Confusing times in the world of Autism

Hope everyone has been enjoying some of the warm sunny days we've had lately. Our busy schedule hasn't allowed for much play time but we do our best.

This past couple weeks has been a confusing time for Arianna. She's used to being able to see Grandma once or twice and stay with her for a visit, but mom hasn't been feeling well enough to do that lately. How do you explain to your child with autism, ANY child really, when someone is sick or not feeling well? Or how do you try and prepare a child who cannot understand the way you or I can that a family member or a pet will be with God in Heaven someday or already is? We were only able to stop in for a short visit with my mom today and I knew that Arianna would want to stay. The only thing that made us leaving go better was a promise to stop for a sugar free slurpee on our way home. Of course she still asked to see her Grandma for a while after we were home but some games and playing kept her occupied. It's been hard to see Arianna get sad very easily and not know what she is thinking about or questions she has because she cannot communicate that to me. We hope to go visit again tomorrow before we start another busy week ahead.

It's a bitter sweet feeling that we only have two more sessions of HBOT before we're done at TLC for a while. When you are trying to heal your child, the places and people who help you with all the different therapies and treatments and information become like family to you. Arianna is always so happy to see Miss Tori as well as the other gals who she spends time with for speech and OT. I can't stress enough how HEALING hyperbaric has been for Arianna on this journey with autism. I must say that healing the gut first is key, removing other toxins is next but oxygen therapy in conjunction or as a follow up has been nothing but amazing. While all children with autism are not alike and heal differently and in various time lines...ALL of them have similar problems/damages done to them. I will always wish that hyperbaric came much sooner for my child and have thoughts that she may have healed quicker or better, but I'll forever be grateful that hyperbaric DID HAPPEN at all.

For those family members, friends old and new, and all the therapists and biomedical specialists who have been with us either a long time or short...THANK YOU! Thank you for caring, helping, healing, sharing and more.

It's almost back to school time

Seems like forever since updating the blog...it's been a blur for the last week. We have taken a break from NAET until school is started up and we finish with HBOT. Only 3 more sessions and one more each of Speech and Occupational Therapy and we'll be taking a break from TLC for a little bit to get into the swing of full day school and new routines. We hope to continue some maintenance HBOT, SP and OT when funds allow.

Arianna continues to improve week after week from the combination of hyperbaric, her supplements and stem cell enhancers. She has mastered the potty except for the #2 part but her willingness to TRY gives hope that we'll be totally potty trained in the coming month. Her social skills are really blossoming and she loves to be with the older school age kids and pretty much demands that she be with them and not the little kids. She also communicates on a better level as to how she's feeling, things she wants and we continue to work on improving her handwriting, the "WH's" (who, what, where, what doing etc...

In 2 more weeks we'll be back to see Terri at Authentic Living for NAET...hope to see small pox and the flu vaccine cleared and continue on treating any other vaccines bother Arianna. The hope is to complete all our sessions for NAET by the end of 2010.

For any new parents visiting our blog...welcome to our life! The best advice I can give to someone who is trying to figure out how to help their child is #1 have HOPE, #2 explore your options in the biomedical world, #3 surround yourself with positive and supportive people who can be there for you #4 know that you're not alone in this crazy journey and #5 NEVER GIVE UP! It's not easy by any means to help your child heal from autism but I can truly say that after 5+ years now that all the hard work is paying off for not only my daughter but for my own life as well. Read our blog from the beginning and research.

A breakdown of our journey:
2005 - Arianna became autistic and went from a normally developing child and went into her own little world after her MMR/Chicken pox vaccines WHILE SICK at her 1 year "well visit". In a matter of weeks...no speech, no eye contact, no physical contact, no social skills and believed to be deaf and moderately mentally impaired (per MISD)

2006 - started negative tru-north magnetic therapy, supplements and healing the gut as well as chelation, Methyl B12 shots and gained back eye contact, speech started, physical contact came back and social skills developing slowly

2007 - continued everything from 2006 and also began treating using NAET to treat foods, vitamins, minerals, environmental toxins

2008 - started in the AI (autism program) preschool adding in occupational therapy and speech therapy. discontinued NAET and most other therapies due to finances...progress seemed to stall but still some improvements thru the year. enrolled in daycare for social development.

