IonCleanse by AMD Month 8 Gains

Its surreal to me to look back over 2015 and see the HUGE changes in Dominic that have come to us as a result of using the IonCleanse by AMD.  At first I was so skeptical.   I even told my friend who introduced us to it last November that I really didn't see how this was going to do anything.  I'm so glad I was wrong.  And MAN was I wrong.

I wish that we had STARTED our journey with this machine, and I'm so glad that we're finally on the right track after so many years of doing protocols that just piled insult to injury - because he was genetically incapable of detoxifying out both the supplement AND any die off it cause.  So we've had to peel back multiple layers.  That is what the IonCleanse by AMD has done for us - its opened up a  detoxification pathway for him since he genetically does not detox (he is a triple heterozygous MTHFR mutation, along with multiple other ones).

So. Month 8.  Here's what Month 8 brought to us.

Dominic made Daddy a Scrapbook for his birthday

He not only appropriately communicated he was in pain and allowed it to be fixed, he also allowed an artist to paint a dragon on his arm at the Renaissance Faire. HUGE sensory achievement. 

He absolutely floored the dentist and hygienist with how well he did at his cleaning

He learned how to trim his own fingernails and now does it at home whenever he wants.

He mastered tying his shoes after 7 years of therapy attempting to get him there.  Now he ties them every day.

He really wants to read.  He's so close its ridiculous.  We believe the key to this particular lock is going to be pursuing vision therapy, for which we have started the process.  We would have never gotten this far if he wasn't drawing pictures - a very new feature of late summer that is the culmination of all the fine motor improvements from the IonCleanse by AMD.

 Schedule wise we are cleansing him on Mon, Tues, Thurs, and Sat.  I was doing 3 days on, 1 day off, but kept getting confused as to which days we were supposed to do them.  Set days is easier for me. 

One Befuddled little boy

This weekend we made major changes.

Dietarily, I've switched to Lamb, chicken and eggs as Dominic's proteins, potatoes and winter squashes and his starch and cashews and pumpkin seeds instead of almonds and peanut butter.  His fruits are now minus bananas and oranges.  And he has no mushrooms or garlic in his life.   He does still have GF oatmeal.  This is a good thing.

(i took away his bacon, pork sausage, turkey, and beef).   The bacon and sausage part is pretty huge.

My village sent me multiple awesome recipes -  this weekend I made armenian spiced leg of lamb roast (whole family loved that), gluten free lamb gyros in a meatloaf pan (Dominic inhaled it, I didn't love it myself), egg cups with chicken sausage, onions and spinach in them (kiddo snuck 3 while i was dishing up his gyros meat and potatoes for lunch.  he likes them), and Chicken with zucchini poppers (basically ground chicken, grated zucchini, green onions, cilantro and some spices turned into meatballs).

Routine wise - we've taken all games off the ipad and our phones.  We've kept the TV off the majority of the day (huge shift) and sent him outside to play when he whined about it.  Saturday was less dramatic than Sunday. He's bored.  I can tell - I caught him several times trying to download games onto the ipad.  Fortunately, he doesn't have the password.

We played catch with a ball and I made him count with me while we did it.  We got up to about 30 before he started throwing the ball harder than it should be thrown inside.  He walked both dogs in the backyard.   He picked up a book some friends gave him a few weeks ago about a duck on a bike and had me read it to him.  He flipped through books on his own.   I think that weekdays this shift will be easier because we'll be busier - we can do "homework" (which will be big gross motor stuff and some sight word practice and stories) for longer and he can run around outside for longer and I can put him to bed earlier.

The big point to this post is we radically changed his life - we took away his bacon and 95% of his screen time on a full moon and he didn't come unglued.  He is definitely befuddled.

More on the Vision stuff...

writing down my notes primarily to have logged in case I lose the piece of paper.  We had a very good call with Patty Lemer yesterday

Books to buy
Outsmarting Autism - Patty Lemer (already own, need to finish reading)
Anything by Andrew Moulden
Begin Where they Are

First - Dr Moulden (deceased very recently of a mysterious heart attack in his 40's) believed that vaccines always damage the eyes.  Always.

