A Brief Summary of the Past Year

Since I have posted about N's rapid healing progress in a couple of NIDS/Bio-med forums I am in, I have received several requests for a summary of what his treatment was. In answer to that, I'm just posting it here so that I can 1) target multiple requests at once, and 2) continue to share what is working for us in the hopes it may work for other families! Below is a listing of what his sypmptoms were, followed by a list of the actual physical triggers, followed by his treatment plan under Dr. Bock. Again, I share this information with the aim that we can serve as a source of encouragment, hope, and possible answers to other families who have a member(s) on the 'A-List'.

Symptoms:

*Very delayed speech (echolalia only until about age 4) with very little receptive language.

*Hyper-sensitive hearing which led togeneral sensory defensiveness

*Hypo-senstitive touch (like he was wearing a snow suit all of the time)

*Very low muscle tone and easily fatigued

*Inflexibility in regards to daily activities and desires (extreme tantruming), as well as anxiety and hyper focusing on select topics.

*Unable to recognize social cueing

*Daily headaches (He didn't realize he had them until we made dietary changes while waiting for first Dr. appointment! Suddenly he was aware that this was not a typical feeling for everyone!)

*Spatial planning-not recognizing peoples' personal space, or his own in regards to bodily cavities. This led to him 'food stuffing' in his mouth, overeating in his stomach, and not recognizing a full bladder.

*Chronic ear infections from 0-2yrs (stopped once PE tubes were put in)

*Fine and gross motor incoordination

Physical ailments that were revealed from labwork in 2013:

*Sensitivity to gluten, dairy, corn, beef, and pork

*Not properly processing Salicylates

*Overactive amygdala (leading to more inflexibility, anxiety, and hyper-focus)

*Bacterial infection in his stomach (It is our opinion that this bacterial infection and the yeast overgrowth, listed below, are probably the two main causes of this whole mess. He was put on multiple rounds of antibiotics for his infant ear infections, and given oral steroids for severe croup. It was following these interventions that he started to fall behind in achieving milestones and exhibit behaviorial changes.)

*Yeast Overgrowth (Again, probably as a result of the oral steroids and antibiotics.)

*No traces of good E.Coli bacteria in his stomach

*Borderline hypo-thyroidism

*Bodily 'detox' and metabolic systems out of balance and not functioning properly to naturally rid body of environmental contaminants.

*According to the SPECT scan, he had a slight profusion in his brain (caused by the inflammation of inflamed immune tissues). It was a flat horizontal profusion that started in the frontal lobes above his eyebrows and extended back near his ears.

Treatments:

*Glutiathione NAC cream to help body in detoxing of environmental aggravants

(Important! He had to use a compounded cream instead of pills since Candida in the digestive tract can feed off of the pills!) He is also taking a Methyl B-12 nasal spray to help with this as well. The transdermal (a.k.a. 'shots') method is preferable, but we were unable to get those compounded up here, so we use the nasal spray instead.

*Magnesium Sulfate Cream to help with processing of salicylates. Also had to reduce the intake of artificial dyes, nuts, and coconut products which are high in salicylates. Initially he was taking daily epsom salt baths as well, but has phased these out.

*Various vitamin and mineral supplements that his labs showed a malabsorption of ,i.e. Vit. K, Vit. D, Acetyl L-Carnitine, Ubiquinol, Iodine, Omega 3, Taurine, etc. (due to his digestive tract infections).

*High powered probiotics to re-balance his gut cultures.

*Nystatin for the Candida overgrowth. After he was showed significant improvement with that, we switched to Candex and then off of the anti-fungals entirely.

*Biocidin for the bacterial infection.

*Mutaflor to replenish his good E.Coli

*Instead of using an SSRI to calm his overactive amygdala, we tried an oxytocin nasal spray. It has worked beautifully without any of the side affects of the SSRIs.

*Namenda to calm the neuro inflammation.

*Low does of Armour for thyroid.

So far, so great!

After his appointment last month, in which we reviewed his labs from August, we found that the stomach infection is gone! The yeast infection is gone! Thus, many of his supplements were reduced or eliminated after seeing levels that indicated his body was digesting and absorbing them properly. He is off of the Nystatin, Mutaflor, Biocidin, and reduced probiotics.

He tested clear for beef, pork, and corn!

His daily headaches were reduced once we started the anti-yeast regiment, and then fully went away once we had implemented the Namenda for the neuro inflammation!

His muscle tone since starting the Armour is improved greatly, and we have reduced that dosage!

His flushed ruddy skin tone has gone away. He now has a beautiful ivory comlexion.

He has increased focus, better motor control, and more is more aware of the people around him. His brain is finally healthy enough to be able to learn all of those social thinking skills that he needs to navigate society. 

We see that his metabolic and detox systems are improved but not fully healed. Since his yeast overgrowth is gone, we can now put him on NAC pills which we hope will give us better results than the cream in that area. He is still taking the Oxytocin and B-12 nasal spray until we see that those systems are healed.

He just feels better! He confided that he used to have stomach aches and have problems passing stools until recently. Just like with the headaches, he didn't realize that wasn't typical for everyone. He has felt those pains for so long that he didn't realize it was a problem until it went away and he felt so much better! Wow! That right realization right there makes all of the cost, travel, and medicine juggling worth it!! We will just keep plugging away at the other areas in need of further treatment, until his immune system is fully restored and he no longer needs medical intervention.

I am so thankful for N's progress. I pray that this will help others the way I have been helped in the bio-med blogosphere. If I had followed N's pediatrician's recommendations, he would be on amphetamines for daily headaches, unable to eat many of the foods he can now eat, and be in therapy forever. Now I foresee a much brighter and 'normal' future for him. In fact, he is now in Boy Scouts so that he can learn lifeskills to help him be a well-rounded man someday. Wow! Such progress in such a short time! Thank you, Lord!