Benjamin Gould

[Bob Gould]

Many of you know my youngest son was born with Cerebral Palsy. I have done so much with him over the years though that has pushed him beyond what was projected that the label no longer fits him. He fits more into the category of Autism now (which the medical profession knows even less about). But, we just learned of some new diseases/disorders (that fit my sons description to a "T") that they have developed tests for. I have called his Dr and set up an appointment to discuss with him these new tests. I need your prayers to open up the Doctors mind to things he doesn't know and that these tests will help us define Benjamin's neurotransmitter problems and treat them.
Tamet Gould


2004/03/14 @ 23:36:06
UPDATE: We went to the Dr today (8/21/03) and he agreed to schedule Benjamin for the tests. He obviously has had many parents request it after they saw it on TV. I was not real happy with him because he was telling me to start thinking about what we were going to do with Ben in 15 to 20 years (like it isn't something I think about every minute of every day!) because he would probably never talk in sentences or be able to hold a job down. Well, I can assure you I wont be back to him once the test is done! He obviously has no hope or empathy for my sons quality of life. I personally am not happy with just sitting back and taking whatever stupid limitations he wants to press on my sons capabilities. They told us 8 yrs ago he would probably not walk or utter a word. Boy, did they miss that mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I want as much functionality as I can get for him and will grasp every viable piece that is waved our way. Anyway, please keep Ben in your prayers, he is a walking miracle and a blessing to all that come to know him. Tamet

2004/03/14 @ 23:36:44
UPDATE: Got the test done. It went fine. One of the tests we have already gotten back and everything was normal except a some red blood cells in the spinal fluid. The nurse dismissed it. (They don't make me feel real secure when they say it is no big deal) It will be early to mid Oct before we get the complete results. Everyone continue to keep Benjamin in your prayers. It is so wonderful to get emails from people concerning him. May the Lord Bless you and Keep you, May He cause His face to shine upon you and may He bring you peace and health.

2004/03/14 @ 23:37:27
UPDATE 10/30/03: Well, never have gotten the tests back but have had a miracle happen in our house in the past week. Benjamin had been having lots of trouble and we knew that another ER visit was in our future soon. His speech therapist came in Friday and Ben wasnt very interested in her due to the pain. She finished up her session and left but we heard a knock just a few minutes after she left and it was his speech therapist again. She said she had been thinking about what her mom had done for her while she was growing up in Brazil. Her mom keep her brother on carrot juice for years and gave it to her when she got sick. She asked if we had ever tried carrot juice and I told her "No". So, I pulled out the juicer I have had for 11 years (finally putting it to good use now!) and juiced some carrots. Gave it to Ben and he was still screaming, and running thru the pain. He was still doing it when I went to get Bob to help me with him. He said he would be in the house in a few minutes. In the mean time Ben began to settle down and by the time Bob got in the house Ben was sitting in my lap wanting me to play with him. Bob just looked at me and said "I thought you said he was having trouble". I told him he was until about 5 minutes ago. Ben was fine for about an hour and I gave him some more fresh juiced carrots. Within 15-20 he settled back down and was wanting me to play with him. I called Bob in and we talked about this, "was it a fluke or for real". After about 2 hours he started having trouble again so I gave him some more fresh carrot juice and he settled right down after 20 mins. We knew we were on to something then. We loaded up everybody in the house and headed to town to clean the grocery store out of fresh organic carrots.

By Monday we had taken him off all supplements and vitamins. He slept all night long for the 1st time in a long time that night and has slept all night long every night since then. I am giving him 4-5 8oz cups of fresh juiced carrot juice a day and 80% of everything he eats is live/fresh (veg and fruits). Another wonderful side effect is he is no longer on herbal stimulants or laxatives, he is having regular bowel movements, dont laugh!, that is the first time since he got sick 2 years ago!!!

I hope this idea works for some other parents out there, because it has been a miracle in our house, and one gladly welcomed. As the Father of medicine, Hippocrates, said, "Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food". We have become believers in that.

2004/03/14 @ 23:38:17
UPDATE: 11/4/03 Ben is still doing good, we are keeping him on the 80% live/fresh veg and fruits per day. Everything is still coming thru his system like it should :-) and still no laxatives or stimulants. Another side effect is, his whole Central Nervous System is calming down. He doesn't self stem as much as he used to and if he does it is easy to redirect him.