The eyes are nutritionally the most demanding of all organs

The exciting thing is we have found Dominic's missing piece.  Whether there are more missing pieces remains to be seen, but Patty was emphatic that this is a HUGE missing piece.  Vision is a huge conglomerate of skills. 2 eyes have to work together; the eyes and the brain have to work together, and then the eyes, brain, and body have to work together.  There are many steps that go to a child calling his mother mommy - he has to see with his eyes, his brain has to identify that this is mommy, send a trigger to the speech center to speak, and his voice has to say Mommy.   It becomes a visual recognition to use integration of senses, ability to focus and give meaning.  That ability starts at birth with reflexes and motor experiences.

All babies are farsighted.

The Eyes take the brain to infinity. As the eyes go, so the brain goes, then the body goes.

The sequence in which children develop is as follows

M (motor)
MV (Motor visual)
VM (Visual Motor)
V (Visual)

The move from MV to VM is a huge step;  visual motor (seeing something before moving towards it) is a much higher function than bumping into something then seeing it (MV)

The final step - V - is being able to act upon visual input without moving.  This is where comprehension, reading, creativity, etc take place.  This is our end goal.  We aren't there.  If I had to guess, we are teetering between MV and VM.   We need to make the move to VM and then the move to V.

So how do we get there.

LOTS of movement.  Sedentary anything is bad at this point.  We want his body moving around. We want him looking and then moving towards what he is looking at - things like playing catch, skipping, swinging, jumping on the trampoline WHILE bouncing a ball, running, climbing, etc.  We want to do lots of hand eye coordinating on a LARGE level then take it to a small level.  We get vision through movement.  We strengthen the motor component so that vision can then stand alone.

We will begin allowing no more than 20 minutes of TV a day.  The rest will need to be big gross motor playing and movement.  (that's going to be interesting come winter. We will deal with it)

We do not want him calm and quiet in academics.  We want him moving and jumping and using manipulatives instead of the computer.  We want 3 dimensional learning verses 2.  (school may lose their minds when i tell them to give him a total max of 20 minutes of computer time per day)  We want ACTIVITY.   We want him doing ANY gross motor activity that has him using his eyes.  Riding a bike, sledding, playing basketball, etc.

She also encouraged us to get glasses so that he doesn't strain his eyes on the close up stuff at school.   We will discuss that at our next meeting with the optometrist

So close to reading

Oh he wants to read SO badly.  And he's *right there*.   One of the things we have done as part of this new visual processing disorder is remove all video games from the devices (iphones and ipads), because they do the reverse in the brain of what vision therapy will do.    We have a meeting this weekend with Patty Lemer to talk about more details and what else we will be shifting.  I expect we will be sorting out the Vision Therapy stuff next week.  I kind of needed a day to process the enormity of what is coming.

Yesterday there was no school.  So at one point during the afternoon, I told Dominic it was time to turn off the TV and get some toys to play with.  he brought up a pile of cars from his bedroom and I asked him to tell me a story about them.

He said "story" and disappeared back downstairs.  He came back upstairs with an early reader book based in the world of CARS.  
And he handed it to me.  And I told him to go sit down and read it himself.  (No, I don't think he's actually reading, I think he WANTS to.)


Here's a quickie video of this.    He actually told me some of what he was looking at.  I feel like we are right on the cusp of reading.  The key is going to be things that he loves.  I need to find a whole disney series of very beginning story books.

Developmental optometrist appointment...

Today was the appointment with a developmental optometrist that we set up after his OT found that weird nuance with Dominic's drawing skills.  Dominic did SO well.  I was so surprised to be honest since the whole eye exam thing is a new thing for him.

SO.  Short version:

Dominic is slightly far sighted and does not need glasses. Slightly farsighted is apparently normal for his age and the Doctor was pleased with that aspect of his vision. We are pleased we do not need to get him to keep track of glasses. (side note, the doctor made mention of how many children flush glasses down the toilet.  Who knew?)

He has "decent" depth perception, maybe some slight issues.  The funny part about that statement was that as soon as the doctor said it, Dominic proceeded to fall UP the chair. 


