Giselle

Hi there everyone, long time no talk!!! Hoyt has been doing super well of late and only had issues during pine blooming time. But Fifth disease is rampant at his school and now both he and I have it! It is supposed to be very mild and with me it is but oh my gosh he's really suffering. He's had a temperature of 103 now since Saturday night, swollen glands, sore throat, red itchy eyes and he's sore all over - he even spiked at 104 for a short time but has gone back to 103 and holding. Checked for Strep - no, thank goodness. I know he has an overactive immune system - is it perhaps ramping up too much? Has anyone had any experience with this supposedly harmless childhood disease? Hope you are all well! Giselle

Hello, I feel terrible that the Rescue Remedy didn't work - and worse had such ill effects! As I said we ALL take it (now even my husband) and find it so helpful. It most definitely sounds like an allergic reaction. It works so quickly that I hope it got out of her system as quickly. Good luck, Giselle

Hi again! Yes, we are so thrilled!!! Kim, yes it was challenged/provoked. All his metals tests have been, with DMSA - is that a bad thing? I hope not, regardless, this test shows amazing results compared to the last ones we did (3 years ago, 2 years ago, 1 year ago). Someone told me (Caroline?) that your body gets rid of things in order-ish. Mercury goes, then lead, then other things start leaching out? Don't know if that's true but it would explain the mercury going down so much and less gains in the lead (although his lead wasn't that high to begin with and did improve over all). Patty, we got his food sensitivities down because I have become what I affectionately call myself: A food Nazi. I am religious in the avoidance of his food allergens. It has been a trying path, one that had me in tears often when I realized I'd goofed up (those early days) but if he's showing antibodies to it it just simply doesn't pass his lips - ever. Yesterday we really celebrated his strict avoidance by talking all about the ways he feels so good right now. I told him that all his hard work is finally paying off and he really can feel it. He says he feels smarter (he's not ticcing so he can actually listen to the lessons and get them the first time around!) And he says he has so much more energy at P.E. (well sure, he isn't burning it all up ticcing!). I found amazing recipes that don't include his allergens so he never had to do without good stuff, just couldn't eat commercial stuff. Which was hard like at birthday parties, at the movies, etc. We found restaurants that had choices that didn't include his allergens. Lastly I rotated most all of the foods he could eat. Early on I had him eating the foods he could eat all the time - then he developed allergies to those because he ate them too much so his allergens went up - now that I rotate his food we have been rewarded with this great news. I think he's just hypersensitive to getting the same stuff all the time - it was most definitely harder for me but I am so happy now that I've done it! He can never go back to eating all those allergens all the time but now I can rotate some of them in occasionally with hopefully no ill effect. Funnily the one I'm most happy about is tomato! You really can't cook a lot of saucy stuff without them. There were so many times I just wished I could make a good healthy chilli but without tomatos? How? P.S. I despise!!!! cooking so I figure I'm going straight to heaven because this is most definitely penance!!! By the by he only gets organic food (so dang expensive!!!) and no artificial anything, no colored anything! 81lumberjack, I have no idea how we got his clostridia down - we didn't even know he had it! He just got better (after 2 months of the worst tics ever). We did basically nothing all summer because of his condition so he got lots of rest. It sucked because he couldn't even go to the premiere of his Dad's movie Underdog (he did the special effects). But he was ticcing so badly he just couldn't go. But now our DAN doctor has given us Florastor which supposedly really helps with it. He had been taking probiotics throughout all this so perhaps that helped? Maybe it's not gone? I have to research this as I'd never even heard of it and as we just found out yesterday I haven't even had the chance!! Anyway, keep your fingers crossed for us! And THANK YOU for all your prayers for him, me - I can't even tell you how much knowing I have you all here does for me!!!!

Hi everyone, I have simply the best news! As some of you know Hoyt had an abysmal summer - the worst tics ever. We decided we'd retest everything and added many more tests to boot (still waiting on the genomic test by the way). So happy we retested. While waiting for results however he got so much better - to the point that he's enjoying some of the best health he's had in years! Well the tests told us a lot, still has some of his already known deficiencies (B-6, magnesium, Vit. C) but his lead is almost at normal and his Mercury has gone down so much he's just peeking into the yellow whereas he was mid-level red before! And that was totally on his own - we didn't chelate at all, perhaps his immune system is kicking in? AND I found out what made his summer so horrible - he'd had a horrible case of clostridia sp? (a bad guy bacteria in his gut). Which obviously must have rectified as he's doing so well right now! Also his delayed food allergy test showed him reacting now to only 6 foods!!! (He started at 17, went UP to 23 and is now down to 6!!!) All this was from his DAN doctor. We go to his Environmental doctor next Monday (I want her to muscle test him to confirm the IGg test) as well as get some of the results from the tests she did during the same "bad" period, and then on to Nancy Mullen at the end of October. Anyway - just had to share some good news!!! Hope I don't jinx it!!! Love ya all, Giselle and Hoyt

