Beyond

This post has been sitting in my "edit" for a week now. I appologize for the lack of updates but we have been trying to deal with everything. On top of that, I am back in school.

I have been dreading writing this post...putting it off as long as possible. I am still trying to come to terms with what is going on and I am beyond. Beyond tired, confused, angry, hurt, and overwhelmed.

As you have read over the last few weeks, Braedon has been having some trouble with the adjustment to school. Trouble has become an understatement around here when it comes to this topic. Things went from bad to worse. It was come to be expected that I would be getting a phone call by lunch time regarding his behaviors which were progressively getting more violent and out of control. He was/is at the point of deliberately defying what he is asked to do, wailing on the ground kicking and screaming, literally and refusing to walk when being taken into the OCR room which has become a common word in our house. I'm not quite sure what it stands for but it is the room students have to go into when they get on red-when nothing else has worked in the classroom. It is a room that they are alone in with a moderator. He even took it another step further when he was acting up in OCR and was then sent to in-school suspension. Yes, a kindergartner can act up enough to receive ISS. I was sent a lovely pink slip home that has been placed in his file and that was after many conversations with his teacher, vice principal and principal. We have all been trying to collaborate to figure out what to do.

Chris and I dug into research to figure out why he was acting out so horribly and why it seemed to be getting worse by the hour. The simple task of not listening was turning into violent outbursts. We found a few theories online, most leading to food allergies. We had already heard and were attempting to eliminate food dyes, particularly red, yellow and blue. They are virtually in EVERYTHING! Check your labels and I am sure you'll be surprised as well. The additives found in our every day food have been known to enhance behaviors found in children with ADHD and ODD and it is recommended to stay away from these. We started buckling down on foods that he was eating-sugar additives, dyes, processed foods, etc. but were unsuccessful and his behavior continued to worsen.

I was at a complete loss, I was aggravated, devasted, confused, exhausted. We didn't know where else to turn so I called a distant cousin (Debbie) of my Grandpa who is an iridologist. Basically, the eyes are a road map of your body and she can "read" your eyes and that will tell her if something is going on with different organs in your body. I know it sounds crazy and I was a skeptic for a long time but let me tell you why I am not anymore:

2 years ago, my Grandma (who is VERY healthy and active) all of a sudden got REALLY REALLY sick. None of her doctors could figure out what was wrong with her. She got way worse very fast. Within a matter of weeks, she couldn't move, she looked horrible and we all knew but wouldn't admit that we were about to lose her. She had tests among tests run-every test you could possibly imagine-and everything said she was fine. They were mystified. In a last ditch effort, my Grandpa took her up to see Debbie in hopes that she could find something, anything that would help her before she died. After literally 2 minutes of "reading" her eyes Debbie told my Grandma that she had a very serious case aspertame poisoning! She literally was days away from her death bed. She gave her some herbs and told her to eliminate all sugar-substitutes and regular-and put her on a detox diet for two weeks. Within a week, she could walk again and within a month, she was 98% back to normal. She can no longer eat sugar subs of any kind and has to be careful of her sugar intake to make sure she doesn't get back there. The doctors were absolutely amazed!

Ok so that's why. When I talked to her, she said she is pretty sure she knew what was wrong but needed to see him to be sure. So, we made the 4 hour drive up to see her and let her do her work.

What she saw:

He was showing a ton of signs of serious stress-way more than a child his age should have, low oxygen on/in his brain, pancreas problems suggesting diabetes (she isn't a doctor so she can't "diagnose"), kidney malfunctions/beginning signs of failure, liver problems, an enlarged heart, heart palpatations and murmur, an over-active thyroid, and intestinal problems-his body is too acidic which is causing organs to start breaking down. Oh and an allergy to dairy (which explains the behavior getting worse because he had way more milk at school than he ever did at home-everywhere you turn they are offering milk)

HE ISN'T EVEN 6! And none of the doctors caught any of this! So..we eliminated all dairy, he is on some herb supplements to help with the stress, kidney, liver and heart problems. I can't find the paper right now but I think one of the herbs also helps the thyroid problem but we are going to take him in and insist on additional testing since thyroid problems are hard to diagnose since he can be functioning correctly when the test is run and go out of wack within minutes. To help with the *almost* diabetes, we've been on a no sugar diet-only natural sugar found in fruit. We were advised to start eating as naturally and raw as possible-not cooking veggies, eating everything in it's most natural state-limiting/eliminating red meat which we don't really eat a lot of anyway, no white flour, no starches..among other things but you get the idea.

I have been doing a lot of research and I am having a hard time not beating myself up. I am responsible for this. I am the one that was giving him foods his body couldn't handle. I am also having a hard time with the fact that he was fully vaccinated on the peds schedule and he is having all these problems. Here I have Cohen who isn't vaccinated and hasn't been sick but the one bout of Roseola! Braedon was ALWAYS sick-starting with ear infections early on and constant "colds"-and I can't help but think that the vaccines may be the culprit. I have found so much more stuff about vaccines than I had when I was looking for that info about how cancer was virtually non-existent before vaccines started being developed and how doctors had never seen a case of cancer in an unvaccinated person. I am not saying this to upset any moms that vaccinate..I am simply stating what I have found and what I am feeling.

On top of that research, I looked more into the diet Debbie suggested. She said something about the Ph balance and getting his/our body to an alkaline state. I have heard this before but dind't pay much attention to it. The first time was when Braedon was a baby-I was waiting tables and a customer came in with a group of people. He was very specific as to what he wanted and how he wanted it cooked. I also noticed a whole schlew (sp? even a word? LOL) of pills he was taking so I commented. He said that his body was at an alkaline state and basically, it was impossible for him to get sick since bad bacteria can't grow in the alkalinity (including cancer). The second time was when I was pregnant with Cohen. A co-worker mentioned it after I made a comment about her only eating raw veggies and nuts-no meat and very little fruit. Plus she had some crazy supplements and stuff she added to her water. She talked about the whole Ph thing as well but again, I just shrugged it off....Well, God must have been telling me something and hinting at me that I needed to listen...and I didn't...so now I have to.

Update 9-9-09: So, we have been on this diet-not completely but have made major changes-for a week. Herbs take 3-4 weeks to take full effect but we are using liquid herbs so they absorb faster and were told we should notice a difference in a matter of days to 1 week with full effect in a few weeks. He has gotten *better* but is still having major problems. Before we went and saw Debbie, he had been on Orange for 1 week and then 3 days of Red. This last week, he has been on yellow. Improvement-yes Where he needs to be-NO. Just today, he took his shoes off and threw them at one of his classmates-not just tossed, THREW-he was running wild, poking kids, getting in their faces, ripping things off the wall, and coloring on all the tables. They took him out of the classroom and let him calm down but he had to stay in the OCR room until lunch then he had a great afternoon.

We are also now exploring the option of chiropractic care. Since ADHA is a neurological disorder (he hasn't been "officially" diagnosed since we would refuse medication anyway), studies have shown chiropractic care can be beneficial. In lamens terms and from what I understand of the information I have read, the inbalance of the spine can cause the nerves to go haywire which causes the "hyperactivity" in kids along with the impulses and outbursts.