He has distinct fixation issues - an inability to focus on an object.  his eyes basically aren't strong enough to hold the focus.  Which is interesting to me because for something like Angry birds he has no issues holding it. So that's kind of weird, but okay, we'll go with it.

And he has a convergence insufficiency. Specifically, when objects are too close, his eyes don't focus on them.  At about 6 inches away, his right eye slides out of focus.  Odds are good at that distance from his face, he is having double vision, which is pretty unpleasant all around.

All of these things together making up a vision processing disorder, which falls in the category of sensory processing disorder and is exactly what I was expecting to hear.

~~~~

So - Huge Kudo to our OT for catching this.  I am astonished that for all of the years of intense therapies we've had Dominic in, it is only just now coming to light that we need to work on his vision.

Now, what do we do about it.  When I told the doctor the story of how us ending up with him came about - Me posting the situation to The Thinking Moms Revolution facebook group, getting sent over to Patty Lemer, who called around to find him - he got the biggest smile and was fairly astonished.   He has a vision therapy clinic in town and he believes that Dominic would benefit greatly from vision therapy.  Which does a lot of primitive motor reflex integration  stuff.   That would also involve more in depth testing.  Its definitely not covered by the medicaid waiver, but I might be able to get it covered by our health insurance with a letter of medical necessity and a formal prescription from our family doctor.   Might.  And if we don't, its $135 a session, once a week for an average of 8 months.    We would find a way to pay out of pocket for that if we needed to, because being able to properly process visual input is the beginning for everything.   My gut (which I have learned to listen to about these things) says start asap.   For comparison, the cost of 8 months of 1x a week in the clinic would be less than the registration cost to attend 1 week of an MNRI conference  

Immediate takeaway that  I will pass along to school is that we cannot put something closer than 6 inches to his face (like a sight word reading card).

Coincidentally, Dominic's 1 year OT evaluation was yesterday afternoon. The OT's have known this was coming, and were not surprised at the result either. I specifically requested vision goals be written into the next treatment plan.  They had already come up with suggesting we do the TLP Spectrum waves bundle program, which involves headphones with bone conduction and reprograms pathways in the brain.  Which is almost $1800 out of pocket.    It looks fascinating, and we want to do it, but we want to do things in the proper order AND our OT who is trained in TLP is 35 weeks pregnant and gearing up to be out on maternity leave.  SO.  We have decided to kick off the vision therapy piece asap and when our OT is back, kick off the TLP package.  Its going to be a sensory processing disorder resolution year!

Beginning of school meeting, check.

Dominic's year is off to a great start.  We met with his team at school yesterday and discussed a number of things ~

- Writing some personal / sexual safety pieces into his IEP (on me to go find some verbage. I need to find my A1 Notebook, I have the name and number of the woman who presented)

-  We presented Gemiini, and they were duly impressed

-  We learned that thus far this fall he is noticeably improved over last spring in the following areas: ability to sit longer, articulation, multiple word usage (particularly around requesting)

- reinforced that they cannot feed him anything I don't send in.

It was a good meeting.  Dominic's going to have a more challenging academic year....  They are phasing out the calculator and working on touch math.  I told them that I want him reading by the end of the school year.  They are doing 3 or so different approaches plus we shared the ones we are doing at home.

But the biggest news (to me) out of the meeting is that one of Dominic's friends (coincidentally the same one we randomly went sledding with last winter) asked for his phone number and told me that he wants to have a sleepover.

A SLEEPOVER

ya'll.  Really???

We'll start with some play dates and work up.  I've been in contact with his Dad and we will make it happen.  I think we are going to revisit the boy scout thing too as this family is the one running that program.  Their fall sign up is next week, so we haven't missed it.

IgA Deficiency Notes

Move right along, this is just for me to keep track of my research. Unless you are tremendously interested.  In which case, I'd love feedback.

After Dr Kara mentioned yesterday that she didn't think that D was making  IgA in his body, i starting researching.  (this should suprise no one)

First stop was my girls on facebook using GcMAF products, namely MAFactive transdermal cream, since thats what we've started this past weekend.   Came out of that with this graphic.

First thought - So... IgA deficiency disorder is apparently a Thing.
Second thought -  damn my instincts are good. Starting MAFActive cream was totally a gut reaction on my part and in fact against the advice that I'd been given by Dr Kara at our previous appointment. (I'm kind of a rebel like that)

Using my Google-Fu, i've found the following interesting links

Selective IgA deficiency
Immonoglobin A Deficiency

So short version is  that this could lead to CVID.  There is not really a treatment, other than being aware of impending respiratory and gastrointestinal infections.  There is a precaution against receiving blood transfusions that I need to research further just in case.

This is likely genetic.  I've asked Dr Kara to take a peek for some of the mutations that i found mentioned and see we have them. Interestingly this is linked to the following things which are ALL over my family on both sides
