In Anticipation of April, a warning Rant

Do not tell me to light it up blue.
Do not send me memes about how autistic kids just want to be accepted
Do not ask me to give money to Autism Speaks (and for crying out loud don't make a donation to them in our name)
Do not tell me its time for acceptance.


Any of the above will result in me completely overloading you in information and data, and quite likely unfriending you.


I have work to do - We all have work to do.  I talk to moms every day who ask for help.  Its like a snowball that has picked up momentum.  You have no idea how many sick kids are out there whose parents are at their wits end.


I've spent the last few days writing all of the blogs that will publish over the course of April (I'm kind of excited about a campaign I'm a part of), and its stirred my passion right back up.  I am FIRED UP for Autism ACTION month.   Its been less cathartic and more firing up, actually. I expected it to be more cathartic.  I guess I'm not quite to the "let it go" stage.   Because there is much to be done.


What I am asking of you is this:


As you see the blogs that I post over the next month, please share them via any social media platform you are a part of. 


It is past time for action.  We as a society need to stop be complacent when it comes to environmental assaults on our fragile children - GMO's, chemtrails, vaccines, overused antibiotics, nutritionally void foods, chemically laden cleaning products... They've all got to go. And you can vote best with your wallet.

IonCleanse by AMD - Month 3 Gains

If I thought that Months 1 and 2 were impressive, month three has blown them completely out of the water.  It feels like every single day there was something new or cool I needed to document in the blog.

While his atec hasn't budged  (all points remaining are in conversational speech), the gains that we've seen maturity and executive function are astonishing:
He babysat!
Tied shoes on video
Expressed preference to go on a field trip when asked
Generalized his cartoons to live bodies
He's been helping and wanting to help so much. The interaction makes my heart sing


I really am seeing a huge improvement in his receptive speech. Today when we went to the zoo, I intentionally made him say what each animal was doing, in this form "The Duck is Sleeping" and "The Giraffe is eating", and he repeated them all in sentence form for me.

I've heard 4 word sentences come out of his mouth, with no prompting.  Over spring break, I've watched him PLAY independently outside for hours on end -chasing and being chased by the puppy, jumping on the trampoline, running up the slide.  Amazing things that all require improved executive thinking. 

We have decided that its time to address the underlying genetics and we have an appointment with a naturopath who specializes in this stuff on Wednesday morning. I'm both nervous and excited. I have no desire to get sucked back into the test / supplement / test rat hole. We've been there and done that.  But I am entirely tired of throwing darts at things that helped other kids and then being disappointed when they don't help mine. So its time for some professional help interpreting his particular genetic mutations.

If you are on the fence about getting an IonCleanse by AMD, its time to get off the fence.  The fact that the company makes the unheard of in our world promise that if you don't get results in 60 days, you get every penny back means its Risk Free. (truth is nothing works for every child, which is why no one else makes this promise)  This thing is worth its weight in gold on a credit card.   If you tell them that Joy and Dominic sent you, we get a referral fee.  (posting for transparency).    I would be writing the same blogs raving about this without that tho, because its made that big of a difference for our health.  I was actually able to walk around the zoo today, in the sun, for 2 hours with no kidney strain headache / resulting queasies.  This is a major thing.

Zoo fun!!!

We finally made it to the zoo today, and basically just followed Dominic.  I did try to get him to use his verbs with what each animal was doing, in sentance form, with moderate success.

I

First Stop - Feeding the giraffes.

Second stop - Lions

Gratuitous family selfie

Our View for the majority of the day. Boy knew WHERE he wanted to go.

He really would love it if we got chickens...

Watching the hippos sleep in the sun

Gorilla Cage

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We are noticing an independence streak.  Which is a positive.
We are also noticing a weird tendency to pigeon toe his feet, which corresponds to dropping l-carnitine/l-carnosine from our regime.  Time will tell if this is a sensory thing that he's trying out or if its something we need to address.

Multitasking

So, forever ago, we bought this light doohickey and only used it a little while. I actually had forgotten it existed until a mom online mentioned hers.  Then I went digging in the closet until I found it.