We are also having to make sure that he gets LOTS of exercise everyday, pushing his wagon around, riding his special tricycle, swinging on the swing, walking, rough housing and tumbling. Some nights he doesn't sleep all night but all you have to do is get in bed with him turn his favorite CD on "Sting" "Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot" and he will go right back to sleep. No more fussing or fighting, pinching or biting!!!! We suspect some foods interfere with his system and are trying to figure out which ones they are. NO, the allergy test showed he wasn't allergic to anything so that was a dead end! But, he does have problems with some foods whether they showed up on the test or not. I will update again next week.

2004/03/14 @ 23:39:22
UPDATE 11/14/03: Well, wanted to update everyone on Bens health. He is doing fine. The carrot juice is still working, we have him on 75-85% raw vegs and fruit, with 1 cooked veg a day and that is usually not to long before he goes to bed. We also include 1 to 1 1/2 oz of either beef, chicken, or fish in with his lunch and dinner meal, with snacks during the in-betweens. We have found that we have to give him celery with the fruits to offset the sugar rise that they create. I also give him just a little celery with the carrot juice because it can cause a sugar spike also. He has always been a very pale faced and skinned child but I guess the carrot juice is giving him some skin coloring. He's starting to use more words again and becoming more interactive as well as responding to his therapist more. I will update again next week.

2004/03/14 @ 23:40:06
UPDATE 12/10/03: Well it has been nearly a month so I thought I better update everyone. Ben is doing great!!!!!!!!!!!!! He is putting on weight (not that he was every skinny), his bowels are moving regularly (VERY IMPORTANT FOR A CHILD LIKE HIM) and he is REALLY starting to communicate his wants and needs more so than ever!! He will bring something to us to open for him or get out what he wants or show you what he wants or wants you to do. So, our task now is to help him understand to us his language to get all those things. He was so cute the other day when his therapist came out. He was sitting at the table and we told him Delys was here. He jumped up ran to the door, saw her, went outside to her truck and gave her a hug. She gave him a toy box with a handle to carry and he brought it to the front porch (he has just started carrying things a lot lately). He ran into a dilemma once he reached the steps because he had the box in his right hand (he uses it to help himself up the stairs). He stopped, looked at me and held the box to me, he was so cute because you could see him thinking, how am I going to get up the stairs with this in my hand? So, we showed him and told him to put it in his left hand and he smiled REALLY BIG and marched up the steps holding the box and took it right to his room! I cant wait to tell everyone when he starts talking!!!!!!!!!!!!! Let me tell everyone that eating 75-85% raw vegs/fruits and juicing the vegs also has CHANGED HIS LIFE. I truly wish and hope the Doctors would be more knowledgeable in the nutrition area, because all it has taken is Ben eating food that his body was designed to digest. In fact it must be something that the Drs are looking at because Ben's ped said there was an article recently in the American Ped Assoc Mag that was talking about the relationship and importance of regular bowel movement in child with Ben's problems. He couldn't get over the fact that it was in a medical magazine! I told him I have know about it for 2 years!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I will update in Jan again because we have found a Developmental and Behavioral Pediatric specialist at Scott & White that Ben is going to see the end of this month. I have high hopes, I was very impressed with talking to them over the phone.

2004/03/14 @ 23:41:26
UPDATE 01/02/2004: Well I have been unable to talk about this until now. That Dr was a joke. He didn't have anything that would help us to help Ben. All he wanted to do was re-label Ben with something that would make the Medical profession deem him uneducationable and hopeless for further therapies. He felt we should accept this and go on. I'm glad I didn't do that 8 years ago (because Ben wouldn't have ever crawled, walked or anything else), and I am sure as hell not going to do it now. So as Jim Carey told Morgan Freeman in "Bruce Almighty". We are going to quit waiting for a Miracle and help Ben become a miracle.