Thyroid disease
Lupus
Psoriasis
Hearing Loss
Chronic pneumonia
Chronic sinus infections
Chronic diarrhea
Celiac Disease




I am not sure that there's a reason to pursue a formal diagnosis for Dominic because it would require a blood draw.  I may ask the docs to test ME for it purely out of curiosity.    I will be adding this to my list of things to keep in mind should I happen to bump into an immunologist at any of the conferences I attend.

This may be a link that gets us the answer of why a flu virus caused Dominics full on regression.  He's the only kid I know that regressed from a virus not a vaccine.

Holy Food Allergy Panel BATMAN

I had a followup facetime with Dr Kara this morning to review Dominic's IgG food sensitivity panel.  

To review, IgG is about food sensitivity, not anaphylaxis. The name of the game we are playing here is to remove as much as we can diet wise that might be adding to Dominic's inflammation load in both his body and brain.  

The most interesting part of the panel is that NONE of the foods were out of the "green" status.  This means that odds are good Dominic is not making IgA in his gut. (this is an immuno deficiency kind of thing. I can't actually explain it right now but will try to come back with links that explain it) . In cases like this, Dr Kara reads the report using the lowest reactivity food and compares all the rest of the results to the lowest reactions.

Its easier to say what Dominic CAN eat than what he can't.  Most alarming is that he is having inflammatory reactions to all animal proteins and all legumes right now.   Since growing children need protein, we compromised and are leaving chicken, lamb, eggs and duck eggs in (his lowest reactions) for the next 6 weeks. (well once I figure out menus, probably not til the weekend I'm thinking)  We are removing all seafood, beef, turkey, and pork as well as all legumes and grains. (actually he CAN have barley, thats the only grain he can have - pulling rice and corn are going to suck).  Instead of cooking with chicken/turkey/beef stock I will be cooking with vegetable stock. (big change). Maybe I'll make lamb stock.  That could be interesting.


So what he CAN eat:  All vegetables except mushrooms and garlic (i know).  Potatoes, Sweet potatoes and winter squash are going to be his "fillers" instead of grains and legumes.  All fruit except oranges and bananas.   In the nut category he can have pecans, cashews, hazelnuts and coconut.  (no almonds! eegads).  Absolutely no dairy of any form.

We discussed Dominic's "hollow leg" problem.   Dr Kara has seen this hollow leg problem frequently in children who don't make enough stomach acid - they may be EATING and digesting all the food but they are not absorbing the nutrition from the food.  I asked about doing HCL.  She said that HCL is good if you want to just add acid to the stomach, but that she prefers adding a TB of Braggs Apple Cider Vinegar before meals to stimulate the body to make its stomach acid itself.  Fingers crossed he'll just shoot it for me out of a shot glass.  We will start that tonight.

I asked her about the 8/1/1 diet (which is raw and all fruits /veg).  She said no because she doesn't think he's making enough stomach acid to break down the raw food enough to get his nutrients.

So. Now i need to start wrapping my head around what dinners are going to look like for the next 6 weeks.  The plan is to go super strict for 6 weeks and then play with adding other stuff in on a rotational basis.  (Don't freak about Thanksgiving, Mom and Dad, I will have this fully under control by then, promise!)

When we discussed the lack of IgA in the body, her response was that my instinct to start Dominic on MAFActive transdermal cream (which we started this past weekend) was right on.  That's immune support.   That also explains why he did so well on GcMAF injections when we did those a few years ago.  We also started glutathione a few weeks, and we decided that we will double his dose in a few weeks to also support his immune system. 

Next up, Developmental Optometrist appointment on Thursday.  

Baby pig

This morning was a lovely cool morning and I took full advantage of the opportunity to spend a few hours weeding my vegetable garden.  Judging from the 3 garbage bags of weeds, it clearly needed it.  Daddy was at work, and Dominic was happily amusing himself. I came in to get another trash bag at one point and discovered he'd tucked himself into bed with his ipad.

this is unusual.  I believe even a first.















The remainder of the story requires a history lesson.  Dominic has, for MANY years (even pre regression) carried around fidget toys.   What they are varies wildly, but generally they are animal themed.    I can remember searching outside with a flashlight to find the one he lost so he would stop screaming and go to sleep when he was still just a toddler.  Of late he's been carrying around, and sleeping with a trio of tiny pigs, including a baby pig, and a mouse.  2 nights ago, he very specifically gave the mouse a bath with soap, rinsed it off and dried it, then looked up to me and said "Mouse Bath"

Anyway.  Dominic bed has a gap, and storage underneath it.  OFTEN he will lose toys during the night and be extremely determined to crawl under the bed to find them the next morning.  

This morning, he had misplaced the baby pig.

So when I asked him why he was using his ipad in his bed.... this is what I got:

A Text From OT

And this one deserves its OWN post.

Look what Dominic can do!!  All by himself.  Our OT sent me a text of this video with the note that it made her teary.  She is about 8 months pregnant, so we'll just blame the hormones.

This is the culmination of 7 years of hand strengthening exercises, many hours of repeating instructions, and a ton of work for Dominic.

Chasing a other puzzle piece...

