Just a quick note before my eyeballs pop out of my head! I feel like I have wasted this beautiful, sunny, Alaskan Spring day on the computer. But in all actuality, it was not a waste; it was a milestone! We got our appointment for June 20th with Dr. Bock, and so spent the remainder of the day making all of the necessary travel arrangements to get me and the boy from Alaska to the East coast. We are so thankful for mileage plans, as well as generous Grandparents and Aunts & Uncles who are encouraging us and blessing our socks off! LOVE THEM!! Plus the timing coincides beautifully with Brent's final days in the CG, and thus, he had no problem getting the time off. He and our younger son will have quality time together while L is at Bible Camp, B is getting to spend a week with her cousins in Oregon, and Nathan and I try to navigate New York. (Gulp!) What a summer this is shaping up to be!
Good night and blessings to you and yours. Thank you, again, for your encouragement and support. We are overflowing with grateful hopefulness and awestruck by our Lord's divine planning.
Blessings,
Hillary
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Monday, April 8, 2013
April Update Take 2-We're In!!!!!
YES!! Praise God! So, we had a slight change; well, okay a major change! We changed whom we are going to consult with. After reading yet another book (this one titled Healing the New Childhood Epidemics: Autism, ADHD,Asthma, and Allergies by Dr. Kenneth Bock ) I realized that there are other integrative doctors who treat Autism similarly. While they may not do it under the banner of NIDS, they use an integrative approach that combines traditional medical testing and medications with out-of-the box treatments like anti-fungals, dietary needs, specific supplementation, etc. In fact, I had quite a wake-up call because I thought all of the DAN! (Defeat Autism Now!) doctors were naturopaths who did not have access to the traditional testing methods. While many of them are, there is, also, a team of DAN! doctors who are board certified doctors. In this case, Dr. Bock is a board certified Family Practice doc who has morphed into treating the 4A's out of necessity, and uses most of the same methods as Dr. Goldberg and Dr. Russell. While he doesn't require a SPECT scan, he runs extensive bloodwork testing as well as other analysis. We already have the SPECT so that won't hurt anything, and can show him exactly which areas of the brain are inflamed. He's also done a lot of work in honing the thyroid testing of these patients and found that many who test within normal levels with a traditional test will still have a dysfunctioning thyroid by testing each of the 4 thyroid levels separately. I am especially intrigued by this since Nathan has many of the symptoms of hypo-thyroidism and it is prevalent in my side of the family.
We have prayed for timing and for guidance. Brent and I decided that whoever could get us in first is who we would see. Well, Dr. Bock can schedule an actual appointment for June (once we get our app back in) and Dr. Russell's office is still not accepting new patients (still at #11 to even schedule an appointment).SO, while we are bummed it didn't work out for us to go to a familiar place with family there, N and I are excited to go to New York; a place neither of us have ever been to!
The timing and financial side will be more interesting since it will be when Brent is working two jobs (finishing out the USCG and working as Southeast Radar during the height of fishing season), and Dr. Bock doesn't accept insurance. However, we both feel such peace and excitement about this new development that we are trusting God in both areas and just going to plug along unless He shuts a door.
Thank you so much for continuing to pray for, and encourage us on this journey to healing. We are so excited for N and his future!
Blessings,
Hillary
We have prayed for timing and for guidance. Brent and I decided that whoever could get us in first is who we would see. Well, Dr. Bock can schedule an actual appointment for June (once we get our app back in) and Dr. Russell's office is still not accepting new patients (still at #11 to even schedule an appointment).SO, while we are bummed it didn't work out for us to go to a familiar place with family there, N and I are excited to go to New York; a place neither of us have ever been to!
The timing and financial side will be more interesting since it will be when Brent is working two jobs (finishing out the USCG and working as Southeast Radar during the height of fishing season), and Dr. Bock doesn't accept insurance. However, we both feel such peace and excitement about this new development that we are trusting God in both areas and just going to plug along unless He shuts a door.