Hi Kim! I've missed you! Our main doctor recommended it ages ago and he will get the results but we also are going to start seeing Dr. Nancy Mullan (Burbank) who won't even begin seeing you until you have the results in hand. It was her office who told me to only get the $700 test because Dr. Mullan interprets the results - when you order the more expensive test you get Dr. Yasko's interpretation with it - I believe that is $300 more. Both Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Mullan were recommended to us by Jacquelyn McCandless (the Autism Guru). We shall see! What was interesting when first talking to the lady in Dr. Mullan's office when she was going over everything is that there are 6 forms of B12! Apparently this test will tell you what forms of the different vitamins are best for you. 6 forms! I was only aware of 2 (not that I did extensive research or anything but still!) It sounds like they are having many positive outcomes, at least with the Autism patients, as not many other spectrum kids have tried this. And yes, reading the information is quite a challenge - what was cool is they sent over a very detailed Krebs cycle chart (looking at that gave me a flashback into my Bio101 final YIKES!) - but it made it quite digestable and right away looking at it I know where some of his breakdowns HAVE to be and those were confirmed with some of the things we already know about him - that was cool, that yes, we at least are on our way to figuring some of this out. Anyway, I most definitely will post the results. And, dare I say this and jinx it, he had a very good day today. Hoping you are well! Giselle

Hi! My two cents - the Rescue Remedy is amazing! It works for ME, my son (who it is mainly for) my husband, and all my animals! It just takes the edge off of anxiety for a calming effect. The night time one is also great! Giselle

Hi everyone, long time no "see"! Been so busy with summer, Cub Scouts, new pets and life in general! Hoyt isn't doing so great, got really sick and his tics went nuts and I was also pretty lax about his food on a summer trip but he is starting to improve - hopefully can go to school. But I recall always having this worry just before school - will he go?, will I home-school? - and so far he's always rectified just before school - let's hope it happens again! Anyway, with this latest huge bout of horrible tics we redid a lot of tests but two new ones and I'm really interested to see if anyone else has tried one of them. One of the new tests was to test his amino acids but the other one is what I'm mostly wondering about your experience with. It's Amy Yasko's Genomic Testing. Apparently it tests the child's DNA/RNA SNPS to find out where the biochemical breakdowns are. Apparently a lot of people in the Autistic community have benifited from it - anyway, it's not cheap $700! but we decided to try it. It takes 8 weeks to get the results and we only took it last week (it's a finger prick blood test) but will keep you posted! Feels very CSI to me Sharing a Hoyt witicsm - he is always making funny little aside comments mostly to the air, testing to see if anyone "gets" his humor: On our last trip to Target: "Gosh does that dog want his eye shot at?" I just thought that was so funny! Ta for now! Giselle

Hi Carolyn, well that sucks - guess you won't be buying it then - although you might still try it as Hoyt reacts quite strongly to artificial anything but not to this. Mind you we don't use that much of it - only on cinammon toast now and that's maybe once every other week. He's been eating olive oil with anything else we used to use margarine or butter for - but if I recall you have issues with olives? I've even been putting olive oil on popcorn and using lots of salt - oh, I forgot to tell everyone, last round of testing showed he wasn't reacting to corn anymore! What a total relief - I have gone back to it only sparingly but it makes eating out so much less scary and he gets the odd evening of popcorn and a movie! Yeah - especially for me because I only eat the things he can eat so that he doesn't feel so alone so now I get popcorn too! (organic of course!) Good luck with the margarine. Giselle