So last week Friday night, I posted this in a facebook group "Okay I don't know where to go with this. Our OT has discovered a phenomenon that may make a lot sense and I am wondering if it's a form of visual processing disorder and/or dyslexia. When the therapist hold a picture up vertically Dominic can duplicate it almost perfectly. When the therapist has the picture flat on the table and upside down to d, he can also draw it beautifully and right side up to him. When the pic is flat and facing d, he is barely able to do stick figure. I have asked the therapist to duplicate this before I make d's iep put everything vertical for him, but what other thoughts do ya'll have for visual processing disorder?"

Within minutes I was connected with Patty Lemer  who asked me the following questions, to which I answered all of them YES: Does he have other visual symptoms? Stims? Squint? Look out of the side of his eye?
She then said "He definitely needs a developmental vision exam to see if he is using both eyes together."

She found me a developmental optometrist in our area who has the skillset to diagnose based on behavior not verbals, called and confirmed that they take medicaid (so we can the waiver we finally got), and paved the way for me to make an appointment.

We go see them next week.

If its nothing, fantastic its ruled out.

If its something, it may be huge.  Could you imagine if your brain randomly skipped things and turned them upside down? It would be horribly difficult to learn to read (among other things)

From what I understand, if we find problems, we have several directions we could go to resolve them.
We could look at MNRI , which is the gold standard for re-integrating primitive reflexes.  This would require some serious fundraising.  I'm guessing it would be a $10K adventure after we added in flights, food, and hotel.  This would be my preference, because if we're going to do this, we should do it as best we can.

We could look at Vision Therapy
We could look at Brain Balance

We will see what comes of the appointment.  Its 8-27

5th grade ramblings

Today is the first day of 5th grade.  Not really sure how that happened.

This morning, I realized that Dominic has skipped 2 shoe sizes entirely.  the shoes he wore all summer were 2 1/2.  This morning I wanted him to wear his ID necklace and he was not having it.  So I dug through the closet to find the next size up shoes that are laced so that I could lace the ID onto his shoe.   They are a size 4.  I was SURE they wouldn't fit.  They fit.

When we dropped by school yesterday to show him his classroom and desk, we realized he is as tall as his favorite one on one para and the social worker who adores him.   Also not sure how that happened.

The other funny from this morning is that I picked out red shorts for him to wear with his blue Angry Birds shirt.  He sat up in bed and handed them back and said "Yellow Shorts".   He wanted the khaki shorts you see in the below picture of him waiting for the bus. 

Note That Kama is Extremely interested in these goings on.

And just for cuteness factor - around here Dominic delays bedtime by kissing everyone, including the dogs, goodnight.

#forthekids

I have blogged many times about the awesomeness that is the community of Autism mama’s bound together in the Thinking Moms Revolution, and TEAM TMR, the nonprofit arm of the Thinking Moms Revolution. I’ve never been around a more impressive bunch of driven, smart, and amazingly loving women. 

The last 2 weeks I have been a part of the most phenomenal event I’ve ever seen. TEAM TMR had a few items we were auctioning off on Facebook to help fund our grant program (under 100 items).  As the week went by, people came out of the woodwork donating items and services.  When it was over, we had nearly 600 items donated to us.  All in all our auction raised over $22K in a week.  All with the hashtag of #forthekids. As we are all volunteers, there is no overhead and every penny goes to our grant program.   There were multiple instances when a person won an item and promptly requested it be shipped to another community member as a gift.  Those were the moments that had us all going “WHAT just happened”.  It was so much more than an auction, it was healing for a community that has been fracturing over recent years.  We even had an anonymous friend of TMR (not even an autism parent) write us this poem, which turned us all into a weepy mess.

This week has been about the administrative mountain that is dealing with getting 600 items paid for, shipments coordinated, etc.  I have never been so glad to have spent the time at work getting certified in Excel because I have taken over the role of “Queen Spreadsheet Geek” keeping everything organized.   That’s why you haven’t seen many posts this week.   This group of ladies works together like a well-oiled machine and I’m convinced between all of us we could run the world.  I’m also convinced that as a group, we collectively personally know every single major provider and vendor of Autism related services.  

If you missed the auction – don’t worry, we’re going to make it a regular thing a couple of times a year. We’re just working on the timing.  We also will never turn away monetary donations – and you can donate from our webpage. 

You can also apply for a grant from the same webpage.  We fund grants quarterly and  the next round will be done in October.

~~

We have had  a rollercoaster week at home.  This is Dominic’s last week of summer camp. He came home on Monday with a red mark on his shoulder.  By Tuesday morning, it was clear that another child had bitten him (hard enough to leave a bruise) and I spoke to multiple levels of YMCA management.  There’s an open investigation.   None of the staff saw anything, and to their credit the lead counselors are all mortified.   Dominic is unphased by it – When I ask him what happened, he looks at it, says “bite, owie”, kisses it, and said “All betters”.

