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Claire, Chemar & Caz

 

Sigh, sigh. Our table tennis matches at night have been under flour lights.

 

Claire I suspected you would say that!

Day 8 is the operation and this may present its own anxiety issues. (Maybe can convince him to start earlier.)

However if I leave the trial any latter (2 months without sport) it will be almost impossible to get any baseline.

 

A friend with a daughter (now 16) who suffers epilepsy thought games a trigger.

Her doctor warned that puberty and around age 20 were critical times when she may be prone to more seizures and require medication, due to huge brain development changes at these stages.

 

Caz re diet, sigh sigh sigh

Eldest son who has last year 12 exam (big deal in Australia as determines entry to Uni etc) on Monday has been going great guns.

Because of final exams he has been stricter last two months and it shows.

Last Saturday he went out to dinner for a friends 18th intending not to eat, however I checked the menu prior and suggested something relatively safe.

Figured that with next exam on Thurday he would have time to detox.

Shows how hard it is.

Lucky he has great friends. Last night one staying for dinner brought over drink & lollies that were free of additives (however unfortunately still not failsafe) What a lovely girl.

Should I also count myself lucky that his actual girlfriend appears not to eat at all!

Planning to celebrate before results and surprise him on Monday with Driving lesson gift vouchers for his great effort.

 

With Matt, diet so far not having great results, and yes all cooking on top of work and worry is taking a toll.

They have a subject called Earn & Learn, in which they run a business for a term. His is a bakery, so making homemade meringue kisses for the whole grade as well. I admit that in addition also sent along Safeway donuts.

Magic spread tarts (tastes like lemon butter) on the menu for next week.

 

For lunch other ideas that are a hit, are cold chicken drumsticks, potato pizza and pear crumble.

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Hi Marina,

 

I wouldn't mess with the plan he 'volunteered' for--his buy-in is the most important thing. After a week, you will know more than enough.

 

Re diet and stress--my son used to tic in response to certain foods and definitely in response to stress. This continued when we allowed some TV. Honestly though, once we completely eliminated screens none of these made him tic at all, though it took a bit for his system to settle.

 

Re the brain development, I have read a lot on photosensitive epilepsy, since the most research for this trigger is done there.

 

Claire

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Hi guys, I'm back!

 

I've just had the most amazing weekend retreat. I went on a macrobiotic weekend!

 

I don't know if I liked it or not!

Fri night we had a small cupful of brown rice with some special pickles and miso soup.

No food until Sat lunch which was small bowl of brown rice gruel, some bits of seaweed a, small bowel of vegetables . We could drink water if we were thirsty between getting up and lunch , but not too much.

Sat dinner- I couldn't eat, I managed 3 teaspoons of rice, but due to the massive detox of my body- from sugar, bread and a dash of alcohol! I developed a bad migraine and nausea. That night they offered us a dessert and I had to knock it back!

I was in bed from 5pm- 6am!, it was such a severe withdrawel, that I'm contemplating never eating sugar again! When I awoke, I felt like a new person even my tongue feels clean!.

Sun - No food until midday for lunch, then we had a nice soup, a buckwheat baked veg thing and a salad.

 

In between all that we did massage,yoga, meditation, bush walking and had lectures and cooking classes on the energy of food, which is changed with everything that is done to it. From where it is grown to how it is prepared, cooked and eaten. Fascinating.

The strangest part was that we had to eat in silence, and chew our mouthfuls 100 times.

It was truly amazing watching how people reacted to ridding themselves of physical and emotional problems bought on by diet. The chewing really helps. It is because if you chew your food to liquid in the mouth before swallowing, the digestive process is already started and the rest is done in the stomach, but not as harshly as usual, this is probably why we need to enzyme supplement, because we use ours up in this process when we don't chew properly.

 

I'm almost back to reality again! I had to pick the boys up from 3days at nan's and the allergy shiners one has got is unbelievable.

 

Tommorow we're back on failsafe. Which is completely at odds with macrobiotics, but the problem is my kids won't eat that type of food.

 

I learn't that even with the sensitivities, if they went macrobiotic for 1 month, they would be free of all the health issues. But trying to plan and cook those meals is a bit tricky when your working as well.

 

Plus if they don't eat them properly, they don't get all the nutrients.

So we'll just start with chewing for now!

 

On the subject of fluro lights

I've just replaced our globes with those long life globes, but we have covers over them. Is this the same as fluro's?

 

I know it is really stessful doing all that cooking Caz and Marina, but you are both such good mum's, you will be duley rewarded!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

We are moving soon, just up the road, so I hope the kids arn't intolerant to anything in the new house!