We're going to see what happens when we combine light therapy with footbaths.....

Colors inside the lines

We just came from an awesome OT session. First of all, He's sitting for the entire session now, self regulating with a visual stim object of a water bottle that has glitter in it.  it sits beside him at the table and when he needs to he turns it over.  Must remember to tell school.

Today he did this.  All by himself.  He matched the colors to the numbers and then COLORED INSIDE THE LINES.  The control and precision is so awesome, and our nemesis - the pressure - is appropriate.  Even our OT (Hi!!! I know you're reading this) is super impressed with the results since we started the ioncleanse by amd footbaths.  I offered to bring it with us next time and see how he did doing OT while cleansing. That would be interesting.   They have a soft chamber HBOT (but they don't use it with a mask so probably not terribly effective - just room air under pressure) that they do some OT in, so they are open to these sorts of things. 

What the???

Random Cool moments:
Documenting them - its kind of surreal but at the moment it feels like bragging because we're seeing this stuff EVERY single day.



While I was working in my garden on Monday, Dominic asked me for 2 worms.  He proceeded to take those two worms to the deck, where he had filled the outside dog water bowl with water, and amused himself for a solid hour.  When I checked on him, he had 2 little scrap pieces of wood in the water bowl, and had the worms "riding boats"

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Out of the blue, Dominic spontaenously traced the shape of a picture on our wall and said "Square".  Then he went to the clock, traced it with his finger and said "Circle".  Then I asked him to draw me a triangle and a star and he did both.

~~~~
Dominic got a haircut this morning.  About three minutes in, he told Daddy he had to pee. And then proceeded to apologize profusely to the stylist for having to go.  Rod said he kept saying "Sorry" which just melted his hair stylist.



Doesn't he look handsome?

Spelling

Dominic came into the office spelling out loud and moving his finger in the shape of letters. So I gave him some paper and said "Spell Swiper for me"

And look.  After he spelled Swiper, I told him to Spell Dragon2.   And he did. :)

This is without ANY assistance or hand positioner.  and obviously, no lines.

Then for kicks and grins, I asked him to spell Dora. I've never seen him do that one.  And he DID.  I had to spell Fox out loud once, and then he did it.  And he tried to spell Mom. :)

"Me Helping"

Every year since we got Shanti, when I prepare my garden beds, I also put up fencing.  This year, with Kama in full digging mode, it was particularly important.  Rod had the brilliant idea to use zip ties instead of kitchen twine - and I got it all up in about an hour this afternoon.

Dominic was right by my side, inquisitive and wanting to help.  Well, he also wanted to play with the fencing and the sledge hammer, but no one was injured.

So i got the first 10 or so feet of fencing up and out of the corner of my eye, I saw Dominic struggling to get the zip tie to cooperate.  He was trying to help.  I showed him how I did one, and he wandered off to jump on the trampoline for a bit.

Then he came back.

And I heard
"Me Helping, Me Helping"

(a pronoun?? really?? I don't think I've ever heard him use a pronoun when talking about himself)

Then he pulled that zip tie tight and said, enthusiastically  "Yay!!"

The interaction we are seeing is PHENOMENAL!
Every day we are seeing something we've never seen before.

And its all because of the IonCleanse by AMD footbaths.  We have not added anything else yet. In fact, I've taken away everything except his fats (the dyspraxia protocol stuff), his vitamin D, and his probiotic.  The new stuff we are going to start hasn't arrived yet.