~~~

We had a massive storm the other day. There was huge flooding, especially over the burn scars.  Unfortunately, Alpine Autism Center where Dominic went for so many years was ground zero for a 4 floot wall of water flash flood that made a horrible mess.  All the kids are okay, but the building has structural damage, they lost many of the items they’d planned to auction off at their annual fundraiser tomorrow, and many of the staff’s personal vehicles were totaled.  The staff crowded all 40 kids into a back classroom and sandbagged the door off, keeping the children calm until 911 could get there to help.  I cannot even imagine keeping 1 autistic child calm during a flash flood, much less 40.   If you are in a position to help Alpine, here is one way.  In addition to all the facility damage, they have to throw away anything that was stored under 4 ft off the ground because of the mold factor, so they’ve lost a lot of their therapy materials and toys.   If you are local and can come help clean up on Saturday, the folks at FlyingW ranch (Alpine’s neighbor who have been out of business since the Waldo Fire) have organized a work day to help clean up  #alpinestrong

This is the extend of our damage ... SO glad, again, that we put the scalloped rocks up years ago to save our lava rock.  Otherwise it would've been all down the hill.

Weekend in photos!

Yogi boy

At occupational therapy yesterday they worked on yoga poses, apparently.  These are some of the pictures that our therapist texted me:

Fingernails!!!!

So Dominic has WANTED to trim his own fingernails for a LONG time.  He's held the clippers in place and TRIED.  He just simply hasn't had the pincer grip strength to operate them.

Enter awesome OT team that can problem solve like nobodies business.