2009 - started kindergarten in the AI program and continued with minimal diet changes, re-added supplements, probiotics, enzymes and saw increase in social skills. no major gains but no losses.

2010 - went back to square one with NAET, supplements adding in NEW items such as colostrum, Mind Linx probiotics, ASD Plex from millenium, stem cell enhancers, HBOT (hyperbaric oxygen therapy) and one on one speech and OT at TLC in Chesterfield. Arianna now can use the toilet, dress herself 80% of the way, is a social butterfly, communicates more then I could ever imagine and will start 1st grade in a few weeks. This has been the most healing year of her life (and mine!) and the future looks brighter than ever! We will continue all we have been doing in 2010 and our goal is for her to be mainstreamed in class, make friends and enjoy life in a whole new light.

Hello weekend!

A quick note to catch up on our week. We've had HBOT 3 times so far this week with one more tomorrow. Arianna also had speech and OT Wednesday which she's doing well in.

We headed over to the Armada fair for a while...Arianna enjoyed the animals, especially the pig she was singing to. I must say we're doing well with everything...only 2 weeks and a couple days before school starts. This summer has been a great time of healing and can't wait to request a new IEP for this school year. Arianna reads, speaks, thinks and plays in ways I never thought possible and it makes me SO happy for her!

Ahhh....Sunday :O)

Nice to sleep in a little today but still having my coffee I.V. for the day.

We got in another 2 sessions of HBOT to end this week with 4 more coming up on Monday, Wednesday, Friday & Saturday. Arianna LOVES speech and the "gym" as she calls it and always looks forward to that. Tori and all the other's at The Center for TLC in Chesterfield are the best! If you or someone you know is looking for hyperbaric, speech and occupational therapy visit www.thecenterfortlc.com You can have it all in one place! They are also starting Play and Social classes soon!

We will also go see Terri for NAET sometime next week as well. Will see if the latest vaccines are cleared and hopefully move on to treating more.

Arianna has been using the toilet for 2 weeks now. Yesterday was the first day wearing her big girl underwear and she did really well with that! She picked out her favorite pair and spent 3/4 of the day in them....DRY! yayyy!

Hope you've all had a good weekend and we'll update more soon.

Is it bedtime yet?? :)

Today was busy...worked first then HBOT, Speech and OT for Arianna and home to clean and cook. It's fair to say that I'm ready for my pillow now. :)

Tori at TLC was SO excited to hear of Arianna's new ATEC score since starting HBOT. They have never had anyone score as low as Arianna did and especially the huge drop from 68 to a 19...they're amazed! We have 2 more sessions this week on Friday and Saturday to complete week 3 for us. Not sure if it's the weather or seasonal allergies but the hand stemming and occasional quirks of the sideways looking/throwing objects etc...has me a little concerned. Will hope these reappearances will be gone soon. I DO remember that HBOT can bring back symptoms but they will usually disappear again as we continue on with treatments. I must say that when I did see Arianna start up these things it REALLY brought back memories from years back and scared the daylights out of me!! All I could do was worry that she would fall back into that unreachable world again but I'm keeping my faith and continuing on and a big thanks to my friend who reminded me to do that! :O)

Not sure what the coming weekend is going to bring yet especially with the high heat and humidity being outside is NOT fun unless we're in a pool/water.

I'm hoping to get caught up on some sleep for a busy busy work day tomorrow. God Bless and will update again the end of this week. OH - I think we are taking a one week break from NAET as these symptoms mentioned above could be from Arianna's body fighting off the vaccines we treated with Terri (flu shot and small pox). Doesn't hurt to give the body extra time to do it's job!

Why do long weekends seem so short??

Well, I had today off work and you'd THINK that I'd have all this time to get caught up with projects, this and that but - NOPE! Seems the more time you have the LESS we get accomplished...weird how that works. :) It WAS nice to relax a little bit for a change and get ready for more work to come before school starts.