I wish we had done this years ago.  I wish I had known.  I knew about footbaths, sure, but I thought they were a scam.  Actually, most of them probably are.  This is the only brand with dual polarity, a medical grade power supply, made in the US, etc.   We are so very blessed that my fellow Warrior mom LJ Goes told me I HAD to meet Tyler Dahm because she was so close physically, and Tyler introduced us to these when we saw her in November.  Tyler then facilitated us getting one in January.   For us in this journey, its been about WHO we connected with.  Who the universe brought us to.    And I'm convinced that 2015 is Dominic's year.

IEP progress report

IEP progress reports have never been fun to receive for me because its like things just go TOO slow - Dominic hasn't actually achieved one of his IEP goals ever.  Some of that is the goals were unreasonable, but most of that just plain because he hasn't had the cognition to develop academically.


So it was with GREAT trepidation that I opened the IEP progress reports which came home today.


Remember... While we cycled in few things, the only "new" intervention that we have left in place since January is the IonCleanse by AMD footbaths.  All other "new" stuff we tried and set aside.  We also stopped the Cd protocol and all related parasite protocols in early February after 2 1/2 years on them. 


For his speech goal of "Dominic will answer questions about who, what, and where using 2-4 word phrases /sentences in 4/5 attempts, using adjectives 25% of the time in simple social situations in three consecutive charting opportunities" - the data is as follows:


Dec 15 Baseline: 0 / 5
Dec 19 charting: 1 / 5
March 13 charting:  4/5


HE ACCOMPLISHED AN IEP GOAL!!!!  FOR THE FIRST TIME EVER!!!


He's also made nice progress on his math goal which was my suggestion - to teach him how to appropriately use a calculator - the first step was single digit addition, he mastered that in a month.  Then they moved on to multi digit adding which he amastered in a week, and then subtraction and now he's almost mastered mixed addition and subtraction of multidigit numbers (written form).


For Reading, his goal was "Dominic will decode cvc words with 80% accuracy in 4 of 5 trials.  His baseline on Jan 8 was 20% with just short a words.   by March 11, he was to 90% accuracy with short a and starting to mix in short I.

They are working on keyboarding as well (I get hilarious emails) and the goal there is "when given words / sentences either written or verally, Dominic will keyboard those with 70% accuracy in 4/5 trials".  The baseline was letters only as dictacted Jan 8 and he got a 60%.  Feb 18 he got 100% on letters and numbers 1-10 as dictacted, and they're working now on making that letters and numbers 1-20 which he is at 75%.


This to me completely reinforces what we've said - these IonCleanse by AMD footbaths are making an incredible difference in his awareness, cognition and healing.


Next week is spring break, and I think this boy has more than  earned  a trip to the zoo!!!

Ramblings...

Today is a rainy, gloomy day.  My Daffodils wanted to open but need just a smidge  more sunshine first...

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I've been recovering from the flu and never have been so glad to have my Essential oils. I've been able to cut WAY back on the toxic medications this time.  I've done a ton of RC on my sinuses (opens them right up), Raven on my chest to soothe my cough and immupower on my feet and diffused in the bedroom.  Thusfar, Rod has not come down with this and I hope he doesn't.  Its a particularly nasty version.  I've also been cleansing using our IonCleanse by AMD footbath every day (instead of every other, which is protocol) and i get a few hours of relief just from the footbath.   I will never be without one of these machines.  There's a great interview over that The Thinking Moms Revolution today about why they work and why brand matters with my friend Tyler.  

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The puppy is growing like Mad.  I have to start buying dog food in larger bags or something....