Thank you so much for continuing to pray for, and encourage us on this journey to healing. We are so excited for N and his future!
Blessings,
Hillary
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
April update!
Well, I wish this post would say that we are on our way to the doctor, but sadly, no. We're still hovering at #11 on the waiting list, and trusting God for perfect timing in an appointment for our boy. However, we're still working on what we can do while we wait.
For starters, we have narrowed down that his headaches are probably from a yeast/microbe imbalance (aka "Candida Overgrowth" or "Leaky Gut"). We noticed that every time he consumed a lot of sugar or fruit, he would complain that his headaches were worse, or would get this dazed, hung over kind of look about him. He would get spacey and have a hard time focusing, and thus, get very emotional very easily. These are all tell-tale symptoms of the yeast overgrowth, which is common with NIDS kids. It makes sense that he started to get these headaches right when we started the protocol since he began consuming a lot of fresh and dried fruit since we eliminated our other favorite, portable snack foods, i.e. string cheese, popcorn, hard pretzels.
The doctor will probably put him on an anti-fungal, but in the meantime, we are going to try to starve the yeast. As any baker can tell you, yeast feeds off of sugar, so we are eliminating dried fruits, any sugary baked goods and snacks, as well as grapes and bananas. As per the NIDS protocol, we are limiting his fruit to 2 servings a day (or 1 large-ish apple, which are his favorites), and we are rationing his ketchup intake (his favorite condiment on all the eggs and meat that we eat). We have also put him on a super enzyme as well as Kyodophilus probiotics and he drinks a cup of Kefir a day. I am planning to start either making my own goat keifer or goat yogurt since the price is so high, but for now he is getting the stuff from the store cooler...My friend who is also treating her daughter similarly recommended a urine test to specifically check for the Candida levels. Our pediatrician was not familiar with it, so I'm considering whether or not to look for a local naturo-path that may check the levels for us so that we are not waiting on the doctor in TX to tell us what we're pretty sure we know.
Well, that's about all the updating for now. I should add that after 3 days of being fairly sugar-free, N told me that his headache was the best that it's been in a long time. Praise God!
Blessings,
Hillary
For starters, we have narrowed down that his headaches are probably from a yeast/microbe imbalance (aka "Candida Overgrowth" or "Leaky Gut"). We noticed that every time he consumed a lot of sugar or fruit, he would complain that his headaches were worse, or would get this dazed, hung over kind of look about him. He would get spacey and have a hard time focusing, and thus, get very emotional very easily. These are all tell-tale symptoms of the yeast overgrowth, which is common with NIDS kids. It makes sense that he started to get these headaches right when we started the protocol since he began consuming a lot of fresh and dried fruit since we eliminated our other favorite, portable snack foods, i.e. string cheese, popcorn, hard pretzels.
The doctor will probably put him on an anti-fungal, but in the meantime, we are going to try to starve the yeast. As any baker can tell you, yeast feeds off of sugar, so we are eliminating dried fruits, any sugary baked goods and snacks, as well as grapes and bananas. As per the NIDS protocol, we are limiting his fruit to 2 servings a day (or 1 large-ish apple, which are his favorites), and we are rationing his ketchup intake (his favorite condiment on all the eggs and meat that we eat). We have also put him on a super enzyme as well as Kyodophilus probiotics and he drinks a cup of Kefir a day. I am planning to start either making my own goat keifer or goat yogurt since the price is so high, but for now he is getting the stuff from the store cooler...My friend who is also treating her daughter similarly recommended a urine test to specifically check for the Candida levels. Our pediatrician was not familiar with it, so I'm considering whether or not to look for a local naturo-path that may check the levels for us so that we are not waiting on the doctor in TX to tell us what we're pretty sure we know.
Well, that's about all the updating for now. I should add that after 3 days of being fairly sugar-free, N told me that his headache was the best that it's been in a long time. Praise God!
Blessings,
Hillary
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