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02/02/10 |
                              
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We are all settling in with Apollo. Cameron is in love with him. He loves to hold his hand (Apollo's back paw) while driving in the van, playing with him in the yard, having Apollo take him to school each day, help him in therapy, feed him every day and brush him. They are bonding as brothers. Apollo is also sleeping very well on Cameron's bed every night. We have been practicing tracking with Apollo routinely. Partially to keep his skills up but also because he truly loves to track. It is absolutely amazing to watch Apollo run a track. We have someone (or one of us) take Cameron for a walk and hide somewhere in the neighborhood or park. Then my husband or I tell Apollo to "track" or "find him." Apollo's nose instantly goes down, he locates Cameron's scent and is then off running until he finds Cameron for us. This skill of Apollo's has removed a tremendous amount of stress and worry for our family. Although Cameron has been running off less frequently as he recovers, we know now that if something did happen again (Cameron has been lost before) that we would have another resource available to us in locating him. We had a phone consult scheduled with the nurse at Cam's lead DAN doctor's office this month to review labs and a further treatment plan. We had been disappointed when we saw Cameron's results from his first set of labs. We were pleasantly surprised that the doctor's office did not have the same opinion. The nurse explained to us that the lab results are based on a reference range of individuals tested at that lab (which are all individuals with heavy metal poisoning or suspected to have heavy metal poisoning). She was even more overjoyed when we all realized that we had made a major mistake when we took the lab samples. I was supposed to double Cam's dose of his chelator previous to taking a sample but I had only given Cam his regular dose. We were told that the doctor's experience was that most children don't begin to see results like Cameron's until after 6 months of chelation. Cameron's tests were completed after one month of full dose chelation and without a provocative test being completed. We all suspect that Cameron appears to be responding so well and his chelator is working so efficiently because of all of the other pieces of Cameron's protocol that he has been able to do (especially the FIR sauna and the Magnetico mattress pads). We made minor changes to Cameron's protocol this month. Including increasing his minerals as he appears to be running a bit low on some and is experiencing some bruising as a result. We have also completed a provocative metals test this week and are now anxiously awaiting the results. We have decided together with Cameron's doctor to schedule an IV chelation treatment for the end of May. Behaviorally, we have seen and increase of some stims (walking in circles and humming in particular). Cameron has also again become easily spooked and upset. These are stims we had seen strongly in reaction to Nystatin last time we used it. We had been asked to wean him back onto Nystatin again very slowly. At first he appeared to be handling the prescription. However, as his dose has crept up towards a full dose so to have his negative reactions. We have decided that in this case the negative side effects are outweighing the possible benefits so we have decided to discontinue its use. So far Cameron already seems to be loosing these stims, is more vocal and more social. We are relying on probiotics at this time and after a few weeks may look into the possibility of trying a different antifungal or other means to keep his yeast under control as we chelate. My husband attended the DAN Conference and Mercury Rally this month. Sadly, I had to remain home as we had just returned from our trip to pick up Apollo. However, we have decided to take the entire family to the Autism One Conference in May when we are also making a trip to Illinois to see Cameron's lead DAN and begin IV treatment. Cameron appears to be gaining conversational language. He has been talking with is daddy on the telephone a lot this month. While that is not new, the conversation is. Typically he has simply echoed back to daddy or answered very simple questions. However, he has now begun asking daddy questions like "what are you doing," and "when are you coming home." He is also recalling things from throughout the day or week and telling others about them, such as telling daddy what he did at school that day. He also appears to be developing a sense of humor as well (or recovering it). He has been cracking his own little jokes. The other night while we were brushing Apollo, Apollo began chewing at the hair that we had brushed out of him. I stated "Apollo is eating his hair; he sure is silly!" Cameron replied "yeah, and he has a goofy nose too!" I also had one of those moments this week that only another parent of a child with ASD could truly appreciate. I came into the family room the other morning and realized that someone had colored our fireplace. I asked our daughter if she had colored the fireplace and she said, "no, it was Cameron." I was shocked. Not only because until recently getting Cameron to color was like pulling teeth; but also because the stones on our fireplace had been colored so well! He had colored each stone with long clean strokes and each stone was its own color. Then Cameron walked into the room and I asked him, "did you color the fireplace?" He replied "yes," and I explained to him that we are only allowed to color on paper and not on furniture, walls or fireplaces. He told me he was sorry and left the room. I realized a few minutes later that he had returned with a Kleenex from the bathroom and was on his knees trying to scrub the crayon off of the fireplace! It was absolutely precious. I haven't been able to bring myself to clean the crayon off of the fireplace yet. It feels like a symbol of his recovery in so many ways.
This site was last updated 01/09/09
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