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August 23
No I'm not on vacation - hahahahahaha... just crazy busy. I'll try to remember August's accomplishments:

Speech therapy: Ms. V. has been so great at getting Luke to work on his oral motor skills. He's gradually graduated from a large straw to the tiniest crazy straw. Each straw helps him to work different mouth muscles. He's recently been blowing raspberries again and blowing up to his forehead. We just need to fine-tune that into blowing out... with the goal of blowing bubbles. Inch by inch :). He has been verbalizing more and more and every opportunity to get him to say "Mama" when he needs me. "Mama, Come" or "Mama, Book", or "Mama, Help". Most of his verbal words sound the same ("Babo"), but we continue to encourage and get excited everytime.

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The end of summer starts a new schedule and season, so we had to say goodbye to one of our BIs who's been with us since January. It's been a wonderful 8 months with so many changes in Luke and we're very grateful to her for all her help. We did most everything as a great team, but she can take credit for getting Luke to love and be great at walking (remember when he'd only take 10 steps and then cry? He walks to the park and back – two blocks – hand-in-hand and keeps a pretty good pace). It was a tearful goodbye but fortunately she lives just down the street and is welcome to come by anytime. All the best for her as she begins two years of teaching education. She'll be an amazing teacher one day....

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My friend, Ms. S. and I went to Winfield (1.5 hours away) on August 11 to see Dr. Wagstaff. He's a renowned naturopath, apparently with the gift of getting rid of people's allergies via homeopathy. I went because I was concerned about Luke's animal allergies. When I arrived we ended up waiting for 1 hour which normally would have been painful, but Luke was amazing and my friend drove little Joel around so he'd fall asleep in the car (which he did). When we finally got to meet Dr. W. we talked very briefly about Luke's treatment and he seemed very used to being consulted last on children's ailments (like a last-ditch effort)... and he also seemed very confident about his treatments. Luke then had to hold onto one metal rod which was attached to a contraption that had a metal plate. The doctor put a variety of vials on the metal plate and used another pen-like metal rod to touch Luke's left hand. After 30+ vials he separated the ones that Luke seemed to have a sensitivity to. Then we went into another room. Luke held onto two metal rods and they put the vials in a metal cup attached to the rods. Luke held the rods for about 30 seconds and "voila" he's been desensitized to the allergies. We were given 3 different homeopathic drops, some anti-fungal liquid and told to increase his Probiotics from 1 to 3 capsules per day. Approximately $350.00 for the works, and then we were gone. This is called VEGA testing with MORA therapy (click here for a bit of an explanation, or google it). Click here for the list of things Luke was sensitive to. The doctor made a few interesting comments...
> Luke would have a sensitivity/compassion for animals.
> Milk Thistle for liver health was outdated
> Luke still had some yeast, hence the Probiotic increase
> Silver in the toxic hair analysis was more indicative of the mercury levels and Luke has a lot of silver. He gave homeopathic drops to chelate the heavy metals.
> Luke had a sensitivity to L-Dopa, which was related to seizures
> Luke could have Irlen Syndrome which can only be tested visually/verbally (like colour-blindness tests). This means he may see too much of one colour visually and if you can filter that colour out via prism glasses, their world will be much easier to see. We can test him for this later, when he can respond and tell us what he sees.
> We go back in 6 weeks to see if the desensitizing worked, and then according to the doctor we should be able to start introducing some of the foods Luke has not been able to have: wheat/gluten being the main one.

So when I got home I wasn't quite sure what had all happened so I talked it over with Luke's dad and we decided to consult with our "lead" naturopath, Dr. Bratt. She advised that we go slow with the homeopathic drops (introduce one every few days). She's so up on Luke and knows what he's all been through, so we totally trust her judgment. I've since started the two drops and will begin the chelation drops tomorrow, the anti-fungal next Monday and wait to hear from Dr. Bratt about the Probiotic increase. Believe-it-or-not, Dr. Bratt intends to call Dr. Wagstaff and collaborate with him on Luke's treatment. Absolutely unheard of in the regular medical system!

