My son was born in May of 2007. He was perfect; he was beautiful. No one ever asked my permission, nor was I even aware that he got a hepatitis B shot the day he was born. He had a slight case of jaundice and he cried a lot when we brought him home. The crying continued for months, to the extent that we could not put him down. The only time he ever slept was in our arms. The pediatricians dismissed my concerns; I was told it was just colic and it would soon go away. It didn’t. I tried everything I could think of to ease his pain including, gripe water and switching formulas. Finally, my son seemed to find relief at about 3-4 months old, when I started him on Nutramigen formula; it is milk-free. The incessant crying stopped and he seemed to grow and thrive. He never had cradle cap or eczema while on this formula.
After he turned one, I was told that he needed to start drinking milk. I was reluctant after all the colic to go back to milk, but I tried to switch him over at about 14 months old. He seemed okay with it, but then a few months later, I noticed he had cradle cap and eczema, which I didn’t subside until he was almost 4 years old. He seemed to really develop this little personality at around 12 months and always had a happy look on his face. We had an awesome family vacation in February 2009 in Los Cabos, Mexico. And then that spring, after his 2-year check in May, he was gone. That is when the sideways glancing started and lining up pictures and knick-knacks around the family room; he did these things all day long. That’s when I became concerned and called to set up an appointment with Early Intervention. By the time services started, it was late September and my son was 2 years, 4 months. They had given me a flier that talked about speech delays and a number to call. I called and set up an appointment for him to be evaluated. I was still in the dark about autism, but I knew something was wrong.
After a series of 5 appointments, my son was diagnosed with PDD-NOS on November 3, 2009. By the time the team gave their diagnosis, I already knew it was true and was expecting it. The psychologist and team lead told me that my son would benefit from therapies like ABA, that this particular hospital provided services like speech and OT, but they did not believe in any of the “Hollywood” treatments. I had no idea what she was talking about at the time, later I realized she was talking about biomedical treatments. She went on to tell me that there was nothing else that could be done besides traditional therapies and we may get lucky and our son may graduate from high school. He would never be anything that required social graces like a politician or a trail lawyer, but maybe he could find his own niche as a computer analyst or engineer. I kid you not; this is what she said.
My husband and I both have birthdays in October, and I remember we both cried at our birthday dinner date-night, not knowing what to do for our son and feeling overwhelmed and lost. My husband was in denial for a long time. He just didn’t think our son seemed autistic, yet the expanded criteria of autism described our son. I knew something was wrong, but I couldn’t wrap my head around all these psychological symptoms, a diagnosis, but no medical tests to back-up the diagnosis. It just didn’t add up to me. I knew something was wrong with my son and it wasn’t bad genes or bad luck. I was going to figure this out, one way or another.
Before we got the final diagnosis, I called a DAN doctor and set up an appointment in mid-November. My son was now 2 and a half. He had a fancy website and was well known in the autism community; he calls himself “the father of methyl b12.” I thought for sure this guy would cure my son and life would go back to normal again. We immediately started his methyl b12 protocol and saw some improvement. Then we went on to vitamins and GFCF diet. After 9 months of this guy’s protocol, my son now had almost 200 words, but no language and still seemed in his own world. I couldn’t believe that this was it. After nine months my son was not much better than when he had started and I had shelled out thousands of dollars. And I was supposed to shell out $20, 000 for an HBOT protocol, where progress wasn’t as “dramatic” as MB12. I was done with this protocol and done with draining our bank account. I was scared to go it alone, but felt I had no other choice.
At this time, my son turned 3 and aged out of EI and started in the public school’s autism class. I really liked the teacher and I met a wonderful mom through that class. We talked briefly at a school function and found that we were both doing GFCF and biomed in general. We emailed and she had some great suggestions to help with the diet. We decided to meet up for a play date. I know that she was concerned about telling me that she was doing chelation; but I assured her that I needed to know about it. I was ready to move on from the DAN doctor and try something else and I thought that chelation might be the answer.
This mom was so helpful to me. She gave me info about the Autism-Mercury and RFA websites. She detailed Cutler’s protocol and she even gave me the name of the doctor who is familiar with it, a doctor who my son still sees. As I tell her often, I don’t know what I would have done had she not come forward, I probably would have tried the DAN protocol for chelation and given up if the side-effects were too much. Even with all her support and information and the websites and after reading Cutler’s books, I was still scared to try. It’s natural, I mean this is your child and this therapy is considered “alternative.” I just decided that I had to go for it, so I did and it wasn’t bad. As a matter of fact, my son started talking that first round and I was hooked.
Initially, I didn’t realize how long detox took on Cutler. I thought a few rounds and my son would be cured; but it’s just not that easy. It takes a while. By 20 rounds my son improved dramatically to the extent that I can look at him and say he is over the hump; but he is not recovered yet. I’m that it will take another 1-2 years before he’ll be considered fully recovered. It’s just the way it is. The brain can heal, but it takes time to get the metals out and for the brain and immune system to heal. It takes time for our kids to catch up to their peers and learn all the things they missed while they were in the fog, but it will happen. It takes time, patience and understanding. It’s not an easy process and it can be hard on the other siblings and on a marriage. But when recovery starts, things get easier and in the end your family will be stronger than ever.
A lot of people use the term recovery loosely when talking about autism; I do not. When I talk about recovery, I’m talking about my son being mainstreamed with no assistance, no diagnosis, no special vitamins, no special diet, and no “treatments” at all besides a good multi-vitamin!
