Hidden Treasures

Last night and this morning were absolutely terrible. Nathan bore the whole hospital stay with stoic silence. He is one tough kid. But last night he came unhinged. He was in so much pain. He tried to sleep but couldn’t – he woke up every 15 minutes crying and whining. I could see the pain and intense discomfort in his eyes.

We had him in the spa to reduce the tightness in his muscles – we massaged him – we gave him Tylenol and Motrin – we lathered him with traumeel – we rubbed lavender all over him. Nothing helped.

This morning was much of the same.

At around noon I thought – ENOUGH. I called the doctor and told her she needed to figure this out. She prescribed him with Diazepam (valium). Before giving it to him I put some ben gay on him to see if it would help – it didn’t.

So I finally called an acupuncture office down the street and figured I’d give them a try. They were WONDERFUL! The guy was very knowledgeable and I was impressed with his pulse reading and treatment. And they are literally a block away!

Unfortunately, the treatment didn’t seem to help with pain in his body. He did say, however, that we should bring him in for long term treatment, as he noticed his respiratory and immune system are very weak.

He continued complaining after we returned so I succumbed and gave him the Diazepam. If you’ve been reading this blog for some time you know I despise prescription medications – but it felt cruel to let him suffer because of my prejudices. So I gave him the Diazepam and within a short while he stopped complaining and I saw his body melt in front of my eyes. He became very very loose – for the first time in a long while his hands opened and his arms relaxed. I could see he was still in pain but the Diazepam definitely took off the “edge”.

After a little while I decided to try one more thing. I had seen a chiropractic office also down the street from my house so I dropped in with Nathan. I was BLOWN AWAY with the chiropractor! I had tried chiropractic before but the person we took Nathan to only used the impulse adjuster and didn’t do much else, so I simply wasn’t impressed. The lady we saw today was WONDERFUL.

It turns out she is best friends with Nathan’s old yoga teacher, who is certified in Sonia Kumar’s Yoga for the Special Child method. So they refer patients to each other thus the chiropractor has treated many children with special needs! She was also relatively new in the field so she was up to date with a lot of new methods, including kinesio-tape and e-stim. She used the ultrasound machine on Nathan, then used e-stim, then massaged him with a special cream (like Ben Gay), and finally she adjusted his back, hips, and neck. I could hear Nathan’s whole body popping, the joints moving like crazy. After the treatment, Nathan’s neck muscles went from feeling like an incredibly taut rope, to their normal pliable selves.

Both the chiropractor and the acupuncturist are less than a mile from my house! And they BOTH take our insurance!

I also called the naturopath that we saw about a year ago, who is also a DAN doctor. We had switched to a different DAN doctor who is closer to us and also does the reflex integration. However, I don’t think Nathan has improved substantially in his care so I decided to switch back to Dr. Barrett. I spoke to her today over the phone and filled her in with everything that’s been going on, so we can address the underlying reason for this whole ordeal that Nathan’s just been through – his weak immune system. She prescribed methyl B12 shots, glutathione, transfer factor, and told us to continue with his protein smoothie, L-glutamine, permaclear, B6, Vitamin D, and Montiff amino acids. She’s also sending us a kit for a stool test where we can figure out what’s going on with his immune and digestive systems.

I think between these hidden treasures we will be able to get our cutey pie back to his normal happy self. Finding the right team is KEY and I feel like today we uncovered 2 new gems and rediscovered an old one. On an ongoing basis, I think all of them will become critical members of Nathan’s healing team.

Right now Nathan is contentedly watching TV, resting, feeling better. He’s still not himself – he’s still not smiling and squeaking and laughing – but at least he is much more comfortable right now than he was last night and this morning.

I can’t thank you all enough for keeping our superboy in your thoughts and prayers – they mean the world to us. And honestly I think it is the amazing love and support that Nathan receives from all of you that keeps helping him heal and bounce back. So for that, you have our endless gratitude. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!!