, today is 8-21-09 and I have just started this blog. All of the posts are from my journal and were previously posted on the Facebook cause page Autism Is Reversible. I'm open to input and seeking support and advice. I think it's important to share our trials and triumphs with the world as we journey through Autism and find our way in this toxic world. We hope and pray that we find the help we seek in funding Sevyn's recovery. Thank you so much for reading and showing your support. Autism is treatable~recovery is happening~spread the word!My sweet son Sevyn is four and was diagnosed with autism shortly after his second birthday. Sevyn had bad reactions to the two vaccines he had- the Hep B shot at birth and DTap vaccine at nine months. The HepB on day 1 of his precious life was not something we consented to, in fact we had told our midwife that we wanted to wait to vaccinate, but the hospital staff was not made aware of our wishes and did what was policy to them and injected our baby when they took him to weigh him. When they handed him back to me I could tell there was something wrong. The nurses told me it was just from the drugs during labor and that the side effects would wear off in time. He struggled with breast feeding and they told me it was my fault. The site of his injection was red and his leg was stiff- they also said this was a normal side effect and would go away. I was upset and felt very crushed by my birth experience, but I was also thrilled to have my son alive and in my arms. We avoided another vaccine until he was nine months and we were convinced by our pediatrician that we were bad parents if we didn't at least protect him from tetanus and whooping cough. Saying he had seen many children die of these preventable diseases. In ignorance and fear we believed him. This doctor also told us that Sevyn showed no signs of autism and that his patients who had autism had shown signs at nine months of age. He swore over and over again that there was no connection between developmental delay and vaccines and that it was safe. I wish he had put that in his medical record for that day!! After the DTap Sevyn got a fever and a rash, lost most of his baby skills, started spinning himself in circles and only saying "digga digga", wouldn't make eye contact or give kisses, say bye bye, or ta dah, or mama/dada, anymore. We felt like we had lost our beautiful baby boy to a shot we never wanted him to have in the first place. We were in denial and didn't want to believe what was happening. We waited for the side effects to go away but they never did. If I could go back and say no believe me I would- I would give anything to have not allowed my son to be injured again!! We should have learned from the HepB- and we knew in our hearts it wasn't right, we just didn't have enough information to fight. When making the choice not to vaccinate you really have to have the right information. We were bullied by our pediatrician and ignorant at the time and that ignorance caused brain damage for our child. Our choices have led to his suffering from autism and we have accepted that. We are no longer ignorant to what's in vaccines and the affects those toxins can have on the developing human body. We now choose to do everything we can to help him heal and prevent the same damage from being done to Sevyn's little brother Grey and any other children we have. We've spent the last two years doing early intervention, GFCF(with many infractions-we have learned)and ABA. His teachers have helped him so much, but the progress was slow and we'd see him regress quickly without school and constant therapy. He was sleeping only a few hours a night and waking every hour or so screaming, he had chronic diarrhea and was bloated with severe troubles with his GI tract as well as immune deficiencies, frequent rashes, malabsorption of nutrients, vitamin and mineral deficiencies, and severe sensory issues, he would hit us and himself, and despite all of the progress he had made in school he was still barely communicating with us. The self abuse was what lead to our official diagnosis and for the first year of our Autism journey we were very lost. We were desperate to help our son and get him to stop hurting himself, it was very scary! We found an amazing local Cranio Sacral Therapist Kara Spencer who worked with Sevyn once a week for almost a year and helped him with many issues- primarily the self abusive behaviours and insomnia. I cannot tell Sevyn's story without mentioning Kara. She was so patient and compassionate with Sevyn even though he gave her a bloody nose during their first session she always had faith that he could learn and heal! She moved the Cranio Sacral Therapy to the water of a local pool and everything changed-we found amazing success! Sevyn started using a few words and he loved swimming. He would spin his body in the water and Kara would support him and dance with him. We saw many improvements in his stimming, his head shape and the alignment of his teeth