They made him a tabletop fingernail clipper set up.  This is what it looks like. Clippers, block of wood, glue, and nonstick matting.  Not rocket science by far, but super cool for an adaptive pair of nail clippers.

Then They taught him how to use it.

Hello Independent personal grooming!!!!  HOORAY!!!!



Next up we'll see if he can use it on his toes.  That should be amusing :)

Current snapshot of protocols

Just to keep track of EVERYTHING because things are going so well for Dominic right now, here is the current snapshot of protocols.


1.  Footbaths using an IonCleanse by AMD machine:  We do 45 minutes on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays.  This has become clearly foundational for us and we will never be without it.

2.  Daily nutritional supplementation (diet remains gluten, dairy and soy free with no artificial anything)
Freshly juiced veggies (carrot, celery, cucumber, beet, greens, apples)- 8 oz per day

Blue Ice FCLO - 2 caps 2x  a day
Trace minerals - 2 cap 2x a day
D3 2000 iu - 2 cap  2x a day (currently costco brand, that will change soon. so no link)
Liver / GI Detox  1  2x a day
B complex - 2  caps 1x a day
Magnesium - 2 caps 1x a day
SAM-E  1 caps 1x a day
Restore 1 tsp 10min before food
MindWise Liquid 1 TB 1x a day
PEAPure - 2 caps am / 1 cap pm

3.  Daily Gemiini Video modelling (at breakfast and dinner, watching videos for about an hour total during the day)

4.  Occupational and Speech therapy - 3x a week (1 hour OT and 1/2 an hour Speech at each appt)

5.  Chiropractic - 1x a week

6.  Inclusion in YMCA day camp with no aide for socialization

7.  Homeopathy (constitutional)  We aren't actually taking the tablets right now, but i'm assured by our Naturopath that the remedy we did in June is still actively working

Coming Soon:
-We will be switching the D3 to a D3/K2 mix. 
-Lipsomal Glutathione - to reduce oxidative stress, increase the bodies ability to detoxify at a cellular level
-JuvaCleanse Essential Oil - to assist in liver support and detoxification (external use)
-MAFActive cream:  This is a transdermal version of the GCMAF shots we did for so long that helped cognition so much.  I'm excited to see if this works for us. 
-Methylated B Vitamins - the thing his body needs most just isn't ready for yet.  Expect to start those in October.

Best dentist visit of his life!

History lesson:
Dominic has NEVER done great at the dentist.  At best, he's allowed them to clean the front of his teeth, never the backs, I've had to do the flossing (the hygenist was impressed with my technique), and he's fought the whole visit terribly.  We pretty much have been relegated to the screamer room, which is the only one with doors.

This time, both Daddy and I went with him.  When our hygenist came to get him from the waiting room where he was happily playing their video game, he took her by the hand and drug her back to the room.

The first words out of her mouth were "wow, those teeth are really really clean".  We have been off CD since Feb, and it was the CD that was staining them horribly.  The staining was really minimal today compared to a year ago.

He laid still the ENTIRE time.  He did hold mom and dad's hands while she cleaned the backs of his teeth because of the tickle factor.  This was the FIRST time ever that he's allowed them to clean the backs of his teeth!    Our hygenist was Blown Away.   We were blown away.  So very proud of how well he did today, and this is such a testament that we are on the right path with our current treatment regime.

OI

He even allowed her to floss him!  Without biting!

Then our dentist came in, poked and prodded, was AMAZED at how well Dominic was behaving AND talking (the movie How to Train your dragon was on the TV that is on the ceiling - and Dominic randomly said "Volcano" to which every adult in the room turned upside down to see what he was talking about.  Yep, a volcano).

Dominic's upper palate is extremely crowded still.  We extracted his baby canines a few years back to give some room on the top and we are now planning our end game move - which will be extracting the baby and adult bicuspids to allow room for the adult canines to drop into place.  Our dentist fully agrees that an orthodontic solution is not right for our sensory boy which is why we are doing extractions.   This would be the end of it, tho.   We are looking probably within 1-2 years.  And we will find an oral surgeon that takes medicaid so we can use our waiver to cover the cost of the anesthesia when the time comes.

If you are near Colorado Springs and looking for a pediatric dentist who is AMAZING with special needs kids... go see Dr Callahan. 