2004/03/14 @ 23:42:20
UPDATE 02/11/2004: Well Ben is doing good. His diet has really kicked in and he doing really great things now. We are getting lots of good communication from him and are demanding that he use his language to get what he wants. He is requesting (going and grabbing his brother and pulling him down the hallway) Joseph go play (jump on the bed) with him. He will also come get Kelly (she is the young woman that is his attendant) to go play with him. He will grab her arm and drag her down the hall and say more Hee-Haw! He loves for me to play hide and seek with him. He is requesting specific foods and drinks now and each time we demand a verbal request so he will understand that is what language is for. He is doing great and we are just starting a new type of therapy called ABA, so I am hoping we will get more great things from that. I want to thank everyone that keeps Ben in their prayers and all these folks on this page.



Update 02-13-2005
Although this has come and pass we are taking Ben to another doctor tomorrow. Please keep Ben in your prayers

[featherg]

 (((((((HUGS)))))))) Many prayers for Ben and the Dr will be the one that he needs.

[Sherry May]

Prayers for you all.  How did the doctor appointment go?

[Tamet Gould]

Just fine.  They are working on taking the mercury out of his system.  This past month we were able to rid his system of about 1/3 of it.  In case you dont know this, one of the ways that children like Ben get mercury levels so high is thru vaccinations.  Some children are able to rid their bodies of the horribly toxic metal and some arent.  Ben happens to be one of those that cant rid himself of it without help.  So we are also boulstering some of the organs that are prone to carry most of the weight of cleaning the system like the gall bladder and kidney.  So we are continuing with the mercury cleansing and will move on from there.

[ITDASH]

is this the Dr you went to in San angelo??  and how do you get the mercury  out ?

[Tamet Gould]

Yup it is.  We are using Trans Dermal DMPS.  It is a commercial product that has been around since the 50's.  They use it to help clean up the guys that are involved in toxic spills.

[Downthealley]

Hey I just saw this.. Prayers for Ben!!

I used to work with an autistic boy at the Crowley High School. I went to all of his classes with him and even ate lunch with him everyday. This is something I did for a year and a half so I commend yall for doing what you can to help Ben.

Maybe Ill get to meet him one day!! 

[candystarbarrels]

OK I am sorry that I am the last one to read this, but I am very glad that I did. I commend you and Bob for not giving in to the doctors and not giving up on Ben. That is great. I know how scary it is, and my daughter only had hernia surgery, but we even got a second opinon on that. The first surgeon was a complete smart&%@. How can you trust a doctor that you don't respect. We finally got a surgeon in Dallas, and I come out of his office crying everytime that I go in, because he is there completley for the children. I think some doctors are all about the money, but this one had a huge heart. If anyone needs a good surgeon for their child let me know. His name is Darrell Hermann, and he is great. I don't know about Ben's case. Not really surgical, but I am glad that you finally found a good doctor. Quite a drive to that one , but when it comes to your kids, it doesn't really matter if you have to travel around the world. My pryers every night will be with Ben, and please keep us updated...

[stormyblaze]

HI, TAMET I'VE BEEN READING ABOUT BEN AND MY HEART GOES OUT TO YOUR FAMILY. I COMMEND YOU ON ALL YOU ARE DOING FOR HIM. I HAVE A STEP DAUGHTER WITH CP AND I CAN RELATE TO SOME OF WHAT YOU ARE GOING THROUGH. I'M JUST CURIOS WAS BEN BORN THIS WAY OR IS HIS CONDITION AN ONSET FROM VACCINATIONS. I KNEW A LADY GROWING UP WHOSE DAUGHTER WAS FINE UNTIL SHE RECEIVED SOME OF HER VACCINATIONS I THINK SHE WAS CLOSE TO A YEAR OLD WHEN THINGS CHANGED. I DON'T REMEMBER MUCH BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN SO LONG AGO BUT I REMEMBER THEY SAID IT HAD TO DO WITH THE VACCINES SHE GOT. THE LAST TIME I SAW THEM SHE WAS ABOUT 4 AND SHE COULDN'T WALK OR TALK.    I ALSO HAVE BEEN GOING TO SOME ALTERNATIVE HEALTH MEETINGS FOR THE LAST 6 MONTHS AND WE HAD A CHIRAPRATOR AS A GUEST SPEAKER ONE NIGHT & THAT IS WHAT HE TALKED ABOUT WAS HOW VACCINES ARE SO BAD FOR YOU & WHAT THEY ARE MADE FROM. HE TALKED ABOUT ALL THE TROUBLE HE HAD WITH THE SCHOOLS BECAUSE HIS KIDS NEVER HAD THEIR SHOTS. WHICH BY THE WAY YOU CAN GET OUT OF GIVING YOUR KIDS VACCINES. HE DID. HE WAS VERY INTERESTING TO LISTEN TO. HE SAID THAT VACCINES MAY NOT HURT SOME OR MAYBE EVEN MOST CHILDREN BUT HE DIDN'T WANT TO TAKE THE CHANCE WITH HIS CHIDRENS LIVES. ANYWAY SOME OF WHAT HE TALKED ABOUT MAKES ME WONDER ABOUT SOME OF THE SHOTS WE GIVE OUR HORSES. I HAVE A FRIEND WHOSE HORSE DIED LAST YEAR THE SAME DAY IT WAS GIVEN HIS WEST NILE SHOT. HE WAS HEALTHY THAT MORNING AND DEAD THAT NIGHT . I DIDN'T MEAN TO WRITE A BOOK BUT I AM JUST CURIOUS ABOUT BEN AND THEN MY MIND GOT TO WONDERING......

