Rough week...

Hello, all!

What a week it's been! First, I fell while clearing the driveway resulting in bruised ribs and a hurt shoulder and back. Then, I found out that Dr. Stewart is no longer going to the Dallas office...this was AFTER we bought our plane tickets! URGH!!! And, Ben is not doing as well as he was...sigh.

Well, it's a new day, and I'm feeling less sore. And, my mom and I decided to cancel our airline tickets and go see Dr. Stewart in Austin. We had the option to see one of the other doctors, but I am not comfortable with that. Both of them are very new to the protocol. And, my friend took her daughter to see one of them and was not happy with him. They just aren't as experienced and knowledgeable as Dr. S. So, we decided if we are going to fly across the country, it will be to see Dr. S. (Not that I mean any disrespect to the other doctors...I'm glad they are learning the protocol so more kids will be helped!) Also, there are a few things I talked about with Dr. Stewart last time and I want further info. Not sure the others could give me that.

So, we aren't going to Austin until April now. This is good because it is Ben's spring break week, so he won't miss school. It's bad because I really wanted him to have the SensoryView test done soon. He's been off the antivirals for 3 weeks now and I'd like to see objectively if the inflammation is returning. Unfortunately, I suspect it is.

So, I have a call into the doctor's office. My gut feeling is that Ben needs to be back on the antivirals for a while. He did great the first week off of them...really great. But, he is not doing so well now. Sleep disturbances, more stimming, OCD behaviors (still waiting on the lab results for PANDAS), less talking, more sensory sensitive, and less happy in general. It's not horrible yet, but I don't want to wait too long to get him back on them. I don't want him to have to go through a major viral die-off again.

Since I've ruled out other causes (yeast, phenols, etc), I really do think it is viral inflammation. It is very uncommon for the children to be finished with antivirals after the first course. Most have to do another at least one more round. So, I would not be surprised if that is where we are heading. We'll see what the doctor says. I'm sure he'll want to look at the strep test and see if that is a factor first.

Well, got to go get monkey ready for school! Hope all is well with everyone! Please pray we get this all sorted out for our little man!

Love,
Julie