Ren faire!!

As part of Daddy's 50th birthday celebration weekend, we went to the Renaissance Festival to enjoy their last weekend of the season.

Before we got there, Dominic told us his neck hurt.  And it hurt him enough that he was sort of lilting to the left until we ran into our Chiropractor at the festival and she promptly fixed it.  We believe that after Kama stole his watermelon at the birthday party Saturday night he screwed it up wrestling with the dog.  He was NOT amused that the dog stole his watermelon.   Anyway.
HE TOLD US HIS NECK HURT
Do ya'll get how big this for a kiddo who used to have no sensitivity at all to pain, and who instead of communicating would just scream and bang his head on the wall to redirect the pain??  Its ENORMOUS.  And he was in enough pain my peppermint EO pain relieving mix wasn't touching it andI gave him a pain killer I had in my purse which is a first - I have never given him any meds for pain. 

Anyway, back to the story.

We went to the festival with zero agenda.  We asked Dominic if he'd like a painting on his body.  He said yes, picked out a dragon and gave them his arm. 
He sat still for the entire painting.  This is also enormous.  He then proceeded to spend the rest of the day being super careful not to smear his dragon.

Showing off his dragon.

And here's a close up.  The artist asked if he wanted sparkles and he said YES!

His favorite thing EVER is to ride the elephant. So he and Daddy managed to get the elephant (there are 3) that was NOT interested in walking around until she ate, pooped, drank, and got a bath.  All with them on her back.  It was almost amusing how many times the other elephants lapped them.  

And here she is eating.  

While they sit.

Checking out the hammock chairs while protecting his dragon.

The grey hound rescue booth is fun.  The dogs are very sweet. And kissy.  And Dominic loved this one so much he tried to take it for a walk.

Trying to get the camel pointed in the right direction for a photo:

Works a LOT better with food in your hand:

Happily riding the camel.  This is the first time he's ridden the camel without one of us holding onto him. I was actually on the front side of the camel hump while he was on the back. 

Posing with the very silly hat that he fell in love with on the way out.

Happy Birthday Daddy!!!

We have been celebrating Daddy's 50th birthday all weekend!

We had a fantastic cookout on Saturday night in which there was much playing and laughing. Dominic ate approximated 37 pieces of meat.  (only slightly exaggerating, it was astonishing).

We had a great trip to the Renaissance Festival yesterday - pictures to come tomorrow.

Dominic made the BEST gift for Daddy ever.  Shout out to the awesome Occupational Therapy team at The Shandy Clinic for not blinking an eye when I asked them to come up with a craft and then have Dominic make it.   They had him make a scrap book, and I gave them carte blanche to pull whatever pictures they wanted to from my facebook.

Here're a few of the pages they made.  Not gonna lie, Daddy got a little choked up when he opened his present.

7 months into the IonCleanse by AMD

So July was our month 7 of doing the IonCleanse by AMD foot bath as the foundation of our healing work with Dominic.

Here are the notables for the month:

Spelling really hard words
We started working on practicing sight words.
He started enjoying bedtime stories again.
His sensory issues have waned enough to actually play with hair gel
He has begun asking to go hiking with me
He has had the BEST days ever at camp

His interaction level is amazing
He is now wanting to draw and color - a developmental stage he missed out on.
He is talking MUCH more clearly

Its onward and upward from here :)

I feel like we have finally - after 7 years of looking - found the right order in which to do things.  Detox - support genetic mutations - heal the gut - address inflammation.  And just think, we are still 2 months away from the line in the sand where we will add methylated B12 - the actual thing Dominic's cells NEED.   We are getting more progress than we've ever gotten and we haven't added the top several layers to the cake yet!  Next up - as soon as it arrives - we will add liposomal glutathione to help increase detoxification.

I've also ordered JuvaCleanse oil from Young Living this month - its a potent liver  support and I plan to rub it on his liver every evening before bed.  Multiple folks doing this are getting way more gunk out with the footbaths. Its expensive, so i've got my fingers crossed.

Telling Daddy all about his pictures...

For the record.. this is one week into adding PEAPure