~~~~

If you haven't been paying attention - 36 states now have legislation either attempted or pending to curtail parents choices regarding vaccines.  Everyone of them has failed thus far.  Its like it was choreographed along with "mickeymousemeaslesgate" and "ebolagate" which were supposed to terrify us into compliance.  Has everyone over the age of 55 forgotten that measles is just a rash and a fever most of the time?   Bobby Kennedy is busting tail to make sure law makers actually have the real information in front of them before curtailing liberty.  He's going to be a busy man. Yesterday in Illinois, he said "Don't put boots on the necks of these parents! They will kick you back! Just wait!"

~~~

Anna!!! Elsa!!!!

Dominic has a fixation for the Disney cartoon Frozen.  He has Frozen themed sheets, pj's, toys, night light, etc.   He hasn't actually watched the movie itself in a while, tho.

So I have been home sick with a rough case of the flu the last few days and Daddy and I have been binge-watching the entire season of Once Upon a Time that we had on the DVR, unviewed since Daddy's heart attack in September.  This season heavily featured Anna and Elsa from Frozen. Only not animated, as real people.

So yesterday after school Dominic evicted us from the sofa so he could play his wii, and we watched OUAT in our bedroom.  He came in, got the most intrigued look on his face and said "Elsa!!! Anna" and Daddy and I exchanged shocked looks.  he generalized the outfits from cartoons to live bodies.  From the movie scenes to totally different - it was very cool.

It is increasingly apparent that his receptive language is growing in leaps and bounds.  I'm excited for the expressive to come as well.

Well, thats a novel concept

We generally don't allow things to override Dominic's private OT and ST because we fought for so long to get the waiver so that he could get it.

The other day a flier came home from school for an out of town field trip, that would entail them not getting back until 4pm on a day that he has therapy from 3-4 so I sent a note in that we would be holding him out.  I got a note back asking us to reconsider as he apparently "loves those days"

So we decided to ask him.

I said "Hey Dominic do you want to go on a field trip with your class"
He perked up and said
"Trip?  yes, YES"

Knock me over with a feather.


Every time I think i have run out of stories for the blog, something like this happens.  And at this point I'm totally wishing we had known about IonCleanse by AMD footbaths 7 years ago.  Amazing what opening up detox pathways is doing.  Probably would've saved ourselves well over $250K - and no I'm not kidding about that dollar figure.

Autism as an Onion

I've been working on this idea of Autism as an onion, with layers that you peel off, only to find a new layer to deal with for a while now.   This is kind of how I envision it.

The inner core is the genetic piece.  Whether its the family history of autoimmune disease or spelled out genetic mutations, its the potential for problems.

Then the next layer is the immediate environment in Mom's womb.  Are there any toxins, antibiotics, flu shot, rhogam, gmo'd food, etc that the fetus is exposed to?  Then birth - again with the toxins, induction, c-section, etc.  Was the baby breastfed or formula fed.  Vaccinated?  All of those are layers.

Then more environment - did you give tylenol, antibiotics, gmo'd food, artificial colors/flavors, paint the house, chemtrails in the air, etc.  All of those add in...

Then, any medical stuff - that may've been done out of sequence or not, trying to get to the bottom.  Sedation for MRI, chelation without a way to detox, etc.

Once anything in the body is out of balance, its vulnerable to pathogens - this is the pathogenic layer, the parasites, yeasts, metals, all growing in biofilm.

~~~~

So the analogy I heard yesterday is that if Autistic kids are a house, they are a house in shambles and the first thing you do to a house in shambles is clear out the gunk.  Then you repour the foundation, then you rebuild the walls, then  you add the roof.

So we have spent the last 4 years clearing the debris.  The CD protocol cleared off the pathogens.  Now the IonCleanse by AMD footbath has opened a solid detox pathway (oh if only we had had this when we started CD... i strongly suspect we would've made much faster progress), and we are peeling back the layer of the onion now that gets us to the core - the part that we fix so that he heals all the way

its so close I can taste it. :)

Routine SCHMOUTINE~!!!!

If I've said anything to other autism parents who are struggling over the years its been "Routine Will Set You Free".  Routine is how you get bedtime done, how you make bathtime not a fight, etc.

And Dominic THRIVES on routine.

Let me tell you about last night.

We decided at the last minute to go out to dinner.  And by the time we got seated it was already well past D's bedtime. 

We ate.

HE went to the bathroom twice (aside for my Autism mama's - PERFECT POO!!!!)
When we came back from the bathroom, he told Daddy that his hands were cold.
Blink Blink.
He has NEVER identified his hands as being a temperature.  This is ENORMOUS

He hung out while we chatted.

Then we came home.  By the time we got home it was almost 9, and I decided to forgo bath and go straight to bed.

And got no argument.

Let that sink in.

I completely disregarded the routine he has had for 10 years.  (seriously i can count the number of times he's gone to bed without a bath in his life on one hand)

And he didn't even remark on it. 

We Have a Plan, People.

I know I told ya'll a while back that we had sent off Dominic's saliva for a full DNA mapping.  The results are back. 