I can't wait as we've been living in a 2 bed small lounge for 3 yrs. This one has 4 bed 2 bath and huge lounge!

 

Come and visit one day, anyone!

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Macrobiotic weekend. Impressive. My weekend was the opposite. After all the moral support for failsafe and doing it for the babies sake, I went to an engagement party and gorged on all sorts of stuff including 2 pieces of cheesecake. Did I feel blah today or what!! Wish now I had done your weekend.

 

Cant imagine trying to feel that type of food to the kids, but I am wondering with my kids if some of them are reacting to the sugar. The three year old is getting more psycho by the day. I kept thinking it was detoxing, but it is getting worse. Any suggestions?????

 

They are eating such a limited range of foods, sugar is the only thing I can think has changed for the worse, everything else is failsafe and healthy.

 

My daughters ezcema has flarred up a little, and she hasn't had it for at least 12 months....

 

Well, at least it is helped her older sister.

 

Looking forward to the challenges, to see if these things do make a difference.

 

Ausclare, have you got that far yet? What were your kids sensitive to?

 

Trying to do failsafe, work and move house - don't know how you manage it all.

 

Caz

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Ausclare

 

If you mean the curly bulbs that are super long lasting on a 'fraction' of the wattage usage, they are flourescent. If they are normal long lasting light bulbs (incandescent globes), then not an issue. We had just done our house in the curly bulbs and I had to replace them all. <_<

 

Having done low carb, I can relate to past sugar detox. Good for you. We really limit sugar, just a teaspoon of maple syrup on pancakes, and holiday treats. Small small amounts of soy icecream every couple of weeks.

 

Caz

If yeast is an issue, sugar is horrible horrible. I too added some more sugar initially to compensate for wheat elimination (e.g. honey on wheat free bread), then had to remove the sugar. To me the excema is such a great indicator of if the diet is right or not and/or if yeast is under control. That is our big measure.

 

I didn't save the link, but:

"The most common food allergens are **milk, eggs, peanuts, fish, wheat and soy**. In one study, 81% of all cases of childhood eczema were induced by **milk, eggs or peanuts**.

- If you have allergies to a particular food, stay away from it for at least one year. Studies have shown that in such cases many allergies are "lost" or "outgrown".

- So long as there is no allergy to the type of fish involved, fish oil (which contains the long chain omega 3 oils EPA and DHA) appears to help the control of eczema."

 

We initially tested for milk, eggs, peanuts, wheat. Wheat was our main culprit. By the way, these were the normal IgE/RAST tests (for immediate reaction) that mainstream allergists do. I have forgotten, did you run food allergy tests on your daughter?

 

I used to get excema myself off and on, and yeast overgrowth (not food allergy) was my reason--capryllic acid (antifungal) cleared it up. But it made me nauseous. Excema is gone now.

 

I have also read that zinc helps yeast control and thus excema. But regardless, diet seems important.

 

Claire

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi guys,

 

I sent a message back Marina.

 

Talking of allergies, I have started my son on grape seed extract, blackmores, high dose. After a week, his hay fever does seem a little better, not so congested etc. I know Bonnie uses this with her program, so thought I would give it a try for the allergies.

 

I'll keep you posted on what type of difference it makes.

 

Histamine: I have found that our local lab - clinipath - do a whole blood histamine test, covered by medicare. This is the test the pfieffer clinic do to determine methylation issues. His blood was taken yesterday, so wont get results for 3 - 4 weeks.

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Hi there,

Congrats on your success Marina!

 

I haven't done the no TV test yet, things are really hectic around here at the mo.

I couldn't put myself through the arguing factor.

 

Over the Christmas holidays will be easier, cause we can spend endless days down the river.

Connor's tics are still bad at the moment, but his teacher has been away and he doesn't like the grumpy emergency teacher!!!!!!

 

I had to take him, to the dentist this morning. His tic was so bad that I worried that they would miss the tooth and get his gum. But as soon as he was in the chair, the tic went. It was still gone in the car on the way home. I think he was relieved because he didn't have the needle.

He's gone off to school happily now and his teacher is back.

 

Keep posting about your success, it inspires me ( and others! I'm sure). B)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi all

Tomorrow it's two weeks since Matt's operation, and he went back to school today.

He had a quite complicated nose job. He was born with cartilage missing from one nostril. He had a graft when he was 5, but the tissue grew at a much slower rate resulting in a nose pushing to one side, and distorting the internal bone growth.

On its own it didn't look too bad, but the tics just highlighted everything.

