DAN! Doctor's Appointment

As many of you know our son, Ethan has autism. Last month he became very ill after receiving his 2 year shots. He had diarrhea for 2 weeks. At first the doctors thought it was a virus, days went by and neither me nor Kevin caught this "virus". Ethan's pediatrician ordered a stool sample and everything came back negative. On the last day before he started getting better Ethan began bleeding when he used the bathroom. As many of you can imagine I felt helpless. There was nothing I could do for him that was working.

For months I have just felt like something wasn't right. I have done lots of research on autism in the last few months. I started researching one night on YouTube. It's amazing how many videos there are on there about autism. Its sad really. Some parents have made videos for their children so that everyone will understand exactly what autism is and what special needs their child has. On a whim I typed in autism recovery. I was surprised to get any result at all, as far as I knew there was no "cure" for autism. That night a whole new world of hope was revealed to me.

There were actual results right there in front of me. Lots of children were "recovering" from autism. There was proof right there in front of my face. Children, just like Ethan, that had never spoken a word and had little to no eye contact were talking in sentences!! I was overwhelmed w/excitement. I wanted this same healing for Ethan. At that moment I started praying for God to lead me in the right direction.

I read every single one of Jenny McCarthy's books about her son Evan, who has autism. She was a real inspiration to me. She was going to stop at nothing to help her son. Her latest book is called "Healing and Preventing Autism". In this book she talks about how she thinks that her son's autism was caused by vaccinations. I know what you are thinking, Vaccinations? How is that possible, children have been receiving them for years and no one has mentioned autism. When I was a baby (1982) the vaccine schedule was 10 shots before the age of 18 months. In 2007 the vaccine schedule was 36 before the age of 18 months. Babies can get up to 6 shots in one visit today. Wanna guess how the rate of autism has skyrocketed? In 1983 Autism was 1 in 10,000. The government just issued a new report just this week, in 2009 the autism rate is 1 in 91. That is 1 in 58 boys. Do you see something wrong w/that picture?

Experts in this field suggest that it is not the vaccine alone that causes autism. The child must first have a low immune system before they get these vaccinations. When a baby is born within minutes they are injected with up to 4 to 5 vaccinations. No test is performed to see if their fragile little bodies can handle these vaccines that have everything from lead, aluminum, mercury, and formaldehyde in them.

When Ethan was just 4 months old he developed a yeast infection on his bottom. He had had diarrhea for 2 weeks and his bottom was so raw he developed a yeast infection. Where did the yeast come from? His pediatrician couldn't explain this one to me. He said that I was just keeping his bottom too clean and that it must have developed from the lack of a certain bacteria that fights off infection. Something told me then that didn't seem right. He had vaccinations just 4 days before the diarrhea started.

When I read in Jenny's book that all these "ingredients" in vaccinations caused yeast growth in the gut suddenly everything made sense. At the time when Ethan was 4 months old I didn't suspect autism. Ethan was doing everything right on time and I suspected nothing. It wasn't until he was around 12 months old that the truth became so apparent to me. Ethan would spin the wheels on his trucks, and he would flap like he was going to take off. We made jokes about it that he was trying to fly. We would say fly little birdie fly. When he started walking he walked on his tip toes. Around 9 months Ethan started feeding himself, he would try to feed himself with a spoon. After his 12 month vaccinations Ethan stopped feeding himself. He had no interest in trying, he even acted as if he had "forgotten" how. He also stopped saying ma ma, and da da. I didn't understand what was going on.

Ethan got a cold when he was about 14 months old. I had to take him to the doctor. Ethan's doctor had just moved to Lexington, I liked him so much I decided to take him all the way up there for visits. On this particular day Kevin couldn't get off of work. So, I got my favorite cousin Meg to go with us. That day we went in like usual. It had been about 4 months since Dr. Williams had seen Ethan. I noticed he was looking at Ethan differently. He handed Ethan a toy car. Ethan immediately turned it over and started spinning the wheels. He would get lost in it, it was as if he was the only one in the room. Dr. Williams looked at me and asked does he always do this? I said yeah he enjoys it. Dr. Williams didn't seem interested in the cold that Ethan had, he just wanted to play with Ethan. When he was finished he asked me if I had ever thought that Ethan might be autistic. I could feel all the blood rushing to my face. Suddenly it all made sense. I just didn't want to accept it. He then talked to me about autism. I will never forget that day. I just thank God that Meg was with me. I probably would have lost it with out her. Meg if you are reading this I love you and you mean the world to me.

The next step was to get an evaluation with an autism doctor. The closest one was in Cincinnati. I called to make the appointment, the lady on the phone asked me if June 17th, 2009 would be ok. I said JUNE 2009??? That is like almost a year away. She informed me that there was a very long waiting list. I took the appointment thinking maybe I could get him in somewhere sooner. The same story everywhere else. 1 to 2 year waiting lists. I couldn't believe it. Over the next few months I watched Ethan pick back up on some skills and then I would take him to get vaccinated and those skills would disappear. I read everything that I could get my hands on about autism.

I got Ethan involved in a program called First Steps. He was assigned several therapists that were to come to our home and work with him on a weekly basis. He has a speech therapist, and occupational therapist, and a developmental interventionist. I began to see more improvements in Ethan, some would fade but some would stay strong.

Months went by. May came and Kevin became deathly ill. He had to have emergency surgery. He was in the hospital for 2 weeks and had a month recovery ahead of him. He was off of work for a total of 2 months. My mom and I took Ethan to his autism appointment in Cincinnati. The doctor was nice. This visit was one of many we would have to make over the next few months. Getting an autism diagnosis isn't easy, and I guess it shouldn't be. I don't want a doctor to just look at Ethan and say Yeah he is autistic.

On September 1st Ethan got his 2 year vaccinations. He was delayed a little because he had been sick over the summer and couldn't get them then. On September 14th, exactly 2 weeks since his vaccinations he got diarrhea and had it for 2 weeks as I said earlier. I was fed up. I decided to do something that no one else was gonna do for my child, and that was get him some help.

I had done a lot of research on DAN! (Defeat Autism Now) doctors. These are doctors that believe that vaccines can cause autism and also make genetic autism worse. I had even called a few of them and found out that the ones that were within driving distance had 3 year waiting lists. In order to help a child with autism recover there is a "window" between the ages of 2 and 5. If I waited 3 years Ethan would be 5. So, I started looking elsewhere. I found a doctor in San Francisco, CA. Her name is Dr. Suzann Wang. She has been practicing for 10 years and has had a lot of success with helping children with autism recover. I called her office to get some general information and she actually called me back the very next day on her lunch break and talked with me for an hour.

As you can see this has been a long road for us. We have decided to go and see this doctor. We fly out on Friday morning (Oct. 9th). We have an appointment Monday (Oct. 12th) The road ahead is also going to be a rough one. We are asking each and everyone of you to please pray for Ethan and for our family.

If you would like to visit Dr. Wang's website you can find it here.
http://www.naturalhealthcalifornia.com/autism.html