In Retrospect
A close autism friend with a young child asked me recently, “If you knew then what you know now about autism, what would you change?” I was not expecting this question so I didn’t immediately answer. I really had to think about the past few years and what we have learned. It was kind of painful to look back at where he was and you can become overcome with regret if you aren’t careful.
So, let’s think out loud here. The very first thing that I would do sooner would be hbot (High-Pressure Oxygen Therapy). It was not widely known when we rented the chamber and did over 100 dives with Logan. It was not the newest therapy though when we started. I had been hearing success stories galore and really dragged my feet finding out if our DAN Dr did it or not. It really came together quite nicely in the end. It was a total God thing. This is the one thing that ever gave us WOW moments in Logan. It got his year’s long yeast battle under control. Yes, I said years long. It caused him to toe walk for so long that we are having to do intensive stretching exercise and physical therapy in order to correct it. See what I mean about regret?
The other thing that I would change is to bring him home to learn sooner. He had such a hard time at school and they really were clueless about autism then. He blossomed so much after we brought him home. He could finally be himself and learn at his pace not everyone else’s.
Then I would have removed the gluten and casein sooner. He became gfcf when he was 4. I knew about it sooner but simply didn’t want to do the work. Imagine my surprise and horror when the food allergy testing came back positive for those things. I couldn’t get my child well and was so upset about that when in fact what I was feeding him was making him sick. As time progressed, you could literally see the fog lift from his eyes.
That’s all I’m gonna think about now. I can easily get overwhelmed at the prospect that my lack of action held him back for so long. God has a plan and a purpose though for everything. I truly believe that I am being a good steward of the children that He selected for me.
Ok, fellow warrior moms. Tell me your answer. If you knew then what you know now, what would you change?
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I just have to agree with all of this. I would have paid out of pocket for a developmental pediatrician instead of listening to my GP saying that she was “fine”. I would have read Karen Seroussi (sp?)’s book much sooner and learned more about DAN! when my friend was telling me about it instead of rolling my eyes at her. I wouldn’t have wasted as much time as I did, and though we haven’t seen a DAN! doctor yet, I would have looked around for one sooner.