were and still are much improved, and he showed his first signs of any awareness of the world around him and his own boy. Sevyn sang his first song with Kara and she was the first person he was truly affectionate with, he even said "love you" to her before he ever said it to anyone else. We are so grateful to Kara for getting us through that first year of autism and for giving Sevyn such a good start on his journey! She helped our whole family heal and grow together and even resolved Grey's nursing issues and teeth grinding with her gentle Cranio Sacral techniques. We don't know how we would have made it through that first year without Kara and Cranio Sacral Therapy. Unfortunately, when Kara could no longer work with Sevyn he regressed quickly and started hitting and biting himself again, refused to sing or be sung to, went back to waking up every hour, and the improvements we had seen in his digestion diappeared. He also started to have seizures and we started to get reports from school about starring spells and self abuse. I go with Sevyn to his class everyday and am quite aware of his skills and behaviours and was shocked by what i was seeing and hearing. We felt lost again and wanted nothing more than to go back to the place where we were seeing progress and not regression. When we found a local Defeat Autism Now Doctor we knew right away we wanted to work with him and do what we could to bring Sevyn to a place of optimal health. Dr. Matt Freedman sent me information on GFCF and we learned that we were allowing many infractions to take place and that we had been exposing Sevyn to all kinds of hidden sources of Gluten. Finally some guidance with the diet! We had seen improvements from eliminating gluten and casein, but there was so much we didn't know. Now we are also sugar and soy free and much more diligent about being free of gluten and casein. Dr. Freedman also talked with us about Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy and so we did our research. The proposed benefits seemed too good to be true, also too good not to give it a try! Sevyn had been having seizures before we started HBOT and in our research we found many inspiring stories of recovery from seizures and traumatic brain injury. We knew from the first day that this could change all of our lives and how blessed our family was to have found a doctor like Dr. Freedman! This is our journey through Autism.
6-14-09
Session 1 of HBOT with Sevyn
(diagnosis autism age 3)
Our First Session
We started Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy or HBOT with Dr. Matt Freedman today!! This kind DAN! doctor is so very dedicated to recovering children from Autism- he believes in my child like no other medical professional ever has! I was inspired just by his faith in recovery and how well he interacted with my son. The chamber is bigger inside than it appears from the outside and Sevyn likes small spaces so he adjusted quickly. We stayed in the chamber- or rocket ship as we have affectionately labeled the HBOT chamber- for an hour! It was a little difficult for me to manage him, he was bouncing around the chamber and we happily worked up quite a sweat together, but we figured out some strategies that will help -like having sessions really early in the morning so he's sleepy or bringing a DVD player! We got through the first session by playing toss and pick up the flash cards, eating fruit leathers and gummies to pop our ears, drinking water and sippy cup, cuddling, singing songs, and he even toned with me to calm himself when he did get frustrated in the chamber. He told me twice he was hot so I took his shirt off and gave him a little fan. He wore the oxygen mask for a few minutes, but I struggled with trying to keep it on him. Sevyn doesn't like things being on his face or head, no hats or beanies, he struggles with tooth brushing and ear cleaning too. This is a sensory issue he's had for a long time and one we hope to see improve. Once the chamber was decompressed and opened he ran around happy to be in the cool air. He didn't seem out of it after the hour in the hyperbaric chamber, just excited to be able to move about and run around again- being the hyper child that he is. We all agreed to try to do everything we could to help Sevyn sleep in the chamber during future HBOT sessions and to try to have them as early in the day as Dr. Matt could. After we arrived at home Sevyn had a big bowel movement and it was the most normal formed poop we have ever seen him have really. He had been constipated so it was a huge relief and it smell just awful-so we know his body is getting rid of the bad stuff. I am also feeling cleansed and have had less cravings for bad foods and sugar. We have been much stricter about being GFCF and eliminating soy and that has also helped immensely. I'll post a few pictures and some video soon from inside the chamber and update as we go. Thanks for the support everyone! ~love~ tiffany
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