[Tamet Gould]

Dont worry about writing a book.  Benjamin is my passion and I could write a book.  Probably will one day.

Ben was born with it, his brain scarring was supposedly from sometime during vitro.  He had delayed mylenation and that is a big marker for types of enzyme interruption so it could have been something as simple as the fillings in my mouth (mercury) that caused the problem in his body developing and functioning.  They dont know.  I do know that a lot of his hospitalizations have corresponded with vaccinations.  I cut out all vaccines in 96 but our problems continued just not the hospitalizations.  Im not one to believe Drs when they tell me he cant do something because it is usually accompanied with "I dont know".  Which in my opinion makes their knowledge questionable and doubtable.  So I usually go find my own.  That strategy has worked well for us. 

He was orginally diagnosed with CP but is more autistic now because of all the diet and alternate therapies I have done with him.   The brain is a very trainable, plastic organ and it amazes me.  For instance they told me he would probably never crawl or walk.  Well of course it didnt make sense to me that if he could set up and move his legs and feet, why couldnt he crawl.  So I just trained him to.  Built a ramp elevated it, and began hand over handing him at a crawl.  The elevated ramp just gave me the advantage of gravity and made him more prone to move down the ramp.  He started crawling, not a very good reciprical crawl, so I had him rolfed and put him in Hippotherapy (Physical therapy on horse back).  It helped his CNS a great deal because within 2 weeks he was doing a good reciprical crawl and then within a day or two after that he just took off crawling all on his own.  So, my next theory was, if he can crawl why cant he walk?  The hip is moving, the legs are moving the arms are moving he is using his back and neck and everything else and crawling was the next level in the normal childs developmental stage so I continued to encourage crawling, lots of it.  He just stood up one day at the age of 3 and within a few days was walking.   Where I think traditional therapy misses out is they dont look at where they want to be from a place of natural development of the brain.  1st roll over, belly crawl, rock on all fours, crawl, pull up then walk.  These steps help develop the brain.  You have to approach the brain from that stand point.  How does a normal brain develop?  How do we train our horses?  Step by step, build upon each step.  Keep the whole body healthy and pray the good Lord helps along the way. 

Well it is nearly 9 and I need to get off the computer.  Or I will be writting my book here.   >PEACE<

[Pam Cantwell]

Tamet, Ben is an AMAZING child! In Cleburne I was astounded at the rythm he could keep drumming. Perfect timing! When I was substitute teaching I often helped in the the special ed classes. There was one boy in there that if you gave him a date.......any date.....he could tell you what day of the week it fell on. No matter what year you told him! It was amazing! And he did it pretty fast too. Blew me away! I loved all those kids.

[MJCRacer]

Tamet, I teach in a Montessori school in Victoria.  I am amazed at what children can learn when someone does not put on the limitation of "can't" and "I don't know".  If you can go to Waco and go to the Lake Waco PUBLIC elementary school, I think you'll see that anything is possible for any child.  I admire parents who do not take impossible for an answer. We limit ourselves.....prayers to you and your son....he is already a miracle....

MJC