Hi Everyone, thank you for your kind words about Hoyt. He got a little better and then is down again - it will pass, it will pass, it will pass. In the meantime my Mom forwarded this to me and I thought it was perfect for our little "puppies" - perfect but just different. A farmer had some puppies he needed to sell. He painted a sign advertising the 4 pups. And set about nailing it to a post on the edge of his yard. As he was driving the last nail into the post, he felt a tug on his overalls. He looked down into the eyes of little boy. 'Mister,' he said, 'I want to buy one of your puppies.' 'Well,' said the farmer, as he rubbed the sweat off the back of his neck, 'These puppies come from fine parents and cost a good deal of money.' The boy dropped his head for a moment. Then reaching deep into his pocket, he pulled out a handful of change and held it up to the farmer. 'I've got thirty-nine cents. Is that enough to take a look?' 'Sure,' said the farmer. And with that he let out a whistle. 'Here, Dolly!' he called. Out from the doghouse and down the ramp ran Dolly, followed by four little balls of fur. The little boy pressed his face against the chain link fence. His eyes danced with delight. As the dogs made their way to the fence, the little boy noticed something else stirring inside the doghouse. Slowly another little ball appeared, this one noticeably smaller. Down the ramp it slid. Then in a somewhat awkward manner, the little pup began hobbling toward the others, doing its best to catch up.. 'I want that one,' the little boy said, pointing to the runt. The farmer knelt down at the boy's side and said, 'Son, you don't want that puppy. He will never be able to run and play with you like these other dogs would.' With that the little boy stepped back from the fence, reached down, and began rolling up one leg of his trousers. In doing so he revealed a steel brace running down both sides of his leg attaching itself to a specially made shoe. Looking back up at the farmer, he said, 'You see sir, I don't run too well myself, and he will need someone who understands.' With tears in his eyes, the farmer reached down and picked up the little pup. Holding it carefully he handed it to the little boy. 'How much?' asked the little boy. 'No charge,' answered the farmer, 'There's no charge for love.' The world is full of people who need someone who understands. At times like this I totally worry about Hoyt's future. I know that all his classmates love him, we love him - he'll do fine.

Well here we go again - spring sprung early here in So. California - and Hoyt is just crippled with tics. He's been doing really well and then spring comes and he tics about once every two seconds- poor guy. I started the Zyrtec last night to try to alleviate his rising Hystamines but so far nothing. He was sick recently so I think some of the conjestion is left over from that but this is just painful to watch. He went to the chiro on Friday and our Osteo yesterday with no relief (they usually help a lot). We were supposed to go to Disneyland with another family today and he said he was too tired! I doubt he'll go to school. I always feel like I've made peace with his Tourettes (accept it, deal with it, ignore it) and then episodes like this happen and then I feel angry all over again - it gets SOOOOO bad - it just sucks!!!! No need to respond, just wanted a place to vent - this too will pass, I know, it's just that. . . well. . . IT SUCKS!!! Giselle

Hi Carolyn - mine does contain artificial flavoring - but it doesn't seem to effect Hoyt - but I hardly use any - just every once and a while - usually on cinammon toast which is maybe every other week or three. I'd be interested to know what the artificial flavoring is made from so if you find out I'd love to know. Giselle

Hi everyone - more monkey business with antibiotics - we're doomed - now I never have to remind myself why I pay $10.99 a pound for organic beef! http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...0301311_pf.html Giselle

Hi there, we had the first test done as the second wasn't available back then - but next time we do it I'll do the second - it sounds like it's a lot more comprehensive. If money is really tight though the first test is really good too. It really helped out my son. Giselle

Daniel, you're so totally right! It just so happens he's doing really well right now and I really didn't expect him to tic at all so wasn't really looking at that, more at whether he would get the words correct because there were two verses that are so similar as only a few words change in them (he got them right) - but thought you all might like to know as this is the board for it. He was so tired this morning he didn't want to go to school - and even mused why would they have school after such an exciting event? I told him it was for people to be able to tell him he did a good job - he perked right up after that! Such a ham! You know I never get to use this icon but today I can, he's my little star!!!! Thanks to everyone!

SO HAPPY! Hoyt did wonderfully! He was great! He didn't tic at all as I expected but apparently there was SOME movement up there - he told me "my knees were knocking together I was so nervous!" You would never have known it though. There was about 600 people there and everyone loved it. I was taking NO chances - he soaked in a magnesium bath for 40 minutes before he had dinner. Dinner consisted of grass fed beef, artichokes, brown rice and a little extra B12! The cutest part was that he told the girl he's had a crush on for two years that she looked pretty and that her dress was nice. She waited awhile and then told him "you look so handsome." He was over the moon about THAT! What a great night! Thank you all for your support in this - it totally turned out perfectly and he was SO proud of himself!!! Giselle