Wednesday, October 3, 2007

Story Idea-awareness of possible link

This posting was submitted from a mother who wanted to share her story. This item was emailed to this blog--

Here is what I have lived, so I know it to be true, not a guess, not a theory..... My son was fine until about age 2. His behaviors changed gradually as well as his loss of speech, gradual until there was nothing. As time passed, he was exhibiting behaviors that are routinely and classically autistic. I began trying to find someone who could help me figure out what was going on with him. We heard autism, then asperger's, then PDD-NOS and finally Apraxia. These well meaning doctors and therapists didn't really know, they were making an educated guess based on behaviors that he was exhibiting.

We spent a lot of time and money going to all of the recommended therapists to help him learn how to manage these behaviors in a more appropriate manor. We never saw much of an improvement, though. A teacher flippantly mentioned the vaccine/mercury connection. I had never ever heard of that before. I researched it thoroughly before deciding to have him tested, and then it was just to "rule it out" because he never had any kind of immediate adverse reactions.

To my surprise, tests came back showing that he was, indeed, full of mercury. By that time, he was almost fully vaccinated. That started us down the long road of medical treatments to repair the damage caused by mercury. The overload of mercury caused him to be unable to eliminate other environmental toxins, so he was storing lead and arsenic from the water, tin from canned vegetables, etc. It was a nightmare! We had to make so many life changes, cleaning products, food, pulling out carpet and replacing it with wood floors, etc. etc. Along with doctor's appointments, medical tests at the doctor's office and hospitals, dental problems associated with mercury toxicity, speech therapy, OT, PT, auditory integration.......the list goes on.

Final outcome after 4 1/2 years of this: He has lost almost all of his "autistic" behaviors with speech being the last hurdle to overcome. Mercury acts as a numbing agent and he couldn't feel where to place his tongue to make the correct sounds needed for speech production. From the age of 2 until 9 months ago (he is 8) he was completely non-verbal. He has been steadily progressing in this area since Oct. of last year, so we are hopeful. My point to all of this is, had it not been for that teachers' casual comment, my son would have never made this kind of progress with therapy and would always have been labeled and considered to be Autistic.

Jennifer Michelle

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