Because of FDA limitations all that 23andme can tell us is Dominic's ancestry composition (He's 41% British/Irish, imagine that) and give us raw data.  There are any number of sites online which can tell you your exact genetic defects / abnormalities using the raw data.  But they don't tell you what to do about them.  Fortunately we know the lovely Tyler Dahm at Pathways in Denver offers those interpretations AND helps create custom supplementation plans to manage mutations.  I want to encourage everyone to check out the work they offer at Pathways - you do not have to be local for her interpretation. One of the most frustrating parts of Autism treatments is not knowing why something works for someone else's kid but not yours.  

Genetic tests also aren't the be-all, end-all.  Just because you have a particular genetic mutation does not mean that mutation is expressed, and just because you have mitochondrial damage, that does not mean you can't heal it.   We plan to use this information as a road map for what to try next.

Dominic's biggest issue genetically is that he has a double heterozygous MTHFR mutation. This means that his methylation pathway simply doesn't work.  Further, his immune system is hyperactive - its so busy all the time that it has zero resources available to fight off things like viruses. He has zero natural ability to detoxify anything in his body.  It made total sense to Tyler to hear that the back breaking straw in our case was influenza.  He is genetically wired to not respond at all to anti-inflammatory drugs, which also means that he doesn't make anti-inflammatory compounds in his body.  

When I asked Tyler about how his genetic test and overall functionality (she has met him) compared with what she had seen in the past, she said repeatedly that he has had the deck so stacked against him that he is doing amazing.  If she had only his genetic test to go off of, she wouldn't know if she could help him - his mutations are that severe.  She also said that looking at his genetic map, it makes total sense why his only issue remaining is speech.  He simply doesn't make the amino acids required to open the pathways in his brain.  So based upon his genetics, he's doing AWESOME.  She also said, when I told her he has never had antibiotics, that it was a very good thing because based on his genetics its very likely antibiotics would've caused him to regress.

So its a VERY good thing we are doing the footbaths.  Those are now his method for detox - since his body doesn't do it naturally.  They will be in our toolkit forever.

Our battle plan is this - Clear the toxins (in progress), rebuild the foundation with some foundational supplements while removing supplements that he shouldn't be on based upon his genetic profile, then if he is doing well in 60 days, add additional supplementation to open the pathways.  We need to get the foundational stuff in before we add the pathways stuff or he'll get gunked up again.   Essentially we are doing a 60 day nutritional reboot.

1.  We are removing: inositol, bowel strength, oil of oregano, organically bound minerals, lactic acid yeast, advancedTRS*, and theralac
2. We are adding Gaba, trace minerals, liver complex, and liposomal glutathione

We will be redoing his food and environmental allergy testing as soon as possible because Tyler believes that based upon his hyper-immunity, he's probably got an unidentified food allergy that if we can identify and pull out will take some additional stress off of him.  

After 60 days we will look at next steps which will likely include a B Complex, SamE, and an anti-inflammatory called PEA.  This will be the rebuilding the pathways step.  After that point it would appropriate to look at specific therapies aimed at speech - like RPM.

Tyler said to me, and I believe her because of how far we've come with the dartboard method, that within a year Dominic will have fully functional speech.   That as far as he has come, he now has recovery fully within his sights. 

(*yes i know we only just started this and its all the rage.  We are removing it because Tyler has concerns about the reports coming in from Coseva's folks who are responsible for getting them the licensing to be able to sell a nutritional product)

Peeling the Onion!!!!

I feel like we are finally getting some nice momentum going with Dominic.  After years of "throw the dart and see if it works" protocols from both the DAN world and on my own, we have arrived here, at the cusp of a custom protocol tweaked for Dominic's specific genetic mutations.


Whoa Baby. Back that horse up.
Genetic Mutations
I thought you said there's no such thing as a genetic epidemic.