Although he will need further operations in the future, the current result is fantastic!

 

With respect to his tics, some interesting things happened, but unfortunately the tics are now increasing.

 

Just to recap, one week prior to the opertation we went to an osteopath who treated his neck muscles.

He went in with constant tics (no improvement being seen from failsafe restrictions) and walked out one hour latter tic free.

During that week two clear instances of tics reappearing occured. One stress related, the other watching a old style computer screen. Both short lived.

Just prior to the operations minor tics (eg eye blinking occured now and then)

 

Matt's operation took almost 3 hours, but with the cocktail of pain killers and other meds he was pretty much asleep for 12 hours.

That First night however was terrible. His nose was totally packed, and he was having panic attacks about his breathing. We spent all of the night awake, walking the ward, with drips etc, in an effort to distract him.

 

During those first few days I noticed that even though he was more stressed than I'd ever seen him in my life there were NO tics.

The first 6 days were completely tic free, with very slight eye blinking starting after that. (wasn't sure if this started because of the very itchy plaster)

From the day after the operation I had started challenging 2 things at the same time. Salycilates and Screens. ( The increased foods also resulted in less wheat. Matt was not on any vitamins at this stage, but was on antibotics ( coloured)

 

It seems that both the osteopath treatment and anaesthetic had enormous impact and I concluded that they both totally relaxed the muscles and any nerve irritation.

 

If ONLY one treatment could achieve permanent results!

 

After one week, Matt was really feeling down.

As reintroducing screens and salycilates didn't seem to affect him greatly, we decided to abandon futher testing so he would feel free to join in all the end of year events.

Saturday, Sunday and Monday each involved parties with no food restrictions.

Yesterday a slight neck tic appeared for the first time, and today(Wednesday) it's getting worse.

It could be gradual reaction to TV & salycilates, but more likely all the other stuff .l

 

Unfortunately my suggestion to go back to no screens, or at least just the LCD laptop, and restricting foods again have met with a total flat refusal. He wants the lead up to Christmas to be free of restrictions, and even went so far as reading me the dictionary definition of FINISHED.

I of couse would like to nip the whole thing in the bud.

 

I plan to take him back to the osteopath in the next few days.

Any other ideas, especially for teenagers would be much appreciated.

 

Caz,

How are you going?

 

Ausclare

Now that you are back on failsafe have things improved?

On failsafe challenges what produced the greatest reaction?

 

Will let you know if the next osteopath treatment has same effect. If so, you could consider trying as he is based in Reseach.

 

Lots of posts I can now read and catch up on.

 

Marina

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Like you, I have had to totally relax the food thing with school windups and parties, it did not seem fair to restrict, and not being there to monitor made it so much harder. My eldest with the tics actually self monitors his artificial stuff.

 

Things have slowly improved for him. We did have a few days where the tics were almost negligible - but then he came out in mouth ulsers, and things went back to as bad as they have been. Ulsers are gone now, so things have improved a bit, but I guess I am now so concious of them. My husband has commented that they seem much better so maybe....

 

We never got to a no tic baseline with failsafe. Things improved for my daughter, but nothing really changed for my son, except maybe alfter all the sugar, things may have actually got worse, so we are now only doing nothing artificial, but are taking things with amines and salicylates in them.

 

Treating yeast or microbial imbalance with olive yeast extract and starting the chelate heavy metal over the past 2 weeks has seen the biggest change for us. Only time will tell if they have now plateued or if they will continue to improve.

 

I have been meaning to write heaps of stuff I have learned over the past few weeks, but it is like a book. I have got results back for my sons fatty acid profile and amino acid profile and have immersed myself in biochemisty 101.

 

Hopefully I will find half an hour or so to share it all. Poor everyone else having to read it :D

 

I am keen to look into the osteopath thing. School is so flat out with grade 7 gradulation on highschool orientations etc. Am waiting for hols to find one in our local area.

 

Anyway, as always, glad to hear from a fellow aussie.

 

Caz

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Marina,

 

I do hope that you go back to the osteopath, so that you will be able to assess the actual impact of that as a primary treatment, in the midst of no other restrictions. If it can bring him virtually no tics for that long even in the midst of no TV/computer restrictions, I will be impressed.

 

Really, once the system is cleared from TV for a time, it often does rebuild a reaction gradually with renewed exposure, so you know I am suspicious of that as a factor. But if your son won't remove it again, not much you can do there. And as I said, this is a great opportunity to test the true effectiveness of the osteopath treatment. I am sure that many here will be interested.