Arianna has continued to do well with peeing on the potty...a few accidents here or there but overall this mom is still very happy with her progress. I can say that hyperbaric plus the stem cell enhancer supplement have given me the most hope I've EVER had that Arianna's future can be filled with all that I wish her to experience. Of course she continues on her usual supplements, probiotics and digestive enzymes...in fact today she seemed out of sorts and was only happy-go-lucky at lunch time w/ mom and friends earlier. She wasn't up for playing even though we had company for a while this afternoon...she just seems a bit sad. I think that the extra probiotics the last day or two is doing a flush of some yeast build up which I can tell by her bowels (yes, the poop check as always - gotta LOVE autism and poop right??) It has been a while since I've given her an extra boost to flush her system so that can be part of why she's overly emotional and a little down. It's also allergy season still and our children are effected differently than you'd expect. Instead of a runny nose or sneezing, an autistic child can become more hyper, lethargic, sad, have puffy eyes and gut problems. Another part of course is she always wants to stay with Grandma Sandy and doesn't like to leave when we visit. Good news is that I suggested we go for a ride to get ourselves a small slurpee (the sugar free kind as always) which perked her spirits up and she finished tonight on a happy note before bed.

It's also exciting to hear of great news and progress with my friend Chae's son Cody. He's completed his 40 sessions of HBOT, has started recommended supplements, enzymes and probiotics as well as NAET and chiropractic care and WOW - little by little he's coming back to 'life' so to speak! For those parents who have a newly diagnosed child or even an older child - do NOT believe there is no hope! Do NOT listen when they tell you that there is nothing you can do or that your child cannot improve or get better....follow your gut and heart, pour your soul into the world of knowledge, natural medicine and biomedical treatments and FIGHT! FIGHT like you've never wanted something so much in your life! Surround yourself with people who understand, who "get it" and want to HELP in whatever way they can be it an ear to listen, a shoulder for tears and a reminder that you are doing everything you can to help your child heal. For anyone NOT with you, for you and for helping accomplish your mission...that is not what you need. We don't need negative against us while finding the positives. I've always asked God "why my child...why us?" It took a long time but I now KNOW why...it's to be there for someone who's going through what I've experienced and offer all that I know to them and if I don't know I will help find someone who does. I wish I had a "ME" 5 + years ago when this journey of autism started so you can bet your bottom that I'm not going anywhere...you won't get rid of me and I'll never stop fighting for my daughters right to a life and future she deserves to have NOR any other child who deserves the same. If you really want it, put it first in God's hands and He will guide you where you need to go. Keep your faith, keep researching (I do DAILY) and besides loving your child, keep fighting for them! When the time comes and your child is healed or doing much better...help another parent who's starting where you did. God's Blessings to you all!

When you think you're all alone or just happen to need one - - here is a BIG HUG from ME to YOU!! :O)

Happy Saturday and INSANE new scores on ATEC!!

Arianna seems to have the 'pee' part of the potty pretty much down and racking up the coins in her piggy bank 98% of the time. She is so proud of herself each and every time and so am I. :O) Working on the second part of the potty will take a while but won't rush her just yet although I'm planting the seed of even MORE money for Disney when she's willing to give that a try.

HBOT went well again today...our Chipmunk Squeakqual DVD is getting worn out so maybe we can find another show to watch for the remainder of our sessions. Today was session #10 and because Arianna is doing so well it was recommended to take the ATEC (autism evaluation) test again. The lower the number the better. Arianna's starting score at the beginning was a 68...speech was an 8, Sociability was a 10, Sensory was an 18 and Health was a 32.
Today's score was an astounding 19!!! YES a 19! Speech this time is a 6, Sociability is a 1, Sensory is a 9 and Health is a 3. I'm FLOORED and I knew her score would improve with the potty training part but THIS much improvement is far beyond what I would've imagined. Once Arianna can do the #2 part on the potty her health score should be down to a 1 if not a Zero. I am SOOO proud of how well she's done these couple of weeks!

Time to get some things caught up around our place and maybe go visit with some friends for a while later on. New Internet stick just arrived this afternoon so we should be able to update regularly again. Have a great weekend!

Sorry we've been MIA but....

making an update from my mom's house. it's been a busy week for us as well as losing our Internet service until my new laptop stick arrives SO here's the latest...

Arianna is continuing to do very good with potty training - she averages 5 to 8 times a day on the potty and is loading up that piggy bank with her rewards! She is willing to go at home, grandma's, daycare, HBOT - - anywhere which is great! We will continue working on this through the rest of summer and into the fall most likely but she's doing a SUPER job!