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Right now I'm in Abbotsford, driving Luke to Coquitlam every day for two weeks for the Tomatis hearing training therapy. The situation in Merritt did not work out, so I was able to arrange with the Coquitlam Bosco Centre. My parents are away, so I am staying in their home with both boys as they have all the supplies/equipment (cribs, high-chairs, toys!). Anyways, I will truly admit that I am over-my-head. This commuting and single-mom stuff is so overwhelming (Luke's dad stayed home to work). Regardless, I am getting by and getting into a groove. Fortunately I have great friends and sisters here to help watch Joel every other day. The Centre has graciously allowed me to bring Joel along, although those days are a bit more work for me. I will not complain (okay, I'll whine a little). All the parents there are in the same boat with autistic or special needs children and it's nice to be able to talk-the-talk with people who are in the thick of things themselves. All the children are sweet, all the parents have a sense-of-humor and are deeply in love with their kids as we all attempt to do everything we can for them. Luke has been amazing. We've been introducing the headphones slowly at home (hooked up to the CD player with his favourite music). He's had them on for a maximum of 10 minutes. When we arrrived on Monday the 18th, I had both boys on my lap with Luke screeching away (a new thing, screaming and screeching, nice). He allowed Ms. C. to put on the headphones (Mozart) and he has had them on, as per his schedule, all week. His schedule is: 9,12, and 3 pm for 1.5 hours with an 1.5 hour break in between. We get there at 9 and leave at 4:30pm. There are different "music-sessions" each time and after I filled in sensory and history forms, they've customized what he will listen to. The second day I had to read a story into a microphone for half an hour and they've integrated my voice into Luke's sessions (at different frequencies and Hertz). I don't quite understand it all, but ideally they are bringing him back to the womb to have a new sonic birth that will re-train his hearing from conception. It seems quite "out-there" but hey, once again, who knows? I've asked other parents what changes they've seen, and two of them couldn't quite put it into words. There's behavioural, verbal, coordination and comprehension improvements, and of course it varies per child. We shall see. This is the first session (2 weeks), and we have to do a follow-up session in 4-6 weeks for 1 week, and then one more in 3 months for 1 week. You don't want to know how much, but for the sake of other parents I'll tell you: $1620.00 for the 1st session and $675.00 each week for the 2 follow-up sessions (one 4-6 weeks after the first session, and one 3 months after the second session). Ayiyiyiyi. Hopefully I'll be able to see some improvements that I will be able to explain... there seems to be a consensus that things are much more noticeable after the second session. Here's a couple photos: 1 and 2. The nice part is there's a little park down the road; there's a big "gym" with all kinds of sensory stimulation equipment (mini-tramp, spinner, wobble-boards, swings); and there's a Superstore and liquor store (just kidding) nearby. Just sending out an extra prayer to all the single moms out there. I don't know how you do it! ... especially those who have children with autism.

On a positive, accomplishment note, Luke and I have been working hard on his alphabet signing. He knows them all, just can't physically do the "i", "j", "m", "n", "r", "w" and "y". I'm so proud.

August 31
It's Sunday night and I've just been relaxing the last two days, trying to get over a horrible cold. Luke has a cold as well, so we've been lying around the house a lot, sleeping and being listless and not eating. It sucks, especially since he starts Preschool on Tuesday. Hopefully he'll feel better by then. In any case, the good news is that we do have a Preschool Assistant (yay), Ms. M., for the 5 mornings a week (8:30-11) and she seems to come highly recommended, so we are once again fortunate to have such great help for Luke. I must admit I'm a little apprehensive about the other children and parent's reactions to Luke, but we continue to have great faith that he will love and flourish in this new social setting. Both of our great BIs are back with us, M-F afternoons (yay, again!)... so we're thrilled to have continuity in Luke's ABA program.

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The Tomatis Experience: What can I say? For two weeks, every day I took Luke to Coquitlam (from Abbotsford – about a 45-minute drive in rush hour). It was intense and stressful, but a few great things came from it: 1) Cops for Kids, a local organization has offered to pay for the first session $1620.00; what a relief. I had submitted an online form about 3-4 weeks ago, and they came through. I would like to gratefully acknowledge S.S.J. for calling and making our day. 2) I met some amazing moms who I hope will stay in touch via email; you don't spend 2 weeks with people and not grow somewhat attached, especially to the amazing staff that are in such a noble profession and deserve to be appreciated; 3) They said I was an amazing mom :), and commended me on my children's good behaviour; 4) Dr. Larre spent about 2.5 hours with me on the final day explaining the entire process from a physiological and biological point of view and I was rapt and fascinated by the lessons on speech, sensory, hearing and the brain. Wow. He brought it all together for me and impressed me with his knowledge and compassion (actually he reminded me a lot of my dad :). What Luke's issues are is a) his vestibular system is awry (movement) and we can fix that with simple daily spinning, swinging, bouncing and leaning exercises. His speech problems stem from his entire facial fine muscles are weak (inner ear, mouth, eyes) and they need to be "exercised" to strengthen them. The Tomatis method is one way to exercise the inner ear muscles by forcing the children to listen to mostly Mozart which is made up of the most extreme ranges of sound (high and low). He also explained how sound travels via bone conduction and air conduction and we can help Luke decipher words by putting our head to his right temporal lobe and saying the word as the sound travels faster and clearer via our bones. Then we show him our mouth movements while saying the word, in an exaggerated way, so he can make a visual "video" of the word and store it in his occipital lobe. We will try to incorporate all these exercises and methods into our daily training and hopefully the BIs will help out. There are many more simple exercises (too many to mention), but I was grateful for the amazing advice. At the end of the session, Luke came to meet Dr. Larre and signed a polite "thank you" when asked.

So I am home, exhausted but feeling great about what we've done for Luke. He seems to be verbalizing a bit more in the last two days, but he's also quite sick so there's been a bit of regression as well. We have a checklist of behaviours to complete before his next Tomatis session (Sept. 29 – Oct. 3); to record any improvements.

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Next door to the Bosco Centre (Tomatis Training) was a Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy service. I was going to look into this for Luke, but we will wait for a while. The recommended 40 sessions is approximately $4300.00 (ayiyiyiyiyi), so I'll have to apply for more charity support before we talk about this type of treatment.

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