Genes are funny things.  Epigenetics in particular makes my head spin.  Its like this - there are genetic mutations that cause predispositions to many things.  Almost every medical event in fact, other than bacteria/viral infections can be granted a genetic "predisposition".  Does parkinsons run in your family?  Heart attack? Breast Cancer?  Diabetes?  Alcoholism and resulting cirrhosis of the liver?  All of those things have corresponding genetic mutations at the DNA and lower level


Just because there is a predisposition, doesn't mean that you are doomed to experience the medical event.   Genes are not necessarily all expressed.  Something environmental has to happen for them to be expressed.  Therefore by logic, something environmental can turn their expression off.  I am of the opinion that as we as a culture get sicker - we are mutating our own genes an passing that onto our offspring, who get sicker every generation.  We are de-evolving.   Epigetics is about how external events can change genes.  And I believe that the epigenetic changes to my body, for example, became solid genetic mutations in Dominic.   I've said for years that I believe the damage done to my generation by vaccines is coming out in our children.


We know in our case, having looked at Dominic's genetics, that just about any environmental assault would have tipped him into autism.   If it wasn't the MMR, and the Virus, it would've been the aluminum in the chemtrails, or the garbage in the GMO'd food.  In some ways, it makes me feel less guilty about ignoring the voice that said we shouldnt' vaccinate him. In others, more guilty that I gave him such a crappy set of genes.


So - here we are.


All those years and protocols and we have accomplished a TON


We have healed his leaky gut!
We have eradicated layers of pathogens
We have created a strong, new, open detox pathway using the IonCleanse by AMD
We have handled ALL his autistic behavioral traits and are left with speech.


Now we are ready to supplement the kreb cycle and give Dominic the specific support which, based upon his genetic composition, he needs.


The genetic tested we had done at www.23andme.com
The interpretation and custom supplementation schedule we had done at http://www.pathwaysnaturalwellness.com/

My Kid is Hilarious

This morning when I went into Dominic's room to get him up (note I didn't say wake, because his light had been on for an unknown period of time), the conversation went like this


me:  'morning Dominic
Dominic: GOOD Morning
Dominic: GOOOOOOOD morning
Dominic: GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD morning
Me:  Okay, Good morning, did you sleep good
Dominic:  Yes
Me: Did you have happy dreams
Dominic: Yes
Me:  What did you dream about
Dominic:  Yes


the Emphatic addition of GOOOOOD to the 'morning was hilarious, but whats a bigger thing is the lack of echolalia in answering me with a yes that he slept good.  In the past his usual response would be the echoic "good", not the affirmative yes.  So that's really nice to see.   Someday maybe he'll be able to describe dreams to me. That would be amazing.


Then when I asked him what he wanted for breakfast he said Juice (we juice fresh veggies every morning, and I'm glad he likes it so much),  and coleslaw.  And i'll be damned if he didn't eat coleslaw for breakfast along with his juice while entirely ignoring the sausage patty I also gave him.


Further - he has decided he will only bathe if the bathtub is spotless.  This has been an issue of late as white puppies + snowmelt = muddy puppies and Kama has been getting a lot of baths.  Dominic actually gets offended by specks of dirt in the tub.

Detox, Baby!

One of the first things I remember from those years of DAN appointments is the statement by the nutritionist that we needed to switch to non toxic household cleaners, especially for the Dishwasher since Dominic was the same height as the dishwasher exhaust vent.  At the time I was so overwhelmed that I couldn't wrap my head around what she had said.   I did however think it was ridiculous that she assumed my kid was snorting fumes from the dishwasher.  He wasn't.  We were way too supervisory to allow that.


We did eventually switch to using a steam mop for cleaning the floors, and Dr Bronners for cleaners, and handmade nontoxic soap made by a fellow Autism mom for Dominic.  And we buy as much organic as I can afford, use nontoxic self-care products,  and don't allow fertilizer my own worms didn't make on my lawn.   Its taken a lot of years to make this shift.


The IonCleanse by AMD footbaths we are doing with such amazing success actually work by opening a new detox pathway in the body - the skin.  They pull toxins out of the bottoms of our feet using electricity.   Sauna's would also detoxify the body as would salt baths. 


Supplements that support the body's detox mechanism (liver, kidneys, lymph) work differently - they don't open pathways, they tone current pathways.


