We have been using the sensory brush for about a week now and Nathan has been doing really well. He is tantruming less and just seems to be more "with it". He has recently started to point at objects in a book like an apple or a ball. He is pointing to his body parts. He imitates us when we sneeze, he consistently makes 3 signs (more, down, open) and several times today he said "oh" for open when we opened the door. We are so very proud of him!
Nathan and his dad went to see a DAN doctor on Tuesday. The doctor had some interesting thoughts on why Nathan has autism. I'm not sure that I will get the wording correct but to the best of my understanding she thinks that Nathan's body has a tough time getting rid of certain chemicals or something and she used him having high bilirubin levels as a newborn as an example. She thinks that the starting point or trigger to his autism was when Nathan came down with that very nasty stomach virus around 15 months that landed us all in the hospital. Of course I'm not explaining this nearly as well as John explained it to me, but I hope you can get the gist of it.
The doctor wants us to start getting rid of milk and milk products then go gluten free. She wants Nathan on 3 different supplements and she wants blood work done for food allergies and a urine test done for heavy metals.
John and I are still somewhere in the middle on how we feel about all this. We plan on taking away milk in the next week or two and starting Nathan on a calcium supplement. We are going to get the blood work done for the food allergies and see where we stand and how Nathan does being off milk to see if we want to try going gluten free. We have yet to decide on the urine test, plus I am curious how the heck I am supposed to "catch" a sample of his pee? That will be an interesting day!
Of course none of this is covered by insurance so it is all being paid out of pocket. It is such a strange place to be in. We have no idea if any of this will help Nathan so we have no idea how far to take it. I can assure you that we won't be shelling out $10,000 to buy a hyperbaric oxygen chamber in the near future but some blood testing and a change in diet sounds like a good place to start.
Another thing going on is that we are getting closer to wraparound behavior therapy. We had another evaluation today as a final determination in how many hours we will ask for. And what did they come up with....A Whopping 30 Hours!!!! Holy crap! I am really excited to have this much help for Nathan but combined with his EI therapy that is 33 hours a week and basically a full time job. They will slowly fade in the hours so as not to overwhelm Nathan. We will start with 10 hours for weeks 1 & 2 and then 15 hours for weeks 3 & 4 and so on. We still have to meet with the insurance company in 2 weeks to see if they approve that many hours. The doctor recommended we take Nathan to that appointment because she thinks it can sway the insurance company in the right direction. You can bet that we will be bringing Nathan to that meeting no matter what.
Riley's Christening was this past Sunday over the Memorial Holiday Weekend. It was two years ago on the same holiday weekend and in the same church that Nathan and Reagan were baptised. Riley was really happy at the beginning of the service but as the ceremony started, she decided she was starving. From that point on there was quite a bit of crying. It was a beautiful day and we all had a really nice time sharing this memory together.
