy, I don't know what is happening to me".  All of that stopped. Our obsession for him to participate in social situations and fit in also eased up. So during camps, he enjoyed himself and pulled himself out of situations that bothered him without questioning his decision. He has been good about staying on his dairy free diet. He told me he wants to get rid of Autism and whatever I tell him to do he will do. And he is.

I think the biggest breakthrough for us is that he had a mainstreamed sleepover camp at a university and he and us managed to survive.  It was an IT camp, so he was able to identify himself with some kids, and he boarded with a friend, so he knew one person. He learned new stuff, new games and most importantly he took care of himself without me telling him: he woke up, showered, brushed teeth, fed himself (made poor food choices that made him sick but after discussing it with me, he did great the rest of the week), and overall handled being in a strange place and learned his way around. I was so proud of him.

He also graduated from the second level of the social skills group therapy that he has been doing since February and we start level 3 next week. It is very encouraging.

On the biomedical side, he tested positive on a folate receptor antibody. We started on a milk free diet and high doses of folate. So far I can't say that I see a difference, but we are increasing the dosage slowly. We are only at half the dosage.  Also, his cholesterol is now at 133. He has been taking Sonic Cholesterol from New Beginnings for the past year and eating 2 eggs a day. We started with 1 pill twice a day and we are now at 3 pills twice a day. I did notice cognitive improvements on this therapy. His cholesterol was 101 when we started and I noticed the improvements before we started the high folate dosages. So raising his cholesterol level was definitely a good idea.

As always, he keeps improving.