The Thinking Moms Revolution has partnered with Platinum Sponsor IonCleanse by AMD and Gold Sponsor Bio-Botaical Research, Inc. to bring you an eConference entirely dedicated to Detoxification.  Tthis is a  DO NOT MISS event, regardless of your autism status.  Anyone living on the planet right now is a thousand times more toxic than our grandparents were for a plethora of reasons.   We will be talking about detox strategies for the whole family, the home, emotional detox and how to detox for pregnancy.


Read more about the awesome presenters and register here.

Random cuteness

Our friend who is helping us remodel the living room brought his baby son over yesterday while he worked. Dominic was very helpful hanging out with Dexter.  He gave him a bottle, kept the dogs away from him, and played the gravity game with Dexter's Binky for HOURS.  I am so pleased at the increased maturity.

~~~~~

So Dominic informed us emphatically the other night that it was time to trim his fingernails.  I said, "fine, why don't you do it yourself".  The below is what transpired.  He tried SO hard. I don't think he quite has the pincer grip strength YET, but he's willing and has the idea and I think its imminent.  The independence in self care is one of those things we don't talk about a ton, but its a HUGE step. Its not an inchstone. 

Footbath webinar!!!!

go here.
Watch it.


Beyond the amazing results we've had in Dominic, my health is better than its been in years.  Those of you who are long time blog readers will remember I landed in the hospital a few years back with a massive kidney infection and at that time we learned that I only have 1 kidney.  At that time a whole lot of weird health questions of mine were answered.  Since then I've had a horrible time with both heat and stamina.  I've used the footbath every time that Dominic has and my stamina has improved drastically.  Time will better tell on the heat, but I have high hopes that this summer I'll actually be able to be outside enjoying Colorado.

If you are interested in them, please feel free to reach out and get more information.  AMD really does mean it when they give a full guarantee - and we have seen HUGE results in their 60 day guarantee period.

Tell them Joy and Dominic sent you. :)

TMR

I am featured at the thinking moms revolution today talking about what to do when your first diagnosed.  http://thinkingmomsrevolution.com/just-diagnosed-autism-now/

Documentable progress.

And this time I got it on video.  This is step one of the process.  Step two will turn the wooden shoe around and step three will be the shoe on his foot.  What is adorable is that his OT told me he went straight into the session, tied the shoe perfectly 3 times in a row and then got incredibly excited/proud of himself and gave high 5's!

Given  that various therapists have been trying to teach this child to tie his shoes for a solid 5 years, I'm very pleased.

So, while we were at speech and occupational therapy yesterday, I asked for impressions from both therapists regarding Dominic's progress towards goals Today compared to Mid December.

Speech said that in December he was hitting his goals she was working on about 50% of the time and today is hitting them about 75% of the time.  When i queried as to if that fell along expected rate progress lines, she said no that was faster than she expected.

Occupational told me that she just did his 6 month progress report today and he has achieved a number of milestones, specifically in the last month (including the shoe tying).   She is very impressed with his rate of progress compared to December.  Regarding handwriting, she said that his pressure has improved as has his letter spacing.

this is the future.

and we aren't ready.


At the current exponential rate of growth, in ~20 years, 10% of young adults will have autism.  Some will be higher functioning that others, many will not.


They won't be paying taxes.  Your taxes will be paying for them.


They won't be serving in the military.  They will be permanently exempted due to disability.


They won't be driving.


They won't be taking care of their parents.  Their parents will be taking care of them until they cannot and then the state will.


They won't be having babies.


They won't be buying homes.


They might we working at a place that pays very minimally like Goodwill or the ARC.  There aren't going to be that many jobs for them though.  One parent in Florida had a great idea and the capital to make it happen. That won't be the norm.


If I won the lottery today, I would be buying land and creating a community much like the one the Autism Trust is building in Texas serve adults with autism who cannot live independently.


And those are the autistic children who live to be adults.  Who don't drown, freeze to death wandering, seize until they don't wake up, overdose on psych meds, are abused by medical centers, are killed by their own caregivers...


