About Ben

[Bob Gould]

I'm Not Real HappyUPDATE: 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

[Bob Gould]

Mon 1 Sep 2003 - Got the test done

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.

[Bob Gould]

Thu 30 Oct 2003
Let thy food be thy medicine and thy medicine be thy food


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.

[Bob Gould]

Tue 4 Nov 2003
Let Your Soul Be Your Pilot

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.

[Bob Gould]

Fri 14 Nov 2003
celery with the fruits to offset the sugar rise

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.

[Bob Gould]

Fri 12 Dec 2003
Juicing the vegs also has CHANGED HIS LIFE

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.

[Bob Gould]

Fri 2 Jan 2004
That Dr was a joke

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.

[Bob Gould]

Wed 11 Feb 2004
His diet has really kicked in


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.