FINALLY we got the stubborn MMR vaccine and the mysterious Diotheria vaccines CLEARED with NAET. Today Arianna tested positive for Flu shot (she got ONE at 18 mos old from the WIC office) as well as Small Pox which I had in the military...another nice contribution from them that my child inherited. We will continue on with the vaccine treatments and then move on with other areas such as brain and misc. other environmental/toxic exposures.

HBOT is going well...went Wednesday, today and again tomorrow. Arianna had her first speech and occupational therapies at TLC. Once she got past a little separation anxiety (some tears and not wanting to leave me...which was not typical until starting HBOT) she did good. I walked her to the therapy room and snuck out after her attention was occupied. Handwriting and the Wh's and positions are being worked on. I am quite disappointed that there is NO Occupational Therapy on her IEP so that will be discussed when school starts and a new IEP is requested.

hard to believe that there is only 3 weeks left of summer before Arianna starts first grade. I'm having a hard time with the thoughts of her being in school a full day and wanting to make sure she is engaged and learning as well as having FUN and making FRIENDS. I bet she will not mind it at all but mom will. :O)

Hope to be back up and running with regular updates again soon. Enjoy the weekend everyone!

A DRY day :O)

By "dry" I'm not just talking sunshine and great weather...it means Arianna was dry and used the potty today even while at daycare and when we got home!It's still a learning time but WOW what an effort she is making! Now she is super excited to put her quarter (her reward) into her piggy bank to save up for that Disney trip. We called Miss Tori at TLC where we do HBOT to share the great news because we're so excited and couldn't wait til Wednesday. :O) There are a few other children who are also starting potty training successfully since doing HBOT session which is PROOF that biomedical treatments DO WORK for our children!! I say to insurance companies - wake up and get on board to HEALING the damage done to our kids instead of always saying no and being closed minded to anything outside of your so called 'medical' world. Autism should be on the "list of approved medical illnesses" covered by insurance by now and I do NOT understand what the hold up is other than the mighty dollar they don't want to pay out. If they can pay to poison my child with vaccines filled with tons of toxins to the point of disabling her, they should be paying to help HEAL her!!

We will spend this week continuing to build on what's been started as well as scheduling for speech and OT evaluations hopefully soon plus our 3 sessions of HBOT. Arianna is excited to go visit Grandma tomorrow after we're done for the day. Hope everyone has a great start to their week! :O)

BIG things are happening!!

Today was a WONDERFUL day! Was up early and got our food all prepared for the next couple days. Then we were off to visit with family for the annual car show/birthday party not far from home. Arianna was happy to see everyone and got to pick the winning ticket for the 50/50 raffle. The woman who won was SO nice...she came over and gave Arianna a $5 bill for which Arianna quickly replied "mommy, it's lots of money to go to Disney world!" I had the BIGGEST grin on my face and just LOVE how much she has improved in just over a week - - it's truly miraculous! God as well as all the biomedical therapies, supplements etc... are starting to truly work miracles in our life for which I am forever grateful.

After the party we went to my moms to visit for a bit and guess what?? Arianna used the potty AGAIN! WOW! She just makes me SO proud and we cannot wait to share the news with the ladies at HBOT as I think they will be floored at how fast hyberbaric is helping my little angel. To hear her talk now is music to my ears...I get to talk WITH her and she repeats EVERYTHING. She is reading more and more words every day in her books, using phrases and giving responses I've longed to hear for years and she demands eye contact and attention when she is speaking. Her wants and wishes are very well known and she keeps telling me about going to school with the 'big kids' soon. It already appears that we will need a whole new IEP for the upcoming school year as I believe she will be able to mainstream with a para pro and have much less time in the autism supports room. This is turning out to be an amazing summer for us!

Arianna is very adamant about going to see Mickey Mouse at Disney world.
It seems like she understands that when we no longer use pull-ups and go on the potty we will be able to save up for that trip even faster. Even though she didn't need to go, she still made a real attempt before bedtime for which she was highly rewarded and praised. THIS is just the beginning to a future that I now see as not only filled with hope but full of endless possibilities.