Yes, there is Mandi. As some of you saw at ANHA, Ben is doing Very good. Dr Stewart (Austin, Tx) put him on a Alzheimer's vitamin called Metanx. One of the key problems with children like Ben is they are loaded down with a viral load, heavy metal load, and yeast load, each essentially feeding the other by desrupting the natural process of vitamins, enzymes, proteins etc, starting in the gut. Some of the most common disruptions occurs in the break down of Folate, B6 and B12 (xtremely important components!!!). Important to what you ask? Important to the nuero transmitters associated with Brain function and 92 million other functions. I wont even go into the chemical side of all this, but essentially the folate, B6, and B12 that has already been methylated and broken down so the body (brain as end result) can have immediate access to these 3 key components.
Within 2 days of starting this simple vitamin Benjamin would just go do what you ask him to without hesitation. It was unreal to see. We were dumbfounded. It was awesome. He responds quicker and understands more (evident by doing what you ask him to do almost instantly) He is even more aware of what is around him. You would have to have know him 6 months ago to truly understand the change.
Dr Stewart did his usual testing (which I can assure you is not usual anywhere else). To learn a little more about his specific testing go to
http://www.sensoryview.com/ (it is a website promoting his software so overlook the promotion and go for the meat of the problems which are discussed some). Benjamins tests showed MARKED IMPROVEMENT that went along with what we have been seeing. Instead of his balance parameters being scattered all over the chart, they are beginning to cluster up and we are reaping the benefits from the cluster.
Benjamin still has huge holes in his tempanic membrane but Dr Stewart doesnt want to have them fixed until he can get his viral load down more and have the body rid itself of more of the chicken pox virus that is killing the inner ear hair of the inner ear (the important ones that establish balance in the vestibular system).
We are keeping him on his current Valtrex dosage and wont start reducing it until Jan of next year. Dr Stewart assured Bob that there was nothing wrong with Benjamin's brain other that information wasnt being fed to it so it could respond correctly. He apologized to us that it was going to take so long (another 9-12 months), for the life of me I dont understand that, we have been clawing our way through this for over 10 yrs now and FINALLY ARE SEEING SOME LIGHT AT THE END OF THE TUNNEL, OH, WHICH BY THE WAY, WE CAN SEE THE END OF THE TUNNEL.
Benjamins cognitivity is improving, with this we will then start the long and arduous process of helping him recover information that he should have gotten as a small baby and on. But, Dr Stewart wants us to wait until at least Jan before we start hitting the therapy trail until we can beat down more of the virus load Benjamin is carrying around.
I trust this man more than any physician I have ever been to with Benjamin and I can assure you there isnt enough appendages in my house to count the # of Midevil Dumasses (M.D.'s) that I have taken him to. Folks its all about finding the right individual with the right information to make things work.
He answers all my questions and then wants to make sure I understand what he just explained. He is reassuring and cares about what happens to people.
If you have a child with medical problems and you cant find an answer, go to him. Dr Kendal Stewart 6836 Bee Caves Rd, Suite 300 Austin, Tx. 78746 512-338-9840. Dont waste another minute of your childs valueable time. Because the older they are the harder it is to recover them.
PS - here is a quick scale of things Benjamin has accomplished over past 4 months;
Benjamins is looking at things, tracting things with his eyes at high speeds, going down the road in the truck. (He almost broke his neck looking at a tractor the other day)
Benjamin is starting to follow directions with just telling him one time.
Benjamin is understanding things better. How do I know you ask? He is starting to try to help do things in the kitchen. He will go to the frig, get out his peaches, take them to the cabinet and take the lid off the top of the blender and get a spoon and pound on the blender and try to push buttons. When you ask him what he wants, he says "ice cream" mind you it is like a deaf person speaks, his articulation is horrible but who the hell cares right now!!!!! He is doing sequencing of an act, that is extremely important in the scope of things, because sequencing comes before speech as you and I know it. We are seeing him take baby steps in the scope of development just as a 1 to 2 yr old would do. (something I never thought I would see) And, to top that off I know many of you have seen your kids do things and wondered, how did they learn to do that. Well, they learned by watching. Benjamin can see better, so he is acquiring that ability also.
Anyway, sometimes you just have to see it to believe it, but thought I would give all you "hard core" show me the results folks some meat to chew on.