Keeping Me on My Toes!!!

Wisconsin is finally seeing sunshine...now warmer weather will hopefully follow. So we are entering into Sam's good season, the season where he is healthy. Sam's vitamin D level gets very low in the winter and supplementation just doesn't work as well as sunshine. Sam's low immune system causes him to pick up way too many viruses and illnesses during the winter/fall and sometimes spring seasons.

Over the last couple of weeks I have encouraged Sam to be outside in the sunshine as much as possible. I have also been giving him coconut milk kefir, grapefruit seed extract, garlic, oregano oil and using essential oils to help break down the yeast build up he had after being on 2 antibiotics. For Sam, antibiotics are great for helping him get through an illness but also cause a huge amount of yeast to build in his system which can manifest itself in different ways, for Sam we see the following:

• diarrhea
• abdominal pain
• bloating, gas, and indigestion
• rash
• sinus infections
• rectal itching
• sugar or starch cravings
• jock itch
• global developmental delay/depression
• chronic fatigue

I weekly check Sam's hearing aid to make sure it is functioning properly by testing it on myself.

I thought I was covering all my bases and yet in the last couple of weeks Sam's speech began to drop off, he was answering inappropriately more often, much of his speech was jibberish, his attention/focus was off, he was stimming more. What is happening???

I then jump into problem solving mode. Sam was due to see his pediatrician, so we would start there. Because I spend so much time with Sam I like other people to observe and confirm my suspicions when Sam is off. Again Sam's pediatrician, Dr. Dirk Steinert at the Germantown Clinic has proved to be one of the best. Dr. Steinert has seen Sam manic from steroids, he's seen him function well and function poorly, he's seen him healthy and too often...sick. He began the appointment talking with Sam, Sam struggled to stay on topic, didn't appear to be paying attention and randomly babbled. Dr. Steinert looked at me and said, "What's up with him?" I breathed a sigh of relief, I'm not imagining things...somethings wrong and again I really like our doctor for noticing. Dr. Steinert moved up all Sam's blood work which was not due for another 6 months...thinking like I was...thyroid?? something??

But his tests came back, pretty much in in the normal range. His vitamin D is still low, it should be 30-80, Sam is finally at 31. His thyroid was at 1.88 which I feel is low and will supplement with Thyro Complex to help boost that number.

Hmmmm...now what?? I began to observe Sam closer. I was looking at what he was eating, removing anything that would seem to be a cause of concern, I was checking his vision...all in an attempt to determine what and why this was happening.

One morning as I was preparing our NACD program, I asked Sam to go get dressed and get his hat (which has his hearing aid attached). He proceeded to get dressed, handed me his hat and asked me to turn it on. I turned it to 2 and he placed in on his head. I asked him to put Buddy (our dog) outside so we could get ready to start our homeschooling. As I was walking into our living room I noticed Sam was doing something to his hearing aid. I asked him, "What's wrong". He said, "Oh, turn on please." I said, "I already turned it on, how did it get turned off?" Sam said, "No, turn on please." I left the room and came back in to sit next to Sam with a quick check of the hearing aid and noticed it was on. He was working on his math on the board so I decided to change the load in the washer/dryer. When I came back in I looked at his hat and noticed it was turned off. Ohhh, this child!!!! I wasn't sure if I wanted to wring his neck or kiss him. For the last couple of weeks this little stinker was turning off his hearing aid but continuing to wear his hat as if it was on. And at night, he would act like he was turning it off and hand his hat to me. The nerve of this child.

This would explain the drop off in speech, answering questions inappropriately and the lack of focus and attention. From the look on his face, he knew I had figured it out. He handed me his hat and said, "Turn on please". "Ready".

I guess Sam decided he needed a break. It doesn't matter if your children attend school or you homeschool, this time of the year gets difficult...you want it to be done. Sam just figured out how to make that happen!