Doctor’s visit tomorrow

We go see T's "DAN" (Defeat Autism Now) doctor tomorrow. It's been a couple of different months for us, and I'm a little anxious about this appointment, honestly. I'm so darn concerned about pleasing people and not disappointing them…so it will be interesting to tell her that we stopped ALL of his supplements for a while this winter, and we haven't brought him in to do the fasting blood work she requested two visits ago. She wants to get him back on the prescription chelator (to detox him), and this blood work she wants needs to happen when he's not eaten. I fully admit I've dug my heels in on taking him in. Nope – didn't wanna do it. How hard does this all have to be? The regular tests weren't good enough? Honestly, how long will my brain allow this: we can only do certain tests from certain labs, and the labwork that's done in most other labs isn't going to find what we're looking for…and voila! The special labs found a problem when the regular labs didn't! Stunning. Really? Yep, turning into a skeptic. Anyway, we've been at this so long now that I just wasn't sure if they were helping. The expense is beginning to weigh on my mind – I'd pay just about anything to keep a supplement going if I knew it was helping, but without any evidence, I was beginning to doubt.

That's the double edged sword of the biomed world of autism. You get your hopes up again, and once again, autism isn't defeated.

So the supplements stopped, and we did see a difference – and one we didn't like. Grumpier. Not too playful. Where did our smiley guy go? Heaving a heavy sigh, we slowly reintroduce the supplements one by one. The good thing is that I can now say, without a doubt, that a few of them truly do make a difference for him. This is good, regardless of my skepticism. Probiotics (Threelac, specifically) and Cortrex (adrenal support) – big bangs for our buck. The others are pretty basic – Vitamin C, Vitamin D – so those will stay. And we've started another one – but haven't seen any change yet.

Sometimes this feels like I'm a cat trying to catch the elusive laser point dot on the ground, then the wall, then back to the ground…all the time the person holding the laser pointer is laughing because IT CAN'T BE CAUGHT.

Having said all this, since we reintroduced some of these supplements, he's been one happy guy. I know how blessed I am to be his Mama, and how lucky we are when I read & see what other parents who have a child with this diagnosis have on their plate. T is healthy & happy, gentle & funloving. He's doing well with the 2 half-days/week in the public school's TEACCH classroom, and continues to progress with the 30+ hours/week he gets of ABA: Verbal Behavior. We're in a good groove, and it feels good.