 

Caz,

Glad all is well. I see yeast as a primary issue, glad you are on top of things. We are near the point of retesting--later this month, for yeast, metals, etc. Wish us luck!

 

We are in an odd situation, since we haven't have symptoms in over a year, and then 6 months before that and 6 months before that. So my healing assessment is based on excema and the tests themselves. (He actually only had symptoms for a month before we figured this out, and then only rare CRT exposure). My issue is the immune system healing for his overall health.

 

You know I look forward to reading your 'book'.

 

Claire

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Hi guys,

 

just letting you know, I'm still reading sometimes, but am doing 2 jobs and have just moved house. Hubby lost job today, so now I'll have to work harder!

 

Kids are feral, and haven't even started the Christmas shopping yet! Oh well, I wonder what new doors will open in the next few weeks!

 

I'll try to keep you posted with the tics.

 

Merry Christmas

Clare :wacko:

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What a lousy time of year to loose your job!!!! I hope all goes well for your husband finding a new one. Like you say, new doors open, sometimes better than before!!!

 

Don't know about you, but I am hanging out for the school holidays to start. Things go crazy this time of year with end of year stuff - class parties, graduation nights, carols by candlelights, christmas stuff!!!!

 

Next year I swear I will do my shopping in November. The shops were absurd on the weekend!!!

 

Hard to maintain much control over the artificial stuff right now with all the school/parties etc.

 

Right now, apart from my son being really tired - too many late nights - which normally flare his tics up badly, things are actually going suprisingly well.

 

Maybe today I will get time to share all I have learned about him in the last few weeks.

 

Caz

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Hi everyone

 

Ausclare. Couldn't believe the timing on the job loss. Hope everything else going fine despite feral kids & Christmas shopping!

 

Caz, Our sons must be the same age. The twins have just finished Year 6 as well, so like you even more Chrismas functions as usual.

 

But guess what. One week after a further treatment at the osteopath, things are going well. :)^_^

Again, Matt had instant relief from the tics that were building up, and one week latter I've only noticed eye blinking if he has had an increase in artificial stuff. eg: coke Haven't totally banned artifical stuff, but have made sure there are no further binges like the 1st week marathon, and OK alternatives are available. (Salicylates proving to be OK thank goodness)

What I have done is kept up the hot showers and following up with 3 minute ice packs on areas of his neck and back (as advised by the osteopath)

 

Claire, I'm now confident that this is working incredibly well as a primary treatment. I am so impressed and relieved that again we have had fantastic results agian.

 

It's not however the trigger. Artificial foods (maybe also wheat) and stress seem to be be the primary culprits (I haven't noticed the impact of screens yet even though there are no restrictions at present, but this may be a more gradual process as you say.) The osteopath is very sure that foods have a more prominent role in this type of reaction, ahead of stress and posture etc. However he did say that he treats his son for muscle stiffness after prolonged game playing!

 

He also said that once a muscle, nerve is affected it can take ages (6 weeks or more for it to settle without treatment) Hence so hard to identify triggers in the first place.

 

I asked him if continuing treatment would help his body not to respond in that way.

His answer was that it was more important for Matt to be careful to notice warning signs and what affects him. He can only help in undoing the damage.

So far I haven't had to go back, and am hoping that I don't have too for a while.

If we get through Christmas and New Year without tics reappearing I will be estatic.

 

Heather. During our session at the osteopath I asked him how the muscle stiffness progresses, causing various tics.

1st point is top of neck with various key spots triggering different facial tics, then further down causing neck tics.

He ALSO said that it can cause tingling into his fingers. Matt hasn't felt this but I immediately wondered if its a possible answer to your son's symptoms. Didn't want to suggest it until I was sure Matt improved.

 

I hope this information can help someone.

Caz, am also looking forward to reading your book of info. It will be a best seller on this site!

 

Best wishes

Marina

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Marina,

 

That is great to hear! I am so glad that you have tested it. I would think that after a month of having screens again, you would know by an increase in tics, so it really does sound like the osteopath visit worked wonders. Your son is quite fortunate now in not needing the other restrictions, either TV and salicylates. (Heck, artificial junk can't be good for anyone!) Really really great news! Don't you feel better that you aren't doing unnecessary restrictions now? Our biggest thing was supplements, and I think I have gotten them to a more livable level now. No getting around wheat and milk for us though (excema, stomach aches, and congestion) but if I just take the time to cook, the choices are okay.

 

Ausclare,

Sorry about your husband's job situation. I know this is an additional challenge for you right now, and I hope things resolve quickly.

 

Claire

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