A few weeks ago, I sobbed my way through the memorial service of a 21 year old very loved and cherished autistic man in our local community who didn't come back from a grand mal seizure.   In a room full of mourners, what struck me as absolutely the saddest part of the service was that there were exactly 2 peers of his there.   The tragedy of that is incomprehensible.


This is the future.


Wake up.
Pay attention, this is going to get far worse before it gets better.


The time is long past for awareness and acceptance.  The time is for action. If this is genetic, which there is probably a component thereof, then DEMAND full genetic DNA screening of all newborns to check for mutations that indicate compromised ability to detoxify or mitochondrial disease before any environmental assault (including vaccines, vitamin K, and aluminum laden forumula).   If this is not genetic (of course its not, who ever heard of a genetic epidemic), then get on the phone with your legislator and demand that they do hearings immediately on the environmental causation.  Look at GMO's, look at the aluminum being sprayed into the air via chemtrails, looks at vaccines, look at processed food and Monsanto.  But for the sake of our society, LOOK.


And no, its not just better diagnosis, or a "fad".  When I was in high school there wasn't a single autistic child in special ed.  Downs Syndrome, spina bifida, sure.  But not autism.  Teenagers still in diapers, non verbal, stimming endlessly simply weren't there.. 

Can't argue that improvement

You may have noticed that The Thinking Moms Revolution is running a series called Red Flags.  Today one of my colleagues blogged about Allergy Shiners.  As part of that, I went back and looked at old (and not so old) pictures, because we've definitely had these.   And I was shocked at the improvement in Dominic since December. 


This picture is from December 5, when we met the puppies.

Look at the difference between then and this picture on January 25.  The only change was the addition of the IonCleanse by AMD footbaths.  (and a lot of Puppy Chow..)

And this picture taken Feb 28 shows that we've kept the progress and in fact maybe made a little more.   This was 4 days after we started AdvancedTRS, so I'm not sure what, if any, impact that had. I do know the footbaths are huge.

 

He, overall, looks SO MUCH HEALTHIER.

His face is the right shape now too, and that is because we've gotten back into our regular weekly cranial adjustment groove with Dr Susan. 

Its that time of year again!!!

We are signed up to walk in the Alpine Autism Center 5K!  This will be our 6th year to walk this as a family.While we haven't been clients for a few years, the tools that Alpine gave us are still in full force. 

We would love for you to join us on Team Dominic!  If you're local (or even local-ish), please plan to come walk with us on Saturday, April 25 at America the Beautiful park! Here's where you sign up, and trust me you want to sign up before April 1 so they guarantee they'll have your T-shirt size.

Its a great time!  Here're pictures and stories from previous years - its very cool to see Dominic's progression year over year.  I'm expecting 2015's walk to be ASTOUNDING!


2010
2011: and Pics
2012: 
2013:
2014:  and More


If you are not local, and are thusly inclined, we great appreciate your support here.

IonCleanse by AMD, Month 2 results

It has been a mind bogglingly amazing month around here with gains.

Here's what we are doing in addition to the IonCleanse by AMD. 

This month brought us all kinds of firsts, from seemingly tiny to huge.   He dropped another 3 points on the ATEC test, and is left with all of his remaining points in the Speech section.  We are ***this close***, people.

Our true firsts this month include:

Tying his shoes

Giving rasberries

Appropriate social interactions,
With peers

Spontaneously brushing his own hair

Navigating bedtime routine entirely independently

Spelling!!

Allowing first aid (this is SO huge)

And a new one from last night that I haven't even blogged about yet.  As we were standing in the bathroom after his bath, in pj's, getting ready to brush his teeth, he pointed up at the hair dryer.  This is a child who historically has been so sensory overwhelmed by hair dryers - the sound, the feeling that he would cry hysterically.  So we just generally go to bed with wet hair.  I handed him the hair dryer and he dried his hair.  LIKE A BOSS.  it was NO Big Deal.  I had to tell him he was done.

Its been many years since I posted videos as frequently as I have been, and thats because they were too hard to watch.   Not so much anymore, because they're showing the exponential growth we are seeing and it is amazing.

We've been at this recovery game for a long time (I started this blog in 2008), and 2015 is the most exciting year yet. We are halfway through this IonClease by AMD protocol and we are so very pleased with the results.  We will be continuing with these footbaths after the official protocol ends.  They are awesome.